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David Wright Miliband (born London, 15 July 1965) is Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for South Shields in Tyne and Wear. Miliband was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of State for Communities and Local Government following the 2005 general election, before taking on his current role in May 2006.
Early life and education He is the elder son of Marion Kozak and the late Marxist theoretician Ralph Miliband, a Belgian-Jewish refugee during the Second World War. David was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive School in London, then read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, obtaining first class honours and becoming president of the Junior Common Room. He then took a S.M. degree in Political Science in 1990 at MIT, where he was a Kennedy Scholar. He joined the Institute for Public Policy Research as a policy analyst in 1989, before becoming Tony Blair's Head of Policy in 1994. He was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election. After Labour's landslide victory in that election, Blair made him the de facto head of Downing Street's Policy Unit. Political career Having been selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour stronghold of South Shields, he was elected to Parliament in the 2001 election. Barely a year after being elected in June 2002 he was appointed as Schools Minister, a junior minister in the Department for Education and Skills. On 15 December 2004, in the reshuffle following the resignation of David Blunkett, he replaced Ruth Kelly as Cabinet Office Minister. On May 6, 2005, following Labour's third consecutive election victory, he was elevated to the Cabinet as Minister of State for Communities and Local Government, a newly created cabinet post with responsibility for housing, planning, regeneration and local government. To appease the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, whose department was officially in charge of these portfolios, Miliband was not given the title Secretary of State, although he was a full member of the Cabinet. On May 5 2006 following the local elections Tony Blair made a major and almost brutal cabinet reshuffle - his biggest since coming to power - in which Miliband replaced Margaret Beckett as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This post meant leading Defra. Miliband believes that agriculture is important for Great Britain’s Cultural heritage, Economy and Society and also for the environment. He believes disease control should be balanced with animal welfare. He attaches importance to reaching a “Fair balance” between consumers, farmers, Manufacturers and Retailers. He feels the European Union and the World Trade Organization affect power relations between British and foreign farmers. * On 18 August 2006, Miliband initiated the launch of a wiki to form an environmental contract. However, it was subsequently linked to by Guido Fawkes (blogger), and mocked, after which further edits by guest users were temporarily prevented.•. The wiki is now available again, although registration is now required. Trivia See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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