NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Michael Meacher

Michael Hugh Meacher (born November 4, 1939) is a British Labour party politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton. On February 22, 2007 he declared that he will be standing for the Labour Leadership, challenging Gordon Brown and John McDonnell^[1]. Before you can upload images you will need to register an account Only use this if you hold the copyright on the image. ... Before you can upload images you will need to register an account Only use this if you hold the copyright on the image. ... November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 57 days remaining. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box: A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... Oldham West and Royton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... John Martin McDonnell (born on September 8, 1951, Liverpool) is a British politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington. ...

Beginnings

The son of an accountant and farmer, he was educated at Berkhamsted School, New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he gained a Diploma in Social Administration. He became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at Essex and York universities and wrote a book about elderly people's treatment in mental hospitals. He was the Labour Party candidate for Colchester at the 1966 UK General Election, and fought the 1968 Oldham West by-election after the resignation of Labour MP Leslie Hale but lost to Conservative candidate Bruce Campbell^[2]. View across the Grass Quad, Berkhamsted School Situated in the thriving town of Berkhamsted in the west of Hertfordshire, northeast of London, Berkhamsted School enjoys a prestigious history. ... College name New College of St Mary Collegium Novum Oxoniensis/Collegium Sanctae Mariae Wintoniae Named after Mary, mother of Jesus Established 1379 Sister College Kings College Warden Prof. ... The London School of Economics and Political Science, often referred to as the London School of Economics or simply the LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London. ... The University of Essex is a British plate glass university. ... The University of York is a campus university in York, England. ... Colchester is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The UK general election in 1966 was called by Harold Wilson because his government, elected in the 1964 election, had an unworkably small majority. ... Oldham West was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Oldham in the north-west of Greater Manchester. ... Charles Leslie Hale, Baron Hale, (13 July 1902 - 9 May 1985) was a British politician for Labour. ... (Keith) Bruce Campbell QC (25 October 1916 â€“ 1990) was a New Zealand-born British lawyer, judge and politician. ...

In Parliament

Junior minister

He was first elected to Parliament in 1970 for Oldham West, reversing his previous defeat, and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974-75, Under- Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975-79). During opposition he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years and concurrently lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election. James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 â€“ 24 May 1995) was one of the most prominent British politicians of the 20th century. ... Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC (27 March 1912 â€“ 26 March 2005), was Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979. ... The Shadow Cabinet (also called the Shadow Front Bench) is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition (or the leader of other smaller opposition parties) form an alternative cabinet to the governments, whose... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Tony Benn about to join March 2005 anti-war demo in London Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born April 3, 1925), known as Tony Benn, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British politician on the left of the Labour Party. ... Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley, PC (born December 28, 1932) is a British Labour Party politician, published author and journalist from Sheffield, England. ...

Blair government

He was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997, but Tony Blair refused to appoint him to the Cabinet and instead made him Minister of State for the Environment, first at the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997-2001), then at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001-2003). His commitment to environmental causes led him frequently to criticise government policy, distancing him from ministerial colleagues and limiting his influence outside a narrow group of non-governmental organisations and green campaigners. Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief ^[3] and was one of the longest serving minsters in the Labour government, from 1997-2003. He was criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second home owners; according to the BBC, he and his wife owned more than one home themselves. ^[4] For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency... The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England. ... 19th century Cottages in the small hamlet of Crafton, Buckinghamshire A cottage is a small house of any period. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GBÂ£4 billion...

Back benches

He was sacked in June 2003, to be replaced by Elliot Morley. Since then he has attacked the government on a number of issues, most notably that of genetically modified food and the 2003 Iraq war, though in the run-up to the invasion he had accepted reports by the intelligence services and government saying that Iraq had Chemical Weapons.^[5] Elliot Anthony Morley (born 6 July 1952) is a politician in the United Kingdom. ... Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM), and gene splicing (once in widespread use but now deprecated) are terms for the process of manipulating genes in an organism, usually outside of the organisms normal reproductive process. ... Combatants Coalition Forces: United States United Kingdom South Korea Australia Poland Romania others. ...

He has also however claimed that a supposed absence of prevention by United States authorities of the hijackings on September 11, 2001 was suspicious and 'offered an extremely convenient pretext' for subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.^[6]^[7] This was seen as giving credence to conspiracy theories. ^[8] September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In May 2005 he introduced the Climate Change EDM^[9] to parliament, which calls upon the government to commit to yearly CO₂ emission reductions of 3%. Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ...

In June 2006, various articles appeared in the British media claiming Meacher would stand as a stalking horse against Tony Blair in order to intiate a leadership contest; others suggested, especially after Brown came out in support of the Trident missile programme and nuclear energy, that Meacher would challenge Brown from the left. He announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership on 22 February 2007. Look up Stalking horse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency... The Trident missile, named after the trident, is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from submarines (SSBNs), making it a SLBM. The Trident was built in two variants: the I (C4) UGM-96A and II (D5) UGM-133A. The C4 and D5... Nuclear energy is energy released from the atomic nucleus. ...

On 23 September 2006, Michael Meacher became the sixth Labour MP to start a blog.^[10] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Leadership Bid

On February 22nd 2007, Meacher declared his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party claiming he had the support of a large number of MPs. The decisions of both Michael Meacher and John McDonnell to run for the leadership have been controversial^{[citation needed]} with many annoyed that John McDonnell did not consult with other members of the Socialist Campaign Group^{[citation needed]}, and many others accusing Michael Meacher of trying to split the nominations and keep John McDonnell off the ballot paper, although neither candidate is thought by many to have any chance of winning the Labour leadership.^[11]^[12] The 2007 Labour Party Leadership Election campaign appears already underway, but will not actually begin until Tony Blair formally announces a timetable for it. ... John Martin McDonnell (born on September 8, 1951, Liverpool) is a British politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington. ... The Socialist Campaign Group is a left-wing grouping of Labour Party Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom. ...

On 21st April 2007, The Guardian claimed that Meacher had the support of no more than 3 MPs and that his campaign was "virtually dead in the water". ^[13] The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Outside Parliament

BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which began in 1932. ... Bob Peck as Yorkshire police officer Ronald Craven, investigating what appears to be the accidental killing of his daughter. ... British journalist Alan Watkins is a columnist who writes on politics and rugby. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Accountant, or Qualified Accountant, or Professional Accountant, or Accountancy Practitioner, is a certified accountancy and financial expert. ... The Fabian Society is a British socialist intellectual movement, whose purpose is to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary means. ...

References

^ Meacher enters Labour leader race
^ Michael Meacher: Biography
^ Forum Brief: Earth Summit
^ Home, second home, BBC News Online, Thursday, 6 September, 2001
^ Meacher attacks 'fantasy' case for war, BBC News Online, 3 July 2003
^ "This war on terrorism is bogus", Michael Meacher, Saturday September 6, 2003, The Guardian
^ "The Pakistan connection", Michael Meacher, Thursday July 22, 2004, The Guardian
^ Has Meacher completely lost the plot?, David Aaronovitch, Tuesday September 9, 2003, The Guardian
^ Climate Change EDM
^ [1].
^ Meacher denies he has been pressed to stand, The Guardian, 30 October 2006
^ This battle over the political crumbs is pathetic, The Observer, 25 February 2007
^ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,2062310,00.html

BBC News Online logo The BBC News Website in February 2006. ... BBC News Online logo The BBC News Website in February 2006. ... David Aaronovitch (born July 8, 1954) is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

External links

Contents

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