David A Davies Popular Books
David A Davies Biography & Facts
David Thomas Charles Davies (born 27 July 1970) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Wales since 2022 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouth since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he chaired the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from 2010 to 2019. Davies also served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales from 2019 to 2022. A vocal critic of the European Union, he supported Brexit in the 2016 membership referendum. Having previously questioned the scientific evidence for the role of human factors in global warming, Davies said in 2019 that he supported the UK government's intention to become carbon neutral by 2050 and that he fully accepted the link between carbon dioxide and climate change. Background Davies was born on 27 July 1970 in Newham, London, to Peter and Kathleen Davies (née Elton). A great-grandfather was German and Jewish. He was educated at Clytha School and Bassaleg School in Newport, Wales. After leaving school in 1988 he worked for the British Steel Corporation and served with the Territorial Army. He worked for his family in their shipping company, Burrow Heath Ltd, before entering politics. He married Aliz Harnisföger, who is Hungarian, in October 2003 in Monmouth, and they have three children. A keen sportsman, Davies has fought in several charity boxing matches as "The Tory Tornado" and is a former president of the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association. Davies speaks fluent Welsh after learning the language as a beginner when he was elected to the National Assembly for Wales. He was awarded the accolade of Welsh Speaker of the Year and was the first AM to address the Welsh Language Society, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Gymraeg, in Welsh. Service as a Special Constable Davies was sworn in as a Special Constable with the British Transport Police in March 2007. On his third patrol he searched a man 'acting suspiciously' and found a handgun. In August 2011, Davies wrote about his experiences on riot duty and lamented that police were ordered not to go out alone in uniform for safety reasons. Davies had to return from a short holiday for the recall of Parliament to discuss the riots across England and also served on patrols in London that week in his role as a special constable. He called for the police to be encouraged to take tougher action during the riots. He resigned in 2015, after serving nine years as a special constable, because of rules about police officers taking part in politics. Political career He unsuccessfully contested the seat of Bridgend at the 1997 general election, finishing in second place 15,248 votes behind Win Griffiths. As an opponent of the concept of a new Welsh assembly, Davies helped to set up the 'No' campaign in the devolution referendum, Davies gained a higher profile and decided to run as the Conservative candidate for Monmouth. At the inaugural 1999 Welsh Assembly Election he was elected to the National Assembly for Wales. He became the deputy leader of the Welsh Conservatives under Rod Richards. As such, he became the acting leader of the party after Richards' resignation until Nick Bourne became leader in August 1999. He was elected at the 2005 general election as member of the House of Commons for Monmouth, the seat he held in the Welsh Assembly. He defeated the sitting Labour MP Huw Edwards by 4,527 votes, and remains the MP for the constituency. On 18 May 2005 he made his maiden speech giving a history of his constituency from Geoffrey of Monmouth onwards. In Parliament he joined the Welsh Affairs Select Committee on his election. After the 2015 general election, he was returned unopposed the chairmanship of the committee. In 2008, Davies criticised the National Black Police Association's race-based membership policy for not allowing white people interested in fighting racism to become full members and suggesting that they themselves could be guilty of racism. In 2013 Davies voted against the Cameron–Clegg coalition government on the issue of British military intervention in the Syrian civil war. During the trial of fellow Welsh MP Nigel Evans, Davies gave evidence of his character, stating that Evans liked a drink and became jovial when intoxicated, unlike some people who have a dark side. Evans was Davies' best man at his 2003 wedding. In May 2013, Davies said of Evans: "He's been a good friend of mine for a lot of years. I am stunned by these allegations and find them impossible to believe." Evans was acquitted of sexual assaults in April 2014. In June 2015, Davies strongly criticised the planning and organisation of the first Velothon Wales event to be run in Wales which passed through his Monmouth constituency, arguing that business losses should be compensated for. Expenses In 2009 The Daily Telegraph reported that Davies had claimed £2,000 of taxpayers' money and paid it to his family's haulage firm. Davies defended his actions in an interview, denying any wrongdoing and explaining to BBC Wales that his family's firm had been paid to provide postage and produce publicity material at short notice for the annual Monmouth show, that they had not profited, and that he had subsequently used a specialist company in London for the production of such material where the costs were significantly higher. In May of the same year, Davies became the first member of the Commons to voluntarily make his expense claims public. They were scrutinised by an independent panel which he had assembled and it emerged that Davies had claimed £475 for furniture for his London apartment, in addition to the monies paid to his family firm. Welsh Affairs Committee In June 2010 Davies was appointed Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee. He is a former member of the Home Affairs Select Committee and is an advocate of tough measures to deal with criminality. Davies is also Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary British-German Group. In January 2012, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced his appointment as a representative of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis On 7 July 2022, following the resignation of Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart, Davies confirmed that he "will not take the role". October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis On 25 October 2022, upon Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister, Davies was appointed Secretary of State for Wales, succeeding Robert Buckland. TATA Steel crisis In late 2023, TATA Steel announced plans to close its operations in South Wales, which would have led to thousands of job losses and the end of primary steel making. The UK Government's Department for Business and Trade and the Wales Office were able to negotiate a £500 million support package to keep TATA Steel's operations open, but which would lead to the closure of two blast furnaces and the opening of an electric arc furnace. In an i.... Discover the David A Davies popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David A Davies books.
