| About me |
| Wednesday, 16 May 2007 | |
"I was elected as the member for Southport succeeding Ronnie (now Lord) Fearn in 2001. At Westminster I have served on the Transport, Local Government and Regions Select Committee, was Liberal Democrat education spokesperson with responsibility for schools, and following my re-election to Parliament, served as shadow spokesperson for Transport and have been working with Norman Lamb on the Health team. Since the election of Nick Clegg as party leader I've also been working as a spokesperson for Vince Cable's Treasury team. "Born in Liverpool, I graduated in Philosophy from Durham University before entering the teaching profession. I have taught in Secondary Modern, Comprehensive and Independent schools and prior to my election was Head of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Merchant Taylors’ School in Crosby. "I moved to Southport in 1974 and joined the Liberal Party in 1977. Since 1987 I have represented Birkdale Ward as a Sefton councillor. I was elected leader of the Sefton Liberal Democrat group in 1992 and was leader of Sefton Metropolitan Council at the time of my election to parliament. Until the 2001 General election the council had been a big part of my life. Though it was stressful at times, particularly when trying to live with the hopelessly northern biased government grant and funding systems which meant that financing services was always a great problem, it was also very rewarding. My chief source of pride is that we managed to keep education spending up in good years and bad, and didn't duck tough decisions. "As an MP I relish the independence I now have to criticise the council when it makes mistakes and praise it when it does well." |