Political Career
Before becoming party leader in 1997, Cole had been Mebyon Kernow's press officer for the previous five years. Previous to that he had also campaigned for Plaid Cymru whilst at University in Wales.
In 1999, he was elected as a member of the borough council of Restormel, representing St Enoder, retaining his seat until the council was abolished as part of the 2009 structural changes.
In the 2005 general election, he stood for parliament in North Cornwall and gained 1351 votes, coming fifth.
In 2009, a new unitary authority called Cornwall Council was formed. In order to stand at the 2009 elections to it, Cole had to resign his post as an archaeologist working for the County archaeological unit based in Truro, which had become a department of the new unitary council, as employees of a local authority are not allowed to be elected members of it as well as employees.
On 4 June 2009, Cole contested both elections held in Cornwall on that day. In the European Parliament election, he headed the Mebyon Kernow party list for the South West England constituency. In the Cornwall Council election held on the same day, he fought the St Enoder county division, achieving a 78 per cent of the vote, comfortably beating the Conservative and Lib Dem candidates into second and third places respectively.
In 2010 Cole was Mebyon Kernow's prospective parliamentary candidate for the newly formed St Austell and Newquay constituency in the United Kingdom general election, 2010, he gained 2,007 votes (4.2% of votes cast,) placing him in fourth position.
He lives in Fraddon, in Mid-Cornwall, where he is a member of St Enoder parish council, a governor of Summercourt Primary School, and a trustee of the Fraddon Millennium Green and the Indian Queens Pit.
In Cornwall Council, Cole leads the Mebyon Kernow political group, chairs the Planning Policy Advisory Panel, and represents the council in the Local Government Association's County Councils Network Special Interest Group.
Read more about this topic: Dick Cole (politician)
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)