Jimmy Dunnachie

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Jimmy Dunnachie" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

James Francis Dunnachie

.

Early life

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Dunnachie was born in Glasgow and educated at St Margaret's School in Kinning Park. His father was a ship's rigger and upon leaving school, he was apprenticed to Fairfield's yard on the River Clyde before becoming a fitter at the Rolls-Royce plant at Hillington in 1953. He was already active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union as a shop steward, and joined the Labour Party in 1967.

Political career

Dunnachie began his political career on Glasgow Corporation in 1972 in Pollokshaws ward. He worked on slum clearance as Chairman of the Clearance and Rehabilitation Committee; he lost his seat in 1977 when the Labour vote in Glasgow slumped. From 1978 he transferred to Strathclyde Regional Council and became Chair of the Social Work committee.

In the runup to the 1987 general election, Dunnachie was selected to follow James White as Labour candidate for Glasgow Pollok by 50 votes to 41 for Dave Churchley. Churchley was a member of the Militant tendency and there was some surprise at his failure to win the selection owing to the extent to which the local party was dominated by Militant supporters. An earlier round of voting had seen the Militant delegates vote for Dunnachie over Bob Gillespie, a non-Militant left-winger, which was speculated as deriving from their belief that Dunnachie would be easier for Churchley to beat; however it caused resentment among Gillespie's supporters.^[1]

Parliament

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Dunnachie easily held the seat in 1987. He was re-elected in 1992, withstanding a challenge from Tommy Sheridan of Scottish Militant Labour who came second. In Parliament Dunnachie was a relatively quiet presence, usually allying with the left. He was appointed as an opposition Whip in 1988 and served until 1992, but opposed Neil Kinnock's move to drop Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament. Initially he declared his intention not to pay his Community Charge (or Poll Tax) although he was never prosecuted for the offence, and observers have concluded that he must have decided not to fight.

Dunnachie was a strong opponent of animal testing of cosmetics and of

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Jimmy Dunnachie