Tag Archives: sir malcolm bruce

Sir Malcolm Bruce’s final speech in the House of Commons

Malcolm bruce glasgow 2014Today a valedictory debate for retiring members took place in the House of Commons. Members whose service totalled several hundred years bade farewell to the Commons. Three of them were Liberal Democrats and we’ll be publishing their speeches in full. First up is Sir Malcolm Bruce, MP for Gordon for the last 32 years. Today we have David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome for 18 years. You can read the whole debate, with speeches from long-standing and distinguished MPs such as Gordon Brown, Joan Ruddock, Sir George Young and Elfyn Llwyd, here.

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New Deputy Leader Sir Malcolm Bruce hits the airwaves.

On Sunday, our new Deputy Leader, Sir Malcolm Bruce was despatched on media rounds. His first appearance was on John Pienaar’s show on Radio 5 Live. Pienaar said that this was Malcolm’s first interview since his election. I beg to differ.

This interview was strongly focused on the future of the coalition, the economy and the forthcoming European and general elections.

On the coalition, Pienaar painted a Godfatheresque picture of a coalition at war, behind the mattresses, all the Liberal Democrats round Malcolm’s house with meatballs on the stove and machine guns under the beds.

The essence of coalition politics is working

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Christine Jardine selected as PPC for Gordon

S Delaney A McInnes W Rennie C Jardine M BruceChristine Jardine, who was widely recognised to have put in a great performance as candidate in the Aberdeen Donside by-election last June, has been selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Gordon, the constituency currently represented by our new Deputy Leader, Sir Malcolm Bruce. She is pictured second from the right here next to Sir Malcolm.

Christine is a journalist who previously worked in Aberdeen for the Deeside Piper and the BBC. She also spent a year as a Special Adviser in Downing Street.

Nick Clegg was quick to tweet his congratulations, although he needs to learn that the hashtag from that energetic and happy campaign in the Summer is actually #teamchristine:

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Sir Malcolm Bruce MP to stand down in 2015

Malcolm announcement croppedSir Malcolm Bruce, speaking exclusively to the local newspaper in his Gordon constituency, has announced that he will be stepping down as MP for he seat he has represented for 30 years at the next General Election.

He told the Press and Journal:

I’d rather go when I’m fit, active, effective and, I hope, still enjoying it.

I think I’m going to feel quite liberated but I want people to know that I’m not retiring right now, I’m just announcing that I’m not going to stand at the next election. I’ll

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Protecting children, nuisance calls, delivery charges and supporting deaf people – the Liberal Democrat private members bills

Stephen Tall told us all about the private members’ bills brought in by Tory MPs in their “alternative Queen’s Speech” – everything from burka banning to reintroducing the death penalty to naming the August Bank Holiday after Margaret Thatcher.

I thought I’d look into the measures the Liberal Democrats who were successful in the Great Parliamentary Raffle are hoping to bring into law. As you might expect, they’re a bit more practical and relevant.

Sir Malcolm Bruce’s Bill is all about improving communications support for deaf people. Signature has more details:

Sir Malcolm is a tireless advocate for the deaf community

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Smith, Crockart, Bruce and Williams win in Great Parliamentary Raffle

Well, I learned something I didn’t know about parliamentary procedure yesterday. I had always assumed that the Private Members’ Bill Ballot was an actual ballot, where MPs voted for themselves or their colleagues. How naive was I? The secret is now out, and available on You Tube. It’s actually a big raffle as you can see here:

440 MPs’ names went into the box and just 20 were drawn out. Among them were 4 Liberal Democrats. We had Sir Robert Smith in 9th place, Mike Crockart in 11th, Mark Williams in 13th and Sir Malcolm Bruce in 14th.  I …

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Christine Jardine selected for Aberdeen Donside by-election

S Delaney A McInnes W Rennie C Jardine M BruceChristine Jardine, a former Downing Street Special Adviser, has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Aberdeen Donside Scottish Parliament by-election caused by the death o SNP MSP Brian Adam last month. She is seen second on the right in the photograph, which also features Cllr Steve Delaney, Alison McInnes MSP, Scottish leader Willie Rennie MSP and Sir Malcolm Bruce MP.

The by-election will take place on June 20.

Liberal Democrat Voice readers will be familiar with her name because of occasional …

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Arise, Sir Malcolm*

Gary Barlow and Kate Winslet are very lucky. Not only did they get to meet the Queen today as they received their respective CBE and OBE medals at Buckingham Palace, but they were in the same batch, if that’s the right word, as our very own Sir Malcolm Bruce.

It dawns on me that Barlow and Bruce are quite close to each other in the alphabet so they may even have been sitting near each other.

Sir Malcolm and Lady Bruce enjoyed a celebratory lunch with family and

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