| Michael Meacher |
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Information AboutMichael Meacher |
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BEGINNINGS He was educated at New College, Oxford and the LSE . He became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at Essex and York universities and wrote a book about older people's treatment in mental hospitals. IN PARLIAMENT Junior minister He was first elected to Parliament in 1970 , and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974-5, Under Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975-9). During opposition he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years and also lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election. Blair Government He was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997 , but Tony Blair only appointed him to junior ministerial position as Minister for the Environment, first at the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997-2001), then at the Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (2001-2003). His commitment to environmental causes led him frequently to criticise government policy, distancing him from ministerial colleagues and limiting his influence outside a narrow group of non-governmental organisations and green campaigners. He was also criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second-home owners; according to the BBC , he and his wife owned over 6 houses themselves. {Link without Title} Back Benches He was sacked in June 2003 , to be replaced by Elliot Morley . Since then he has attacked the government on a number of issues, most notably that of Genetically Modified food and the 2003 Iraq War , though in the run-up to the invasion he had accepted the war could be justified on the basis of Saddam Hussein 's treatment of the Iraqi people. He has also however claimed that a supposed absence of prevention by United States authorities of the hijackings on September 11 , 2001 was suspicious and 'offered an extremely convenient pretext' for subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq . This was seen as giving credence to conspiracy theories. [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1038478,00.html In May 2005 he introduced the Climate Change EDM to parliament, which calls upon the government to commit to yearly CO2 emission reductions of 3%. OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT He appeared briefly as himself in the 1985 BBC Television drama serial '' Edge Of Darkness ''. in 1988 he lost a libel action against the journalist Alan Watkins , who had pointed out that Meacher had invented working-class origins by referring to his father as a farm-labourer (he was in fact an accountant). Meacher is a member of the Fabian Society . EXTERNAL LINKS
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