Lembit Opik
Lembit Öpik (born March 2, 1965) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. He is member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, and is Lib Dem shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland.
He was an unsuccessful candidate in the internal party election for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats. Öpik received 29% of the votes when they were counted on 1st September 2004, while the winning candidates Simon Hughes received 71%. [1] (http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.7396).
His parents were refugees from Estonia, and he entered Parliament at the 1997 election. He was President of University of Bristol Union, and was on the National Union of Students executive.
To the general public he is perhaps best known for his concerns about the possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth, and his advocacy for increased funding for attempts at detection, under the banner Spaceguard. His grandfather was Ernst Julius Öpik, an Estonian astronomer.
He has appeared several times on Have I Got News For You.
He is engaged to to ITV weather forecaster Sian Lloyd.
