Alex C. Falconer (1 April 1940 – 12 August 2012) was a Labour Party politician in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. He was the

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

(MEP) for Mid Scotland and Fife from

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

. He was a campaigner on international development, globalisation, equalities, human rights and environmental issues. He was prominent in leading a number of campaigns throughout the

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

years, including against the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...

and water privatisation.

Early life and career

Born in 1940, Alex Falconer left school without any formal qualifications. His first employment was as a lodge boy in the Blackness Foundry in Dundee. After being made redundant in 1958, he joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

, in which he served for nine years. After a short period as a labourer in the Ministry of Public Building and Works, and a year as a stoker in a Dunfermline hospital, he joined

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation in the 1990s it was ...

as a lagger in 1969. He became a shop steward in 1970, and served on many negotiating committees in the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

Political career

Falconer joined the Labour Party in 1973, and was a

Scottish Labour Party Conference Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak o ...

delegate, on behalf of the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

, from 1975 until he was elected as an MEP. He also served as chairman of Fife Trades Council. In the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

, he supported the cause of striking miners against the Thatcher government and the cause of people who had contracted pleural plaque because of exposure to asbestos, having set a legal precedent when he took forward his own case. He foiled proposals for European secrecy laws by getting himself made rapporteur and then being unable to complete his report because the information he requested was not made available. He also made himself a target for neo-fascist ire, after campaigning against a visit to Edinburgh by

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of the French National Front. His aide for five years was the newly-graduated

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, a future

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. He was a staunch supporter of the founding principles of the Labour Party, fighting for the retention of Labour's commitment to

common ownership Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every econom ...

and redistribution. He supported

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in the 1988 Labour Party leadership election and was a founding member of the Scottish Labour grouping Campaign for Socialism in 1994. During his period of office, he served on several European Parliamentary committees – Economic Monetary and Industrial Policy; Environmental and Public Health and Safety; Legal Affairs and Citizens Rights; Regional Policy; and External Trade and Relations.

Death

Following the announcement of Falconer's death, tributes were made by former Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

and Scottish Labour leader

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."Former Fife Labour MEP Alex Falconer who was friends with Gordon Brown dies"
STV"Tributes paid to former MEP Alex Falconer"
BBC

Publications

pamphlets including "The Democratic Deficit" (1991), "Usage and Abusage of the Wealth of Nations" (1992), "Global Village Economics" (1995), "Beyond the Wealth of Nations" (1997), and "The Ill Divided World" (1999).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Falconer, Alex 1940 births 2012 deaths 20th-century Royal Navy personnel Scottish Labour MEPs MEPs for Scotland 1984–1989 MEPs for Scotland 1989–1994 MEPs for Scotland 1994–1999