Alex Wood (politician)

Alex Wood (born Dundee, 1950) is a former Labour leader of Edinburgh City Council in Scotland. He was educated at Paisley Grammar School, the New University of Ulster, Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh University and Stirling University.

He was a member of the Labour Party from 1969 until 1987. He was a member of the National Committe of the Labour Party Young Socialists from 1973 to 1975. In the early 1970s Wood was a leading figure in the entryist Revolutionary Socialist League (aka Militant Tendency) in Scotland who left that party after it decided to support the creation of a devolved Scottish Assembly.

He subsequently became a leading figure in the Labour Co-ordinating Committee in Scotland, was Labour Parliamentary candidate for Dumfries in 1979 and for West Edinburgh in 1983 and in May 1984 became leader of the first ever majority Labour administration in the city.

Members of the Labour group of councillors felt however that his politics were further left than theirs and in May 1986 voted they had no confidence in his leadership. He was replaced as council leader with Mark Lazarowicz.

Subsequently Wood left Labour and joined the Scottish Socialist Party (1987 version, not the present SSP).

Wood joined the Scottish National Party, of which he remains a member, shortly after the demise of the SSP.

A teacher by profession, he is headteacher of Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh but is currently (2008-09)seconded as Headteacher to Tynecastle High School. He writes on educational issues in SecEd and The Herald, writes a monthly column in the Times Educational Supplement Scotland and contributes to the Scottish Review.

REFERENCES

CRICK, Michael, The March of Militant, Faber & Faber, London (1986)

ROY, C (Ed), Who's Who In Scotland, Inglewood Books (2008)

WOOD, Alex, Ireland and the British Labour Movement, LCC (Scotland) (1982)

WOOD, Alex, Tilting at the Militant Windmill, Labour Weekly (9 July 1982)

NAUGHTIE, James, Edinburgh Labour Leader Highlights Militant Dilemma, Scotsman (9 July 1982)

DINWOODIE, Robbie, Alex Wood Plans a Radical Road for Edinburgh, Scotsman (10 May 1984)

HORSBURGH, Frances, & DOUGLAS, Derek, A 'New Democracy' Dawns in Edinburgh, Glasgow Herald (11 May 1984)

DINWOODIE, Robbie, Labour at War Over the Wood 'Ambush', Scotsman (16 June 1986)

MEEK, Brian, Battling It Out In the Red Corner, Glasgow Herald (26 June 1986)

WOOD, Alex, Why I Resigned, North Edinburgh News (September 1987)

HORSBURGH, Frances, Defiant Voices From a Political Wilderness, Glasgow Herald (30 September 1987)

WOOD, Alex, Why I Joined the SNP, Liberation, Issue 6, Edinburgh (November 1994)

WOOD, Alex, View From the Floor, Liberation, Issue 9, Edinburgh (September 1995)

WOOD, Alex,Bringing Scottish Politics Home, Liberation, Referendum Special, Edinburgh (1997)

WOOD, Alex, After The Referendum, Liberation, Edinburgh (November 1997)

SecEd,12 May 2005 et seq: http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/

Times Educational Supplement Scotland, 1 December 2006 et seq: http://www.tes.co.uk/scotland

The Herald, Glasgow, 2 October 2007 et seq

Scottish Review, 13 November 2008 et seq: http://www.scottishreview.net/

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