Chris Ballance (born on 7 July 1952) is a Scottish playwright and politician. He is a member of the

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; ) are a green party, green List of political parties in Scotland, political party in Scotland. The party has 7 MSPs of 129 in the Scottish Parliament, the party holds 35 of the 1226 ...

and has been a councillor for the Aird and Loch Ness wards in

the Highland Council The Highland Council (' ) is the local authority for Highland, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The council is based at the Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness. History The Highland area had been created as an administrative ...

since 2022. He was also a

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 ...

(MSP) for the South of Scotland region from 2003 to 2007.

Biography

Born in Worcester,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, he owned and managed a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, won a Scotsman Fringe First Award at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

in 1990, and wrote sketches for Radio Scotland.

Political career

He was elected to the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. He held a seat on the Parliament's ''Enterprise and Culture Committee'' and was the Green's Parliamentary business manager and speaker on nuclear issues, culture, and peace. He stood again in the 2007 election but was not re-elected. In August 2007 he was appointed to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission established by the

Scottish Executive The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in t ...

. Ballance stood as a Green candidate in the Aird and Loch Ness ward for the

2017 Highland Council election The 2017 Highland Council election was held on 4 May 2017 to elect members of the Highland Council. The election used the 21 wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004; each ward elected three or four councillors using the ...

. He stood again in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and was elected as a councillor.

Personal life

He is a member of the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

(

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

Plays

* ''Water of Life'' (1989) * ''Bread and Water'' (1997) * ''Hope Deferred'' (1997) * ''Viva La Diva'' (2001) * ''It's My Party'' (2007)

References

External links

* Green MSPs 1952 births Living people Scottish dramatists and playwrights Scottish Quakers Scottish pacifists English Quakers English dramatists and playwrights Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 English male dramatists and playwrights People from Wigtown {{MSP-stub