Opinions
Fairbairn did however have some views that might be classed as progressive. He was fiercely and personally opposed to capital punishment, after having himself appeared in 17 capital cases. He explained that "As the defending counsel, I am put on trial because, if I make a mistake, ask the wrong question or appear in the wrong way, the man may go to the trap". He was proud of obtaining two royal pardons for wrongful convictions of murder.
In October 1994, along with Alan Clark and Edwina Currie, he immediately told Neil Hamilton to stand down when the Cash for questions scandal broke. Hamilton refused to do so at first, and only resigned five days after the scandal broke, when forced.
During 1994 debates regarding the age of consent in the House of Commons, Fairbairn was called to order by the Speaker after starting a description of the mechanics of sodomy. In the early 1970s, he was an Honorary Vice President of the lesbian and gay rights organisation, the Scottish Minorities Group (now known as Outright Scotland).
Outside Parliament, Fairbairn was a keen painter (and was occasionally spotted drawing cartoons of other MPs during Committee sessions). He was also a gifted landscape gardener, and remodelled the crumbling Fordell Castle into a family home. He was also a member of the Edinburgh Festival Council and the Vice-President of the Scottish Women's Society of Artists.
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Famous quotes containing the word opinions:
“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“Thus have I made my own opinions clear;
Yet neither praise expect, nor censure fear:
And this unpolished, rugged verse I chose,
As fittest for discourse and nearest prose;”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)