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derek
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"Derek Wyatt MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey"
Male
58 years old
London,
United Kingdom
Last Login:
5/7/2008
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derek's Interests
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| General | writing - six books to date - two more in the pipeline; travelling - especially Africa and the Mid East. | | Music | Jazz - from Abdullah Ibrahim to Michelle Peyroux to Miles Davis | | Movies | Favourite film is Casablanca but love going to the cinema | | Television | News and sports junky but watch it less and less preferring the internet | | Books | Favourites include Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig, anything by D.H.Lawrence and George Orwell; I've a soft spot for Susan Minot's writings; I read anything and everything about how the world of computing started and continues; I've an interest in early 20th century art | | Heroes | Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee |
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derek's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Networking | | Hometown: | Rodmersham | | Body type: | 5' 11" | | Ethnicity: | White / Caucasian | | Religion: | Protestant | | Zodiac Sign: | Sagittarius | | Smoke / Drink: | No / Yes | | Children: | Proud parent | | Education: | Grad / professional school | | Occupation: | Member of Parliament | |
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derek's Latest Blog Entry
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Blog 4th-10th June 2007
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Westminster Politics
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A Week in Westminster
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Blog 16th-22nd April 2007
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Blog 19th-25th March 2007
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derek's Blurbs |
About me:
I was first elected to the House of Commons for the new constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey in north Kent in May 1997. I had previously been a Labour borough councillor for Archway in the borough of Haringey in north London. I was re-elected in June 2001 and again in May 2005 (though with a reduced majority).
Before being elected as an MP, I was Director of The Computer Channel at BSkyB and travelled extensively throughout America from mid 1995 to research the internet and to assess its impact. On arriving at Westminster I quickly formed the All Party Internet Group and I have been its chairman ever since. In 2006, we have concentrated on examining the issues around Digital Rights Management and we made out thrid visit to Washington, DC to attend the Internet Caucus there and suggested delaying the .XXX url (which ICANN did) and re-examining security with respect to server technology.
The role of an MP is in a state of constant flux.
Constituents expect you to be in their patch eight days a week and often feign surprise that you cannot make a meeting between mid Monday and late Thursday because you do actually have to be in Westminster to vote. MPs find that at Westminster they need to be there a further eight days a week! So far, MPs have sadly resisted electronic or text voting (unlike Scottish MSPs). The more we fail to modernise the more out of touch we appear.
I spend Monday mornings and all day Fridays somewhere in Sittingbourne or the Isle of Sheppey or in one of our rural villages. My local staff - Kelly, Amanda and Roger - look after my diary, the case work, visits and media coverage. We usually do a weekly Advice Surgery on Fridays and handle emergencies on Monday mornings. My Advice Surgeries are held in supermarkets, schools, village halls, libraries and churches. I was the first MP to use supermarkets for surgeries. Since, 1997 I have visited every school (sometimes five or six times), all of our largest businesses (and some of the smaller ones too) and I have fought hard to make sure we won both a new community hospital (opened 2002) and a new bridge which was opened on 3rd July 2006.
In Parliament, I work at my office in Norman Shaw North on the Westminster estate. My staff there - Anna and Jenny - look after national and international issues as well that diary and additional case work. Between both offices, we reckon to have helped over 12,500 constituents. We do not win every case but we do our very best.
I work almost exclusively on email - wyattd@parliament.uk - and arrange for these to be forwarded to me remotely when I am away from the Office. Radio5Live said that I was "The fastest emailer in the West" when they ran a competition to find who was the quickest MP to respond to constituents emails! In 2004 I was voted one of the top 100 internet visionaries over the past decade and in 2006 my web site won the New Statesman New Media award for the best site for an "Elected Representative".
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Who I'd like to meet:
Like minded politcians, thinkers and visionaries across the world
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