Colin Pickthall (born 13 September 1944) is a former British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town is Skelmersdale. The district borders Fylde to the north, over the Ribble Estuary; South Ribbl ...

. He was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, and retired at the general election of

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Background

Pickthall's father was a shipyard fitter. He attended

Ulverston Grammar School Ulverston Victoria High School (UVHS) is a secondary school and sixth form located in the town of Ulverston, Cumbria, England. It is the successor school to Ulverston Grammar School and Victoria Secondary Modern, which were combined in 1967 to f ...

, and then the

University of Wales The University of Wales () is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first universit ...

, obtaining a B.A. Hons. in English Literature and History. He then went on to the

University of Lancaster Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

, where he obtained an M.A. with the thesis "The Influence of Socialism on 20th Century British Poetry". He became a member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...

, and the Labour Party, in 1963. He married a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

, Judith Ann, in 1973; they have two daughters, Alisoun and Jenny. He initially worked as a lecturer of English at Ruffwood Comprehensive School and Edge Hill College of H.E. (where he became the Head of European Studies).

Political career

At the general election in June 1987, Pickthall ran for Parliament in

, but lost to the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

by 1,353 votes. Later, in 1989, he won the seat of Ormskirk on

Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Dar ...

by a very small margin. However, this was sufficient for the Labour Party to take control of the County Council by one seat. At the April 1992 general election, he took the parliamentary seat of West Lancashire, and in the following elections, in May 1997 and June 2001, he retained the seat with a substantial majority. He became a member of the Select committee on Agriculture in 1992, the post that he maintained until 1997. He was appointed parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to

Alun Michael Alun Edward Michael (born 22 August 1943) is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative retired politician. He served as Secretary of State for Wales from 1998 to 1999 and then as the first First Secretary of Wales (later known as First Minister) and L ...

MP in 1997, later serving

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

MP. He resigned as PPS in December 2000 in response to the police investigation into his election expenses. He was reinstated shortly afterwards, in 2001, when the police investigation concluded there had been “no wrongdoing”. He was transferred to the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

in 2001, where he continued as Straw's PPS. He pledged his "continuing support" for

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

in July 2004, remarking that his performance has been "psychologically remarkable". Pickthall is considered a leftist, frequently campaigning on

animal welfare Animal welfare is the quality of life and overall well-being of animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures ...

and environmental issues. He is opposed to

hare coursing Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight, not by scent. In some countries, it is a legal, competitive activity in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn ...

, as the

Waterloo Cup The Waterloo Cup was a hare coursing event organised by the National Coursing Club. The three-day event was run annually at Great Altcar in Lancashire, England, from 1836 to 2005 and it used to attract tens of thousands of spectators to watch and ...

took place at

Great Altcar Great Altcar is a village and civil parish in West Lancashire, England, close to Formby on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. The population as taken at the 2011 census was 213. The name Altcar is Norse meaning "marsh by the Alt". The church o ...

, in his constituency, and

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

. His support for the

hunting ban The Hunting Act 2004 (c. 37) is an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of most wild mammals (notably Red fox, foxes, deer, European hare, hares and American mink, mink) with dog ...

led to pro-hunt supporters leaving a dead fox on his doorstep in February 2005. He retired from the

at the general election of May 2005. Pickthall is a supporter of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickthall, Colin 1944 births Living people Members of Lancashire County Council Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British humanists Alumni of the University of Wales Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of Lonsdale College, Lancaster Academics of Edge Hill University UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 People from Dalton-in-Furness People educated at Ulverston Grammar School