Richard Giles "Dick" Douglas (born 4 January 1932) is a former Scottish politician, having been a member of the British House of Commons firstly as a Labour Co-operative candidate, then latterly as a Scottish National Party member.
In the 1970 general election Douglas stood as the Labour and Co-operative candidate for Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire and was elected to the House of Commons. He did not retain the seat in the February 1974 General Election.
In the 1979 general election stood as the Labour and Co-operative candidate for Dunfermline and was elected again. By the time of the 1983 General Election the constituency boundaries had been revised, so Douglas stood as the Labour and Co-operative candidate for the new Dunfermline West constituency. Douglas was elected, and won the constituency again in the 1987 General Election.
In 1990 Douglas defected from Labour to the SNP. He took the decision as he felt the Labour Party was adopting too centrist a position on the political spectrum, and was especially angry at the lack of direction in the Labour Party in their attitude to the Poll Tax. He favoured a non-payment campaign which Labour did not officially support, whilst the SNP had been quick to adopt such as policy. Douglas' defection took the number of SNP MPs from four to five through to the 1992 general election.
At that election Douglas decided not to seek re-election in Dunfermline West, the seat he had represented for 13 years, but to stand against Donald Dewar (a then high profile Scottish Labour MP) in his Glasgow Garscadden seat. He was unsuccessful, with Dewar winning his seat comfortably and Dunfermline West returning a Labour MP. Douglas has not since returned to front-line active politics, but remains a member of the SNP.
Famous quotes containing the words dick and/or douglas:
“Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment.”
—Philip K. Dick (1928–1982)
“If you want to know about a man you can find out an awful lot by looking at who he married.”
—Kirk Douglas (b. 1916)