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Bob Blizzard Website

Robert John 'Bob' Blizzard (born May 31, 1950) is a British politician and currently the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Waveney.

Bob Blizzard was born in 1950 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and was educated at Culford School in Bury St Edmunds and the University of Birmingham, from where he was awarded a BA degree in 1971.

After his own education, he became a teacher. In 1973, he became an English teacher at Southfields Secondary School in Gravesend, Kent. He was appointed as the Head of the English Department at the Crayford School on Iron Mill Lane in Bexley in 1976. In 1986, he became the Head of English at the Lynn Grove High School in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk.

He was elected as a councillor to Waveney District Council in 1987, and became its leader in 1991. He stepped down from the council on his election to Westminster. Bob Blizzard was selected to fight the Conservative held seat of Waveney at the 1997 General Election. In the year of the Labour landslide he defeated the sitting MP David Porter by over 12,000 votes, and he was elected as the first Labour MP for Waveney. He made his maiden speech on June 10, 1997.

From 1997-1999 he served on the Environmental Audit Select Committee. In 1999, he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Baroness Hayman as Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. After the 2001 General Election he became PPS to the Rt Hon Nick Brown MP in Brown's role as Minister for Work at the Department for Work and Pensions. Blizzard resigned this position in March 2003 in protest at the Iraq War.

After the 2005 General Election, Blizzard was appointed as PPS to the Europe Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Douglas Alexander, and remained Alexander's PPS when his boss became Secretary of State for Transport in 2006. In the reshuffle following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister in June 2003, he was promoted to the position of Government Whip.

Blizzard has been Chair of several All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), including: the British Offshore Oil and Gas APPG (1997-2007); the Renewable Transport Fuels APPG (2007); the British-Brazilian APPG (1997-2007); the British-Chilean APPG (2005-2007); the British-Latin America APPG (2004-2007). He has also been Secretary of the Jazz Appreciation APPG (2004-2007).

The policy areas in which he has a special interest include energy, employment, health, transport, education and foreign affairs.

He married Lyn Chance in 1978, and they have a son and daughter. They live in Lowestoft, the main town in the Waveney constituency.

He lists his personal interests as walking, listening to jazz music, skiing, and watching football, rugby and cricket, especially local teams.