The Galloway Preservation Society Honours Local Nobel Prize Winner

That the Parliament warmly congratulates the Galloway Preservation Society over its decision to honour the late Sir James Mirrlees, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics, by placing a plaque on his home in the small Galloway village of Minnigaff where he was born in 1936; notes that the unveiling was undertaken by his brother, Alistair, who flew from his home in Canada; further notes that Sir James attended Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart before taking an MA in mathematics and natural philosophy at Edinburgh University, and then studying mathematics and doing a PhD in economics at Trinity College, Cambridge; understands that he then became an adviser to the MIT Centre for International Studies in New Delhi, India, later returning to be appointed a lecturer in economics at Cambridge before taking on the role of professor of economics at Oxford and then finally moving back to Cambridge as professor of political economy for which he was knighted in 1997; acknowledges that he stayed active in economics and education, including being appointed a professor and later master of Morningside College in Hong Kong; understands that he was also a member of the Scottish Government’s council of economic advisers; further understands that he also held a position in Harold Wilson’s government advising on taxation to bring in enough revenue to pay for a healthy range of public services while reportedly accepting that rates of tax that are considered to be too high can demoralise taxpayers and reduce their productivity; notes that an inaugural lecture was given in his honour at the Wigtown Book Festival 2022 by his friend, the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, and congratulates the Galloway Preservation Society on its campaign to honour exceptional people from the area who have contributed in a variety of ways to raise its profile nationally and internationally.