John Pugh
Encyclopedia
John David Pugh is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. He is Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Southport
Southport (UK Parliament constituency)
Southport is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

. First elected in 2001 with a majority of 3,007, he was re-elected in 2005 with a slightly increased majority of 3,838, and again in 2010 with a majority of 6,024, or 13.8%.

Early life

Pugh was educated at Prescot Grammar School and Maidstone Grammar School
Maidstone Grammar School
Maidstone Grammar School is a grammar school located in Maidstone, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1549.-Admissions:The school takes boys at the age of 11 and over by examination and boys and girls at 16+ on their GCSE results. The school currently has almost 1200 students and approximately 120...

. He graduated from Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

, attending St Cuthbert's Society
St Cuthbert's Society
St Cuthbert's Society, colloquially known as Cuth's, is one of sixteen collegiate bodies within the University of Durham. It was founded in 1888 for students who were not attached to the existing colleges...

, where he studied Philosophy.

Career

Formerly a religious studies
Religious studies
Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...

 teacher and Head of Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and Religious Studies at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby is a British independent school for day pupils, located in Great Crosby on Merseyside....

, Pugh has lived in Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

 since 1974.

Political career

Pugh joined the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 in 1977. Pugh served on Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, north-western England. The council has been under no overall control since the 1980s and is run as an all party coalition of the Liberal Democrats, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, It consists of...

, representing Birkdale
Birkdale
Birkdale is a village and district in the southern part of the conurbation of the town of Southport, within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, though historically in Lancashire, in the north-west of England. The village is located on the Irish Sea coast, approximately a mile away from...

, from 1987 until his election to Parliament. At the time of his election, Pugh was leader of the council (from 1992), and of the Sefton Liberal Democrats.

In the 2007 leadership election
Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2007
The 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as leader on 15 October 2007, after 19 months as leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom. Vincent Cable, the deputy leader of the parliamentary...

, John Pugh supported Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...

 in preference to Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, generally known as Chris Huhne is a British politician and cabinet minister, who is the current Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire...

.

Campaign interests

Amongst Pugh's campaigning interests is public sector IT, specifically around the role Open Source Software
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 might play. Pugh has argued that the public sector could reduce costs by increasing use of Open Source Software and has accused the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 of effectively giving Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 illegal state aid in only making their iPlayer download service available on Windows computers.

Pugh has interests in mental health policy. In October 2009, Pugh introduced a bill under the 10 minute rule calling for more local control over the NHS.

Locally in Southport, Pugh is interested in saving local pubs, and also in the booze culture that affects the UK. Pugh sees cheap alcohol deals in supermarkets as one of the major problems causing pub closures, and fuelling the booze culture. He also took the fight for Local Post Offices to 10 Downing Street.

Pugh is a keen supporter of the Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, with whom he is reported to have had close ties with the Formby & Southport Group over a number of years.

Roles in parliament

  • 2010- Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Care
  • 2008-10 Shadow Treasury Spokesperson
  • 2006-07 Shadow Health spokesperson
  • 2005-06 Shadow Transport spokesperson,
  • 2002-05 Shadow Ministerial Spokesman, Education

Personal life

He is married to Annette with three daughters and a son. He moved to Southport in 1974.

Pugh's interests include philosophy, computers, weight-lifting and supporting Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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