Biography
Glyn Ford has been a Labour Member of the European Parliament since 1984. He was re-elected in June 2004 and has now worked 10 years for the South West of England, Glyn is at present a member of the following committees: International Trade, the Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense and Petitions.
In addition, Glyn is involved in the following Intergroups (which are made up of MEPs all different political groups); the Globalisation Intergroup as the Secretary, the Sports Intergroup as the Vice President and the Anti-racism Intergroup.
Glyn is also a member of the Parliament’s Delegation with Relations to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Since his first election, he has been an active member of the delegation to Japan, serving as Vice Chairman for a period of five years. After living, studying and working in Japan and Asia he has devoted much of his life to EU Asian relations and development
From 1989 to 1993 Glyn was the Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and, consequently, a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.
Between 1984 and 1986, Glyn Ford was the Chair of the Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into the Rise of Racism and Fascism and then, in 1990, he was the rapporteur for the second Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia. From this came his book Fascist Europe. He was the Parliament’s representative on the Consultative Committee into Racism and Xenophobia set up in July 1994 by Chancellor Kohl and President Mitterrand and the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the report on the setting-up of a European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
Glyn Ford has been responsible for a number of other reports submitted to the Parliament. In October 1986, he was the rapporteur on the Committee on External Economic Relations, which submitted a report to the Parliament on counter trade. In 1987, he submitted a report on Star Wars and Eureka, calling for ‘non-participation’ in the Star Wars programme.
The vote on Star Wars was lost in the Parliament by just two votes. Glyn Ford has also been the rapporteur on two further reports submitted to the Parliament on the Control and Regulation of Lobbyists which was passed with an almost record breaking majority. He was also rapporteur for a report on a Code of Conduct for Lobbyists, which was passed in May 1997, and for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) on the Research Committee.
Before becoming a member of the European Parliament Glyn was a Local Councillor in Tameside for a number of years. Between 1979 and 1980, he was the Chair of the Environmental Health and Control Committee and then between 1980 and 1985, he was the Chair of Tameside Education Services Committee.
With a degree in geology from Reading University (1972) and a Masters Degree in Marine Earth Science from University College London (1974), Glyn Ford worked as a student and then as a staff member in Manchester University’s Department of Science and Technology Policy, finishing in 1984 as a Senior Research Fellow. In 1983 he spent six months as a visiting professor teaching science and technology policy in the Department of Systems Science at the University of Tokyo.
Glyn Ford has four main areas of interest: Foreign Affairs, East Asia, the rising tide of racism and Europe.
Born on 28 January 1950, Glyn Ford is divorced and has a daughter and a son.
Glyn has also extensive experience in Election observation having participated in missions in South Africa, Kenya, Cambodia, and more recently in Indonesia, Ukraine and Haiti. Glyn was Chief EU Observer of the eight month long EU Election Observation Mission to Indonesia and the Cheif of the Parliament observation mission in Haiti in February 2006
