Andrew George

Andrew Henry George (born 2 December 1958) is a British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, representing the constituency of St Ives in Cornwall.

Early life

He was born in Mullion near The Lizard, Cornwall, one of eight children born to a horticulturalist father and music teacher mother, and was educated locally at the Helston School, before attending the University of Sussex where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in cultural and community studies in 1980. He finished his education at the University College, Oxford where he was awarded a master's degree in agricultural economics in 1981.^{[citation needed]}

He worked as a charity worker, initially, as a rural officer with the Nottinghamshire Rural Community Council in 1981, and held a number of appointments in charity, business and research, until he became the deputy director of the Cornwall Rural Community Council in 1987, where he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He contested the seat of St Ives at the 1992 general election where he finished second, just 1,645 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP David Harris. Harris stood down at the 1997 general election and George won the seat with a majority of 7,170 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on 22 May 1997.^[1]

In Parliament

In the House of Commons, he was made a spokesman on agriculture, fisheries and food by Paddy Ashdown in 1997, and was moved under the new leadership of Charles Kennedy in 1999 to speak on Department of Social Security. Following the 2001 General Election he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Kennedy. He was promoted to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in 2002 as the Shadow Rural Affairs and Food Secretary.^{[citation needed]} He has been the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development since the 2005 general election.^{[citation needed]}

In July 1997 George attempted to raise a question concerning the Duchy of Cornwall in the House of Commons but was prevented from doing so by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy.^[2]

On 12 May 2005, George became the first MP to swear his oath of allegiance to the Queen in Cornish.^[3] Before joining the Liberal Democrats he was a member of Mebyon Kernow, and was one of the founder members of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, campaigning for a Cornish Assembly. He has been married to Jill Elizabeth Marshall, a nurse, since 1987 and they have a son (Davy) and a daughter (Morvah, born 1987) and live in Hayle.^{[citation needed]}

On 6 January 2006 he was one of the first members of the Liberal Democrat frontbench team to threaten to resign his post if Charles Kennedy had not stood down as leader by 9 January 2006. He was sacked from the frontbench on 8 March by Kennedy's successor, Sir Menzies Campbell.^{[citation needed]}

Andrew George voted in Parliament against Cornwall becoming a Unitary Authority. Local polls commissioned by the District Councils indicated that approximately 80% of the public were opposed to the formation of the Cornish Unitary Authority.^[4]

On 29 October 2007 Andrew George issued a press statement which said:- "Just because the Government has approached the whole Regional Devolution agenda in entirely the wrong way, does not mean to say that the project itself should be ditched. If Scotland is benefiting from devolution then Cornwall should learn from this and increase the intensity of its own campaign for devolution to a Cornish Assembly."^[5]

George suffers from the autoimmune disease Ankylosing spondylitis and has campaigned for a TNF inhibitor drug treatment to be made available to all patients. He is a member of the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society's experts panel.^[6]

Publications

• The Natives are Revolting Down in the Cornwall Theme Park by Andrew George, 1986
• Cornwall at the Crossroads by Bernard Deacon, Andrew George et al., 1989 CoSERG, Redruth ISBN 0-9513918-0-1
• A Vision of Cornwall by Andrew George, 1995
• A View from the Bottom Left-Hand Corner by Andrew George, 2002, Patten Press, Penzance ISBN 1-872229-40-9

References

See also

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
• List of topics related to Cornwall

External links

• Andrew George MP official site
• Andrew George MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• ePolitix.com - Andrew George
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Andrew George MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Andrew George MP
• The Public Whip - Andrew George MP voting record
• BBC News - Andrew George profile 10 February 2005

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2007) (Find sources: Andrew George (politician) – news, books, scholar)