Brian Souter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Souter (born 1954 in Perth, Scotland), is a businessman, who was the co-founder of the Stagecoach Group, along with his sister, Ann Gloag. He was educated at Perth High School and University of Dundee, before he completed training as a Chartered Accountant.
His business practices have been controversial though not illegal. For instance, Stagecoach has used the aggressive tactic of running buses immediately before and after their rival's scheduled services. In Darlington after a bid to buy the local council-owned bus operator was rejected, the company provided a free bus service over that operator's network. The Monopolies and Mergers Commission reported that these practices were "predatory, deplorable and against the public interest", however in recent years the group has made much progress in rehabilitating its image.
His nickname is "Soapy Souter", which is likely to refer to the character in Oor Wullie of the same name.[citation needed]
[edit] Religious beliefs
He is a member of the Church of the Nazarene. He explained his membership in these terms: "Ethics are not irrelevant, but some are incompatible with what we have to do, because capitalism is based on greed".[1]
[edit] Controversy
He was a campaigner against the repeal of Section 2a of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1986 (known as Section 28 in England and Wales), donating up to £1 million to fund a postal ballot poll to obtain public opinion regarding this issue.[2][3] His campaign group approached the Electoral Reform Society to organise the ballot through its ballot services subsidiary. The society refused the request as it believed the poll "would not be a legitimate democratic exercise to ask people to give an opinion on the repeal of Section 28 without knowing the detail of what would replace it".[4]
Of 3,970,712 papers posted, 31.8% valid votes were returned. The poll suggested that 86.8% were in favour of keeping Section 28, and 13.2% in favour of repeal.[5] Many groups hostile to Souter's stance had called for a boycott of the poll, and accordingly claimed that as only a minority returned ballot papers this was a defeat for Souter and his supporters.
However, as the voter details were based on the 1999 electoral register, many inconsistencies regarding ballot allocation were experienced, with 8% undelivered because individuals had subsequently moved house or died. This most notably included the then Justice Minister and Deputy First Minister of Scotland Jim Wallace who, despite having lived at the same Orcadian address for over a decade, never received a ballot. Mainstream politicians, including the Scottish National Party, which Souter has previously supported, largely ignored his private poll and disputed whether the result was a true reflection of public opinion. The then Communities Minister, Wendy Alexander MSP rebuffed the result stating "I think what is significant about today's ballot is that two out of three voters rejected, or binned or simply ignored this glorified opinion poll."[6]
In July 2000, Souter's right hand man, William Barry Hinkley was arrested in Houston, Texas by vice squad officers as part of an organised sting on gay escorts.[7] Mr Hinkley was alleged to have asked for a gay male escort to be sent to his hotel room whilst on official Stagecoach Group business and later resigned from the company.
[edit] References
- ^ Bob Chaundy (2000). Brian Souter: Stagecoach's straightman. BBC. Retrieved on 21 January 2000.
- ^ Brian Souter interview: Full transcript. BBC (2000). Retrieved on 10 March 2000.
- ^ Souter to bankroll clause referendum. BBC (2000). Retrieved on 28 March 2000.
- ^ Souter poll hits major setback. BBC (2000). Retrieved on 31 March 2000.
- ^ Poll 'backs' Section 28. BBC (2000). Retrieved on 31 May 2000.
- ^ Kirsty Milne (2005). Keep the Clause: the legacy. Scotsman. Retrieved on 5 March 2005.
- ^ Vice charge director resigns. BBC (2000). Retrieved on 25 July 2000.