Best Seller David A Davies Books of 2024
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No Glossing Over It
Gary EdwardsBetween 1964 and 1992, Leeds United won eleven fabulous trophies, but the team were runnersup just as often. They missed out on many more titles and cups, not least club football's...
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Licence to be Bad
Jonathan Aldred'It is going to change the way in which we understand many modern debates about economics, politics, and society' Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capit...
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Not Waving But Drowning
Edmund GregoryNot Waving But Drowning tells the harrowing true story of one man's childhood struggle against poverty and his subsequent drive to become a policeman in the Royal Ulster Constabula...
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Say Why to Drugs
Suzi Gage'Essential' Adam Rutherford, bestselling author of How to Argue With a Racist'In an area where factual accuracy is often rejected in favour of moralising or panicking this book is...
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Damaged Goods
Oliver ShahDISCOVER THE SHOCKING TRUTH BEHIND THE BUSINESS AND LIFESTYLE OF SIR PHILIP GREEN 'Superb' Evening Standard'From the glitzy parties to the threatening phone calls, the largerthanli...
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Chasing Killers
Joe JacksonGlasgow is known as the murder capital of Britain and no one understands why better than Joe Jackson. For over 30 years, Jackson worked the crime beat, first as a uniformed cop the...
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Scottish Sporting Legends
Robert PhilipScotland may not have won a World Cup (yet!), but many of the country’s sportsmen and women are revered as global legends, including Olympic and US Open champion Andy Murray and wi...
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Drawing Europe Together
Various AuthorsAre we still 'United in Diversity'? Fortyfive artists from across Europe share their powerful illustrations of the European Union's shared past and our unsure future. From Brexit b...
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New Brunswick at the Crossroads
Tony TremblayWhat is the relationship between literature and the society in which it incubates? Are there common political, social, and economic factors that predominate during periods of heigh...
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The Responsible Globalist
Hassan Damluji'Thought provoking and wellwritten... a good read for people who care about solving global problems. Damluji puts forth ideas that can help make global systems more successful' Bi...
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The Potential
David A. DaviesIt began when he got behind the wheel. It didn't end with his first kill.Chris Morehouse, a chauffeur for the US embassy in Germany, is navigating his way through the tight streets...
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Cappy and the Whale
Kateryna Babkina & Hanna LelivPerfect for fans of Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, and with beautiful colour illustrations throughout, Cappy and The Whale is a unique and wonderful Ukrainian story which Puffin a...
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Curt
Alan Curtis, Stuart Sprake & Tim JohnsonWelsh footballer Alan Curtis is synonymous with Swansea City, having played for the club during three different spells, but he also played for Leeds United, Southampton and Cardiff...
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Raising The Dragon
Huw Richards & Robert JonesRugby has held a central role in Welsh life over the past century. In the words of historian Gareth Williams, the game has been 'a preeminent expressionof Welsh consciousness, ...
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Asset X
David A. DaviesThe hunt is on, pitting an unlikely asset, against a formidable targetthe architect of 9/11.People say CIA officer Chris Morehouse is insubordinate, difficult and irritable. His bo...
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Pete Doherty
Alex HannafordPete Doherty, erstwhile singer with The Libertines, is a British icon. Whether he is playing impromptu gigs in his front room or performing at Live 8, he possesses a sense of drama...
