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Vera Baird, QC (née Thomas; born 13 February 1950) is a British Labour Party activist, barrister, author and lecturer. She serves as a visiting professor at London South Bank University and a visiting law lecturer at Teesside University. She is also an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, a co-director of Astraea Gender Justice (research and education) and the chair of Eaves for Women Charity. She is the only woman honorary member of the Durham Miners Association. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 2001 to 2010, when she lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats with the highest swing against any Labour candidate anywhere in the country prompted by local anger over the closure of Teesside Steelworks. Baird became the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria in November 2012. During the campaign she featured her intention to champion neighbourhood policing, improve how anti-social behaviour and drug crime are dealt with and prioritise tackling violence against women. ==Early life== Vera Baird was born in Chadderton, near Oldham in Lancashire, the daughter of Jack Thomas, a maintenance painter in a cotton mill, who died when she was 10 years old, and Alice Marsland, a print worker. Her paternal grandfather was a Welsh miner and her maternal grandparents were cotton mill workers. She went to Yew Tree County Primary School and the local authority-run Chadderton Grammar School for Girls and was then at Newcastle Polytechnic where she studied Law, gaining an LLB. Whilst there she founded and edited a Student Newspaper, "Polygon" and a year later was elected Vice President of the Polytechnic Union. In 1983 she gained a BA in Literature and Modern History at the Open University. In 1983 she became a legal associate of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She completed the first year of an MA in modern history at London Guildhall University from 1999 before transferring to University of Teesside on being selected for Redcar. She is currently studying for an MPhil (History) at the University of Teesside.〔(Vera Baird QC MP – Official biography )〕 She was the part-time Parish Council clerk of Shadforth parish council in County Durham in the late 1970s when she lived in the County Durham village of Ludworth. Baird joined the Labour Party in 1971 and later joined the TGWU, now UNITE. She is now also a member of UNISON and of the GMB Trade Unions and a member of the Co-operative Party. She was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1975 and first practised in the North East, setting up Collingwood Chambers in Newcastle upon Tyne, with other young barristers, shortly after she finished her pupilage and becoming its Head of Chambers for some years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vera Baird」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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