John Laird, Baron Laird
John Dunn Laird, Baron Laird ( April 23, 1944 - July 10, 2018 ) was a British entrepreneur , university professor and politician of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), who was a life peer member of the House of Lords since 1999 .
Life
After attending school, Laird was an employee of the Belfast Saving Bank from 1963 to 1967 and then a bank inspector, before he worked as a computer programmer from 1968 to 1973 .
In 1970 he was elected as a candidate for the Ulster Unionist Party for the first time in the Lower House of Northern Ireland and represented the constituency of Belfast-St Anne's Division in this until its dissolution in 1973 . He was then from 1973 to 1975 member of the Northern Ireland Assembly as representative of the constituency of West Belfast . At the same time he acted as treasurer of the UUP between 1974 and 1976 and was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1976.
In 1976 he founded his own company with John Laird Public Relations and remained its chairman until 2001. In addition, Laird, who became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 1991 , served as chairman of the Northern Irish branch of the Institute for Public Relations between 1989 and 1992 and was also visiting professor of public relations at the University of Ulster from 1993 .
By a letters patent dated July 16, 1999, Laird was raised to the nobility as a life peer with the title Baron Laird, of Artigarvan in the County of Tyrone . Shortly after its introduction was carried out ( Introduction ) as a member of the House of Lords . In the upper house he belonged to the faction of the UUP.
In the following years Lord Laird was chairman of the Ulster-Scots Agency responsible for the promotion of the Ulster-Scots language between 1999 and 2004 and was also chairman of the advisory board of the European Society for Azerbaijan since 2009 . In 2011 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations for his life's work .
On June 2, 2013, the Sunday Times published an article accusing Lord Laird, Lord Cunningham and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate of being involved in the so-called cash for access affair. He is said to have offered to establish contacts with other members of parliament. At the same time he was accused by the Daily Telegraph of raising questions in Parliament for paying £ 2,000 a month for a Fijian company . Lord Laird denied to the BBC that he broke the rules of parliament or agreed to accept money for targeted parliamentary work.
Publications
- Videos Trolleybus Days in Belfast (1992)
- Swansong of Steam in Ulster (1993)
- Waterloo Sunset (1994)
- Rails on the Isle of Wight (1994)
- The Twilight of Steam in Ulster (1994)
- A Struggle to Be Heard - by a True Ulster Liberal (2010)
Web links
- Entry on Parliament's homepage (accessed on November 16, 2012)
- John Laird at Hansard (English)
- Entry in They Work For You (accessed November 16, 2012)
- Biography in Debrett's (accessed November 16, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Three peers 'offered to lobby for fake firm' BBC News June 2, 2013, accessed June 2, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Laird, John, Baron Laird |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Laird, John Dunn, Baron Laird, of Artigarvan in the County of Tyrone (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician, entrepreneur and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 23, 1944 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 10, 2018 |