Lembit Öpik
Lembit Öpik | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Lib Dems Spokesperson for Housing | |
| In office 20 December, 2007 – present | |
| Leader | Nick Clegg |
| Preceded by | Paul Holmes |
| Lib Dems Spokesperson for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform | |
| In office 4 July, 2007 – 20 December 2007 | |
| Leader | Menzies Campbell |
| Preceded by | Susan Kramer |
| Succeeded by | Sarah Teather |
| Lib Dems Spokesperson for Wales and Lib Dems Spokesperson for Northern Ireland | |
| In office 15 May 2003 – 4 July 2007 | |
| Leader | Charles Kennedy Menzies Campbell |
| Succeeded by | Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dems Spokesperson for Northern Ireland) Roger Williams (Lib Dem Spokesperson for Wales) |
| Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire | |
| In office 2 May 1997 – present | |
| Preceded by | Alex Carlile |
| Majority | 15,419 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 2, 1965 Bangor, County Down Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Lembit Öpik (IPA: [ˈlempit ˈøpˑik] in Estonian) (born 2 March 1965) is a British politician of Estonian descent. He is a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Montgomeryshire constituency. He is a former leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Also a keen taxidermist. [1]
Early life
His parents were from Estonia who settled in Northern Ireland. Lembit was born in Bangor, County Down, the son of physicist Dr Uno and Liivi Öpik and grew up there with sister Urve Öpik (born 1960, a psychotherapist) and brother Endel "Tal" Öpik (12 April 1968 - 21 November 2005 [2], a musician). His grandfather was Ernst Julius Öpik, an Estonian astronomer who worked at Armagh Observatory. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Öpik took a degree in philosophy at the University of Bristol, where he became President of University of Bristol Union, and was also on the National Union of Students National Executive Committee.
Before his election to Parliament in 1997 he was a personnel manager at Procter & Gamble Ltd. He had stood in Newcastle upon Tyne Central in the 1992 election. He was elected as a councillor on Newcastle City Council.
Member of Parliament
At the 1997 general election, the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, Alex Carlile, retired. Öpik was elected as his successor, with an increased majority. He retained the seat at the 2001 election and at the 2005 general election, increasing his share of the vote by 3.5% in 2001 [3] and by a futher 1.8% in 2005, giving a majority of 7173 over the Conservatives. [4]
To some sections of the general public he is perhaps best known for his appearances on popular entertainment TV shows like Have I Got News For You, and for concerns about the possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth. He advocates increased funding for attempts at detection, under the banner of Spaceguard.
He was also joint chair of the Middle Way Group, a cross-party parliamentary group which supported the regulation, not banning, of fox hunting. In 2001/2, he chaired an Ethics Committee overseeing production of the BBC series, The Experiment, a reproduction of the Stanford Prison Experiment. From 1999 to 2001 he was a member of the Agriculture Select Committee.
Liberal Democrats leadership
In successive Liberal Democrats' leadership contests, Öpik has garnered an unfortunate reputation for backing campaigns that soon collapse, leading some to talk of the "curse of Lembit" making his backing undesirable.[5]
In 1999, he was one of only two of the party's 46 MPs to back the abortive leadership campaign of Don Foster. Foster abandoned his campaign before nominations even closed, and backed Charles Kennedy, the eventual winner, instead.
In September 2004 Öpik himself stood for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats, but was defeated by Simon Hughes.
During the 2006 leadership crisis, Öpik was a fervent supporter of Kennedy and then, in the became campaign manager for Mark Oaten. However, Oaten quickly withdrew from the contest, having failed to attract enough support from within the parliamentary party; his sole backers were Opik and Baroness Ludford. In the 2007 leadership election, Öpik declared his backing for Nick Clegg, and when Clegg won the election Öpik said "My man won, so the curse of Opik has at last become a blessing".[6]
Welsh Party Leadership
Lembit Öpik became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in 2001 following the retirement of Richard Livsey. He stood down in 2007,[7] and was succeeded by Mike German.
Personal life
Öpik speaks fluent English, Estonian and German as well as learning Welsh.
He holds a pilot's licence and in 1998 he suffered a near fatal paragliding accident, breaking his back.[8]
Öpik was engaged to ITV1 weather presenter Siân Lloyd, from 2002 to October 2006. The couple lived at Öpik's constituency house in Powys, and were due to marry in 2006. They appeared on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April, 2006, winning £64,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and NCH Action for Children.
In December 2006 it was revealed that the relationship had broken down, as Lloyd became more frustrated with his heavy workload and late nights. Öpik later become involved with 24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of The Cheeky Girls.[9] This led to Opik being ridiculed in the Daily Mail as 'the Libido-Dem MP'.[10]
Public appearances
Öpik has appeared several times on the BBC satirical current affairs quiz show Have I Got News for You. He became a member of the Spinal Injuries Association[11] after a near-fatal paragliding accident in 1998 broke his back in 12 places. In 2006 he became President of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, following his father's death from the disease the previous year.
See also
References
- ^ http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/libdems.cfm
- ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm051123/debtext/51123-20.htm#st_243
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/results_constituencies/constituencies/410.stm
- ^ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-1139,00.html
- ^ "Opik sides with Clegg on Lib-Dem vote". icWales.co.uk. Media Wales Ltd. 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Claire Truscott (18 December 2007). "Clegg's election: reaction in quotes". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7043222.stm
- ^ Higgit, D (2007-08-27). "The day my life changed ..." Western Standard. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=39304&c=1
- ^ Sarah Sands (20 April 2007). "The biggest joke in politics". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.spinal.co.uk
External links
- ePolitix.com - Lembit Öpik official site
- Lembit Opik MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
- Lembit Öpik MP profile at the site of Welsh Liberal Democrats
- The Parliamentary Middle Way Group
- Times Online Student Section: Lembit Opik Interview with Lembit Opik
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Lembit Opik MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Lembit Öpik MP
- The Public Whip - Lembit Öpik voting record
- Open Directory Project - Lembit Opik directory category
- BBC News - Politics: Lembit Opik profile 10 February, 2005
- Evening Standard (London); "Lembit and his Very Cheeky Family"