Douglas Alexander

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The Rt Hon. Douglas Alexander
Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Scotland
In office
May 5, 2006 – present
Born	25 February 1967
Constituency	Paisley and Renfrewshire South
Majority	13,232 (34.9%)
Political party	Labour
Website: DouglasAlexander.labour.co.uk

Douglas Garven Alexander (born October 26, 1967) is a British politician who is Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Scotland He is the Member of Parliament for the Scottish constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South representing the Labour Party.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Parliamentary Career 3 Private life 4 See also 5 Bibliography 6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Glasgow, the son of a Church of Scotland minister and a doctor, much of Alexander's childhood was was spent in Bishopton in Renfrewshire. A prominent member of the 1st Bishopton Company of the Boys Brigade, he played bugle in the Company's marching band helping them win the Scottish BB Marching Band Championship in 1981. Alexander attended Park Mains High School in Erskine, also in Renfrewshire, from where he joined the Labour Party as a school boy in 1982. In 1984 he won a Scottish scholarship to attend the Lester B. Pearson College in Vancouver where he gained the International Baccalaureate Diploma, returning to Scotland to study politics and modern history at the University of Edinburgh. He won a further scholarship in 1988 to study at the University Of Pennsylvania, one of the major American Ivy League institutions. Whilst studying in America, he worked for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 American Presidential Election campaign, he also worked for a Democrat senator in Washington, D.C..

In 1990 he worked as a speech-writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Gordon Brown. He returned to Edinburgh to study for an LL.B. at Edinburgh University, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with Distinction in 1993. He then qualified as a solicitor.

[edit] Parliamentary Career

Whilst still studying, in 1995, with friends in the local party, he was selected to be the Scottish Labour Party candidate at the Perth and Kinross by-election caused by the death of the long serving flamboyant Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn. The by-election came in the middle of the Major government and was won by Roseanna Cunningham of the Scottish National Party, but Alexander did well and received enough votes to push the incumbent Conservative candidate into third place. On qualifying as a solicitor he worked for a firm of solicitors in Perth. The Perth and Kinross constituency was abolished, but Alexander was again chosen to be the Labour candidate in the newly drawn Perth at the 1997 General Election. He was again defeated by Roseanna Cunningham but had some consolation in cutting her majority in half.

On 28th July, 1997 the Labour Member of Parliament for Paisley South, Gordon McMaster, committed suicide. Alexander, who grew up in Renfrewshire, was chosen to contest the by-election and he was duly elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for Paisley South on November 6, 1997.

Alexander took a successful co-ordinating role in his party's campaign for the 2001 General Election. He was rewarded by Tony Blair and was appointed as the Minister of State with responsibility for "e-commerce and competitiveness" and the Department for Trade and Industry in June 2001.

In May 2002, Alexander was transferred to the Cabinet Office to continue to serve in the same task. Then, in June 2003, he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; it was suggested that this was so that he would continue his role in planning the Labour party's strategy for the general election. However, Alan Milburn came out of retirement and undertook this post (and the Duchy of Lancaster title) in September 2004. Subsequently, Mr Alexander was appointed the Minister of State for Trade at both the Department for Trade and Industry and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. After the 2005 General Election, he was given the role of Minister of State for Europe, part of the Foreign Office, with special provision to attend Cabinet. This job was seen as crucial to successfully piloting the referendum on the European Constitution, a significant electoral pledge by Labour. On June 7, 2005, he was made a Member of the Privy Council. On May 5, 2006 he was appointed Secretary of State for Transport and, simultaneously, Secretary of State for Scotland, replacing Alistair Darling. During his time at the Transport Office, he has suggested that national road toll cards could be in place in the UK within the next ten years. He was also very involved in the British Government's response to the foiled terror plot of August 10th 2006.

Within his political career, he has been widely regarded as a "Brownite" - given his strong political bond with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is regarded by many as Mr Brown's most loyal political ally.

He was succeeded as Minister for Europe in 2006 by Geoff Hoon MP, the former Defence Secretary.

[edit] Private life

His sister, Wendy Alexander, is also involved in politics, as an MSP. His father, a Church of Scotland minister, conducted the funeral of the inaugural First Minister of Scotland, Donald Dewar at Glasgow Cathedral in 2000. He is married to Jacqueline Christian and they have two children.

[edit] See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom

[edit] Bibliography

• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)

[edit] External links

• Douglas Alexander MP official site
• Foreign Office - Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP official profile
• Department of Trade and Industry - Douglas Alexander
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle - Douglas Alexander MP
• They Work For You - Douglas Alexander MP
• "Steering safely down the middle", interview in The Sunday Times Scotland, 24 September, 2006

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gordon James McMaster	Member of Parliament for Paisley South 1997–2005	Succeeded by constituency abolished
Preceded by new constituency	Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South 2005 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2003–2004	Succeeded by Alan Milburn
Preceded by Mike O'Brien	Minister of State for Overseas Trade DTI and FCO 2004–2005	Succeeded by Ian Pearson
Preceded by Denis MacShane	Minister of State for Europe 2005–2006	Succeeded by Geoff Hoon
Preceded by Alistair Darling	Secretary of State for Scotland 2006–	Succeeded by Incumbent
	Secretary of State for Transport 2006–