Edwina Currie Jones née Cohen, (born 13 October 1946) in Liverpool to a Jewish family is a former British Member of Parliament. A pupil at The Belvedere School and Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford, Oxford University; subsequently, she took a Master's degree in economic history at the London School of Economics.

Politics

From 1975 to 1986 she served as a Birmingham City Councillor. In 1983 she stood for parliament as a member of the Conservative Party (UK), and was elected as the member for Derbyshire South (UK Parliament constituency). In 1986, she became a Junior Health Minister, but was forced to resign in 1988 after she issued a warning about salmonella in British egg (food) that was criticised for being hysterical and over-cautious. After continually reiterating that a majority of British eggs were infected with salmonella her position came into jeopardy. The amount of eggs infected by salmonella was actually a minority, so when Margaret Thatcher stated "I had eggs for breakfast", this killed Currie's career. In the 1997 general election she lost her parliamentary seat. For five years (1998–2003) she hosted a successful late-evening talk show on BBC Radio Five Live; previous achievements in the media included being, in 1991, the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You. She subsequently appeared again in a special episode commemorating the release of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, opposite fellow Belvedere alumnus (though her political and social opposite) Derek Hatton. In February 1994, she tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to equalise the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual sex at 16. This amendment was defeated by 307 votes to 280, although a subsequent amendment resulted in the reduction of the homosexual age of consent from 21 to 18; equalisation was achieved some years later as a result of the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Euan Sutherland case.

Author

Currie is the author of six novels: A Parliamentary Affair (1994), A Woman's Place (1996) She's Leaving Home (1997), The Ambassador (1999), Chasing Men (2000) and This Honourable House (2001). She has also written four works of non-fiction: Life Lines (1989), What Women Want (1990), Three Line Quips (1992) and Diaries 1987-92 (2002). Her diaries caused a sensation, since they revealed she had had a four-year affair with John Major, who was later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, starting in 1984 and ending in 1988. During a live television interview on RTÉ's The Late Late Show in 2002, she famously slipped up when, discussing her recent marriage, she referred to her new husband as "John Major" (instead of her husband's actual name, John Jones), a mistake which made international headlines and which is regularly shown on TV stations worldwide as a notorious faux pas. She also starred in Hell's Kitchen (UK TV series) on ITV and Wife Swap, opposite John McCririck on Channel 4 as part of a one off celebrity special.

Private life

In 1972, Edwina Cohen married accountant Ray Currie. They had two children. They divorced in 1997. In 1999, she married John Jones, a retired detective. Edwina and second husband John, took part in Wife Swap along with John McCririck and his wife, Jenny. Edwina strongly disapproved of John's habits, some of which are: eating in bed and not at the dining table, refusing to drive the car and cook. Edwina became so enraged with his behaviour, that she threw a glass of wine over him.

External links

BBC News: Major and Currie had four-year affair Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies Category:British female MPs Category:British political scandals Category:Councillors in the West Midlands Category:English novelists Category:English radio personalities Category:Former students of St Anne's College, Oxford Category:People from Liverpool Category:Conservative MPs (UK) Category:British Jews Category:UK MPs 1983-1987 Category:UK MPs 1987-1992 Category:UK MPs 1992-1997

                       

Courtesy of: http://www.wikipedia.org/