Independent Member
At the 1959 general election, Robertson fought Caithness and Sutherland as an Independent Unionist. Knowing of his local popularity, he was not opposed by an official candidate, and won his biggest majority at the election. He began the new Parliament by turning 70, and decided that it would be his last. In March 1962 he protested to the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan that as an Independent MP he had not been nominated to serve on any Select Committees, because the selection was done according to the party proportion of the House. He was particularly anxious to serve on the Sea Fish Industry Bill, on which he had immense experience, and other MPs of all parties campaigned for him to be put on the committee. The Government conceded the point in relation to future committees.
Read more about this topic: David Robertson (UK Politician)
Famous quotes containing the words independent and/or member:
“Milton’s the prince of poets—so we say;
A little heavy, but no less divine:
An independent being in his day—”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)