Patrick Ground

Reginald Patrick Ground, QC (born 9 August 1932) is a British Conservative politician.

He served as a councillor on the London Borough of Hammersmith from 1968 to 1971 representing Parson's Green ward, and later chaired the Fulham Society.

Ground stood as a candidate for the Feltham and Heston seat seven times between February 1974 and 1997, and was Member of Parliament for the seat between 1983 and 1992, when he lost it to Labour Co-operative candidate Alan Keen.

His specialist area of law (and one of his main areas of interest in parliament) was in the field of planning.

In parliament he also argued strongly against measuring poverty primarily in relative terms saying:

"It seems unsatisfactory to define poverty solely by reference to average incomes because if that were the true position, Labour Members could eliminate poverty completely--if they were able to do so--by expropriating all incomes of, say, 50 per cent. of average incomes or above. That would make for a tremendous reduction in poverty, according to the definition of Opposition Members, but nobody would be any happier or better off. It might please those with egalitarian passions, but it would not add anything to the good of the country.”

Hansard Column 527 19 December 1991

References

• The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1997
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs