Edwina Currie a former British Member of Parliament is the guest speaker at Ribble Valley Conservative Association Dinner on the 24th February 2012 at Clitheroe Golf Club. Ken Hind senior vice chairman stated - ''we are delighted that following Strictly Come dancing Tour , Edwina is coming to the Ribble Valley to speak ''
Edwina was first elected as a Conservative Party MP in 1983, she was a Junior Health Minister for two years, before resigning in 1988 over the controversy over salmonella in eggs. By the time Currie lost her seat in 1997, she had begun a new career as a novelist and broadcaster. She was born in Liverpool attended Liverpool Institute High School , she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford University and gained an MA in economic history from the London School of Economics.
From 1975 until 1986, she was a Birmingham City Councillor for Northfield. In 1983, she stood for parliament as a Conservative Party candidate, and was elected as the member for South Derbyshire. Frequently outspoken, she was described as "a virtually permanent fixture on the nation's TV screen saying something outrageous about just about anything" and "the most outspoken and sexually interested woman of her political generation."
In September 1986, she became a Junior Health Minister. Among her comments over the next two years were - despite not being religious - that "good Christian people" don't get AIDS, that old people who couldn't afford their heating bills should wrap up warm in winter, and that northerners die of "ignorance and chips".
Edwina resigned in December 1988 after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs. The statement that "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella" sparked outrage among farmers and egg producers, and caused egg sales in the country to rapidly decline. Although the statement was widely interpreted as referring to "most eggs produced", in fact it related to the egg production flock; there was indeed evidence that a mid-1980s regulation change had resulted in salmonella. The controversy gained her the nickname 'Eggwina'. Long after the furore died down, in 2001, it was revealed in a Whitehall report produced months after her resignation that found that there had been a "salmonella epidemic of considerable proportions".
In 1991, she was the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You and she appeared again two years later, in a special episode commemorating the release of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, opposite fellow Liverpudlian (and Liverpool Institute alumnus) Derek Hatton.
After the 1992 General Election, she declined a request from prime minister John Major to take up a position as Minister of State for the Home Office.
In February 1994, she tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to lower the age of consent for male homosexual sexual acts to 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; final equalisation was achieved in 2000. She voted in favour of the Death penalty for murder in 1983, but against it in 1994.
In June 1994, she contested the European Parliament seat of Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes, but lost the seat to Labour's Eryl McNally by 94,837 votes to 61,628 votes.
Edwina lost her parliamentary seat in the 1997 General Election. For five years (1998–2003), she hosted a late-evening talk show on BBC Radio Five Live, Late Night Currie.
Edwina is married to retired police officer John Jones whom she had met when he was a guest on her radio programme in 1999 with whom she lives in Derbyshire.
As an author Edwina has written 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). She remains an outspoken public figure, and currently earns her living as an author and media personality.
From the time she lost her seat in 1997, Edwina Currie has maintained a presence in the media. For five years an eponymous phone-in programme ran on BBC Radio Five Live, Late Night Currie.] In 2002 she moved to HTV, presenting the television programme Currie Night until 2003.
Since then, she has appeared in a string of reality television programmes, such as Wife Swap in which she and her second husband John swapped places with John McCririck and his wife, Jenny. She has also appeared in the reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes, both in 2006. Edwina was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!. She won Celebrity Mastermind on 23 June 2004, specialising in the life of Marie Curie. She also won All Star Family Fortunes on 3 January 2009. She appeared in Channel 4's Come Dine With Me in February 2009 where she finished third.
She made a second appearance on the show during Channel 4's "Alternative Election Night" coverage, with Rod Liddle, Brian Paddick and Derek Hatton as her competitors. She also appeared in James May's Show James May's Toy Stories where she helped him build a bridge made entirely out of Meccano in Liverpool
Recently she has been criticsed by political opponents for her comments on child poverty and the welfare state.
In 2004 she took part in a special sponsored cycley ride across Poland, near to the area where ancestors of hers lived, for Marie Curie Cancer Care
In 2005 in her role as a patron of the British Heart Foundation she championed a campaign to raise awareness of the effect of heart disease on women.
In May 2007 the patient charity MRSA Action announced Edwina Currie as their patron. Edwina has championed the campaign against hospital superbugs.
In October 2011, Edwina Currie took part in EurVoice- an event supported by the European Youth Parliament United Kingdom.
In November 2011 she accepted the position of President of the Tideswell Male voice Choir.
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