Frank McAveety

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Frank McAveety (born 27 June 1962) is a Scottish Labour Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Shettleston.

He was educated at All Saints Secondary School, Glasgow, at the University of Strathclyde, and at St. Andrew's College of Education in Glasgow.

Before his election to the Scottish Parliament, he taught English at St Gregory's RC school (Cranhill) in Glasgow and St Brendan's RC High School, Renfrewshire. He was a member of Glasgow District Council from 1988 until 1996, then a member and Leader (from 1997) of Glasgow City Council until 1999.

He was Deputy Minister for Local Government in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2000. He returned to office as Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care in May 2002. He was appointed Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport following the Scottish Parliamentary Election, 2003. He was dismissed in October 2004 following the Piegate incident, when he failed to appear at Ministerial Question Time in the Parliament. Although he claimed to have been unavoidably delayed at an awards ceremony, he had been spotted in the Parliament canteen. As a Member, he now sits on both the Finance and Education Committees of the Scottish Parliament.

Frank McAveety is one of very few members of the Scottish Labour Party who support fiscal autonomy for Scotland [1].

He is a Celtic supporter from childhood, and is known for his knowledge of music, including a massive collection of LPs, cassettes, and CDs. In April 2005, the Scotsman newspaper dubbed him the "grand-daddy of Parliamentary pop", in reference to his folksy Chamber speech in support of a bill recognising Franz Ferdinand for their contribution to Scottish popular music and culture.