Robin Harper

Robin Harper
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothians
In office 6 May 1999 – 11 May 2011
Personal details
Born	(1940-08-04) 4 August 1940 (age 71) Thurso, Caithness, Scotland
Political party	Scottish Green Party
Alma mater	University of Aberdeen
Profession	Teacher
Website	Official website

Robin Harper FRSSA (born 4 August 1940) is a Scottish politician, and was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothians region. He was co-convener of the Scottish Green Party (2004-2008). Harper became an MSP in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the first ever elected Green parliamentarian in the United Kingdom.

Background, education and career

Harper was educated at St Marylebone Grammar School and Elgin Academy he graduated in 1962 from the University of Aberdeen. He worked as a modern studies teacher at Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh, and before that as an English teacher in Kenya.

Harper is a patron of many organisations including LGBT Youth Scotland, an organisation dedicated to the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in the life of Scotland. He is married. He is also an Honorary Vice-President of English-Speaking Union Scotland. He was elected as Rector of the University of Aberdeen in 2005, having previously served as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.

Scottish Parliament

Harper stood for election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and was elected as an additional member for the Lothians region, becoming the first ever elected Green parliamentarian in the UK's political history. In an emotional speech, he promised to be a critical voice on the environment in the Parliament.^[1] He criticised the Scottish Executive's decision to split ministerial responsibility for the environment in 2001.^[2] He served as his party's sole representative in the first Parliament (1999-2003) until the 2003 election, when the Scottish Green Party won another 6 seats in the regional lists.^[3] In 2004 he was a member of the Scottish Parliament team in the TV general knowledge show University Challenge: The Professionals. He and fellow team members Richard Baker (Labour), Jamie Stone (Lib Dem) who was captain, and Stewart Stevenson (SNP) beat a Welsh Assembly team by 110 points to 75.^[4]

In January 2007, The Scotsman reported that Harper was being considered for the next Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. Harper stated that he did not know of this story, but said "it would be an honour even to be considered".^[5] Following the 2007 elections to the Scottish Parliament, Harper was returned as a list MSP for the Lothians, this time one of only two Green Party members elected.^[6] After an agreement with the Scottish National Party, the party with the largest mandate from the election, the Green MSPs including Harper voted for Alex Salmond to become First Minister of Scotland but the Greens declined to enter a formal coalition with the SNP. As part of the deal, fellow Green MSP Patrick Harvie was nominated to head the Holyrood Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee.^[7] In 2009, Harper and Harvie vividly demonstrated the Greens were not in an alliance with the SNP when they voted to reject an SNP government budget. ^[8] He is the party's spokesman on education and young people.

References

External links

• Robin Harper – MSP for the Lothians
• Win Win Economy, "Scottish Left Review"