Fred Cobain

Fred Cobain MBE
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast North
In office 25 June 1998 – 2011
Preceded by	New Creation
Succeeded by	Paula Bradley
Personal details
Born	30 April 1946
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party (Ulster Unionist Party until 2012)
Spouse(s)	Sandra Cobain
Website	http://www.fredcobain.com

Fred Cobain, MBE (born 30 April 1946) is a Democratic Unionist Party politician from Northern Ireland and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until 2011.

Political career

Cobain was first elected to Belfast City Council in 1985. He served as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1990-1991. He had been an Ulster Unionist Party Northern Ireland Assembly Member for North Belfast since 1998.^[1]

Cobain was Chair of the Assembly's Committee for Social Development and served two terms on the Northern Ireland Policing Board^[2]

On 29 December 2007 he was named MBE in the New Year Honours 2008.

After the Christmas 2010 water crisis, Cobain supported a vote of no confidence in Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy, saying "At the end of the day in all of these issues the individual who leads the department is responsible and I have to say if this was any other part of the UK, or any other part of these islands, the minister would have been away weeks ago...This minister doesn't appear to accept any responsibility for anything."^[3]

On 14 January 2013, Fred Cobain left the Ulster Unionist party which he had served for more than 30 years. He joined the Democratic Unionist Party saying the UUP was "riven with personal and policy divisions" and was "politically exhausted".^[4] Cobain was co-opted on to Carrickfergus Borough Council as a councillor for the Carrick Castle area.^[5][6] He ran for the DUP but failed to be elected to the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in the May 2014 Elections.^[7]

Family

He is married and has two children.

References

1. Northern Ireland Assembly Information Office (2003-11-26). "N.I. Assembly website". Niassembly.gov.uk. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
2. "Our People - Fred Cobain MLA". Northern Ireland Policing Board. Archived from the original on 2006-08-19. Retrieved 2016-02-19. This is Mr Cobain’s second term on the Board
3. "BBC News - Gregory Campbell backs Conor Murphy no confidence vote". BBC News Online. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
4. "BBC News - Fred Cobain leaves UUP and joins DUP". BBC News Online. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
5. McBride, Sam (2013-12-19). "DUP councillor David Hilditch gives seat to defector Fred Cobain". The News Letter. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
6. "Councillor Fred Cobain". Carrickfergus Borough Council. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
7. Whyte, Nicholas (16 November 2014). "Mid and East Antrim District Council Elections, 2014". Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive. Retrieved 2016-02-19.