I've rarely heard him mentioned, but Alasdair Mackenzie was Liberal MP between 1964 and 1970.
Reading his Wikipedia entry, I want to know more about him:
At the 1964 general election Mackenzie was elected, at the age of 61 and contesting his first parliamentary election, as a Liberal for Ross and Cromarty. He defeated the sitting National Liberal obtaining a majority of 1407 votes.
Initially he was denied admission to the House of Commons as he couldn't speak English and thus couldn't take the Oath of Allegiance. After Jeremy Thorpe arranged for Mackenzie to undergo quick lessons in English so he would be able to take the Oath of Allegiance.
His prior lack of knowledge of English would lead to his speeches in the House of Commons being quite short and generally incomprehensible.
I remember a story about a Scottish Liberal MP whose English-speaking constituents thought his English was good considering that his first language was Gaelic and whose Gaelic constituents thought his Gaelic was good considering that his first language was English.
That must surely have been Alasdair Mackenzie, who you can see in photo above standing behind David Steel at the right-hand end of the group.
I have some doubts about the "not able to speak English" myth, and suspect Mackenzie was making a point of principle that he wished to give the oath in Gaelic. Erskine May suggests that The Oaths Act 1978 continues to only accept English for the official Oath of Allegiance, and I think the current practice to repeat the Oath in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, or Cornish is a relatively recent compromise.
ReplyDeleteHis maiden speech seems to be in perfectly fluent English.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1964-11-25a.1297.0&s=speaker%3A18250#g1336.1
It was said that when he first arrived in London by train after being elected, a secretary from party HQ was sent to meet him at the station and show him how to use the tube and get to Westminster
ReplyDeleteWas his defeated opponent the last ever "National Liberal" MP ?
ReplyDeleteHerbert Butcher was re-elected as the National Liberal MP for Holland with Boston in 1964 but retired in 1966. The National Liberals merged with the Tories in 1968. At that time they had three remaining MPs - John Nott (St Ives), Joan Vickers (Plymouth Devonport) and John Osborn (Sheffield Hallam) - but I'm not sure if they had stood on a purely National Liberal ticket in 1966.
DeleteSorry didn't mean to exclude my name which is Dean.
DeleteI'm sure the story has grown in the telling, but it's a nice story.
ReplyDeleteThere were joint "Conservative & National Liberal" MPs in the 1960s - John Nott was first elected as one - but I've not heard of a pure National Liberal MP this late before.
Thanks for this, Dean.
ReplyDelete