Colin Keir

Colin George Keir (born 9 December 1959) is a Scottish politician, formerly the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh Western constituency 2011−2016. Before being elected as a MSP, he was a councillor.

Colin Keir
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Edinburgh Western
In office
7 May 2011 – 23 March 2016
Preceded byMargaret Smith
Succeeded byAlex Cole-Hamilton
Personal details
Born (1959-12-09) 9 December 1959
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Political partyScottish National Party

Early life

Keir was born on 9 December 1959[1] in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Craigmount High School and Stevenson College.[2] He is a former Scottish Schools 5000 metres champion and cross-country international.

Political career

Between 2007 and 2012 he was a councillor for Drum Brae/Gyle ward on The City of Edinburgh Council. He was Convener of the council's Regulatory Committee.[3]

Keir contested the seat of Edinburgh Western in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, and defeated the Liberal Democrat incumbent Margaret Smith with a substantial swing to win with a margin of 2,689 votes.[4]

In August 2015, after serving just one term, Keir was heavily defeated in his attempt to be re-nominated as the SNP candidate in Edinburgh Western for the 2016 election. Keir was beaten by Toni Giugliano, a member of the party's national executive committee, who had received the backing of former leader Alex Salmond.[5] During his campaign for re-selection Keir had issued campaign literature emphasising his support for a second independence referendum.

gollark: Does `write` in older versions accept a string too on binary files?
gollark: UPDATE: it works now since apparently I can still `readAll` and `write` strings in `wb`/`rb` mode for some reason.
gollark: I'm having some bizarre issues writing some binary data to files. I'll try and put together a bit of code to demonstrate this with, but basically it seems like `\13` bytes (carriage return) are being replaced with `\10` bytes (line feed). My code is using `"w"` and `"r"` modes instead of binary mode because according to the wiki binary mode doesn't let me use `readAll` and write a whole string; do I need binary mode and is there a way around reading/writing individual bytes for this?
gollark: Wait, an automatic nether portal? Won't that run out of flint and steel or something eventually?
gollark: But I'd be interested to know what application you're working on which uses distance data.

References
  1. http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/memberspages/colin_keir/index.htm
  2. "About: Colin Keir". Scottish National Party. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  3. "Taxi rules call to slam door on gangsters muscling in to trade". Edinburgh Evening News. 14 June 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. "Vote 2011: Scotland elections: Constituencies: Edinburgh Western". BBC News. 11 May 2011.
  5. "SNP MSP Colin Keir deselected for 2016 vote". Edinburgh Evening News. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
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