David Hallam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Hallam is a British Labour Party politician. He was Member of the European Parliament for the counties of Hereford, Shropshire and the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England, in the 1994-1999 European Parliament.
David Hallam was an active member of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee and played an important part in the European Union's response to the BSE crisis which affected British farming during his term of office.
Outside of the European Parliament's chamber and committee rooms, David Hallam was the President of the monthly Prayer Breakfast.
In 1984 David stood for the European Parliament in the Shropshire and Stafford constituency, he stood again in 1989 and was finally elected on revised boundaries in 1994.
David Hallam was one of many Labour Party members who opposed Labour leaders' Tony Blair's re-writing of the common ownership Clause IV in the Labour Party constitution. From then on he was something of a "marked man" and many in the Labour leadership were determined to marginalise him. In addition he was very sceptical about the benefits of bio-technology, especially its patenting, and obviously expressed his opposition to religious intolerance.
In 1998 the Labour government introduced the socalled "regional list" system and every effort was made to ensure that Hallam and others were not re-elected in 1999.
Since leaving the European Parliament David Hallam has continued with his work as an unpaid Methodist preacher. He has earned his living in public relations and in 2003 published his first book "Eliza Asbury" which chronicled the life of the mother of Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the Methodist Church in the United States.
