Trevor Arthur Smith, Baron Smith of Clifton

Trevor Arthur Smith, Baron Smith of Clifton , Kt (born June 14, 1937 ) is a British political scientist , university professor and politician of the Liberal Democrats , who has been a life peer member of the House of Lords since 1997 .

Life

Studies, unsuccessful lower house candidacy and university professor

After attending school, Smith completed a degree in political science and was after its completion between 1958 and 1959 first a teacher before he was then until 1960 part-time assistant lecturer at the University of Exeter . In the meantime, he ran unsuccessfully for a member of the House of Commons in the general election on October 8, 1959 in the Lewisham West constituency . After working from 1960 to 1962 as a research fellow at the Acton Society Trust, he was lecturer in political science at the University of Hull from 1962 to 1967 .

He then began teaching at Queen Mary College (QMC) at the University of London , where he was lecturer and later senior lecturer for political science between 1967 and 1983. At the same time he was a visiting associate professor at California State University, Los Angeles in 1969 and served as head of the political science department between 1972 and 1985 and also as dean of social studies at the QMC from 1979 to 1982 . Smith, who until 1991 from 1983 endowed chair held at QMC, was from 1985 to 1987 only pro principal , then Senior Pro-principal, and finally from 1989 to 1991 Executive Vice-Principal of Queen Mary College. Between 1975 and 2006 he was the director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and was its chairman from 1987 to 1999.

During this time he was also chairman of the University Rectors' Conference in Ireland in 1987 . Furthermore, Smith was involved in the British Association for Political Studies ( Political Studies Assoc ) and was its chairman from 1988 to 1989, then vice-president between 1989 and 1991 and president between 1991 and 1993 and has been vice-president of this association since 1993.

Positions in institutions and in the private sector

Between 1979 and 1984 he was a member of the board of directors of the Sir John Cass Redcoat School and from 1985 to 1992 he was also a member of the board of directors of the University of Haifa and between 1988 and 1993 he was also a member of the board of directors of the Bell Educational Trust.

In addition to his teaching activities at the QMC, he also took on numerous functions in the private sector and was a board member of several companies such as Job Ownership Ltd (1978 to 1985), New Society Ltd (1986 to 1988), Statesman and Nation Publishing Co Ltd (1988 to 1990) and Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd (1990-1995). He was also committed to patient protection and was a member from 1987 to 1989, then Vice President of the Health Administration of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets until 1991, and Vice President of the UK Patients Association from 1988 to 1997.

Between 1991 and 1999 he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Ulster and, at the same time, Vice President of the Institute for Citizenship Studies. He was also President of the Belfast Civic Trust from 1995 to 1999, a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Universities (IAU) between 1995 and 1996 and then a Board Member of A Taste of Ulster from 1996 to 1999 . In addition, he has been co-editor of the scientific journal Government and Opposition since 1995 and was a member of the British Socrates Council from 1993 to 1999 and, most recently, its chairman from 1996 to 1999.

House of Lords

In 1996 Smith was ennobled as a Knight Bachelor and henceforth the suffix "Sir". By a letters patent dated November 4, 1997, Smith was raised to life peer as Baron Smith of Clifton , of Mountsandel in the County of Londonderry, and thereby became a member of the House of Lords. Shortly thereafter, he was introduced as a member of the House of Lords . In the House of Lords he belongs to the Liberal Democrats.

At the beginning of his membership of the House of Lords, he was a member of the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine from 1999 to 2000 and then from 2000 to 2010 spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Group for Northern Ireland . At the same time he was a member of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Assembly between 2000 and 2011.

Lord Smith, who also served on the Board of Directors of the North Yorkshire Health Administration from 2000 to 2002, was also a member of the House of Lords Committee on Law and Institutions of the EU in 2001 and also chaired the House of Lords Committee on Animals in Scientific Practice from 2001 to 2002. In addition, he was a member of the Upper House Committee for Communication between 2004 and 2006 and the Upper House Committee for Constitutional Affairs from 2005 to 2008. Between 2006 and 2008 he was also a member of the Subcommittee on Interests of the House of Lords and from 2007 to 2010 spokesman for the Liberal Democrats Group on Constitutional Affairs.

In addition, from 2008 to 2009 he was a member of the House of Lords ad hoc committee for the so-called Barnett formula, with which public tasks are assigned in parts of Great Britain. He has been a member of the House of Lords for Economics since 2010 and was also director of Democratic Audit Ltd. from 2007 to 2011.

honors and awards

Lord Smith has received multiple awards and is an Honorary Doctor of Law (Hon. LL.D.) from the University of Dublin (1992), the University of Hull (1993), the National University of Ireland (1996) and Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL) from University of Alabama (1998) and Doctor of Letters (Hon. D.Litt.) From the University of Ulster (2002). In 1994 he also became an honorary member of the Senate of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and since 2003 an honorary fellow of the Mary College (QMC) of the University of London.

She is also a member or fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences 2001 as well as the Royal Historical Society (1986), the CIMGt (1992), the Royal Society of Arts and the Institute of Continuing Professional Development .

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage (accessed on November 28, 2012)
• Trevor Smith at Hansard (English)
• Entry in They Work For You (accessed November 28, 2012)
• Biography in Debrett's (accessed November 30, 2012)