Alex
Eadie MPAlex
Eadie MPAlex was a Fife miner for 30 years. On leaving school at aged 14 he went to work in the Victoria mine at West Wemyss. At 15 years he went to the coalface with his father, Robert Eadie, at Lochead Colliery. This was Robert Eadie’s first return to the coal industry after nearly ten years when he was placed on the “black list” following the general strike in 1926.
Alex’s view is that working in the mines gave birth to your political consciousness. Working conditions in the mines in the pre-war period were brutal. That experience led him on the long campaign to change things. The fight started in the union but it was clear very early on that success would require political action.
The Nationalisation of the mines in 1947 was a great leap forward for miners and the victory was all the better because the Labour Government also introduced the National Health Service. In 1950 Labour regained the West Fife Constituency, which had been lost in 1931, first to the Conservatives and then to the Communists. Labour continued to hold the seat until it ended by boundary changes.
Alex was Willie Hamilton’s Election Agent in 1950, 1951 and 1955 General Elections. Later he became Chairman of West Fife Constituency Labour Party . He also had a long involvement in Local Government in Fife as an elected member, which included Chairman of Fife’s Education Authority.
Alex was Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Ayr in the 1959 and 1964 General Elections. At that time Ayr was a Tory stronghold. In 1966 Alex Eadie was nominated by the NUM and selected to be the Labour candidate for Midlothian, a seat which he held for 26 years.
He was a Minister in the Governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan and a front bench spokesman in Parliament for Labour for eighteen years. Asked how he would like to describe himself Alex Eadie said: “The son of a victimised miner who also became a activist for change and along with many, many others worked to improve the lives, not just of the miners, but of everyone.”