Alex Wood (born 1950,

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

) is a former Labour leader of

Edinburgh City Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Biography

He was educated at

Paisley Grammar School Paisley Grammar School is a secondary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, the largest town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school was founded in 1576 by royal charter of James VI of Scotland, King James VI and is situated on Glasgow Road. T ...

, the

New University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially a ...

, Moray House College of Education, the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

and the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

. He was a member of the Labour Party from 1969 until 1987. He was a member of the National Committee of the Labour Party Young Socialists from 1973 to 1975. In the early 1970s Wood was a leading figure in the

entryist Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, infiltration, a French Turn, boring from within, or boring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organiz ...

Militant tendency The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the ''Militant'' newspaper, which launched in 1964. In 1975, there was widespread press coverage of a Labour Party report on the infiltrat ...

in Scotland who left that party after it decided to support the creation of a

devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

Scottish Assembly The Scottish Assembly () was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Labour Government led the Scotland Act 1978 through Westminster which provided for t ...

. Subsequently, he became a trenchant critic of Militant. He subsequently became a leading figure in the

Labour Co-ordinating Committee The Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC) was a faction in the British Labour Party, established in 1978 and wound-up in 1998. It moved from a group established to challenge the leadership of the party from the left to the vanguard of Tony Blair's d ...

in Scotland and wrote its pamphlet on Labour and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. He was Labour Parliamentary candidate for

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

in 1979, and for West Edinburgh in 1983 (having been elected to Edinburgh District Council in 1980 and having become leader of the Edinburgh District Council Labour Group in 1982) and in May 1984 became leader of the first ever

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

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 Mark Lazarowicz ( ; born Marek Lazarowicz; 8 August 1953) is a British Labour Co-operative politician and lawyer who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh North and Leith (UK Parliament constitue ...

. Subsequently, Wood resigned his council seat, left Labour and joined the 1988 version of the Scottish Socialist Party. Shortly after the demise of the SSP, Wood joined 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, ...

. A teacher by profession, he retired as headteacher of

Wester Hailes Education Centre Wester Hailes High School is a mixed non-denominational high school in Wester Hailes, in the South-West suburb of Edinburgh. The current principal is David Young and the roll is about 303. In addition to the school on the site, there is a swimmin ...

in Edinburgh in August 2011. He had also been seconded (2008–09) as Headteacher to

Tynecastle High School Tynecastle High School is a secondary school in the Gorgie area of south west Edinburgh, Scotland. History Tynecastle High School was opened in 1912 and was for its first 98 years located at 15 McLeod Street, a B listed building. Move to new ...

. He writes on educational issues in The Herald, and writes regular columns on educational matters in SecEd,

Holyrood Magazine ''Holyrood'' is a fortnightly magazine devoted to current affairs and politics. Created following the advent of devolution in the UK in 1999 the magazine provides coverage of the goings on at the Scottish Parliament, as well as interviews with ...

, the Times Educational Supplement Scotland and contributes to the Scottish Review,

Lothian Life Lothian (; ; ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other significan ...

and the

Caledonian Mercury The ''Caledonian Mercury'' was a newspaper in Edinburgh, Scotland, published three times a week between 1720 and 1867. In 2010 an online publication launched using the name. 17th century A short-lived predecessor, the '' Mercurius Caledonius'', ...

."Caledonian Mercury", 9 August 2011 et seq: http://www.caledonianmercury.com/2011/08/09/

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Alex 1950 births Living people Scottish Labour councillors Militant tendency supporters Alumni of Ulster University People educated at Paisley Grammar School Politicians from Dundee Councillors in Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Stirling Scottish National Party politicians Scottish schoolteachers