Alasdair Allan

Dr Alasdair Allan (born May 6, 1971) is a Scottish National Party politician, and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Western Isles since 2007. He authored the booklet Talking Independence, which sought to answer questions about Scottish independence, ranging from "What will I pay in tax?" to "Will I still be able to visit relatives in England?" and "Will we still get Eastenders?".

A native of Ashkirk, near Selkirk, Alasdair Allan attended Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities and devoted his time and employment to the Scottish National Party^[1] (SNP) in Peterhead, working for Alex Salmond MP, now First Minister of Scotland, and he subsequently became assistant to Michael Russell MSP. Allan was the SNP candidate for Gordon at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. As National Secretary of the SNP, he was responsible in July 2004 for the expulsion of Campbell Martin MSP from the party after Martin had claimed that there was a case for supporters of independence not voting SNP.^[2]

Alasdair Allan was next in line to become a list MSP for North East Scotland when Richard Lochhead resigned to fight the Moray by-election, however he decided instead to devote himself to contesting the Western Isles, a key Labour-SNP marginal seat in the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary election. He relocated to Lewis and resigned his post as SNP National Secretary.^[3] This move proved successful, as he was elected with 46.6% of the vote — a 5.4% swing from Labour.

He is a speaker and strong supporter of the Scottish Gaelic and Lowland Scots languages and holds a PhD on the latter language.

References

External links

• Alasdair Allan's website

v • d • e Members of the Scottish Parliament in the Highlands and Islands region Elected in the 2007 election Constituency MSPs Jim Mather (SNP, Argyll and Bute) · Jamie Stone (Lib Dem, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) · Fergus Ewing (SNP, Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) · Richard Lochhead (SNP, Moray) · Liam McArthur (Lib Dem, Orkney) · John Farquhar Munro (Lib Dem, Ross, Skye and Inverness West) · Tavish Scott (Lib Dem, Shetland) · Alasdair Allan (SNP, Western Isles) Additional Members Rob Gibson (SNP) · Rhoda Grant (Lab) · Jamie McGrigor (Con) · Peter Peacock (Lab) · Mary Scanlon (Con) · David Stewart (Lab) · David Thompson (SNP) SNP (6 seats), Lib Dem (4 seats), Labour (3 seats), Conservative (2 seats)

• Profile on Scottish Parliament website

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