John Laird, Baron Laird
John Dunn Laird, Baron Laird, of Artigarvan in the County of Tyrone ( born April 23 1944) is a British entrepreneur, university teacher and politician of the Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP ), which is a life peer member of the House of Lords since 1999.
Life
After schooling Laird was initially 1963 to 1967 employee of the Belfast Savings Bank and then Bank inspector before he worked as a computer programmer from 1968 to 1973.
In 1970 he was first elected as the candidate of the Ulster Unionist Party in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and represented in this until its dissolution in 1973 the constituency Belfast St Anne's Division. After that, he was from 1973 to 1975 a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (Northern Ireland Assembly ) representing the constituency of West Belfast. At the same time, he served 1974-1976 as treasurer of the UUP and was also from 1975 to 1976 a member of the Constituent Assembly in Northern Ireland.
In 1976 he founded with John Laird Public Relations their own business and stayed until 2001, its chairman. Besides acted Laird, the 1991 Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, between 1989 and 1992 as chairman of the Northern Ireland branch of the Institute for Public Relations and is also since 1993 a visiting professor of public relations at the University of Ulster.
By Letters Patent of 16 July 1999 Laird was raised as a life peer with the title Baron Laird, of Artigarvan in the County of Tyrone in the peerage. Shortly afterwards, was his introduction ( Introduction) as a member of the House of Lords. In the upper house he belongs to the Group of the UUP.
In the aftermath Lord Laird was between 1999 and 2004 Chairman of the authorities responsible for the promotion of Ulster - Scots language, Ulster Scots Agency and is, since 2009, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the European Society of Azerbaijan. In 2011 he was honored for his life's work with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
On June 2, 2013, the Sunday Times published an article in which they Lord Laird and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, Lord Cunningham and accused of being involved in the so-called "cash for access" scandal. He is said to have offered to establish contacts with other members of Parliament. At the same time he is accused by the Daily Telegraph for the payment of £ 2000 per month for a company from Fiji in parliament should be active with questions. Opposite the BBC denied Lord Laird to have broken the rules of Parliament or to have agreed to accept money for the 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)