Lembit Öpik

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Lembit Öpik (IPA for Estonian pronunciation: ['lem.b̥it 'øpik]) (born 2 March 1965) is a British politician of Estonian descent. He is a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Montgomeryshire constituency and is also his party's shadow spokesman in opposition to the Secretary of State for Wales and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Parliament 1.2 Public appearances 1.3 Liberal Democrat party elections 2 Personal life 3 Cheeky Girl 4 See also 5 References 6 External links 7 Offices held

[edit] Biography

His parents were refugees from Estonia who settled in Northern Ireland. Lembit was born in Bangor, County Down and grew up there with sister Urve Öpik (born 1960, a psychotherapist) and brother Endel "Tal" Öpik (12 April 1968-21 November 2005 [1], a musician). His grandfather was Ernst Julius Öpik, an Estonian astronomer who worked at Armagh Observatory. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Öpik took a degree in philosophy at the University of Bristol, where he became President of University of Bristol Union, and was also on the National Union of Students National Executive Committee.

Before his election to Parliament in 1997 he was a personnel manager at Procter & Gamble Ltd. He had stood in Newcastle upon Tyne Central in the 1992 election. Although unsuccessful he was elected as a councillor on Newcastle City Council.

[edit] Parliament

At the 1997 general election, the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, Alex Carlile, retired. Öpik was elected as his successor, with an increased majority. He retained the seat at the 2001 election and at the 2005 general election, his majority falling very slightly in 2001 but increasing again in 2005 to over 7,000 votes.[2]

To the general public he is perhaps best known for his appearances on popular entertainment TV shows like Have I Got News For You, concerns about the possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth, his advocacy for increased funding for attempts at detection, under the banner of Spaceguard.

He was also joint chair of the Middle Way Group, a cross-party parliamentary group which supported the regulation, not banning, of fox hunting. In 2001/2, he chaired an Ethics Committee overseeing production of the BBC series, The Experiment, a reproduction of the Stanford Prison Experiment. From 1999 to 2001 he was a member of the Agriculture Select Committee.

[edit] Public appearances

Öpik has appeared several times on the BBC satirical current affairs quiz show, Have I Got News For You. He became a member of the Spinal Injuries Association after a near-fatal paragliding accident in 1998 broke his back in 12 places.

[edit] Liberal Democrat party elections

In internal party election contests, Öpik has garnered an unfortunate reputation for backing campaigns that soon collapse.

In 1999, he was one of only two of the party's 46 MPs to back the abortive leadership campaign of Don Foster. Foster abandoned his campaign before nominations even closed, and backed Charles Kennedy, the eventual winner, instead.

In September 2004 Öpik himself stood for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats, but was heavily defeated in the ballot by Simon Hughes.

During the 2006 leadership crisis, Öpik was a fervent supporter of Kennedy and urged him to retain the leadership. Kennedy resigned due to alcoholism on 7 January 2006.

Then, in the leadership contest to replace Kennedy, Öpik became Campaign Manager for Mark Oaten. But it soon emerged that he was the only one of the party's 52 MPs backing Oaten, who subsequently withdrew from the contest amid revelations of a rent boy scandal.

Öpik - who has himself joked about his 'kiss of death' reputation when it comes to backing candidates in internal party elections - then declined to publicly back any of the other candidates "for fear of spoiling their chances." He has said he will stand for President when Simon Hughes' term ends in 2008 and that he intends to stand in the leadership contest after next.^[1]

[edit] Personal life

Öpik speaks fluent Estonian and is learning Welsh.

Öpik was engaged to ITV 1 weather presenter Siân Lloyd, from 2002 to October 2006. The couple lived at Öpik's consitiuency house in Powys, and were due to marry in 2006. They met at a Liberal Democrats conference session where the Press meet the MPs, where they talked and she lost a ring. He found it, then lost it himself, then found it again two years later and called her - she had a spare ticket to go to the The Proms, and they started a relationship^[2] She called him "the most fascinating man I've ever met" and revealed that they enjoy sharing late night baths.^[3] They appeared on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April 2006, winning £64,000 for charity.

[edit] Cheeky Girl

In December 2006 it was revealed that the relationship had broken down, as Lloyd became more frustrated with Öpik's lifestyle, the heavy workload of a parliamentarian and the Westminster drinking culture; and that Öpik had become involved with 24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of The Cheeky Girls pop duo^[4][5]. During various debates in Parliament on 10 January 2007, he was subject to much leg pulling and ribbing over his new relationship from fellow MPs^[6]. A photograph of Öpik and Irimia in an intimate clinch has been repeatedly published in the satirical magazine Private Eye on the flimsiest of excuses, usually any news story with the merest hint of an Anglo-Romanian angle. This looks set to become the sequel to the long-running picture of Andrew Neil and an Asian female companion, which has graced the magazine's letters page literally hundreds of times since the early 1990s.

Due to the unusual combination of letters in his name, he has been variously described as "the human anagram" and "the walking Scrabble hand", and was given the nickname "Optic Lemsip" by BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles.^[7].

[edit] See also

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
• The Cheeky Girls

[edit] References

1. ^ "What deal? Obscure Lib Dem fends off unwelcome attention", Times, News International, February 2, 2006.
2. ^ "'I never wanted marriage'", Evening Standard, Associated Newspapers, July 31, 2006.
3. ^ "Sian and Lembit to wed", Wales On Sunday, May 2, 2004.
4. ^ "Opik and presenter Lloyd separate", BBC, Dec 16, 2006.
5. ^ "MP branded a 'love cheat' after Cheeky Girl affair", The Daily Mail, Dec 16, 2006.
6. ^ "Leave cheekiness to me, says Opik", BBC News, 10 January, 2006.
7. ^ "He may be a riddle wrapped up in an anagram, but is he the man for a life of Cheekiness?", The Daily Telegraph, Dec 24, 2006.

[edit] External links

• ePolitix.com - Lembit Öpik official site
• Lembit Opik MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Lembit Öpik MP profile at the site of Welsh Liberal Democrats
• The Parliamentary Middle Way Group
• Times Online Student Section: Lembit Opik Interview with Lembit Opik
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Lembit Opik MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Lembit Öpik MP
• The Public Whip - Lembit Öpik voting record
• Open Directory Project - Lembit Opik directory category
• BBC News - Politics: Lembit Opik profile 10 February 2005

[edit] Offices held

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alex Carlile	Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire 1997 – present	Incumbent