Originally Posted by Bluemerle

Talking of Charles Kennedy. He is on Channel 5 at 7pm next Tuesday and I have just received an e-mail saying:-

"I have been selected to appear on the above as one of the 'panel' of questioners on a one to one basis with Charles Kennedy.

As my originally submitted question was on the total invalidity of UK membership of the EU, on which I had expected to be able to expand within the session, I have been asked to keep to that issue.

It is as a member of the electorate that one takes part although I will be trying to introduce UKIP as a positive. I will be wearing my £ badge, hope that it is noticeable" !

Originally Posted by English Democrat

Take a look at the published biographies of the Leaders of the main three parties.

Do they really have any interest in ENGLAND ?

2 Scots and a Welshman ?


Michael Howard is not his real name.


OB

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Tony Charles Lynton Blair
1997 - Present
Name: Tony Blair
Birth Date: May 6, 1953
Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality: Scottish
Gender: Male
Occupations: prime minister, politician, attorney
"Education is the best economic policy there is."
The son of a barrister and lecturer, Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham. At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his education at Fettes College. He studied law at Oxford, and went on to become a barrister himself.
After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election, Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the 1983 General Election, aged 30.
Tony Blair made a speedy rise through the ranks, being promoted first to the shadow Treasury front bench in 1984. He subsequently served as a trade and industry spokesman, before being elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1988 where he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Energy. In 1989 he moved to the employment brief.
After the 1992 election Labour's new leader, John Smith, promoted Blair to Shadow Home Secretary. It was in this post that Blair made famous his pledge that Labour would be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.
John Smith died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1994, and in the subsequent leadership contest Tony Blair won a large majority of his party's support.
Blair immediately launched his campaign for the modernisation of the Labour Party, determined to complete the shift further towards the political centre which he saw as essential for victory. The debate over Clause 4 of the party's constitution was considered the crucial test of whether its members would commit to Blair's project. He removed the commitment to public ownership, and at this time coined the term New Labour.
The Labour Party won the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition. At the age of 43 , Tony Blair became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
The government began to implement a far-reaching programme of constitutional change, putting the question of devolution to referendums in Scotland and Wales.
An elected post of Mayor of London was established at the head of a new capital-wide authority, and all but 92 hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords in the first stage of its reform. The government has also implemented an investment programme of £42 billion in its priority areas of health and education.
Tony Blair was re-elected with another landslide majority in the 2001 General Election.
He is married to the barrister Cherie Booth QC, and they have four children. Their youngest, Leo, was the first child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150 years

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Name: Michael Howard
Place of birth: Gorseinon, near Swansea - WALES
Education: Llanelli grammar school, WALES
University: Peterhouse, College Cambridge
Nationality: WELSH
Previous Occupation: Barrister
Career History:
1964: called to the Bar, Inner Temple; 1982: appointed QC; 1980-82: junior counsel to the Crown
Marital Status: Married
Children: One daughter, one son, one stepson
Michael Howard was born in 1941 and educated at Llanelli Grammar School (Wales) and Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1962 he was elected President of the Cambridge Union. He was called to the Bar in 1964 and was appointed a QC in 1982.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe in 1983. In 1984 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Solicitor General. The following year he entered the Government as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry with responsibility for corporate and consumer affairs. In 1987 he moved to the Department of the Environment, first as Minister of State for Local Government and then as Minister of State for Water and Planning. In 1990 he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment, abolishing the closed shop and playing a crucial role in negotiating the UKs opt-out from the Social Chapter at Maastricht.

Following the 1992 election, Michael Howard was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment. In this position he played a major role in securing the participation of the USA at the Earth Summit in Rio which he attended on behalf of the Government.

In May 1993 he became Home Secretary, a position he held for four years. During his term of office crime fell by an unprecedented 18%. When he left office, nearly a million fewer crimes a year were being committed than when he became Home Secretary four years previously.

Following the 1997 Election Michael Howard was appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary until his retirement from the Front Bench in June 1999.

In September 2001, under the Leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, he was
invited to return to the front bench as Shadow Chancellor where he remained in post until November 2003.

Michael Howard has since been elected as the new Leader of the Conservative Party.

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Name: Charles Kennedy
Birth Date: 1959
Place of Birth: Inverness, SCOTLAND
Nationality: SCOTTISH
Gender: Male
Occupations: Student, politician,

Charles Kennedy is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats and the MP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West in the Scottish Highlands.

Born in Inverness in 1959, he was brought up and educated in Fort William, and attended Glasgow University. Following his graduation in 1982, he worked as a journalist and broadcaster with BBC Highland in Inverness. He was then awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Indiana University in the United States.

In 1983 he was working towards a PhD at Indiana when the opportunity arose to seek the SDP nomination for Ross, Cromarty and Skye. He made a flying visit home, won the ballot and returned full time to the UK in April. The general election followed and less than six weeks later he was elected to the House of Commons, defeating the sitting government minister to become the youngest MP of the time. During his term in parliament he has acted as a spokesperson on issues ranging from the welfare state to Europe, agriculture and rural affairs. He has served on the All-Party Select Committee that introduced the televising of the chamber. He was the first SDP MP to back the merger with the Liberals after the 1987 general election, and moved a successful motion to this effect at the party conference that year.

Charles Kennedy was elected UK Party President, the equivalent of party chairman, in 1990, and served in that post until 1994. In August 1999 he was elected as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and he was appointed to the Privy Council in October 1999.