David Steel

David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC (born 31 March 1938) is a British and Scottish politician native of Scotland and a Liberal Democrat member of the UK House of Lords. He was leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its 1988 merger with the Social Democratic Party that formed the Liberal Democrats, and was briefly joint interim leader of the new party, then known as the Social and Liberal Democrats. He was also the first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, holding that post between 1999 and 2003.

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Sir David Steel, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 1999-2003

Early life

David Steel was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, the son of a Church of Scotland minister also called David Steel, who would later serve as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was brought up in Scotland and Kenya, and educated at Nairobi School, Nairobiand George Watson's College in Edinburgh.

Political career

He first took an active part in Liberal politics at the University of Edinburgh, and after graduating in Law worked for the Scottish Liberal Party and then the BBC before being elected to the House of Commons at the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election of 1965, becoming the "Baby of the House". He represented this seat until 1983, when he became Member of Parliament for Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, a new constituency covering much of the same territory.

As an MP he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967 (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and in 1970 its Chief Whip.

In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over fellow MP John Pardoe. In 1977, he led the Liberals into the "Lib-Lab pact" by which they agreed to keep the Labour government in power. The unpopularity of the Labour government rubbed off on the Liberals, and Steel's first election as leader, the 1979 general election, saw a decline in Liberal fortunes.

In 1981, a group of Labour moderates left their party to form the Social Democratic Party. The SDP joined the Liberals in the SDP-Liberal Alliance, an electoral alliance that was so promising in its early days that Steel was able to tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly that year to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government". But though the alliance secured more than 26 per cent of the popular vote at the 1983 general election - only just behind Labour - its reward in terms of seats was derisory and Steel's hopes of a big political breakthrough were dashed. Shortly afterwards David Owen replaced Roy Jenkins as leader of the SDP and the troubled leadership of the "Two Davids" was inaugurated. It was never an easy relationship - Steel's political sympathies were well to the left of Owen's - and it finally fell apart during the 1987 general election when the two contradicted each other both on defence policy and on which party they would do a deal with in the event of a hung Parliament.

Steel was convinced the answer to these difficulties was a single party with a single leader, and was the chief proponent of the 1988 merger between the Liberals and the SDP. Steel was briefly joint interim leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (as the new party was at first called), before becoming the party's Foreign Affairs spokesman. He was knighted (KBE) in 1990.

Retirement

He retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Steel of Aikwood, of Ettrick Forest in The Scottish Borders in the same year. He campaigned for Scottish devolution, and in 1999 was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a Liberal Democrat Member of Scottish Parliament for Lothians. He became the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the Scottish Parliament on May 12, 1999. In this role, he used the style "Sir David Steel", despite his peerage, and had no party allegiance. He stepped down as an MSP when the parliament was dissolved for the 2003 election, but remained as Presiding Officer until he had supervised the election of his successor George Reid on May 7 of that year.

On November 30, 2004, the Queen created Lord Steel of Aikwood a Knight of the Order of the Thistle - the highest honour in Scotland.

Lord Steel of Aikwood appeared as himself in BBC1's The Amazing Mrs Pritchard on Tuesday 10th October 2006.

Further reading

• Peter Bartram, David Steel: His Life and Politics (W.H. Allen, 1981)
• David Steel, A House Divided (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980)
• David Steel, Against Goliath: David Steel's Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)

See also

• General Mediterranean Holdings owned by Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi (Lord Steel was a director of it, and was pressured to quit it)

External links

• Lord Steel of Aikwood profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Nairobi School:Old Cambrians Society, Nairobi