1959 general election, he took 10.7% of the vote in West Fife, easily beating the CPGB candidate. When the FSL disbanded in 1964, Daly joined the Labour Party. In the late 1960s Daly served as a member of the Russell Tribunal which investigated alleged war crimes committed by the United States in the Vietnam War. Daly rose through the NUM ranks. He was elected to the National Union of Mineworkers Scottish Area Executive Committee in 1962, became the full-time agent for the Fife, Clackmannan and Stirling District a year later, and then General Secretary of the Scottish Area NUM in 1965. Daly was part of the movement in the mid-1960s for the abolition of piecework at the coalface, and its replacement by a national day wage structure— the National Power Loading Agreement (NPLA) of 1966. In 1968, Daly was elected General Secretary of the NUM, and following what had by then almost become a tradition in the NUM, worked with two moderate Presidents, Sidney Ford and Joe Gormley. As a result of his election he moved from Scotland to London to base himself at the union's headquarters on Euston Road. He steered the union through two major strikes in 1972 and 1974. Both strikes were a response to a massive falling behind of miners wages generally, and of coalface workers wages particularly; these occasioned by the effects of the "standstill" clauses in the NPLA, where the highest paid colliers in the Midlands and Nottinghamshire gave up any real pay increases as they waited until faceworkers' shift rates in Scotland, Wales and other areas caught up. Following the 1974 strike, Prime Minister Edward Heath called a general election over the issue of "who governs Britain". He lost, although his successor as leader of the Conservative Party successfully all but destroyed the NUM little over ten years later. Daly sustained a serious injury in a road accident in 1975, in which his brother and sister-in-law were killed, and had prolonged leave of absence following it. He was succeeded as NUM General Secretary by Peter Heathfield from the Derbyshire Area in 1984. Following his retirement he settled in Berkhamsted, before spending the last ten years of his life in a nursing home in Luton. Death Lawrence Daly died on 23 May 2009. He was survived by his wife Renee and five children: daughter Shannon, and sons Rannoch, Morven, Kerran and Cavan. References External