Gordon Adam
Encyclopedia
Dr Gordon Johnston Adam (born 28 March 1934) is a British
mining engineer and Labour Party
politician. With one brief interruption, he served as a Member of the European Parliament
for 25 years.
, from which he obtained a Bachelor of Science
and Doctor of Philosophy
degrees. After becoming a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1953, he joined the National Coal Board
as a mining engineer in 1959. Adam later became a Charted Engineer member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
and in 1963 became Chairman of Berwick-upon-Tweed
Constituency Labour Party
, and he was co-opted as a member of Northumberland County Council
Education Committee in 1964. At the 1966 general election
, Adam was the Labour Party candidate for the Tynemouth
constituency. He succeeded in cutting the Conservative majority from 7,448 to 3,396. In 1971 Adam was elected to Whitley Bay
Borough Council; when that council was succeeded by North Tyneside Borough Council in 1973, Adam was elected to the new body and became its first Chairman and Mayor for the year 1974-1975.
caused by the resignation of Lord Lambton, and decided to focus on the issues of housing and prices. The Times Diary noted that Labour had drafted 13 professionals in to lead their campaign but described Adam as "a charm-free technocrat". Adam saw Labour overtaken by the Liberal Party
who narrowly won the seat; he took comfort that the Labour vote had held firm.
, but saw the Labour vote fall to 4,326 which was about half what it had been in 1970. From 1975 he became Deputy Leader of North Tyneside Borough Council, and he was named to the Northern Economic Planning Council from 1974. As Deputy Leader of North Tyneside he indicated that the council would aim to comply with the demands of Peter Shore
, Secretary of State for the Environment
, to restrain spending. He served on the Northern Arts General Council from 1975 to 1977, and was appointed to the Whitley Bay Playhouse Theatre Trust in 1975; he was Chairman of the Trust from 1975 to 1980.
, Adam stood as Labour Party candidate in Northumbria
. This was one of the safest seats for Labour and Adam was easily elected. In June 1980 he lauded events in Zimbabwe
which had shown how real democracy had triumphed in the end, and urged the government of South Africa
to take the same course. In June 1981 he presented a report on behalf of the Committee on Energy and Research which called for the development of a computer translation system.
in public but felt that party policy failed to take account of practicalities: he was quoted in early 1982 as saying that his constituents were more interested in learning what would happen to the sheepmeat regime. However, in the 1984 election, the Conservatives
claimed that a reading of Adam's election literature identified him as a supporter of British membership.
After successful re-election Adam became vice-chairman of the Energy, Research and Technology Committee of the European Parliament. He kept up his local connections with the arts, being a member of the Board of Newcastle Free Festival from 1989 to 1999 (and Chairman from 1992). He was also a member of the Board of the Northern Stage Company from 1989 to 2001. At the 1992 general election
, he again fought Berwick-upon-Tweed; this time he succeeded in increasing the Labour vote by 5.4% compared with the previous election.
and opposing Tony Blair
's attempt to get rid of it.
region, a position which made it almost impossible for him to be elected. As expected he lost his seat when the Labour Party won only three seats in the region. He wrote to the local newspaper after the election to thank those who had worked with him. He retired to give more time to his work as Chairman of the Northern Energy Initiative, a post he had occupied since 1995.
was resigning his seat in the European Parliament. Donnelly was the Leader of the Labour group and only 42 at the time; the Labour Party denied that there was an impending scandal. Under the European Parliament electoral system, Adam became first in line to replace him. Adam duly returned to the European Parliament after a gap of six months.
for the Sellafield
nuclear recycling plant to be closed. He pointed to figures from the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland which found that Sellafield was responsible for only one per cent. of radioactivity in Ireland, and went on to "award the star prize for political humbuggery to the Irish, to the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle". He became the Labour group agriculture spokesman and was critical of the group of Welsh farmers who had given evidence during an inquiry into the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, saying they "might be a bit biased". When the eventual report was highly critical of the British government, Adam abstained rather than support it, describing the report as inaccurate.
who secured a majority of 4,861.
was attempting to expose questionable practices in European Parliament allowances. Martin filmed Adam signing the attendance book for a Friday session of the European Parliament, thereby claiming a daily allowance, before immediately leaving. Martin claimed that Adam tried to grab his video camera, knocking Martin off his feet and on to the floor. Adam denied the claim and attacked Martin's methods.
to resign the Labour Party leadership, warning that the electorate would not re-elect "a squabbling, divided party".
