Derek Kevin Harvie (born April 7, 1974 in Deep River, Ontario) is a Canadian entertainment writer and producer. Harvie grew up in Ottawa and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in film and literature.

One of the original creators of The Tom Green Show on its original Canadian community channel run, Harvie continued to write and produce the show for The Comedy Network from 1996 to 1998 and MTV from 1999 through 2003.

In 2001, Harvie co-wrote the 20th Century Fox & New Regency feature Freddy Got Fingered.

His special MTV documentary, The Tom Green Cancer Special, was named by Time Magazine as "one of the ten best TV programs of the year" in 2001. The show was also nominated for a Peabody Award.

Harvie has worked briefly on numerous other comedy shows and pilots including WB's The Skateboard Show, VH1's Hollywood Tonight and NBC's Saturday Night Live.

From 2004 to 2007 Harvie was the executive producer of Night Calls and all other live programming for Playboy TV.

In 2008 Derek Harvie was co-writer, show runner and executive producer of the half-hour sitcom Testees on FX Networks in the US and on Showcase in Canada. The show is about two roommates who test experimental drugs each week and suffer ridiculous side-effects. Both Harvie and co-writer Kenny Hotz received 2009 Gemini Award nominations (Canadian Emmy) for Best Comedy Writing and Best Comedy Series. Testees was also nominated for Best Directing.

In 2008 & 2009, Derek Harvie was also a contributing writer for Kenny vs. Spenny which airs on Showcase in Canada and Comedy Central in the US.

In 2009 Harvie was show runner & executive producer of the half hour series Pure Pwnage. The show is a comedy about the life of a "pro gamer" and premiered on Showcase in Canada in March 2010. In September 2010, Harvie and show creators Geoff Lapaire and Jarett Cale received a 2010 Gemini Award nomination for Best Comedy Series.

In 2010 Harvie moved to New York City to write and co-executive produce the US version of Skins on MTV Networks.

Derek Harvie currently lives in Los Angeles and Canada, developing several new half-hour comedy series.

External links[link]

• Derek Harvie at the Internet Movie Database
• 10 Questions: Derek Harvie

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Derek Mackay MSP (born 30 July 1977) is the Scottish National Party's Business Convener and Member of the Scottish Parliament representing the constituency of Renfrewshire North and West.^[1][2]. He is currently the Scottish Government's Minister for Local Government and Planning.

Mackay joined the SNP at 16 and was involved in both the youth and student movements. He was first elected as a councillor for Renfrewshire Council at the age of 21 in 1999, making him at the time the youngest male councillor in Scotland. After his election in 1999, he won three successive ward elections and became leader of Renfrewshire Council in May 2007, taking the SNP from opposition to lead the administration for the first time. He became a national figure in local government, leading the SNP group at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) from 2009 to 2011.

Early life[link]

Mackay was educated in Kirklandneuk Primary School and Renfrew High School.^{[citation needed]}. He attended the University of Glasgow for some time but dropped out to concentrate on local politics, first being elected at just 21 years old. Prior to his election as a Councillor Mackay was an active community Councillor and Vice Chair of a crime prevention panel.

Political career[link]

Mackay was first elected as a councillor in 1999, representing the Blythswood Ward on Renfrewshire Council. He was re-elected in 2003 for the same ward and in 2007 for the Renfrew North Ward following the introduction of the new voting system. He has been the SNP group leader in Renfrewshire since 2004 and following the 2007 election, became the leader of Renfrewshire Council. He was also leader of the SNP at COSLA and Chair of Paisley Vision Board.^{[citation needed]}

Between 2003 and 2005 he served as a Parliamentary Assistant to former SNP MSP for the West of Scotland Bruce McFee.

At the 2011, Mackay was adopted for the new constituency of Renfrewshire North and West while also being placed third on the SNP regional list for West Scotland region. Upon his election as the constituency MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, he was placed on the Finance Committee and also appointed as the SNP's Business Convener and Parliamentary Liaison Officer to the Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy Bruce Crawford MSP.

Following a mini-reshuffle due to a newly created ministerial post, Mackay replaced Aileen Campbell as Minister for Local Government and Planning on 7th December 2011.

