| Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock (born Glenys Elizabeth Parry, 7 July 1944) is a Welsh politician who has been a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament since 1994. Before that, she was best known as the wife of Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992. When Neil Kinnock received a life peerage in 2005, Glenys became entitled to the style The Lady Kinnock, which she has chosen not to use.
Early Life
She was educated at Holyhead Comprehensive School, Anglesey and graduated in 1965 from University College, Cardiff in education and history. She had met Neil Kinnock at University and married him in 1967. She worked as a teacher in secondary, primary, infant and nursery schools. She is a member of the GMB, the Co-operative Party, and the NUT. She speaks Welsh, albeit reluctantly.
European Parliament
Lady Kinnock represents Wales in the European Parliament where she is a member of the PES political group. She is a Member of the European Parliament's Development and Co-operation Committee and a substitute member of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. She is also co-president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and is Labour spokesperson on International Development in the European Parliament. She is President of Steel Action in the European Parliament.
Attributes
She is a patron, president or board member of a number of charitable organisations, including Saferworld, Drop the Debt, Parliamentarians for Global Action, The Burma Campaign, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, World Parliamentarian Magazine, Voluntary Service Overseas and One World Action (formerly The Bernt Carlsson Trust). She founded One World Action on December 21, 1989, exactly one year after UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 crash. Lady Kinnock is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association.
In November 2006 Glenys Kinnock was criticized in the press for "taking a junket" to Barbados to discuss world poverty issues. She was actually co-presiding over the 12th ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly which was invited by the Barbados government to discus international aid and development.
Academic Distinctions
University College, Cardiff, BA (Education and History) (1965). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Newport, and the University of Wales, Bangor. She holds honorary Doctorates from Thames Valley University, Brunel University and Kingston University.
Publications - Voices for One World, 1987
- Eritrea - images of war and peace, 1988
- Namibia - birth of a nation, 1991
- By Faith and Daring, 1993
- Zimbabwe on the brink, 2002
- The rape of Darfur, 2006, The Guardian
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