John Gummer

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John Selwyn Gummer MP (born November 26, 1939) is a British politician, and Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal. He is chairman of the environmental consultancy company Sancroft International. He is also a non-executive director and regular columnist for the Catholic Herald.

Contents 1 Education 2 Background 3 Early political career 4 Ministerial office 5 Controversies 6 Personal history 7 Publications 8 External links

[edit] Education

John Gummer is the son of a Church of England priest. He began his education at Holy Trinity Primary School in Brompton, London. He read History at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He was the chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and later President of the Cambridge Union Society.

Whilst at Cambridge, he was a member of what became known as the Cambridge Mafia — a group of future Conservative Cabinet ministers, including Leon Brittan, Michael Howard, Kenneth Clarke, Norman Lamont, and Norman Fowler.

[edit] Background

In 1962, Gummer joined Business Publications, as an editor, leaving in 1964 to become editor in chief with Max Parrish & Oldbourne Press. He left to take up the position of special assistant to the chairman of BBC Publishing in 1967, transferring to become a publisher within the special projects department until 1969, when he was promoted to become the editorial coordinator, where he remained until he was first elected to Parliament. He has held various board level positions in publishing companies since his election.

[edit] Early political career

At the 1964 general election, Gummer stood as a candidate in the Greenwich constituency, but was heavily defeated by the incumbent Labour MP, Richard Marsh. He stood again some 18 months later at the 1966 general election and lost even more heavily.

He was finally elected to the House of Commons on his third attempt, at the 1970 general election, when he narrowly unseated the sitting MP James Dickens in the Lewisham West constituency. However, at the February 1974 general election he lost the seat to Labour's Christopher Price, and failed to regain it in the October 1974 election.

He eventually returned to the House of Commmons in 1979, securing the seat of Eye, following the retirement of veteran Tory Harwood Harrison. He held the constituency until its abolition for the 1983 general election. Since then he has been the MP for Suffolk Coastal.

[edit] Ministerial office

Under Edward Heath, Gummer held various minor positions in the government ultimately being appointed Conservative Party Vice-Chairman (a position he held until the fall of the government). In 1979, he was re-elected as an MP as the Conservative Party returned to Government. He held various government positions and also chaired the Conservative Party from 1983 to 1985; he was chairman at the time of the Brighton hotel bombing at the Conservative party conference. However, unlike his predecessor, Cecil Parkinson, and many of his successors, he did not hold cabinet rank at this time. He eventually joined the cabinet in 1989 as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, moving to become Secretary of State for the Environment under John Major in 1993. Since the 1997 Labour election victory he has been a backbencher. He is chairman of the all-party group on architecture and planning.

[edit] Controversies

He is noted for delaying a ban on beef in 1989.[1] and for the way he attempted to feed a beefburger to his four-year-old daughter Cordelia, at the height of the BSE panic in 1990, (though photographs of the event were staged and the burger was in fact bitten into by a civil servant). In 1997 he was awarded a Medal of Honour by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

He was called "drittsekk" (shitbag) by the Norwegian Minister of Environmental Affairs Thorbjørn Berntsen in the mid-1990s because of issues around the nuclear site in Sellafield.

[edit] Personal history

He has been married to Penelope Jane Gardner since 1977 and they live near Debenham in the Gipping district of his constituency. They have two sons and two daughters: Benedict, Felix, Leonora and Cordelia.

He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1978, until he left the church and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1992, following the decision of the General Synod allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood.

He introduced an Early Day Motion on Climate Change [2] to Parliament along with Michael Meacher and Norman Baker. In 2001 he called on the European Union to come together against nuclear terrorism.[3]

He is a pro-European moderate, and was a supporter of Kenneth Clarke's leadership bids.

Soon after the election of the new leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, in 2005, Gummer was asked to chair a new Quality of Life Policy Group [4] with Zac Goldsmith as his deputy. He was chosen for his experience as Secretary of State for the Environment and known interest in environmental issues.

[edit] Publications

• When the Coloured People Come by John Gummer, 1966, Oldbourne ISBN 0-356-01199-2
• To Church with Enthusiasm by John Gummer, 1969
• The Permissive Society: Fact or Fantasy? by John Selwyn Gummer, 1971, Cassell ISBN 0-304-93821-1
• The Christian Calendar by Leonard W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, 1974, Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-76804-2
• Faith in Politics: Which Way Should Christians Vote? by John Gummer, 1987, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ISBN 0-281-04299-3
• Christianity and Conservatism by John Gummer, 1990
• Green Buildings Pay Edited by B. W. Edwards, foreword by John Gummer, 1997, Spon Press ISBN 0-419-22730-X
• From Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21: Working Towards Sustainable Development Edited by William Laffery, Katarina Eckerberg, William M. Laffery, foreword by John Gummer, 1998, Earthscan Publications Ltd ISBN 1-85383-547-1
• Precision Agriculture: Practical Applications of New Technologies by John Gummer and Peter Botschek, 1998, The International Fertiliser Society ISBN 0-85310-062-4
• Goat Farming by Alan Mowlem, foreword by John S Gummer, 2002, Farming Press ISBN 0-85236-235-8
• Weekly columnist in Estates Gazette magazine [5]

[edit] External links

• Rt Hon John Gummer MP official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Gummer MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - John Gummer MP
• BBC article on the burger / BSE story
• Video of John Gummer getting his daughter to eat a burger during the BSE crisis
• The Big Ask More About the Climate Change EDM

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by James Dickens	Member of Parliament for Lewisham West 1970–February 1974	Succeeded by Christopher Price
Preceded by Harwood Harrison	Member of Parliament for Eye 1979–1983	Succeeded by constituency abolished
Preceded by new constituency	Member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal 1983 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Cecil Parkinson	Chairman of the Conservative Party 1983–85	Succeeded by Norman Tebbit
Vacant Title last held by Cecil Parkinson	Paymaster-General 1984–85	Succeeded by Kenneth Clarke
Preceded by John MacGregor	Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1989–93	Succeeded by Gillian Shephard
Preceded by Michael Howard	Secretary of State for the Environment 1993–97	Succeeded by —