John Taylor still enjoys creating a stir at 88 |
JOHN Taylor is well used to having his opinions directly questioned, but what cannot be disputed is that his range of political experience – which stretches back over 60 years – is unparalleled in these islands.
When I first met him while covering Castlereagh Borough Council back in the late 1980s, in the days before restrictions on multiple mandates were introduced, he was an elected member of both that body and the House of Commons, and approaching the end of his 10-year term in the European Parliament.
He had also previously been an MP and minister in the old Stormont administration, as well as serving in the Constitutional Convention, the Northern Ireland Forum and the versions of the legislative assembly which were launched in 1973, 1982 and 1998, while he went on to become Ulster Unionist deputy leader and remains a peer of the realm today.
It is an extraordinary record, requiring him to take on many different roles, but what has never changed is the way in which he likes to mix a sense of gravitas with a tendency to cause either controversy or mischief.
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