David McLetchie

David McLetchie ( born August 6, 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland; † August 12, 2013 ) was a British politician and member of the Conservative Party.

Life

McLetchie attended Leith Academy Primary School and George Heriot 's School. He then went to the University of Edinburgh and received his law degree in 1974 successfully. From 1976 he was admitted a solicitor. McLetchie was married and the father of an adult son twice. He was a fan of the football club Heart of Midlothian.

Earlier political career

As early as 1968 McLetchie was active in the Young Conservatives. For the first time he stepped on to national elections for the lower house elections in 1979. However, in his constituency Edinburgh Central, he was only the second highest number of votes and thus failed to reach the British House of Commons. In the following years McLetchie held various positions within the Conservative Party and was between 1994 and 1997 Chairman of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association, 1999-2005 leader of the Conservatives.

Scottish Parliament to 2005

In the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999 McLetchie acted as campaign manager of his party. He stood as a candidate in the constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands, but reached behind the Labour candidate Iain Gray only the second highest number of votes. Since McLetchie was also on the Regional Evaluation of the Conservatives for the election Lothians region, he moved as a result of the election result as one of seven regional candidates in the newly created Scottish Parliament a. In the following parliamentary elections he won the direct mandate of Edinburgh Pentlands.

Withdrawal and political career

In 2005 McLetchie resigned as party leader. This was triggered by newspaper reports of high taxi bills McLetchies to the State's expense, partially offset, however, resulted from non- parliamentary activities. So McLetchie accumulated over a period of five years, bills of around £ 11,500. The revealing journalist Paul Hutcheon won both the prize as the best political journalist as well as the best journalist for its designated partly as a taxi Gate reports at the Scottish Press Awards. Nevertheless McLetchie defended in the 2007 parliamentary elections to be directly elected in the constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands and was able to increase its share of the vote even by around 0.4%. Four years later he lost his direct mandate to the SNP politician Gordon MacDonald, but retained as a representative of choice Lothian a seat in Parliament.

From 2011 was McLetchie whip the conservative faction in Parliament. He was also a spokesperson on Justice and Constitutional Affairs.