SNP Business Convener[link]

In June 2011, Mackay was appointed as the SNP's Business Convener (party chair), succeeding Bruce Crawford. The Business Convener is responsible for chairing the SNP's Party Conference, the National Council and the National Executive Committee; overseeing the party's management, administration and operations, as well as the coordination of election campaigns; working with the Chief Executive of Headquarters in setting priorities.

He is the 2012 local government elections coordinator and is overseeing efforts to increase party membership to 38,000 by the start of the independence referendum campaign.

Personal life[link]

Mackay lives in Renfrew, in the constituency with his wife and two children.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• [1] Derek Mackay website
• [2] Scottish Parliament site
• [3] Scottish Government site
• [4] SNP site
• [5] Renfrew SNP

v t e      Junior Ministers in the Scottish Government Shona Robison (Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport) · Michael Matheson (Minister for Public Health) · Fergus Ewing (Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism) · Derek Mackay (Minister for Local Government and Planning) · Roseanna Cunningham (Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs) · Stewart Stevenson (Minister for Environment and Climate Change) Alasdair Allan (Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland's Languages) · Aileen Campbell (Minister for Children and Young People) · Angela Constance (Minister for Youth Employment) · Keith Brown (Minister for Housing and Transport) · Brian Adam (Minister for Parliamentary Business and Chief Whip) ·

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Ken Macintosh MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Eastwood
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 1999
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Majority	2,012 (6%)
Personal details
Born	(1962-01-15) 15 January 1962 (age 50) Inverness, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish Labour Party
Spouse(s)	Claire
Children	Four daughters, two sons
Residence	Busby, East Renfrewshire
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Television journalist, producer (1987-1999)

Kenneth "Ken" Macintosh (born 15 January 1962) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and the MSP for the Eastwood constituency. He was first elected in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election and retained his seat in the 2003, 2007 and the 2011 elections. He is currently the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, shadowing John Swinney

Early life[link]

Born in Inverness, Macintosh was educated at the Portree and Oban primary schools before attending Royal High School, Edinburgh. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an History MA (Hons) in 1984.

Both his parents were headteachers. His father Dr Farquhar Macintosh CBE was a Gaelic speaker from Skye, a leading intellectual in Scottish education^[1] and was Rector of the Royal High in Edinburgh^[2] and chair of the Scottish Examination Board.^[3] His mother, Margaret Macintosh, is from Peebles and was head of Drummond Community High and assistant head of Wester Hailes.

BBC career[link]

Before Macintosh became an MSP, he was from 1987 to 1999, a television producer for the BBC News Network.^[4] He also worked on Breakfast with Frost, Breakfast News, and the Nine O'Clock News. He was also worked as a researcher on election programmes for both David Dimbleby and Jonathan Dimbleby.^[5]

Member of the Scottish Parliament[link]

At the 1999 election, he won the Eastwood constituency with a majority of 2,125.^[6]

In February 2002, Macintosh was appointed as a ministerial parliamentary aide (MPA) to Minister for Education and Young People, Cathy Jamieson.^[7] He resigned from this role in September 2002 when he voted against the Labour-Liberal Democrat Coalition Scottish Executive over the closure of the A&E department at the Glasgow Victoria Infirmary.^[8]

In 2005 Macintosh had to resign from his position as Deputy Convenor on the Standards Committee after it was revealed he had failed to declare £330 of hospitality from McDonald's within the required time.^[9]

In 2006 and 2007 Macintosh has proposed a Member's Bill to the Scottish Parliament providing for the tougher regulation of sunbed parlours, which passed successfully.^[10] Since his election in 1999 has been a member of the cross-party group on cancer.^[11] From February 2007 to April 2007, he was a Ministerial Parliamentary Aide to the First Minister Jack McConnell.^[12]

Macintosh was re-elected as MSP for Eastwood at the 2007 election with a narrow majority of 913, where he fought off a strong challenge from the Conservative Party's Jackson Carlaw.^[13] Macintosh was appointed Shadow Minister for Schools and Skills.

