Description
| Product ID: | 9781399408394 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Politics, Poverty and Belief |
| Subtitle: | A Political Memoir |
| Authors: | Author: The Rt Hon Frank Field |
| Page Count: | 208 |
| Subjects: | Autobiography: historical, political and military, Autobiography: historical, political & military, Memoirs, Politics and government, Memoirs, Politics & government, United Kingdom, Great Britain, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), c 2000 to c 2010, c 2010 to c 2020 |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating 'For the past half-century Frank Field has been an outstanding parliamentarian, social reformer and champion of the disadvantaged. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 and was expelled from it at the age of 78.' -Brian & Rachel Griffiths'Frank Field is one of the most important, iconoclastic and remarkable politicians of his generation. This book is told with his Christian belief, regrets and all, and his trademark searing honesty.' -Nick TimminsIn the increasingly dirty world of British politics, one man has stood out for unimpeachable integrity – the former Labour Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, Frank Field. In this touching but also profound memoir, the veteran former Labour MP and social campaigner Frank Field reveals the poverty of his own childhood and the deep and lasting effect of his Christian socialism. Field has spent his life fighting poverty in Britain, and has found allies on all sides of the political spectrum. In this book, Field talk about his activism, his foundational work with the Child Poverty Action Group and his work passing legislation for the Minimum Living Wage. He explains why he has dedicated his life to speaking out against the corruption of greed and power and writes with great alacrity about the titans of his political age, including Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. In the end, Field’s zeal for reform was too much for too many people, and, in 2015, he was deselected by his own local Labour party. Politics, Poverty and Belief is an implicit indictment of modern British politics – the world of cash for questions, Partygate and all the rest – in which the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. In this touching but also profound memoir, Field explains two key factors in his upbringing – the poverty of his own childhood and the deep and lasting effect of his Christian socialism, as exemplified in the writings of F. D. Maurice and William Temple.Field has spent his adult life fighting against poverty in Britain, through parliament and through his strong personal influence. Poverty for him has injustice at its root and as he explains in this book, he has found allies on all sides of the political spectrum. He was appointed by Tony Blair to be the Secretary of State for Pensions, but the reforms he advocated were so radical and essentially just, that Tony Blair could not contemplate them and Field stood down. Previously he had been Chairman of the Work and Pensions Select Committee under John Major.As we read in this profound book, he has been involved in the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and worked with George Osborne to pass the legislation for the Minimum Living Wage. The range of his campaigns is astonishing. With the Rowntree Trust, he set up the Low Pay Unit (LPU), he battled with Chiswick Council to combat the corruption and injustice behind local housing lists. In politics, he spoke out in the House against the corruption of greed and power and for this he became greatly admired by Margaret Thatcher. In the end, Field’s zeal for reform was too much for too many people. In 2015, Momentum (Trotskyite socialist political movement within the Labour Party) moved into his own local Labour party and managed to get him deselected.This is a political and personal memoir of quite exceptional importance and will be widely read, not least because it is an implicit indictment of modern British politics – the world of cash for questions, Partygate and all the rest – in which the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. |
| Imprint Name: | Bloomsbury Continuum |
| Publisher Name: | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2023-02-16 |
