John Reid (UK politician)

From Free net encyclopedia

Dr. John Reid (born 8 May 1947 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland to mixed-denomination parents) is a British politician, MP for Airdrie and Shotts, and Secretary of State for Defence.

Reid was educated at St. Patrick's High School in Coatbridge, attending the school at the same time as his Secretary of State for Scotland successor Helen Liddell, before attending the University of Stirling, receiving a bachelor's degree in history and a Ph.D in economic history. After graduation he worked as a research officer for the Labour Party and as a trade union organiser. He entered parliament in 1987 as MP for the Motherwell North constituency (later renamed Hamilton North and Bellshill).

Reid was married to the former Cathie McGowan, with whom he had two sons, from 1969 until her death in 1998. In 2002 he married the Brazilian film director Carine Adler.

Reid is a senior member of the Labour Party, and has held several different Cabinet positions: Secretary of State for Scotland, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (the first Roman Catholic to hold the position), Minister Without Portfolio (Labour Party Chairman), Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. On 12 June 2003, he was appointed Health Secretary following the resignation of Alan Milburn. It was reported by Private Eye that his reaction to being appointed was "Oh fuck, not health": the publication since then has regularly appended the phrase "oh fuck, not health" to any mention of his name.

Other positions held include Minister of State for Defence (1997-1998) and Minister of State for Transport (1998-1999). Following the incumbent Labour Party's 2005 general election victory, he was appointed to the cabinet position of Secretary of State for Defence.

An MP since 1987, his seat was abolished in boundary changes prior to the 2005 general election. Reid is a Roman Catholic, and there was much speculation that he would become MP for the predominantly Catholic and rock-solid Labour seat of Glasgow East, however he was nominated for the seat of Airdrie and Shotts, a predominantly Protestant area, which he took with 59% of the vote.

Reid is a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (of which he has said: "I used to be a Communist. I used to believe in Santa Claus"); he regards New Labour as a natural development of Bevanism. More controversially, during the 1990s Bosnian War, Reid struck up a friendship with Serb rebel leader and indicted war-criminal Radovan Karadzic; Reid has admitted that he spent three days at a luxury Geneva lakeside hotel as a guest of Karadzic in 1993. [1]

Reid has a reputation as a tough fighter, and a shrewd negotiator; he is also regarded as one of the most intelligent MPs in the House. Additionally, he is often considered as a possible candidate to run as a Stop Brown candidate when Tony Blair relinquishes his leadership of the Labour Party.

Recently, he caused controversy through calling BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman a "West London wanker", after a remark about John Reid being "an attack dog".

After speaking on 4 February 2006, about NATO modernisation process, ahead of a security conference in Germany, which US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were attending, Reid asserted in a press interview that "no institution has the divine right to exist". [2].

On 19 March 2006, in response to former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi's claim that Iraq is in the grip of civil war, Reid said "Every single politician I have met here [in Iraq] from the prime minister to the president, the defence minister and indeed Iyad Allawi himself said to me there's an increase in the sectarian killing, but there's not a civil war and we will not allow a civil war to develop"