Campbell Martin (born 10 March 1960) is a local online

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

journalist and former politician. At the

2003 Scottish Parliament election The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...

, he was elected on the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

(SNP) list as a

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The ad ...

(MSP) for the West of Scotland. He was expelled from the SNP in 2004, and sat as an independent MSP until the 2007 election, when he was defeated.

Political career

Martin previously worked for Kay Ullrich, a SNP MSP. When she indicated she would stand down at the 2003 election, Martin was selected to be the candidate for Cunninghame North as well as being placed at the top of the SNP's list. At the election he was unsuccessful in the constituency vote, however was elected as a regional member for the West of Scotland. He was a prominent backer of Dr Bill Wilson who stood against

John Swinney John Ramsay Swinney (born 13 April 1964) is a Scottish politician who has served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland since 2014 and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery since 2021. He was the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 200 ...

in the SNP leadership contest in 2003. He has been critical of the direction of the SNP since becoming an MSP, believing they are being dragged into the political centre away from their traditional left-of-centre position. He also believes the party is not vociferous enough in its advocation of

Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. S ...

. He was suspended from the Scottish National Party on 25 April 2004 after making repeated public criticism of John Swinney, and was expelled from the SNP on 10 July 2004, soon after Swinney had resigned. After becoming an Independent MSP, Campbell Martin played a prominent role in fighting a number of decisions taken by Labour-led North Ayrshire Council. He has also continued his opposition to what he considers to be the centre-right re-positioning of the SNP and its advocacy of a 'culture of independence' rather than national independence. Campbell Martin stood as an Independent candidate in the Cunninghame North constituency at the May 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, securing 4,423 votes (14.6%), but was not re-elected. In August 2011 he joined the Scottish Socialist Party, and on 1 October 2011 he spoke at an SSP fringe meeting in Glasgow following the STUC anti-cuts demonstration. He participated as a delegate at the SSP national conference in March 2012. He was the SSP candidate for the Ardrossan and Arran ward on

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

Council in May 2012, but he was not elected.

Journalism

Between 2007 and 2015, Campbell Martin edited the3towns co

an online local newspaper covering the three North Ayrshire towns of Ardrossan,

Saltcoats Saltcoats ( gd, Baile an t-Salainn) is a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is derived from the town's earliest industry when salt was harvested from the sea water of the Firth of Clyde, carried out in small cottages al ...

and

Stevenston Stevenston ( sco, Steenstoun, gd, Baile Steaphain) is a town and parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Along with Ardrossan and Saltcoats it is one of the "Three Towns", all of similar size, on the Firth of Clyde coast; the easternmost parts of ...

. He is now the Creative Director of MacAulay Gibson Productions, an independent production company producing factual television programmes and business promos

He was involved in the production of ''The Only Game in Town'', a documentary that looked at the procurement process for the North Ayrshire Schools Public Private Partnership project. While still producing pro-independence articles for mainly online publications, Campbell Martin is no longer a member of a political party.

Books

Campbell Martin's autobiography - Was It Something I Said? () - was published in October 2021. A two-book series by Campbell Martin - 'Outspoken - Part One' () and 'Outspoken - Part Two' () https://www.amazon.co.uk/OUTSPOKEN-Part-Two-Campbell-Martin/dp/B0BLKWD49W/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BNRAP41I1BXK&keywords=outspoken+part+two+campbell+martin&qid=1667993499&s=books&sprefix=outspoken+part+two+campbell+martin%2Cstripbooks%2C103&sr=1-1 - covering Scottish politics, society and the independence movement over the past ten years (2013-2022) was published in November 2022.

References

External links

*
his blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Campbell 1960 births Living people Independent MSPs Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Scottish Socialist Party politicians People from Ardrossan