British politician
Angus John
Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of Tradeston
,
CBE
,
PC
(born 20 August 1940)
[1]
is a Scottish television executive,
life peer
and former
Labour
member of the
House of Lords
.
Early life
[
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]
Macdonald was born in
Larkhall
, Scotland. His father, a
Highlander
, had poor health and gambled. His mother, who was from a local mining family, worked multiple jobs to support and raise the family.
[
citation needed
]
He won a scholarship to
Allan Glen's School
, Glasgow, but left at 14 to become an apprentice marine engineer at the shipyards of
Alexander Stephen and Sons
in Govan, Glasgow on the
River Clyde
[2]
and where he was one of the leaders for the apprentices' strike in 1959
[3]
along with fellow members,
Billy Connolly
and
Alex Ferguson
.
[4]
Macdonald was leader of the Govan and Gorbals branch of the Labour Party's Young Socialists.
[5]
He moved to London in 1962 where he was briefly involved in revolutionary socialist politics as a member of the
International Socialists
, living at the London home of its foremost member,
Tony Cliff
.
[2]
He has said that he returned to his political roots working at the Labour weekly
Tribune
around 1964,
[2]
where he was appointed as the circulation manager by
Michael Foot
.
[3]
Television
[
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]
He has worked as a journalist on
The Scotsman
and as a member of the Insight team on
The Sunday Times
. Originally taken on as a researcher,
[6]
he was with
Granada Television
from 1967 to 1986
[3]
where he was soon appointed joint editor of
World in Action
with
John Birt
;
[7]
Macdonald had an association with the programme for many years. He also presented Granada's
What the Papers Say
as well as
Right to Reply
and "Union World" on
Channel 4
.
Macdonald returned to Scotland in 1986 as Director of Programmes for
Scottish Television
. After four years he became managing director, replacing William Brown in 1990. While at STV he overhauled the station's Current Affairs output and cut the core workforce from 800 to 330
[8]
and the market value of the company grew from £50m to around £500m. The company took over two newspapers,
The Herald
and the
Evening Times
, plus the other ITV contractor in Scotland,
Grampian Television
.
[9]
He became non-executive chairman of
Scottish Media Group plc
at the end of 1997,
[10]
and Chairman of Taylor and Francis plc in 1998. He was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) for services to broadcasting in the
1997 Birthday Honours
.
[11]
House of Lords
[
edit
]
A year after the Labour won the
United Kingdom general election
Macdonald was made
life peer
on 2 October 1998 as
Baron Macdonald of Tradeston
,
of
Tradeston
in the
City of Glasgow
.
[12]
As a member of the
House of Lords
he was then appointed to be Minister for Business and Industry in the
Scottish Office
(1998?99), followed by
Minister for Transport
in the
Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions
, in attendance at cabinet (1999?2001) and Minister for the
Cabinet Office
and
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
(2001?03)
Member of Cabinet Office Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. Also member of
House of Lords
' Select Committees on Economic Affairs (2004?2008), and Communications (2009?2012).Chair of the All Party Parliamentary
Humanist
Group.
[13]
He retired from the House of Lords on 27 April 2017.
[14]
Other interests
[
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]
In 2004, he was appointed as an adviser to fund managers
Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Europe) Limited
in relation to a new European Infrastructure fund which aimed to invest in road and rail projects.
[15]
He is on Steering Group of the
OECD
Futures Programme on Infrastructure and advisory board of OECD
International Transport Forum
. In 2011, he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the
Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland
and chose the subject "Bridging the Infrastructure Gap".
[16]
Macdonald was installed as Chancellor of
Glasgow Caledonian University
in October 2007, succeeding
Magnus Magnusson
. He also served as a Governor of the
British Film Institute
, a member of the council (2006?2008) and of Court (2009?) at the
University of Sussex
and is Patron of the
Dystonia Society
.
[17]
[18]
References
[
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]
Publications
[
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]
- "Camera: A Victorian Eyewitness", B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1979,
ISBN
0-7134-2095-2
External links
[
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]
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