Thomas Docherty

Thomas Docherty the local Labour candidate for Dunfermline and West Fife is a property and development adviser for a communications consultancy.

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Thomas Docherty is the Labour Candidate in Dunfermline and West Fife. Thomas lives in Dunfermline with his wife Katie and their son. He is property and development adviser for a communications consultancy, having previously worked for Network Rail, BNFL and as a research assistant.

Thomas' father-in-law is the Labour councillor for the Dunfermline North Ward. He is Chair of his local Residents' Association and in his spare time is studying for a degree in history from the Open University. He is a season ticket holder at Dunfermline FC.

In early 2005, Docherty was part of an "all-PR" shortlist to become Labour candidate for the constituency of Copeland, which includes BNFL's Sellafield plant. The constituency was previously held by Jack Cunningham, a longstanding advocate of nuclear power. The other people on the shortlist were :

• Jamie Reed, at the time a BNFL press officer,
• Stuart Bruce of Bruce Marshall Associates, and
• Tim Walker, a Bell Pottinger board director and former special adviser to Cunningham.

Reed was selected, and held the seat for Labour. Reporting the story shortly after the election, PR Week wryly observed: "What this can mean for the re-elected Labour government's commitment to pump billions into a raft of new nuclear power stations, we couldn't possibly say."

However another of the PR men on the shortlist, Stuart Bruce, seemed quite clear about the significance of Reed's electoral success. A few days after the election, he wrote: "One of the challenges facing Jamie will be to help push the government into an essential replacement programme for our nuclear power stations. Good luck."

This article is part of a series on the 2005-2006 national debate on nuclear power in the UK

Energy Review (UK 2006) "Our Energy Challenge" British Nuclear Energy Society British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) Civil Nuclear Industry Scottish CPG Nirex Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Nuclear Energy APPG Nuclear Industry Association Supporters of Nuclear Energy (SONE)

For more articles on this topic, see the NuclearSpin website

Civil Nuclear Industry Scottish CPG role

Docherty used to represent the UKAEA on the Scottish Parliament's Civil Nuclear Industry CPG, according to the CPG's website

After the Scottish Sunday Herald started researching the links between the CPG and lobbyists, Docherty's name was removed from the site [5] [6].

SourceWatch resources

• Civil Nuclear Industry Scottish CPG
• Energy Review (UK 2006)
• National debate on nuclear power (UK 2005-2006)

External links

• Stuart Bruce, "Electoral aftermath II", middletonpark blog, May 11, 2005.
• "Diary: Labour candidate emerges, and wins", PR Week, May 20, 2005.
• Stuart Bruce, "A PR Guru's Musings", blog, May 20, 2005.
• Thomas Docherty, "Monitoring: Involvement Begets Information", PublicAffairs, September 2005.
• Paul Hutcheon, "Sleaze probe into nuclear lobbying at Holyrood", Sunday Herald, January 22, 2006.
• Stuart Bruce's then website