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He was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire. The small, pipe-smoking, former coal miner first went down the mines at the age of fourteen and remained in the coal industry until 1953 when he was elected Labour MP for Barnsley. He was Labour Party spokesman on Home Affairs, Defence and Post Office, 1960-64. Minister of State at the Board of Trade, 1964-67. Minister of Defence (Equipment), 1967-68. Minister of Power , 1968-69. President of the Board of Trade, 1969-70. Secretary of State for DefenceThe Secretary of State for Defence is the senior United Kingdom government minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence. The post was created on 1 April 1964 and combined the former cabinet positions of First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for, 1974-76.

A high-profile politician, his appointment to Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is the smallest of the Home Nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland lies in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It covers 14,139 square kilometres (5,459 square miles), and has a populati was unexpected and seemed to indicate a tougher response from the BritishThe word British has several different uses. See the article on Britain for more details. In a geographical context, it usually applies to a person or object from, or the people or nation of ("the British") the island of Great Britain though, confusingly, Government than that pursued by his predecessor, Merlyn ReesMerlyn Rees, Baron Merlyn-Rees PC (born 1920), was a British Labour party Member of Parliament from 1963 until 1992. In that year, he was created a Baron and entered the House of Lords. He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from March 1974 until.

This turned out to be the case. While Secretary of State for DefenceThe Secretary of State for Defence is the senior United Kingdom government minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence. The post was created on 1 April 1964 and combined the former cabinet positions of First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for he had been responsible for the introduction of SASSAS is a Three-Letter Acronym which may refer to: Scandinavian Airlines System: Scandinavian airline, with the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish governments as the largest shareholders Slovak Academy of Sciences Semester at Sea, a shipboard academic program a units into the 'bandit country' of South ArmaghCounty Armagh Ard Mhacha in Irish) is a county on the island of Ireland. County Armagh is known by some as the Orchard of Ireland because the land is so fertile. Its main town is Armagh. Armagh is one of the six counties that form the political entity of and now at Stormont this somewhat dominant politician was responsible for the tougher role taken by the security forces and authorised an increase in British Army covert tactics. Also the SAS were allowed to operate throughout Northern Ireland.

He was also responsible for the Ulsterisation of security in that he extended the role of the RUC and the locally recruited and mainly Protestant UDR, bringing them more to the fore in security duties. The British Army, while remaining in Northern Ireland in large numbers, were to fulfil a more supportive role than before.

In 1977, unlike Merlyn Rees in 1974, he stood up to militant loyalism's attempt to repeat their successful UWC strike tactic of 1974.

In the same year he twice attempted to get some movement towards a political settlement from the local political parties but both attempts failed