In 2004 Adam was appointed to the Board of the South Tyneside Groundwork Trust. He is also President of the Felling Male Voice Choir
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
mining engineer and Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician. With one brief interruption, he served as a Member of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
for 25 years.
Training and career
Adam went to Carlisle Grammar School and the University of LeedsUniversity of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, from which he obtained a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
and Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
degrees. After becoming a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1953, he joined the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
as a mining engineer in 1959. Adam later became a Charted Engineer member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Labour Party activity
He joined the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and in 1963 became Chairman of Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed (UK Parliament constituency)
Berwick-upon-Tweed is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
Constituency Labour Party
Constituency Labour Party
A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...
, and he was co-opted as a member of Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council
Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. It was originally formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of Northumberland and reformed in 1974 to cover a the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Northumberland...
Education Committee in 1964. At the 1966 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...
, Adam was the Labour Party candidate for the Tynemouth
Tynemouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Tynemouth is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament using the first past the post voting system.-History:...
constituency. He succeeded in cutting the Conservative majority from 7,448 to 3,396. In 1971 Adam was elected to Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
Borough Council; when that council was succeeded by North Tyneside Borough Council in 1973, Adam was elected to the new body and became its first Chairman and Mayor for the year 1974-1975.
Berwick byelection
In August 1973, he was chosen to fight the byelection in Berwick-upon-TweedBerwick-upon-Tweed by-election, 1973
The Berwick-upon-Tweed by-election, 1973 was a parliamentary by-election held on 8 November 1973 for the British House of Commons constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It was one of four UK by-elections held on the same day....
caused by the resignation of Lord Lambton, and decided to focus on the issues of housing and prices. The Times Diary noted that Labour had drafted 13 professionals in to lead their campaign but described Adam as "a charm-free technocrat". Adam saw Labour overtaken by the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
who narrowly won the seat; he took comfort that the Labour vote had held firm.
North Tyneside Councillor
Adam fought the same constituency again in the February 1974 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
, but saw the Labour vote fall to 4,326 which was about half what it had been in 1970. From 1975 he became Deputy Leader of North Tyneside Borough Council, and he was named to the Northern Economic Planning Council from 1974. As Deputy Leader of North Tyneside he indicated that the council would aim to comply with the demands of Peter Shore
Peter Shore
Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney PC was a British Labour politician and former Cabinet Minister, noted in part for his opposition to the United Kingdom's entry into the European Economic Community. His idiosyncratic left-wing nationalism led to comparison with the French politician...
, Secretary of State for the Environment
Secretary of State for the Environment
The Secretary of State for the Environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment . This was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15...
, to restrain spending. He served on the Northern Arts General Council from 1975 to 1977, and was appointed to the Whitley Bay Playhouse Theatre Trust in 1975; he was Chairman of the Trust from 1975 to 1980.
European Parliament
At the 1979 election to the European ParliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, Adam stood as Labour Party candidate in Northumbria
Northumbria (European Parliament constituency)
Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...
. This was one of the safest seats for Labour and Adam was easily elected. In June 1980 he lauded events in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
which had shown how real democracy had triumphed in the end, and urged the government of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
to take the same course. In June 1981 he presented a report on behalf of the Committee on Energy and Research which called for the development of a computer translation system.
Attitude to the EEC
In 1983 he was chosen to head an inquiry into how the United Kingdom proposed to spend its budget rebate on energy projects. Adam was prepared to support the Labour Party policy of withdrawal from the EECEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in public but felt that party policy failed to take account of practicalities: he was quoted in early 1982 as saying that his constituents were more interested in learning what would happen to the sheepmeat regime. However, in the 1984 election, the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
claimed that a reading of Adam's election literature identified him as a supporter of British membership.
