Frank Field (Lord Field of Birkenhead) RIP
Despite a deep and abiding interest in Politics, I have always considered myself to be an apolitical animal. Many of you may have seen my oft-repeated truism: “[i][b]It doesn’t matter which party you vote for because the government always gets elected”[/b][/i]. I have zero respect for politicians – with one notable exception: the late Frank Field (Lord Field of Birkenhead) who has just died at the age of 81.
I had first become aware of him while I was studying Sociology in London, and Frank was then the Director of The Child Poverty Action Group. He was very highly regarded in Social Policy & Welfare circles.
I was more than a little surprised when, in 1979, he became MP for Birkenhead - a constituency adjoining the one where my parents lived, and I grew up. Wirral West was died-in-the-wool Tory, while it was joked that Birjkenhead Labour could put up a monkey for Parliament and it would be elected. After I moved North again in 1982, and worked for a number of years in Birkenhead, it was impossible not to come across his footprints. He was too principled by far, as a human being, to ever attain high office – he served briefly as Minister for Welfare Reform in Tony Blair’s first government and then went no higher up the greasy pole.
I met him a number of times when I became involved in local Food Poverty initiatives – always an issue close to Frank’s heart. He was one of the few Labour MPs not scared of voicing his opinion on Brexit – nor criticising the anti-semitic mood in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s stewardship. It was quite ironic that, after 40 unblemished years as Labour MP for Birkenhead, he was ennobled by Boris Johnson’s new Tory government in 2019.
RIP Frank!
I had first become aware of him while I was studying Sociology in London, and Frank was then the Director of The Child Poverty Action Group. He was very highly regarded in Social Policy & Welfare circles.
I was more than a little surprised when, in 1979, he became MP for Birkenhead - a constituency adjoining the one where my parents lived, and I grew up. Wirral West was died-in-the-wool Tory, while it was joked that Birjkenhead Labour could put up a monkey for Parliament and it would be elected. After I moved North again in 1982, and worked for a number of years in Birkenhead, it was impossible not to come across his footprints. He was too principled by far, as a human being, to ever attain high office – he served briefly as Minister for Welfare Reform in Tony Blair’s first government and then went no higher up the greasy pole.
I met him a number of times when I became involved in local Food Poverty initiatives – always an issue close to Frank’s heart. He was one of the few Labour MPs not scared of voicing his opinion on Brexit – nor criticising the anti-semitic mood in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s stewardship. It was quite ironic that, after 40 unblemished years as Labour MP for Birkenhead, he was ennobled by Boris Johnson’s new Tory government in 2019.
RIP Frank!
