Jim Wallace encyclopedia topics

Jim Wallace

1 reference results for: Jim Wallace

Wikipedia

For other uses, see James Wallace.

James Robert Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness PC QC (born 25 August 1954) is a Scottish politician, first leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, first Deputy First Minister of the Scottish Executive, and former Member of the Scottish Parliament for Orkney.

Early Life

Wallace was born in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and grew up in Annan, studying there before being accepted to Cambridge University where he obtained a joint degree in Economics and Law. From there he travelled to Edinburgh to read Legal Studies, graduating in 1977.

Member of Parliament

Wallace stayed based in Edinburgh as he entered politics, joining the then-Liberal Party. He failed to win a constituency at the first time of asking, the seat of Dumfriesshire in 1979. He also stood, unsuccessfully, as the Liberal candidate in the South of Scotland constituency in the European Parliament Elections of that year. Four years later, he would earn the Liberal nomination for the seat of Orkney and Shetland, the Liberal seat being vacated by former party leader Jo Grimond, and won election to the UK parliament. He was to serve as MP for 16 years, occupying a number of front-bench posts for the Liberal Party (and from 1988 the Liberal Democrats) party, including Employment spokesman and Chief Whip.

In 1992, he was un-opposed in becoming the new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Scottish politics at this time was dominated by the question of constitutional reform. Wallace held to the Liberal Democrat position of opposing outright independence for Scotland, but supporting a federal system, which would see a devolved parliament with powers to vary tax and implement legislation on the economy and public services, but keeping Scotland within the UK. The Conservative government wanted no such change, but Wallace led the Liberal Democrats in a Constitutional Convention of pro-reform parties (including the Labour Party) which drew up a package of plans for such a Parliament, ready to be implemented whenever the government fell.

A key part of this plan was the decision that this new parliament would be elected by a system of proportional representation (PR). This was a long-held Liberal policy which would ensure a fairer distribution of seats, and which would almost certainly deny any party an overall majority. The Labour party was bitterly opposed to this policy, and it was a great success for Wallace and the Liberal Democrats to ensure it was agreed.

When the Conservative government fell in 1997, the New Labour government took up the proposal produced by the Constitutional Convention and put it to a referendum of the Scottish people. Wallace was a key figure in that campaign, arguing strongly for the proposal (alongside Labour and Scottish National Party leaders). Despite Conservatives opposition, the plan was overwhelmingly approved by the voters, and legislation was put in place to create the new parliament.

He led the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the first election to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999, himself winning the constituency of Orkney. This meant he served as a member of both the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments for a time with a dual mandate (though he stood down from the latter at the General Election in 2001 to concentrate on his Scottish Parliament career).

Scottish Parliament

Because of Wallace's success in negotiating the PR clause in the process that created the new Scottish parliament, Labour failed to gain an outright majority in the first elections, forcing their leader, Donald Dewar, to enter a coalition government with another party. It was the Liberal Democrats he turned to, and a Partnership Agreement was signed between the two parties, under which Wallace became Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice. He was to maintain the brief throughout the first term of the Parliament.

The decision to enter a coalition government with Labour was hugely controversial at the time. British politicians were entirely unaccustomed to coalition politics, and the Liberal Democrats came under fire from Conservative and SNP opponents who claimed they had 'sold out' their principles. Key to this criticism was the Labour policy of making students pay tuition fees, which the Liberal Democrats had promised to abolish as their price of entering a coalition, but which in fact became merely the subject of an inquiry as the coalition was formed. In the event the Liberal Democrats did insist on the abolition of tuition fees after the inquiry reported in 2001, but in 1999 the delay was perceived to have been a compromise and Wallace in particular became the focal point for extremely bitter criticism.

Despite this, and a number of other difficult moments, he and his party stayed firm and remained in power. Wallace established himself as a competent, if perhaps un-inspired Minister. His legal training, political nous and capacity for hard work saw him demonstrate that Liberals could govern. On two occasions over the first term of the Parliament, he even became Acting First Minister, firstly in 2000 due to the death of Dewar, and then again in 2001 after the resignation of Dewar's successor as First Minister, Henry McLeish. Both occasions lasted for a few months.

Under his continued leadership, the Scottish Liberal Democrat popularity grew steadily, and after he led the party through the second Holyrood elections in 2003 elections - again winning 17 MSPs but on a higher share of the vote, and again entering a coalition with Labour - this time he added the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning brief to his post as Deputy First Minister.

Resignation, Retirement and Peerage

On 9 May 2005, Jim Wallace took everyone by surprise when he announced his intention to stand down as party leader and Deputy First Minister. He would remain as MSP for Orkney until the 2007 election, but would serve his time out as a backbencher.

He ceased to be an MSP with the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament on 2 April 2007.

On 13 September 2007 it was announced that he will be appointed to the House of Lords.. This was gazetted as Baron Wallace of Tankerness, of Tankerness in Orkney on 17 October 2007.