Talk:Lorely Burt

Requested Edit

The suggestions I have given are to make the page factually up-to-date. Currently, it is written badly. I propose to keep broadly the same layout but make some amends to make it clearer and more concise. As an parliamentarian, Lorely campaigns on local issues, none of which are in her current profile. Without saying the results of her campaigning I feel it important to include brief examples of these.

First Section will stay the same:

"Lorely Jane Burt (born 10 September 1954) is a British politician and the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Solihull.[1]"

Contents

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• 1 Early life • 2 Employment before Parliament • 3 Political career o 3.1 Member of Parliament o 3.2 Campaigns • 4 Personal life • 5 See also • 6 References • 7 External links

The 'Early Life' section has been amended for better grammar:

"Early life[edit] Lorely Burt attended High Arcal Grammar School, Dudley (1966-71) and Dudley Technical College (A-levels 1971-73) before going to University College, Swansea where she attained a BSc in Economics. She went on to receive an MBA from the Open University."

The 'Employment before Parliament' section has been amended to read better- no factual changes:

"Employment before Parliament [edit] After graduating in economics, Lorely Burt began her career in the Prison Service as an Assistant Governor at Holloway, before working for prominent national companies including Beecham and Europcar in the field of personnel and training. She later set up an award winning training company and worked as a director in the marketing and financial services sector, before moving into part-time consultancy work when she became the prospective Liberal Democrat candidate for Solihull."

The 'Political Career' section has been edited. I have removed the subtitle 'Council' because it held no relevance to the information in the section. There was more general political information such as becoming an EU candidate, being a councilor and standing for a different Parliamentary seat. Instead, there is no subtitle for this as it comes before the main subsection 'Member of Parliament'. Lorely's role at Parliament has changed from being chair of the Parliamentary party, she is now PPS to Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I have made 3.1 'Member of Parliament' and made a new sub-section 'Campaigns' and called it 3.2. See below:

"Political career [edit] Lorely Burt’s political career began on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, where she served for five years between 1998 and 2003.

She first stood for Parliament in Dudley South at the 2001 general election polling 5,421 votes for third place.

She also stood for the West Midlands region at the 2004 European Parliament election.

Member of Parliament [edit] In the run up to the 2005 general election, Burt campaigned on various local issues affecting Solihull and succeeded in overturning incumbent John Taylor's large majority to a 279 majority in her favour. This was a striking achievement as the Conservatives lost only two other seats to the Liberal Democrats that year, and they had both been marginal seats for the previous decade. Solihull had been a traditionally Conservative constituency (at one point, Taylor's predecessor, Percy Grieve MP, had the largest Tory majority in Britain). Burt was aided in her victory over Taylor by squeezing the vote of the Labour Party. Boundary changes that took place after 2005 made Solihull an extremely marginal seat ahead of the 2010 General Election.

Following her election, Lorely Burt became a Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Northern Ireland, an Opposition Whip and also served on the Treasury Select Committee. Following the election of Sir Menzies Campbell to the leadership of the party, Burt became the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Small Business and Women and Equality. In 2007 she moved to become the Spokesperson for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. In October 2007, she was elected as the party's first female Chair of the Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary Party, defeating John Thurso and Andrew George in a poll of MPs.[5] In the 2010 general election, boundary changes had made her seat notionally Conservative. Against the national trend, however, she held Solihull by 175 votes over her Conservative opponent Maggie Throup.

In 2013 Lorely was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Upon taking this new role she resigned from her positions as BIS Co-Chair and Chair of the Parliamentary Party.

Campaigns [edit] Lorely has stood up for Solihull’s constituents and services on a number of issues both locally and nationally. Locally, she has campaigned to save Solihull’s NHS Walk-In Centre, to save Shirley Library from closure by the Conservative-run council and for a better ambulance service. She has also led a campaign backed by Solihull College to help create 100 apprenticeships in 100 days.

Nationally, Lorely has campaigned for lower taxes for lower-middle income workers. "

For Personal Life, I have no proposed amends as it is factually accurate:

"Personal life [edit] She is married and has a daughter and a stepson."

Since the edits have already been implemented, I am de-activating the Edit Request template. -- Diannaa (talk) 17:16, 1 March 2014 (UTC)