Alexander Eadie (23 June 192026 January 2012), known as Alex Eadie, was a Scottish Labour politician.

Early life

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

, he was the son of a coal miner, who was later killed in a pit accident. Educated at Buckhaven Senior Secondary School, he left school aged 14 to work part-time at Lochhead Colliery, while he trained as a mining engineer. Eadie stood for the Scottish presidency of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1961 against Alex Moffat, brother of the outgoing president Abe Moffat. Media commentators gave him little chance as a

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

member in a union executive dominated by

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

, but he came within 3,000 votes of victory. He was subsequently in 1965 elected to the Scottish NUM executive, representative for the county of

Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; ; ), or the County of Clackmannan, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, Council areas of Scotland, council area, registration counties, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland ...

Political career

Eadie joined the

Scottish Labour Party Scottish Labour (), is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist, it holds 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is repres ...

in 1943, and was elected Scottish president of the Young Co-Operators in 1945. He later served as a member of the SLP Executive. He was a councillor on Fife County Council for 20 years, chairing the housing and education committees.

Parliamentary career

Eadie contested Ayr in 1959 and 1964, losing the second time to George Younger. In 1966 a vacancy arose in the mining constituency of

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

. Elected Member of Parliament in the 1966 general election with a majority of over 14,416, he warned in his maiden speech at the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

against closing the pits. His seat remained safe until his retirement in 1992, the only scare coming in 1974 when the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

reduced his majority to just over 4,000. After co-sponsoring

David Steel David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood (born 31 March 1938) is a retired Scottish politician. Elected as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles (UK Parliament constituency), Roxb ...

Private Member's Bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

which became the

Abortion Act 1967 The Abortion Act 1967 (c. 87) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that legalised abortion in Great Britain on certain grounds by registered practitioners, and regulated the tax-paid provision of such medical practices through the N ...

, in January 1967 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Minister of Social Security, Margaret Herbison. However, along with seven other PPS's, he was sacked by Prime Minister

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

four months later for refusing to back Britain's application for Common Market membership. Wilson appointed Eadie opposition spokesman on energy in 1973, and served as

junior minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry (government department), ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is desi ...

for Energy during the Labour government of 1974 to 1979, serving under ministers Eric Varley and then

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

. Eadie promoted research into

wave In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from List of types of equilibrium, equilibrium) of one or more quantities. ''Periodic waves'' oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium ...

, tidal and

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...

, and in 1976 secured the Joint European Torus (JET)

nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction, reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutrons, neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the rele ...

project for

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, when the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

recommendation was for

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. Eadie held the energy brief again in opposition under new Labour leader

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 Labour Party le ...

. Considered in 1983 as a replacement for Derek Ezra as chairman of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

, the position was given to Sir Ian MacGregor, whom Eadie later blamed for the conflict that led to the miners' strike of 1984–85. As Labour's then shadow Energy spokesperson, he backed the strike, but was later critical of

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, a major event in the history o ...

's leadership. After the strike, Eadie successfully led legal action against the NCB, which under a ruling from the

Attorney General for England and Wales His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is the chief legal adviser to the sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales as well as the highest ranking amongst the law officers of the Crown. The attorney gener ...

Sir Patrick Mayhew, recovered £120M in miners pension credits, which had been withheld during the strike. In the early 1970s, Eadie put forward a Private Members Bill that would have established the principle that no child in Scotland should be treated as incapable of being educated. After he became a junior minister in February 1974, he handed over the brief to Hamish Gray, then Conservative MP for

Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty (), is an area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In modern usage, it is a registration county and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. Between 1889 and 1975 it was a Shires of Scotland, county. Historical ...

, with whom he became firm friends. Legislation later passed, steered and supported by Eadie and Gray, which put Scotland at the forefront of special needs education provision within the UK.

Personal life

Eadie was married twice, firstly in 1941 to Jemima Ritchie; she died in 1981. In 1983 he married his second wife Janice Murdoch. His son from his first marriage is Bob Eadie, a Labour councillor in Fife. His daughter-in-law Helen Eadie was Labour

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

for

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

. After a period of illness, Eadie died at his home in East Wemyss, Fife, on 26 January 2012.

References

*''The Times Guide to the House of Commons'', Times Newspapers Ltd, 1966 & 1987 *

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eadie, Alexander People from Buckhaven Scottish miners Scottish Labour councillors Politics of Midlothian Scottish Labour MPs National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 1920 births 2012 deaths Politics of Fife