Adam Ingram (Labour politician)
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The Right Honourable Adam Ingram (born January 1, 1947) is a Scottish politician, and member of Parliament for East Kilbride. He is a member of the Labour Party.
At the age of 16 he joined the junior Orange Lodge in Barlanark, Glasgow, and took part in three parades before leaving again. He has never played the flute. These two obscure facts were bones of contention in a court case in April 2004. George Galloway had stated in his autobiography that in his youth Ingram had "played the flute in a sectarian, anti-Catholic, protestant-supremacist Orange Order band". Ingram claimed that this was defamatory, and sued Galloway and his publisher to try to prevent the book being published. In court, it emerged that Ingram had indeed been a member of the Orange Order and the judge ruled that the phrase "sectarian, anti-Catholic, protestant-supremacist" was fair comment on that organisation. Although Ingram was not and never had been a flute-player, the judge observed that "playing the flute carries no obvious defamatory imputation ... it is not to the discredit of anyone that he plays the flute." Ingram lost the case and was ordered to pay costs, but Galloway nevertheless agreed to amend future editions of his book to remove the imputation that Ingram had ever played the flute. [1] (http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=818&id=476962004)
Ingram entered the Commons in the 1987 election, and in 1997 became a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office. In 2001 he became Armed Forces Minister at the Ministry of Defence. He is a member of the Privy Council.
He should not be confused with another Adam Ingram, who is a member of the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish National Party.
External links
- Ministry of Defence - Minister of State for the Armed Forces (http://www.mod.uk/aboutus/staff/minaf.htm) official profile
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Adam Ingram MP (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2645,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Adam Ingram MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/adam_ingram/east_kilbride%2C_strathaven_and_lesmahagow)