Andrew George

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For the Governor of Anguilla of the same name, see Andrew George (governor).

Andrew George

Andrew Henry George (born December 2, 1958) British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for St Ives, in Cornwall.

Andrew George was born in Mullion near The Lizard, Cornwall, one of eight children born to a horticulturalist father and music teacher mother, and was educated locally at the Helston School, before attending the University of Sussex where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in cultural and community studies in 1980. He finished his education at the University College, Oxford where he was awarded a master's degree in agricultural economics in 1981.

He worked in local government initially as a rural officer with the Nottinghamshire Rural Council in 1981, until he became the deputy director of the Cornwall Rural Council in 1985, where he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He contested the seat of St Ives at the 1992 general election where he finished second, just 1,645 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP David Harris. Harris stood down at the 1997 general election and George won the seat with a majority of 7,170 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on May 22, 1997. [1]

In the House of Commons, he was made a spokesman on agriculture, fisheries and food by Paddy Ashdown in 1997, and was moved under the new leadership of Charles Kennedy in 1999 to speak on Department of Social Security. Following the 2001 General Election he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Kennedy. He was promoted to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in 2002 as the Shadow Rural Affairs and Food Secretary. He has been the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development since the 2005 General Election.

In July 1997 Andrew George attempted to raise a question concerning the Duchy of Cornwall in the House of Commons but was prevented from doing so by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy. ^[1]

On May 12, 2005, Andrew George became the first MP to swear his oath of allegiance to the Queen in Cornish. [2]. Before joining the Liberal Democrats he was a member of Mebyon Kernow, and was one of the founder members of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, campaigning for a Cornish Assembly. He has been married to Jill Elizabeth Marshall, a nurse, since 1987 and they have a son (Davy) and a daughter (Morvah, b. 1987) and live in Hayle.

On January 6, 2006 he was one of the first members of the Liberal Democrat frontbench team to threaten to resign his post if Charles Kennedy had not stood down as leader by January 9, 2006. He was sacked from the frontbench on March 8 by Kennedy's successor, Sir Menzies Campbell.

1 Publications
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Publications

The Natives are Revolting Down in the Cornwall Theme Park by Andrew George, 1986
Cornwall at the Crossroads by Bernard Deacon, Andrew George et al, 1989 CoSERG, Redruth ISBN 0-9513918-0-1
A Vision of Cornwall by Andrew George, 1995
A View from the Bottom Left-Hand Corner by Andrew George, 2002, Patten Press, Penzance ISBN 1-872229-40-9