Mark Ballard

Mark Ballard (* June 27, 1971 in Leeds ) is a Scottish politician and member of the Scottish Green Party.

In his childhood and youth Ballard spent several years in India and Pakistan. He attended Lawnswood Comprehensive School in Leeds and then went to the University of Edinburgh, where he studied economics and history. He then worked for the European Youth Forest Action in Edinburgh and Amsterdam. Between 1998 and 2001, Ballard was the editor of the journal Reforesting Scotland. In 2006 he was elected the 49th president of the University of Edinburgh and retained this position until 2009.

Political career

1994 Ballard ran for the City Council of Edinburgh, but could not win a seat with 2.1% of the vote. One of the first Scottish Parliament elections of 1999, Ballard ran for a list of the mandate constituency Lothians. As a result of the election result but just pulled his party colleague Robin Harper as the only Green politician in Scotland in the newly-created Scottish parliament. 2001 Ballard joined the elections in the district of Broughton in a second time at city council elections in Edinburgh, but failed to reach again significantly. In the 2003 parliamentary elections for the first time succeeded Harper a seat in the Scottish Parliament to gain, as two candidates of the Green Party could be deployed for the election Lothians region as a result of the election results. At the end of the legislative term, he resigned from the Parliament.

Activities

As part of a protest of the CND against the stationing of nuclear weapons on naval port of Faslane -on- Clyde in 2004, Ballard was arrested along with three other party colleagues. In 1999, Ballard allegedly in an action against genetically modified seed on a farm near Dalkeith part of Monsanto. He was accused of plants of the company to have intentionally destroyed. He was sentenced to pay a penalty of £ 125.