Jane Griffiths (politician)
| Jane Griffiths | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Reading East |
|
| In office 1 May 1997 – 11 April 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Gerard Vaughan |
| Succeeded by | Rob Wilson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 April 1954 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Andrew Tattersall |
| Alma mater | University of Durham |
| Profession | Politician |
| Website | Jane Griffiths' blog |
Jane Patricia Griffiths (born 17 April 1954) is a British linguist and politician. She held positions as a Labour councillor on Reading Borough Council, and as Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reading East parliamentary constituency. A controversial figure in her constituency, she was deselected as MP in 2004.
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[edit] Early life
Born in London, to John and Pat Griffiths, she was educated at the Cedars Grammar School, Leighton Buzzard and St Mary's College, University of Durham. She has a BA in French and Russian.
From 1977 to 1984, Griffiths worked as a linguist at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK electronic intelligence operation in Cheltenham. From 1984 until 1997 she worked as a foreign news editor for BBC Monitoring and the BBC World Service in Reading. Besides her native English, she speaks Russian, French, Japanese and Korean.[1]
[edit] Politics
From 1989 to 1999, Griffiths was a Labour councillor on Reading Borough Council, holding various senior positions. At the 1997 general election, Griffiths was elected as Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency, a position she retained in the following general election in 2001 and until the 2005 general election.[2] She was the first woman elected to represent a Reading seat.
On 20 June 2002 she was appointed to represent the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Western European Union.[3]
In 2004 her constituency Labour Party deselected her as a candidate for the next general election, giving the candidature to local councillor Tony Page. This was the first such deselection of a sitting MP in the United Kingdom for ten years. The press suggested soon afterwards that she might defect from the Labour Party, and contest the seat as a Conservative Party candidate, but she did not.[4][5][6] Griffiths had claimed that a small number of men in the Labour party wanted to get rid of her, however her suggestion was dismissed in an open letter to a newspaper signed by 17 female party members as "wild conspiracy theories".[7]
Following her deselection and amid the ensuing acrimony within the local Labour Party, Tony Page failed to win the seat at the 2005 general election, losing out to the Conservative candidate, Rob Wilson.
[edit] Bankruptcy and Arrest
Four days after the 2005 general election Griffiths was declared bankrupt, owing £29,000 to the Inland Revenue. This would have disqualified her from retaking her seat in the House of Commons had she been reselected and reelected. She failed to appear at her bankruptcy hearing before Reading County Court on Monday 19 September 2005 and a warrant was subsequently issued for her arrest. After convincing the court she had the assets to pay her debts and would co-operate with the proceedings, the warrant was discharged. However, her discharge from bankruptcy was subsequently suspended on the grounds that she was not co-operating, stating that she was in Latvia. This was incorrectly reported in the local press as her being made bankrupt a second time.[8][9][10]
[edit] After Politics
[edit] Blogs
During 2005-6 Griffiths wrote a political blog, called 'janestheone' after her election slogan in earlier days. On her blog, she described herself as a writer, linguist and political blogger and as being internationalist, anti-totalitarian and pro-democracy everywhere in the world.[11] The blog was suspended following a complaint but she immediately started a new one.[12] The new blog, like the old one, is devoted mainly to criticising Old Labour in general and Reading Labour Party in particular.
[edit] Book
In August 2008 she published a book entitled The One.[12]
[edit] Work
Griffiths currently works for the Council of Europe [13]
[edit] Personal life
Griffiths is married to Andrew Tattersall, who previously worked as her assistant. She has two children from a previous marriage.[14][15] She currently lives in Strasbourg.[14]
She was well known in her constituency as a keen rat fancier and owner of several pet rats.[16] She also initiated the unsuccessful campaign to return the fireless locomotive Huntley & Palmers No.1 to Reading.
[edit] References
- ^ "Ask Aristotle - Griffiths, Jane - Biography". London: Guardian Unlimited. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/biography/0,,-8377,00.html. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "Ask Aristotle - Griffiths, Jane - Summary". London: Guardian Unlimited. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-8377,00.html. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Assembly of the Western European Union: UK Delegation publisher = UK Parliament". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/cgi-bin/newhtml_hl?DB=semukparl&STEMMER=en&WORDS=jane%20griffith&ALL=jane%20griffiths&ANY=&PHRASE=&CATEGORIES=&SIMPLE=&SPEAKER=&COLOUR=red&STYLE=s&ANCHOR=20620w05.html_spmin2&URL=/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo020620/text/20620w05.htm#20620w05.html_spmin23. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
- ^ "Party votes out Reading MP". London: BBC. 2004-02-22. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3512057.stm. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ Archer, Graeme. "Howard urged to be as daring as Thatcher". London: Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1465640/Howard-urged-to-be-as-daring-as-Thatcher.html. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "Sex and booze tales set to make 'Blair babe' cross the floor". The Independent on Sunday. 27 June 2004. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040627/ai_n12757243. Retrieved November 10, 2008.[dead link]
- ^ "Party votes out Reading MP". BBC News. 2004-02-22. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3512057.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
- ^ "Ex-MP Jane to appear in court over bankruptcy". icBerkshire. http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/tm_objectid=15920064&method=full&siteid=50102&headline=ex-mp-jane-to-appear-in-court-over-bankruptcy-name_page.html. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "Arrest warrant for deselected MP". London: BBC. 2005-09-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4260010.stm. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "Dumped MP Jane bankrupt again". Reading Post. http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2000331_dumped_mp_jane_bankrupt_again. Retrieved August 14, 2006.
- ^ "janestheone". Jane Griffiths. Archived from the original on November 9, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061109093308/http://www.janestheones.blogspot.com/. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
- ^ a b http://jane-griffiths-my-book.blogspot.com/
- ^ http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/12099_dumped_mp_jane_declared_bankrupt
- ^ a b http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/portglasgow/articles/2009/02/10/9361-martin-salter-to-stand-down/
- ^ BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/candidates/candidates/4/47002.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
- ^ Kevin Maguire (25 September 2006). "Where are they now? Ten who got away". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/200609250032. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
[edit] External links
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jane Griffiths
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Jane Griffiths MP
- Jane is the One - Jane Griffith's weblog
- - Hansard
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gerard Vaughan |
Member of Parliament for Reading East 1997–2005 |
Succeeded by Rob Wilson |