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Mask of Deceit
David A. DaviesA traitor, a defector, a lover, a deceiver, an assassin.In this faced paced, tightly woven espionage story, Chris Morehouse, a British contractor for the CIA, must intercept an ass...
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Mammoth Book of Best British Crime 11
Maxim JakubowskiThis superb annual anthology of the year’s most outstanding short crime fiction published in the UK is now well into its second decade. Jakubowski has succeeded, once again, in une...
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Triumph and Tragedy
Peter JacksonThis collection of revealing profiles captures the essence of a galaxy of Welsh worldbeaters from across the sporting spectrum: athletics, boxing, cricket, football, golf, horse ra...
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The Sherlock Holmes Book
DKDiscover the key ideas, themes, and plotlines behind every case investigated by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the famous and celebrated stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with t...
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The Chameleon Poet
Robert FraserThe poet George Barker was convinced that his biography could never be written. 'I've stirred the facts around too much,' he told Robert Fraser. 'It simply can't be done.' Eliot w...
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Teenage Revolution
Alan DaviesWhen Alan Davies was growing up he seemed to drive his family mad. 'What are we going to do with you?' they would ask as if he might know the answer.Perhaps it was because he came...
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The Double
Ken Ferris'Tottenham Hotspur's reputation around the world was forged by the great doublewinning team fashioned by Bill Nicholson, and every Spurs manager since then has lived in the shadow ...
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Blood Red Desert
David A. DaviesIraq, 2003The hunt for WMD, a war based on a whisper.Alone and on the run in a wintry Iraq, Chris Morehouse, a contractor for the CIA, is in a fight for survival. Stumbling his way...
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No Mean Glasgow
Colin MacFarlaneIn his last book, The Real Gorbals Story, Colin MacFarlane detailed how he witnessed a once great area, home to wonderful characters and grand old buildings, disappear before his e...
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Ronnie
Ronnie DrewThe late great Dubliner, Ronnie Drew, was six months into writing his biography when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had produced warm, witty and insightful material that made it ...
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Mummy, Take Me Home
David Leslie'Mummy, take me home,' sobbed little Jasmine Chapman as she was ripped from her mother's arms. But there was nothing that Morag could do . . . except continue to fight for custody ...
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On Sudden Hill
Linda Sarah & Benji DaviesBirt and Etho are best friends, they play on Sudden Hill, making marvellous contraptions out of cardboard boxes. But then a new boy, Shu, wants to join in too. Birt isn't sure that...
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My World in Motion
Jo WhileyJo Whiley is someone millions of us recognise but very few of us know. Jo's a mother, sister, DJ, wife and musicindustry insider who throughout her career and in an age of fleetin...
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Sir Thomas Lipton
Dr James MackayThomas Lipton burst onto the national scene in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The Princess of Wales had launched a £30,000 fund to provide a Jublilee dinner fo...
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Jungle Tales
John QuinnYears of tradition crashed around the ears of Celtic supporters when the Jungle was demolished and replaced by seating to conform with the Taylor Report. It might never have been t...
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Alive and Kicking
David BryceFrom running with the infamous Calton Tongs to running Calton Athletic, David Bryce's life story is a remarkable account of crime, violence, alcoholism and drug addiction in Glasgo...
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Armed Candy
Reg McKayArmed Candy is the true story of one woman's struggle for survival on Britain's meanest streets. Kay has spent her whole life trying to escape. Sexually abused by her grandmother, ...
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Secret Sky Garden
Linda Sarah & Fiona LumbersA startlingly original picture book about a little girl who creates a garden on a disused car park rooftop Funni loves the old, disused car park, and spends a lot of time the...
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Totally Frank
Frank McGarvey & Ronnie EsplinDuring a glorious but controversial career, Frank McGarvey won every major trophy in Scottish football. Under Alex Ferguson at St Mirren in the 1970s, he inspired a young Saints te...
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The Next Cell
David A. DaviesThe first cell struck on 9/11, the next cell will strike soon...it has been deployed.Within hours of the devastating terrorist attacks on 9/11, CIA officer Chris Morehouse is dispa...
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The Potential
David A. DaviesWhat is a threat? What’s to ignore? With the uncanny ability to take in all and size up the situation instantaneously, Chris Morehouse provides invaluable service as a chauffeur fo...