Constituency : Argyll and Bute 1987-2001
The 1987 election was another huge disappointment to the Alliance as their vote share slipped in the wake of a more professional Labour campaign. Compared to the 1983 election they only suffered a loss of one seat ( the SDP went from 6 to 5 ) although this disguises a considerable churn as Roy Jenkins and Clement Freud went down and Richard Wainwright and Steven Ross were unable to bequeath their seats to a Liberal successor.
Ray was one of three new Liberals to take their seats after taking Argyll and Bute from the Tories at the second attempt.
Ray was originally Janet Ray Bannerman. Her father was a farm manager for the Duke of Montrose. He was a regular Liberal candidate in Scotland between 1945 and 1964 but never succeeded in getting elected though he eventually received a life peerage for his efforts. She was educated at Aberdeen High School for Girls and Edinburgh College for Speech Therapy. She worked as a speech therapist though she followed her husband who served in the Royal Army Medical Corps around the world for many years.
Ray took the oath of allegiance in Gaelic. She was spokesperson on transport and rural affairs (1987-88), women's issues (1988-94) and Scottish affairs (1988-97). She was a supporter of devolution and the Gaelic language. She was involved in the early stages of the Scottish Constitutional Convention. Despite being the Liberal Democrats' only female MP for four years, she had no national profile and concentrated on campaigns in her own constituency,
Ray stood down in 2001 after noting that her postbag had emptied since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. She became Baroness Michie, once again taking her oath in Gaelic. She chaired the West Highland Health Services Solutions Group.
Ray was a keen rugby fan and rarely missed a match at Murrayfield.
She died in 2008 following treatment for cancer aged 74.
No comments:
Post a Comment