David Blunkett

David Blunkett 2015

David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett (born June 6, 1947 in Sheffield ) is a British Labor Party politician . He was UK Home Secretary from 2001 to 2004, Secretary of Labor in 2005 and Member of the House of Commons from 1987 to 2015. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2015.

Life

Blunkett was born in Sheffield and grew up in poverty after his father was killed in an industrial accident. Blind from birth, he attended schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury . His professional chances in life seemed slim. Nonetheless, he won a place at Sheffield University and, at the age of 22, became the youngest member to ever sit on Sheffield City Council. He was best known as the party's left wing figure during his leadership of the city council in the 1980s and was elected to the Labor Party's national leadership committee.

In the 1987 general election, he was elected representative for Sheffield Brightside. He became spokesman for the party for local government affairs, member of the shadow cabinet in 1992 as shadow health minister and shadow education minister in 1994. Combining enthusiasm for reform and social conservatism, he became a favorite of the new party leader Tony Blair .

After Labor's landslide victory in the 1997 general election, he became the UK's first blind minister in charge of education and employment. The Minister of Education played an important role in the government, whose Prime Minister described his priorities as "Education, Education, Education" and made key promises to reduce the size of school classes. Ultimately, it was about better educational conditions for Blunkett when he advocated the introduction of tuition fees at public universities, which were traditionally free of charge.

At the start of the second term in 2001, Blunkett was promoted to Minister of the Interior. Immigration and asylum became central issues for Blunkett at the Home Office. In December 2001 he appealed to immigrants to develop a greater sense of belonging to the UK. In April 2002, he applied for more power to crack down on illegal immigration and unfounded political asylum claims.

Another controversial issue was civil rights. He called them "air webs". In 2003 he announced an expansion of investigative powers, and a new law reduced the protection of individuals, such as the right to a jury. He tried to make national identity cards ( ID cards , entitlement cards ) mandatory; however, this has been dropped. The measures earned him the nickname Big Blunkett , referring to Orwell's Big Brother .

Blunkett's guide dogs - Teddy, Offa, Lucy and Sadie - became familiar figures in Westminster, and were the cause of the occasional witty commentary from Blunkett and his fellow MPs on both sides of the house. In one memorable incident in Parliament, Lucy vomited during a speech by opposition member David Willetts . In general, however, Blunkett's blindness was not an issue.

It was reported in the press that Blunkett had a relationship with married American-born Kimberly Fortier , the editor of right-wing political magazine The Spectator . The three-year relationship is said to have ended in the summer of 2004 after Fortier decided to return to her husband Stephen Quinn. Reports said Blunkett was seeking legal action to prove he was the father of Fortier's son, William, and the child, who was expected in January 2005.

In connection with this love affair, Blunkett was accused of abuse of office. He is said to have obtained a residence permit for Leoncia "Luz" Casalme, the Filipino nanny of Kimberly Fortier. An official investigation was opened against him on the basis of these allegations. On December 15, 2004, Blunkett drew the consequences and resigned as minister.

But already after the general election in 2005 Tony Blair called him back to the cabinet, this time as Minister for Labor and Pensions, which he only stayed until November of the same year.

On June 20, 2014, Blunkett announced that he would no longer run for the House of Commons in the 2015 general election. He left the House of Commons on March 30, 2015 after more than 27 years of membership.

On September 28, 2015, Blunkett was named a Life Peer with the title Baron Blunkett, of Brightside and Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield . This also made him a member of the House of Lords .

Quote

Blunkett on a remark by English soccer coach Glenn Hoddle that disabled people are responsible for their own disabilities because they committed a sin in a previous life:

"If Glenn Hoddle is right then I must have been a failed football manager in a previous existence." (If Glenn Hoddle is right, then I must have been a failed football manager in a previous life.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Airy fairy libertarians: Attack of the muesli-eaters? ( English ) BBC. November 20, 2001. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
2. ^ The London Gazette, Issue 61369, Oct. 2, 2015, p. 18374 , accessed Oct. 24, 2015.