David Willetts

David Willetts (2010)

David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts (* 9. March 1956 in Birmingham ) is a British politician of the Conservative Party , and was from 2010 to 2014 Minister of State for Universities and Science. From 1992 to 2015 he was a member of the House of Commons and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2015 .

biography

Degree, career and member of the House of Commons

After attending King Edward's School in Birmingham , he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Christ Church of University of Oxford , and was then private research staff of energy minister Nigel Lawson . He then became a member of the Treasury Department's monetary policy department in 1982 , where he met Nigel Lawson, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1983 . In 1984 he joined Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's political advisory team . In 1987 he joined the Center for Policy Studies , a think tank founded in 1974 by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph . He still gives lectures for them today.

In addition to being a visiting fellow at Nuffield College , he was Governor of the Ditchley Foundation and a member of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

His own political career began Willetts as a candidate of the Conservative Party, when he in the 1992 elections for the first time even for members of the lower house ( House of Commons ) was chosen, in which he for 23 years the constituency Havant represented.

Government member

In 1996 he served as Paymaster General for a short period in the government of Prime Minister John Major .

In 2005 he was appointed to the conservative shadow cabinet , where he was initially "shadow minister for education and vocational training" before he was "shadow minister for innovation, universities and vocational training" between 2007 and May 2010.

After the election victory of the Conservative Party in the general election in 2010 , he was on 12 May 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron to the Minister of State for Universities and Science ( Minister of State for Universities and Science ) in the Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Skills, taking on the meetings of the Cabinet in part.

He himself had to forego an appointment as minister, since the shadow ministry he had previously headed in the coalition government of the Conservatives with the Liberal Democrats was taken over by the Liberal Democrat Vince Cable . In June 2010 he became a member of the Privy Council .

After Willets was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in May 2010 , he announced that the government intended to increase tuition fees in September 2010 . He resigned as Minister of State on July 14, 2014 and resigned from the House of Commons on March 30, 2015 .

After the political career

On October 16, 2015, Willetts was named a Life Peer with the title Baron Willetts, of Havant in the County of Hampshire . This also made him a member of the House of Lords .

In 2018 Willetts was elected an honorary member of the Royal Society .

Publications

Willets wrote numerous books as a pioneer of Britain's new conservative politics. His most important works include:

• Happy families? Four Points to a Conservative Family Policy , 1991, ISBN 1-870265-62-9 .
• Modern Conservatism , 1992, ISBN 0-14-015477-9 .
• Welfare to Work , 1992, ISBN 1-874097-18-6 .
• Blair's Gurus , 1996, ISBN 0-14-026304-7 .
• Why Vote Conservative? , 1997, ISBN 0-14-026304-7 .
• Who do we think we are? , 1998, ISBN 1-897969-81-3 .
• Left Out, Left Behind , 2003, ISBN 0-9545611-0-4 .
• Old Europe? Demographic Change and Pension Reform , 2003, ISBN 1-901229-47-5 .
• The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And Why They Should Give It Back , 2010, ISBN 978-1-84887-231-8 .

Web links

• Homepage of David Willetts
• Homepage of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
• Conservative Party homepage
• Article on David Willetts in The Guardian

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Homepage of the Center for Policy Studies  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ THE TELEGRAPH: David Willetts: students should pay more for university (September 9, 2010)