David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT KBE PC (born 31 March 1938) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1965 to 1997 and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2003, during which time he was the parliament's Presiding Officer. Since 1997, he has been a member of the House of Lords.
Contents
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Early life 1
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Member of Parliament 2
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Leader of Liberal Party 2.1
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SDP-Liberal Alliance 2.2
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Two parties merger 2.3
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Life peerage and Scottish Parliament 3
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Family 4
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Titles and Styles 5
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Further reading 6
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See also 7
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References 8
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External links 9
Early life
Lord Steel was born in
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The Sovereign
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Knights and Ladies
Companion
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Extra Knights
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Officers
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Leadership
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Leaders in the Lords
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Presidents
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Leadership elections
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Leadership
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Deputy Leadership
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Structure
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MPs and Frontbench
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Frontbench in opposition
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State parties
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Regional parties
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Committees
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SAOs
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History and related topics
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Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Steel
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Catalogue of the Steel papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
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Lord Steel of Aikwood profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
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Prince of Wales School:Old Cambrians Society, Nairobi
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We need to rethink my abortion law Steel's thoughts on the abortion debate, as of 2004.
External links
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^ O'Grady, Sean (27 October 2007). "David Steel: Liberal conscience". The Independent (London). Retrieved 1 May 2010.
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^ "Liberal Democrat History Group". Liberalhistory.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
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^ "Anti-Apartheid News Summer 2009 - ACTSA" (PDF). Anti-Apartheid News. Summer 2009. p. 9. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
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^ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/12/anti-apartheid-movement-online-archive-south-africa
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^ a b "David Steel: Lord Steel of Aikwood". Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
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^ "BBC Politics 97". Bbc.co.uk. 1979-05-03. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
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^ Stone-Lee, Ollie (10 September 2003). "Conference season's greatest hits". BBC News. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
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^ "'"Top Ten: Lib Dem 'breakthrough moments. ePolitix.com. 2010-04-24. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
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^ "1983: Thatcher triumphs again". BBC News. 5 April 2005.
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^ Verkaik, Robert (20 February 2006). "Politicians beware! 'Spitting Image' set to return". London:
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^ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 51981. p. 7. 30 December 1989.
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^ "Liberal Democrat History Group". Liberalhistory.org.uk. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
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^ The London Gazette: no. 54812. p. 7187. 20 June 1997.
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^ "Previous MSPs: Session 1 (1999-2003): Sir David Steel".
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^ The London Gazette: no. 57482. p. 15127. 1 December 2004.
References
See also
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Peter Bartram, David Steel: His Life and Politics (W.H. Allen, 1981)
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David Steel, A House Divided (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980)
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David Steel, Against Goliath: David Steel's Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)
Further reading
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The Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KBE PC (01/05/2003 to 30/11/2004)
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The Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KT KBE PC (30/11/2004 to present)
(Used "Rt Hon Sir David Steel KBE MSP" in Holyrood despite peerage)
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David Steel (31/03/1938 to 24/03/1965)
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David Steel MP (24/03/1965 to 1977)
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The Right Honourable David Steel MP (1977 to 29/12/1989)
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The Right Honourable Sir David Steel KBE MP (29/12/1989 to 08/04/1997)
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The Right Honourable Sir David Steel KBE (08/04/1997 to 06/06/1997)
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The Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KBE PC (06/06/1997 to 06/05/1999)
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The Right Honourable The Lord Steel of Aikwood KBE MSP PC (06/05/199 to 01/05/2003
Titles and Styles
Steel married fellow law graduate Judith Mary MacGregor in October 1962. They reside at Aikwood Tower in the Borders of Scotland, and have three children - Graeme, Rory, and Catriona - and eight grandchildren.[5]
Family
On 30 November 2004, Queen Elizabeth created Lord Steel a Knight of the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland.[15]
Steel retired from the House of Commons at the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 2003 and 2004.
