Pauline McNeill
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Pauline McNeill (born September 12, 1962) is a politician in the United Kingdom. She is Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Kelvin (Scottish Parliament constituency), Scotland, having been elected in the Scottish Parliamentary Election, 1999 and the Scottish Parliamentary Election, 2003.
Pauline McNeill was elected as Glasgows Kelvin’s first-ever Member of the Scottish Parliament on the 6th of May 1999 and re-elected for a second term in 2003. She was unanimously re-selected as Glasgow Kelvin Labour Party’s candidate for the May 2007 Scottish Election in Summer 2005.
She was educated at Our Lady's High School, Cumbernauld, before training as a graphic illustrator at Glasgow College of Building and Printing. She was President of the National Union of Students in Scotland and was subsquently an organiser for the trades-union, GMB Scotland, representing NHS workers, hospitality and factory staff amongst many others.
An active member of the Labour Party since her time in the student movement, McNeill was also an executive committee member of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly and a committed campaigner for devolution throughout the 1980s and 90s.
During her first term as the MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, she graduated from Strathclyde School of Law, after a period combining legislating and night school.
In the first term of the new Parliament, she was elected as Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party before being appointed convener of two of Parliament’s busiest committees, Justice 2 and subsquently Justice 1. As a Justice Committee Convenor, Pauline has led Parliamentary consideration of such matters as the :
Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 Civil Partnership Act 2004 Rights of Relatives to Damages (Mesothelioma) (Scotland) Bill Scottish Criminal Record Office Inquiry Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006 Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006
McNeill’s committee also led consideration of reforms to the High Court amongst many other subjects and convened the first ever inquiry into the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Service, and was proud to help deliver justice for asbestos victims in the court of Session. Her Committee won Committee of the Year at the 2006 Scottish Politician of the Year Awards and in 2005 she received the Equality Network 'Friend for Life' Award for her work on civil parnerships and gender recognition.
McNeill is also convenor of the Cross Party Group on Contemporary Music, which last year lauched the Scottish Live Music Manifesto, and published the UK’s first Live Music Code of Concuct and Live Music Agreement, the purpose of these documents is to improve protection for bands and particulalry young musicians from unscrupulous venues, agents and promoters. This work reflects Pauline’s past employment as a band manager and has been unique in uniting many of the key figures in the Scottish live music industry.
Since her student days, McNeill has has a strong interest in international issues, she is the Convenor of the Cross Party Group on Palestine, and was a UN observer at the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections, later in 2006 she visited the Lebenanon in the aftermath of the war there, and continues to speak out, both in the Parliament, and at demonstrations, public meetings and protests on the need for a peaceful and just solution in the Middle East.
McNeill was a strident opponent of the war in Iraq and campaigned for the right of protesters to picket the Labour Party’s 2003 Spring Conference, which took place at the SECC in her own constiteuncy.
She was instrumental in the granting of Fair Trade status to the City of Glasgow and walked in the Edinburgh Make Poverty History March when the G8 came to Gleneagles.
She opposes the replacement of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system, and has made her oppostion clear in Parliament and outside.
She opposes the holding of prisioners at Guantanamo Bay and has spoken out in favour of the rights of asylum seekers and new migrants. She remains a supporter of many student campaigns, including the successful campaign to elect Israeli dissident, Mordechai Vanunu, as rector of Glasgow University and takes a keen interest in the welfare of students across the many further and higher institutions located in Glasgow Kelvin.
Since her election she has corresponded with almost 15,000 local pople and has attended countless meeting across the constituency, locally, she campaigns on the need for more affordable and social housing, more effective steps to increase recycling take-up and reduce energy usage, better regulation of public transport – specifically the bus industry, improvements to the Glasgow Subway, a more locally accountable planning system, safequarding the unique gold standard service currently provided by the Queen Mum’s Maternity and the Yorkhill Sick Kids, standing up for and improving local sports facilities, creating a safer city centre and the extension of community protections to the West End, better regulation of housing in multiple occupation and supports the campaign to save and restore the Kelvingrove Park Bandstand.
Her hobbies include singing, playing guitar, pc games (which she finds highly addictive), live music and her dance classes. Her favourite TV programme of recent years was the American series The West Wing and her favourite restaurant is Anti Pasti in Byres Road.
Equality Network 'Friend for Life' award for her work in ensuring that the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and Gender Recognition Act 2004 legislation passed at the UK Government level was compliant with existing Scottish legislation.
Pauline McNeill is a member of the following cross party groups in the Scottish Parliament:
Buidheann Thar Phartaidh na Gàidhlig;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Affordable Housing;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Cuba;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Human Rights;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Economy;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Tobacco Control;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Visual Impairment;
Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament on Refugees and Asylum Seekers;