After successful re-election Adam became vice-chairman of the Energy, Research and Technology Committee of the European Parliament. He kept up his local connections with the arts, being a member of the Board of Newcastle Free Festival from 1989 to 1999 (and Chairman from 1992). He was also a member of the Board of the Northern Stage Company from 1989 to 2001. At the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
, he again fought Berwick-upon-Tweed; this time he succeeded in increasing the Labour vote by 5.4% compared with the previous election.
Pit closures
Adam managed to persuade the European Parliament to commission an independent investigation of the British government's decision to close 31 coal mines after the closure was announced in 1992. The investigation was significant because the European Commission needed to give approval for part of the closure programme. Early in 1995 Adam signed a joint letter in defence of Clause IVClause IV
Clause IV historically refers to part of the 1918 text of the British Labour Party constitution which set out the aims and values of the party. Before its revision in 1995, its application was the subject of considerable dispute.-Text:...
and opposing Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's attempt to get rid of it.
1999 election
In the selections for the 1999 European election, Adam was placed as fourth on the Labour Party's list for the North EastNorth East England (European Parliament constituency)
North East England is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 3 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...
region, a position which made it almost impossible for him to be elected. As expected he lost his seat when the Labour Party won only three seats in the region. He wrote to the local newspaper after the election to thank those who had worked with him. He retired to give more time to his work as Chairman of the Northern Energy Initiative, a post he had occupied since 1995.
Return
However, in December 1999 it was surprisingly announced that Alan DonnellyAlan Donnelly
Alan Donnelly is a British politician from Jarrow who served as a Labour Member of the European Parliament and leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party....
was resigning his seat in the European Parliament. Donnelly was the Leader of the Labour group and only 42 at the time; the Labour Party denied that there was an impending scandal. Under the European Parliament electoral system, Adam became first in line to replace him. Adam duly returned to the European Parliament after a gap of six months.
Foot and Mouth disease
In December 2001 Adam caused a stir when he criticised the calls from IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
for the Sellafield
Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...
nuclear recycling plant to be closed. He pointed to figures from the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland which found that Sellafield was responsible for only one per cent. of radioactivity in Ireland, and went on to "award the star prize for political humbuggery to the Irish, to the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle". He became the Labour group agriculture spokesman and was critical of the group of Welsh farmers who had given evidence during an inquiry into the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, saying they "might be a bit biased". When the eventual report was highly critical of the British government, Adam abstained rather than support it, describing the report as inaccurate.
Mayoral candidate
When the directly-elected Mayor of North Tyneside resigned in 2003, forcing a byelection for the Mayoralty, Adam was chosen as the Labour candidate. He was defeated by Linda ArkleyLinda Arkley
Linda Arkley is the Conservative mayor of North Tyneside, England,She was elected as mayor in a 2003 by-election, following the resignation of Chris Morgan. She had previously been Deputy Leader of the Conservative group on North Tyneside Council...
who secured a majority of 4,861.
Allowances
In April 2004 Austrian MEP Hans-Peter MartinHans-Peter Martin
Hans-Peter Martin is an Austrian journalist and politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1999.Born in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Martin worked for the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel...
was attempting to expose questionable practices in European Parliament allowances. Martin filmed Adam signing the attendance book for a Friday session of the European Parliament, thereby claiming a daily allowance, before immediately leaving. Martin claimed that Adam tried to grab his video camera, knocking Martin off his feet and on to the floor. Adam denied the claim and attacked Martin's methods.
Retirement
Adam retired from the European Parliament at the 2004 election. He supported the move for an elected regional authority in the devolution referendum later that year, recalling his first election in 1964 when he called for investment in the region's roads; Adam believed a regional authority would unlock investment held back by Whitehall. In 2006 he criticised the group of Labour MPs who had called for Tony BlairTony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
to resign the Labour Party leadership, warning that the electorate would not re-elect "a squabbling, divided party".
In 2004 Adam was appointed to the Board of the South Tyneside Groundwork Trust. He is also President of the Felling Male Voice Choir
Felling Male Voice Choir
Felling Male Voice Choir is based in a Felling, Gateshead, in the North East of England.It has a membership of around 80 members, ranging in age from their 30s to early 90s....
.