Jane Griffiths (politician)

Infobox MP


honorific-prefix =
name = Jane Griffiths
honorific-suffix =MP
constituency_MP = Reading East
parliament =
majority =
predecessor = Gerard Vaughan
successor = Rob Wilson
term_start = May 1, 1997
term_end = April 11, 2005
birth_date = Birth date and age|1954|4|17|mf=y
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = University of Durham
occupation =
profession = Politician
religion =


website = [http://janestheones.blogspot.com/]
footnotes =

Jane Patricia Griffiths (born 17 April 1954, London) is a British lingust and politician. She held positions as a Labour councillor on Reading Borough Council, and as Labour Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency. A controversial figure in her constituency, she was deselected as MP and subsequently rendered bankrupt.

Early life

Jane Griffiths was born to John and Pat Griffiths. She was educated at the Cedars Grammar School, Leighton Buzzard and St Mary's College, University of Durham. She has a BA in French and Russian. She is married to fellow former councillor Andrew Tattersall and has two children, Martha and Toby.cite web | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/biography/0,,-8377,00.html | title = Ask Aristotle - Griffiths, Jane - Biography | publisher = Guardian Unlimited | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006]

From 1977 to 1984, Griffiths worked as a linguist at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK electronic intelligence operation in Cheltenham. From 1984 until 1997 she worked as a foreign news editor for BBC Monitoring and the BBC World Service in Reading. Besides her native English, she speaks Russian, French, Japanese and Korean.cite web | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/biography/0,,-8377,00.html | title = Ask Aristotle - Griffiths, Jane - Biography | publisher = Guardian Unlimited | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006]

Politics

From 1989 to 1999, Griffiths was a Labour councillor on Reading Borough Council, holding various senior positions. In the general election of 1997, she was elected as Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency, a position she retained in the following general election in 2001 and until the 2005 general election.cite web | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-8377,00.html | title = Ask Aristotle - Griffiths, Jane - Summary | publisher = Guardian Unlimited | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006] She was the first woman elected to represent a Reading seat.

In 2004 her constituency Labour Party deselected her as a candidate for the next general election, giving the candidature to local councillor Tony Page. This was the first such deselection of a sitting MP in the United Kingdom for ten years. The press reported soon afterwards suggested that she might defect from the Labour Party, and contest the seat as a Conservative Party candidate, but she did not. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/3512057.stm | title = Party votes out Reading MP | publisher = BBC | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006 ] [cite web | url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/28/ntory28.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/28/ixhome.html | title = Howard urged to be as daring as Thatcher | publisher = Daily Telegraph | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006]

Following her deselection and amid the ensuing acrimony within the local Labour Party, Tony Page failed to win the seat at the 2005 general election, losing out to the Conservative candidate, Rob Wilson.

Bankruptcy and since

Four days after the 2005 general election Jane was declared bankrupt, owing £29,000 to the Inland Revenue. This would have disqualified her from retaking her seat in the House of Commons had she been reselected and reelected. She failed to appear at her bankruptcy hearing before Reading County Court on Monday 19 September 2005 and a warrant was subsequently issued for her arrest. After convincing the court she had the assets to pay her debts and would co-operate with the proceedings, the warrant was discharged. However, her discharge from bankruptcy was subsequently suspended on the grounds that she was not co-operating, stating that she was in Latvia. This was incorrectly reported in the local press as her being made bankrupt a second time [cite web | url = http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/tm_objectid=15920064&method=full&siteid=50102&headline=ex-mp-jane-to-appear-in-court-over-bankruptcy-name_page.html | title = Ex-MP Jane to appear in court over bankruptcy | publisher icBerkshire | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006 ] [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4260010.stm | title = Arrest warrant for deselected MP | publisher = BBC | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006 ] [cite web | url = http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/2000/2000331/dumped_mp_jane_bankrupt_again | title = Dumped MP Jane bankrupt again | publisher = Reading Post | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006 ] .

Jane Griffiths now writes a political blog, called 'janestheone' after her election slogan in earlier days, and is training to be a teacher. On her blog, Jane describes herself as "a writer, linguist and political blogger" and as being "internationalist, anti-totalitarian and pro-democracy everywhere in the world" [cite web | url = http://www.janestheones.blogspot.com/ | title = janestheone | publisher = Jane Griffiths | accessmonthday = August 14 | accessyear = 2006 ] . She has recently (August 2008) published a book entitled "The One" [http://jane-griffiths-my-book.blogspot.com/] .

Other interests

Jane was well-known in her constituency as a keen rat fancier and owner of several pet rats. [cite news |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200609250032 |title=Where are they now? Ten who got away |author=Kevin Maguire |work=New Statesman |date=25 September 2006 |accessdate=2007-11-21] As an MP, she even dedicated a page on her constituency website to them.Fact|date=December 2007 She also initiated the campaign to return the fireless locomotive "Huntley & Palmers No.1" to Reading.

References

External links

* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-8377,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jane Griffiths]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/jane_griffiths/reading_east TheyWorkForYou.com - Jane Griffiths MP]
* [http://www.janestheones.blogspot.com/ janestheone - Jane Griffith's weblog]