Lord Steel's stall in the
Thistle Chapel, Edinburgh. His arms can be seen on the right, with the
crest of a springing jaguar
Life peerage and Scottish Parliament
Steel was briefly joint interim leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (as the new party was at first called) in the run-up to elections in which he did not stand, before becoming the party's Foreign Affairs spokesman. In 1989 he accepted an invitation from Italian liberals to stand for the European Parliament in that year's elections as a Pan-European gesture. Although not elected he polled very well. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1990.[11] He became President of the Liberal International in 1994, holding the office until 1996.[12]
Steel was convinced the answer to these difficulties was a single party with a single leader, and was the chief proponent of the 1988 merger between the Liberals and the SDP. He emerged victorious in persuading both parties to accept merger in the teeth of opposition from Owen and radical Liberals such as Michael Meadowcroft but badly mishandled the issuing of a joint policy document. Steel had often been criticised for a lack of interest in policy and it appeared he had agreed to the document – drawn up by politically naive SDP advisers – without reading it. His colleagues rejected it immediately and demanded a re-draft, fatally wounding his authority.
Steel addressing the Liberal Party assembly in
Harrogate on merger in 1987
Two parties merger
Shortly afterwards David Owen replaced Jenkins as leader of the SDP and the troubled leadership of the "Two Davids" was inaugurated. It was never an easy relationship—Steel's political sympathies were well to the left of Owen's. Owen had a marked antipathy towards the Liberals though he respected Steel's prior loyalty to his own party contrasting it with Jenkins' lack of interest in preserving the SDP's independence. The relationship was also mercilessly satirised by Spitting Image which portrayed Steel as a squeaky voiced midget, literally in the pocket of Owen. Steel has often stated that he feels this portrayal seriously damaged his image.[10] This portrayal of Steel as weaker than Owen was also present in other satires, such as Private Eye's Battle for Britain strip. The relationship finally fell apart during the 1987 general election when the two contradicted each other both on defence policy and on which party they would do a deal with in the event of a hung parliament.
The Alliance secured more than 25% of the vote at the 1983 general election, almost as many votes as Labour. However, its support was spread out across the country, and was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into seats. Due to the first past the post system, this left the Alliance with only 23 seats—17 for the Liberals and six for the SDP. Steel's dreams of a big political breakthrough were left unfulfilled.[9]
Steel had genuine hopes at this stage that the Alliance would win the next general election and form a coalition government. However, the beginning of the Falklands War the following spring radically shifted the attitude of the electorate, and the Conservatives regained the lead in polls from the Alliance by a wide margin.[8]
In 1981, a group of Labour right-wingers left their party to form the Social Democratic Party. They were joined by the former Labour deputy leader Roy Jenkins who had previously had discussions with Steel about joining the Liberals. Under Jenkins's leadership, the SDP joined the Liberals in the SDP-Liberal Alliance. In its early days, the Alliance showed so much promise that for a time, it looked like the Liberals would be part of a government for the first time in over half a century. Opinion polls were showing Alliance support as high as 50% by late 1981. Steel was so confident that he felt able to tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly that year, "Go back to your constituencies, and prepare for government!"[7]
SDP-Liberal Alliance
Steel has been criticised both then and since for not driving a harder bargain; the opposing case is that the continuing scandal surrounding Thorpe left the party in a very weak state to face an early general election and Steel was wise to buy himself some time from Callaghan. The unpopularity of the Labour government impaired the Liberals' performance, and Steel's first election as leader, the 1979 general election, saw a decline in Liberal fortunes.
In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over John Pardoe. At only 38 years old, he was one of the youngest party leaders in British history. In March 1977, he led the Liberals into the "Lib-Lab pact" by which they agreed to keep the Labour government, whose narrow majority since the general election in October 1974 had been gradually eroded and left them as minority government, in power in return for a degree of prior consultation on policy. This pact lasted until August 1978.[6]
Leader of Liberal Party
As an MP he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967 (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and in 1970 its Chief Whip.
He first took an active part in Liberal politics at the University of Edinburgh, and was elected Senior President of the Students' Representative Council.[5] After graduating in Law he worked for the Scottish Liberal Party and then the BBC before being elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles at the 1965 by-election, becoming the "Baby of the House". He represented this seat until 1983, when he was elected in Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, a new constituency covering much of the same territory.
Member of Parliament
[4][3] campaign from 1966 to 1970.Anti-Apartheid Movement Steel was president of the British [2]
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