Jack McConnell

Jack McConnell
Former First Minister of Scotland From: 27 November 2001 – 16 May 2007
Predecessor	Jim Wallace (acting) Henry McLeish
Successor	Alex Salmond
Information
Party	Labour
Religion	Unknown

Jack McConnell is a Scottish politician best known for serving as leader of Scottish Labour and First Minister of Scotland between the years 2001 and 2007.

A fellow of the 48 Group Club, which seeks to promote trade between the United Kingdom and China, a totalitarian, genocidal communist regime, as First Minister, he forged many ties between Scotland and the authoritarian state.

Political career

McConnell was elected to the first Scottish Parliament in 300 years, following a devolution referendum in September 1997, on 6 May 1999 as the Labour MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw in Lanarkshire.

McConnell was appointed as Minister for Finance on 19 May 1999 by the inaugural First Minister of Scotland Donald Dewar.

Following the in-office death of Donald Dewar on 11 October 2000, McConnell remained as Minister for Finance under acting First Minister Jim Wallace until a successor to Dewar was chosen.

Henry McLeish was the obvious successor to Dewar, but party leadership intervened in order to stop McLeish taking office without a vote and McConnell ran against McLeish. A vote was held by the Scottish Parliament on 21 October, 3 days after Donald Dewar's funeral, and McConnell was defeated with 36 votes against McLeish's 44.

On 29 October 2000, McLeish revealed his new ministerial team, with McConnell appointed as Minister of Education, Europe and External Affairs.

On 8 November 2001, McLeish resigned as First Minister of Scotland due to the a scandal dubbed "Officegate", which surrounded the First Ministers's unregistered expenses. McConnell ended up running unnaposed for Scottish Labour leadership, to which he was elected on 17 November 2001.

McConnell was selected for the post of First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 22 November 2001, beating the leader of the Scottish National Party John Swinney, leader of the Scottish Conservatives David McLetchie and Dennis Canavan, an independent, by 70 votes to 34, 19 and 3 respectively.

A supporter of the neoconservative War in Iraq which began in 2003, it was reported on 13 March 2003 that Jack McConnell would attempt to take on opponents of the war within the Labour Party.

On 16 October 2004, it was reported in The Times that McConnell has set up talks between the Scottish Executive, the British Council and the totalitarian Chinese Government to send Scottish pupils to summer school in the communist country. McConnell attended a ceremony at Tianlin Number 3 Middle School in Shanghai to mark a "friendship agreement" with Lasswade High School.

In March 2006, McConnell visited Beijing. As part of this visited he announced the establishment of a Confucius Institute at Edinburgh University, which will promote Chinese language, culture and business. On 26 March, McConnell's visit came under fire by Harry Wu, a political dissent who has been imprisoned in a Chinese concentration camp for 19 years, who said that McConnell should not have given backing to the Chinese government without securing concessions on human rights.

Jack McConnell resigned as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party on 14 August 2007, following the election victory of the SNP.

On 21 May 2018, McConnell was photographed wearing a badge symbolizing UN Agenda 2030.

Political views

International

Lord McConnell is a Fellow of the 48 Group Club, an organisation which promotes relationships between the United Kingdom and communist China.

Lord McConnell has authored works promoting left-wing globalist policies such as UN Agenda 2030.