John Gummer

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The Rt Hon. John Gummer MP
John Gummer

John Gummer, 1 March 2006.
In office
27 May 1993 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister John Major
Preceded by Michael Howard
Succeeded by Michael Meacher
In office
24 July 1989 – 27 May 1993
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
John Major
Preceded by John MacGregor
Succeeded by Gillian Shephard
In office
11 June 1983 – 2 September 1985
Preceded by Cecil Parkinson
Succeeded by Norman Tebbit
Born November 26, 1939 (1939-11-26) (age 68)
Brompton, London, England, UK
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Website John Gummer.org.uk

John Selwyn Gummer MP (born 26 November 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

[edit] Early life

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.

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] Member of Parliament

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.

In 1979, he eventually returned to the House of Commons, 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] In government

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. As Environment Secretary he introduced the UK's first Environmental Tax, the landfill tax, among other successes. BBC Wildlife magazine described him as the "Environment Secretary against which all others are judged", putting him in the top ten environmental heroes [BBC Wildlife Magazine 2007]

Since the 1997 Labour election victory he has been a backbencher. He is chairman of the all-party group on architecture and planning.

[edit] Personal life

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.

His son, Benedict, has been selected in August 2007 to fight the Ipswich constituency at the next general election for the Conservative party, a seat which borders his own.[1]

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] Controversies

He is noted for delaying a ban on beef in 1989,[5] 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 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.

In 1993, he was called a "drittsekk" (translated as "shitbag")[6][7][8] by the Norwegian Minister of Environmental Affairs Thorbjørn Berntsen who commented "John Gummer is the biggest shitbag I have ever met."[8] after Gummer had refused to discuss an acid rain problem on Norwegian soil.[8][9]

[edit] Trivia

Gummer was featured in an episode of Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe during an episode focusing on the costs of making television shows. A picture of Gummer was shown as Brooker stated that it cost £50 every time it was used.

[edit] Bibliography

  • 1966: When the Coloured People Come, by John Gummer, Oldbourne, ISBN 0-356-01199-2
  • 1969: To Church with Enthusiasm, by John Gummer
  • 1971: The Permissive Society: Fact or Fantasy?, by John Selwyn Gummer, Cassell, ISBN 0-304-93821-1
  • 1974: The Christian Calendar, by Leonard W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0-297-76804-2
  • 1987: Faith in Politics: Which Way Should Christians Vote?, by John Gummer, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, ISBN 0-281-04299-3
  • 1990: Christianity and Conservatism, by John Gummer
  • 1997: Green Buildings Pay, edited by B. W. Edwards, foreword by John Gummer, Spon Press, ISBN 0-419-22730-X
  • 1998: From Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21: Working Towards Sustainable Development, edited by William Laffery, Katarina Eckerberg, William M. Laffery, foreword by John Gummer, Earthscan Publications, ISBN 1-85383-547-1
  • 1998: Precision Agriculture: Practical Applications of New Technologies, by John Gummer and Peter Botschek, The International Fertiliser Society, ISBN 0-85310-062-4
  • 2002: Goat Farming, by Alan Mowlem, foreword by John S Gummer, Farming Press, ISBN 0-85236-235-8
  • Weekly columnist in Estates Gazette magazine[10]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Tory candidate chosen for next election", Evening Star, 16 August 2007.
  2. ^ UK Parliament - Early Day Motions By Details
  3. ^ BBC News | UK | EU should 'unite against nuclear threat'
  4. ^ Quality of Life Challenge
  5. ^ BBC NEWS | UK | John Gummer: Beef eater
  6. ^ http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/jan01/hague.html
  7. ^ http://www.vegaresearch.org/news_item.asp?NewsID=462
  8. ^ a b c http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Policies/National/gu-of-g.htm
  9. ^ The Norwegian Wikipedia article gives a different reason, alleging it was because of issues around the nuclear site in Sellafield, but unsourced, and no English-speaking source was found.
  10. ^ John Gummer MP, Suffolk Coastal (TheyWorkForYou.com)
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
—
Languages