The Rt Honourable David Blunkett MP will give the 21st Annual Essex Law Lecture at the University’s Colchester Campus this month.

Mr Blunkett’s lecture is entitled ‘Does tolerance stretch to the intolerable? When should individual rights trump mutual well-being?’ It will cover contemporary topics of interest and takes place at 7pm on Tuesday 24 February in the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall.

Mr Blunkett is one of very few blind MPs and the first to reach the front bench and cabinet. In Tony Blair's first government, he was Secretary of State of Education and Employment, then named Home Secretary in the 2001 general election where his responsibilities in running the Home Office included civil emergencies, security, terrorism and expenditure. Mr Blunkett resigned in 2004 and was Secretary of State of Work and Pensions from May to November 2005. He has since undertaken constituency and parliamentary duties and, in addition, to producing The Blunkett Tapes, been involved with a number of charities.

The Essex Law Lecture is held each year by the University’s School of Law and Suffolk and North Essex Law Society. It has become a major public lecture at the University and, over the last twenty years, has been given by distinguished figures in the legal world like Lord Nolan, Dame Rosalyn Higgins and Sir Richard Scott.

Open to the public, the Essex Law Lecture is free to attend but to avoid disappointment, please book via telephone: 01206 87 3484 or e-mail: gchap@essex.ac.uk

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Notes to editors:
The Rt Honourable David Blunkett MP will give the 21st Annual Essex Law Lecture at 7pm, Tuesday 24 February, in the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall at the University’s Colchester Campus. Free seats can be booked via telephone: 01206 873484 or e-mail: gchap@essex.ac.uk