Macintosh considered running for the 2008 Scottish Labour leadership election but pulled out and instead backed Andy Kerr's candidacy.^[14]

At the 2011 parliamentary election he once again defeated Jackson Carlaw with an increased majority of 2,012. The swing was 8.7% from Conservative to Labour.^[15] Macintosh had feared losing the constituency following boundary changes^[16] (with the removal of Barrhead, Neilston and Uplawmoor) which gave a notional Conservative majority of almost 3500.^[17] After the party's loss to the SNP, Macintosh was made Shadow Culture and External Affairs Secretary.^[18] Only a week later though, he took over the Shadow Education portfolio after MSP Malcolm Chisholm resigned over an internal party disagreement.^[19]

Scottish Labour Party leadership election[link]

Ken Macintosh launched his candidacy for leader of the Scottish Labour Party on 12 September 2011. MSP colleagues who have so far endorsed his leadership bid include: his campaign manager Michael McMahon, Claire Baker, Mary Fee, Neil Bibby, Mark Griffin, Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra.^[20] Macintosh is also supported by East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy, co-author of the Review of the Labour Party in Scotland. Murphy and Macintosh together share the same constituency office in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire.^[21]

In an early address to party members, Macintosh said he was a devolutionist, not a unionist.^[22][23]

On 28 October 2011, Macintosh officially launched his leadership campaign at Cumbernauld College in North Lanarkshire. He described the 2011 Holyrood election result as a "disaster", and that the party had been too negative^[24] and if it did not change it "will consign ourselves to steady decline and years of opposition. We need to unite as a party and to start talking positively about our values, what Labour stands for and not just what we are against."^[25]

Miliband gaffe[link]

Despite being widely seen as a frontrunner in the leadership contest, UK Labour leader Ed Miliband was unable to recall Ken Macintosh's name during a TV interview with BBC Scotland, during the September 2011 Labour Party Conference.^[26] After the interview, Miliband telephoned Macintosh to apologise for his mistake. Later, Macintosh tried to downplay the incident saying "I don't think anyone should read anything into it – half the time I can't even remember the names of my own kids."^[27] He added: "What really caught my attention about the interview is that, like me, Ed’s making a strong and positive case for Scotland to remain in the UK."^[28]

Personal life[link]

He and his wife Claire live in Busby, East Renfrewshire with their six children.^[29]

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.kenmacintosh.com (new website)
• kenmacintoshmsp.co.uk (old website)
• Ken Macintosh's Scottish Labour Leadership campaign site "scotlandsfuture.co.uk"
• Scottish Parliament profile

Iain MacWhirter

Iain Macwhirter is a Scottish political commentator, who has worked at both the UK Parliament and Scottish Parliament, presenting the BBC2 programmes "Westminster Live" and "Scrutiny".

Early career[link]

Following study at the University of Edinburgh, he worked for the BBC for almost 20 years, becoming Scottish political correspondent in 1987, then from 1989 as a member of the Westminster press contingent, as part of Westminster Live. In 1999 he presented "Politics Scotland" and Holyrood Live until both were axed in 2007

Current journalism[link]

He writes weekly columns for The Herald and Sunday Herald, which are, along with The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday, the leading Scottish morning papers. He returned to Scotland to help launch the Sunday Herald in 1999, and has presented the Scottish Parliament magazine programme "Holyrood Live."

He also writes for the Guardian Unlimited website and the New Statesman. Macwhirter became Scottish Political Correspondent for the BBC in 1987.

Rector of The University of Edinburgh[link]

He announced he was running for Rector of the University of Edinburgh on 12 January 2009.^[1] He was backed by George Galloway following the latter's withdrawal from the Rectorial race.^[2] He was elected Rector on 13 February 2009, winning by 4822 votes to 2182 (69% to 31%).^[3] He succeeds former Green MSP Mark Ballard.

See also[link]

• Media of Scotland

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon
• http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.2480861.0.pity_the_students_of_generation_crunch.php
• http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/
• http://iainmacwhirter2.blogspot.com/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2007/jun/03/iainmacwhirter
• http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/iain_macwhirter