Mike Pringle (politician)

Mike Pringle
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Edinburgh South
In office
1 May 2003 – 22 March 2011
Preceded byAngus MacKay
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1945-12-25) 25 December 1945 (age 79)
Northern Rhodesia
Political partyScottish Liberal Democrats
Website[1]

Mike Pringle (born 25 December 1945) is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh South from 2003 to 2011.

Background

He was born in Northern Rhodesia (modern-day Zambia), and educated at Edinburgh Academy. He is a keen follower of Heart of Midlothian F.C. and was a strong supporter of the campaign to prevent the sale of the club's Tynecastle stadium in 2004. He is a strong supporter of the Free Tibet Campaign and has introduced a Bill into the Scottish Parliament to introduce a levy on plastic bags in Scotland similar to the successful Irish plastic bag tax. He has been an Honorary Vice-president of English-Speaking Union Scotland.[citation needed]

Political career

From 1992 to 2003 he was a member of the City of Edinburgh Council. In the 1997 UK general election he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in Edinburgh South, and in the equivalent constituency in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election. In the latter he came third out of the five candidates, with 22% of the vote; less than five hundred votes behind Margo MacDonald. He was also a candidate for the Lothians, but was not elected through the list system.[citation needed]

He ran again in the 2003 Scottish Parliamentary election for Edinburgh South, winning it from Angus MacKay by half a per cent of the votes – a majority of 158. He served on the Justice Committees of the Scottish Parliament.[1]

In September 2006, the Scottish Parliament's Standards Committee banned him for a week from attending full sessions and committee meetings of the Parliament for leaking details of the Shirley McKie case to a newspaper.

He was re-elected in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.[2]

He lost the redrawn seat of Edinburgh Southern to the SNP's Jim Eadie in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Previous MSPs: Session 2 (2003–2007): Mike Pringle". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Previous MSPs: Session 3 (2007–2011): Mike Pringle". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  3. ^ George, Ali (6 May 2011). "Scottish Parliamentary Election 2011 Result – Edinburgh Southern". The Edinburgh Reporter. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
Scottish Parliament
Preceded by Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh South
20032011
Constituency abolished