Glyn Ford (born 28 January 1950) is a British academic and Labour Party politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 2009, initially for Greater Manchester East until 1999, then South West England from 1999 to 2009.

Early life and education

Ford was born in Gloucester.

Academic career

For most of his academic career Ford worked at the University of Manchester, as a research fellow (1976–1979), a lecturer (1979–1980), and finally as a senior research fellow in the Department of Science and Technology Policy (1980–1984).

Ford held this seat for two terms, being re-elected on 10 June 2004. He lost his seat in the elections on 4 June 2009. The Labour Party gained 118,716 votes (7.61%) in the South West region in 2009, which was insufficient to win a seat in the multi-member constituency which had had its representation reduced from seven to six at that election.

Ford's three main areas of interest are Research and Development, Racism and East Asia. Ford was for fifteen years a member of the European Parliament's Research Committee, the Guest Editor of the Science and Public Policy Special Issue on Science and Technology in Europe and the author, with Chris Niblett and Lindsay Walker, of The Future for Ocean Technology (Frances Pinter, 1987).

Ford was Chair of the European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into The Growth of Racism and Fascism in Europe (1984–86) and rapporteur for a second European Parliament Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia. He served as the European Parliament's representative on the Council of Ministers Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia (1994–99). He was National Treasurer of the Anti-Nazi League He was the EU's Chief Election Observer in Indonesia in 2004 and in Aceh 2006–7. In 2008, he published, North Korea on the Brink: Struggle for Survival (Pluto) which has been subsequently been published in Japanese and Korean. He wrote for The Japan Times.

After leaving the European Parliament, Ford founded the Public Affairs and International Relations consultancy Polint.

Ford stood in the 2014 European Parliament election, but his second position on the Labour South West England list did not yield a seat.

Ford is a member of the Labour Party National Policy Forum, and was re-elected in 2015.

Since 2014 Ford has been Director of the Brussels-based NGO Track2Asia.

In 2014, he was a regular contributor to Tribune. As of 2020, Ford writes on international matters for Chartist, NK News and 38 North.

Bibliography

References

  • Official website
  • profile at European Parliament website
  • , profile at European Parliament website