Steel appeal

RODDY MARTINE PROFILES THE LIFE AND WORK OF FIFE-BORN VETERAN POLITICIAN SIR DAVID STEEL

Sir David Steel's retirement as the first presiding officer of the Scottish parliament in May is particularly significant since it indicates that, after four years, Scotland's fledgling legislative assembly has come of age.

The parliament needed the steadying hand of a seasoned UK politician to steer it through the uncertain waters of its infancy, and no one was better suited to the task than Sir David.

But it is only when you take time to recall the many other achievements of his 38-year political career that you begin to realise what an enormous contribution this man has made to our national life.

As long ago as 1967, for example, he steered a private member's bill through the House of Commons that was to reform the existing law on abortion. In 1976, he was elected leader of the Liberal Party, and 12 years later, he cofounded the Liberal Democrat Party.

Sir David is one of the great survivors in British public life. Knighted in the 1990 New Year's Honours List, he served as foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats until 1994. Three years later, he was created a life peer, taking the title of Baron Steel of Aikwood (of Ettrick Forest in the Scottish Borders). In 1999, he was elected a Lothian List member in the newly formed Scottish parliament, and was chosen to become its first presiding officer.

David Martin Scott Steel was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 1938. His father, the Very Reverend David Steel, a future Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church o...

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• By : Roddy Martine
• In : Interview
• Issue : 9
• Page : 28
• Words : 1,577