John Farquhar Munro
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John Farquhar Munro (Iain Fearchar Rothach in Gaelic), born 26 August 1934 in Glen Shiel, Lochalsh, Highland, is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician, and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Ross, Skye and Inverness West.
Previously a crofter and a local councillor for 33 years, he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament at the 1999 election. Running against him for Labour was Donnie Munro, former member of the band Runrig, but John Farquhar Munro won 1,539 more votes. [1] He was one of three Lib-Dem MSPs to oppose his party's coalition with the Labour Party (along with Keith Raffan and Donald Gorrie) and has deviated from the Executive on a number of issues (such as land reform, on which he believes they are not moving quickly enough).
He has also been prominent within the parliament in opposing the Skye Bridge tolls, to the extent of threatening to resign from the Lib Dems if they were not removed. The tolls were abolished in December 2004.
As befits one of the few native Gaelic speakers in the Scottish Parliament he co-sponsored (along with the Scottish National Party's Michael Russell) a bill to secure the languages status as being equal to English. He was angry when the Scottish Executive refused to back it.
He was re-elected to the Scottish Parliament at the 2003 election with an increased share of the vote.
[edit] External links
- John Farquhar Munro MSP official biography at the Scottish Parliament website
- John Farquhar Munro MSP profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats
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