About Paddy
Biography
Paddy was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, on 24 October 1949. He moved to Nottingham in 1969 to do a degree at Nottingham University (BA 1972: MA 1978) and has stayed in Nottingham ever since.
Before entering Parliament Paddy worked as a social worker (1972 – 1979). From 1979 to 1983 he was Project Leader for the Church of England Children’s Society. Paddy was then a Councillor for Notts County Council and Director of Nottinghamshire Co-operative Development Agency and he was also involved with the Nottingham Development Enterprise.
Paddy is married with 2 daughters and a grandson.
Parliamentary Career
Paddy has been the Labour MP for Sherwood since 1992, being re-elected 3 times in 1997, 2001 and the recent 2005 election where he won with a majority of 6,782.
Paddy with Tony Blair just before 1997 election |
Paddy splits his time between working in Parliament at Westminster in London, and in the Constituency. His working week while Parliament sits, tends to entail him working in his local Constituency office in Hucknall on a Monday (morning) and Friday, and working in Westminster Monday afternoon to Thursday. When Parliament is not sitting he mainly works from his Constituency office. Click here to find Paddy's voting record.
Paddy at work
Paddy has worked in a number of junior government positions starting out as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Jack Straw while he was Home Secretary (1997 - 1999); he then went on to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Privy Council office (1999 - 2001) and at the same time Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, with responsibility for overseeing Millennium Bug Awareness and was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons for the second time in 2007. He was Chairman of the sub-committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001 - 2005). Paddy was again PPS to Jack Straw while he was Leader of the House of Commons, (2006-2007).
Interests
Paddy is particularly interested in rural affairs and the countryside, environmental concerns and energy policy. Paddy is Chair of the Parliamentary Group for Energy Studies. He is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Forestry Group, Biofuels, Group and Sewers Group. Paddy is also a member of the Select Committee on Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Standards & Privileges Committee. He was a member of the select committe involved in the drafting of the Marine Bill and he is a member of the APPG for Junk Mail.
Picture courtesy of Sherwood Forest Trust
Paddy enjoys gardening, running and rambling. He is currently Vice President of the Natioanl Ramblers Association and President of the Nottinghamshire Ramblers. Paddy was one of the MPs that steered the “Right to Roam” act through Parliament.
Paddy has been very supportive of the local mining community and has been, and still is, active in fighting closures and helping miners and ex-miners with their compensation claims.
Paddy after a visit down a mine |
Local Issues
Paddy works hard with and for local people, their concerns are his concerns. Paddy represents local people in Parliament and holds regular advice surgeries where he meets constituents face to face. See the Contact page for details of the surgeries. If you want to raise any local issues with Paddy visit the Local Issues page. See the Contact page for details of the surgeries. If you want to raise any local issues with Paddy visit the page.
I now have a Facebook Profile, visit www.facebook.com .
Top HomeLinks
Here are some links to sites which I think you might find useful:
- The Co-operative Party is part of the global movement that provides vital health, housing and banking services; they promote education and gender equality; they protect the environment and workers' rights
- The Fabian Society - the Society's programme aims to explore the political ideas and the policy reforms which will define progressive politics in the future.
- Register to vote helps you register to vote and find out more about elections across the UK.
- Follow this link to Notts County Council website for information on how to register for a postal vote
- ePolitix site is the UK's premier politics website, which aims to improve communication between parliamentarians, constituents and organisations.
- TUC trade union representing over six and a half million working people
- UNISON trade union for public sector workers with more than 1.3 million members
Gallery
Please look in the gallery for more photos of Paddy as he does his work around the constituency and in Westminster