test please delete

[TheFaQQer]

Is today Type Random Tulip in TPD Day?

Have I missed it?

Troll is bitter because I overtook him in TPD today

[TheFaQQer]

I was watching Newsnight just now, and was thinking about how little I know about the home secretary, so here's my extensive research.

[TheFaQQer]

Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British politician who has been Home Secretary since 28 June 2007 and is the current Member of Parliament for Redditch, since 1997. She was made a Member of the Privy Council in 2003.

[TheFaQQer]

Smith is the first female Home Secretary of the United Kingdom, and only the third woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State — after Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister) and Margaret Beckett (Foreign Secretary).

[TheFaQQer]

Born in Malvern, Worcestershire, Smith attended Dyson Perrins High School in Malvern. Her parents were teachers. Her local MP there, Conservative backbencher Sir Michael Spicer, recalled in Parliament in 2003 how he had first met her when he was addressing the sixth form at The Chase School, where Smith's mother was a teacher. "So great was my eloquence that she immediately rushed off and joined the Labour party." Smith went on to study for a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Hertford College, Oxford. After Oxford, she did a PGCE at Worcester College of Higher Education.

[TheFaQQer]

From 1986 to 1988, she taught Economics at Arrow Vale High School in Redditch, followed by a post at Worcester Sixth Form College before becoming Head of Economics and GNVQ Co-ordinator at Haybridge High School, Hagley in 1990.

[TheFaQQer]

She was elected MP for Redditch at the 1997 general election.

[TheFaQQer]

In 2003, Smith was appointed as the Government's deputy minister for women and equality, working alongside secretary of state Patricia Hewitt. In this role she published the Government's proposals for Civil Partnerships, a system designed to offer same-sex couples an opportunity to gain legal recognition for their relationship with an associated set of rights and responsibilities.

[TheFaQQer]

Following the 2005 general election, Smith was appointed to serve as the Minister of State for Schools in the Department for Education and Skills, replacing Stephen Twigg who had lost his seat. She agreed to fund LGBT history month.

[TheFaQQer]

In the 2006 reshuffle she was appointed Chief Whip.