Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone

Blackstone in 2008

Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone,^[1][2] PC (born 1942) is an English politician and university administrator.

Academic background

Blackstone was educated at Ware Grammar School for Girls and the London School of Economics, where she gained a doctorate. Her academic career began at the former Enfield College (now Middlesex University) before she went on to become a lecturer at the LSE and Professor of Educational Administration at the University of London Institute of Education. She has also held research fellowships at the Centre for Studies in Public Policy and the Policy Studies Institute.

Further career

Her father was the chief fire officer for Hertfordshire, her mother an actor and model for the House of Worth in Paris.

Although once known as the 'Red Baroness' despite her particular interests and personal manner, she has served as chairman of the ballet board of the Royal Opera House, the Fabian Society, and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and has sat on the governing bodies of numerous other organisations.

Blackstone was Deputy Education Officer of the Inner London Education Authority (1983–86). She has also worked as a policy adviser in the Cabinet Office. As a member of Jim Callaghan's Downing Street thinktank, she upset the Foreign Office by criticizing diplomats' lavish lifestyles.

She headed Birkbeck College, University of London, for a decade as Master (from 1987 to 1997) until her appointment to the new Labour government in 1997. She has been on the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation.

Politics

Originally on the Opposition front bench in House of Lords, Blackstone held a succession of portfolios during her time at Birkbeck.

She is currently Chairman of the British Library and Chairman of Great Ormond Street hospital. Self-described as 'vintage' rather than old or new Labour, Blackstone was Minister for Education at the Department of Education from 1997 to 2001 then Minister for the Arts at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport 2001–2003.

She is a Labour life peer and sits in the House of Lords, having been created Baroness Blackstone, of Stoke Newington in Greater London on 18 March 1987.^[3]

On 15 September 2010, Blackstone, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.^[4]

Current activities

In 2004, Blackstone became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich. She is a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association and chairs the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) trust. In 2009, she became the Chair at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and later in 2010, she became Chair at British Library, a 4-year term. In September 2012, she joined the board of the Orbit Group housing association as its future Chair.^[5] In January 2013, she became co-Chair at the Franco-British Council together with Christian de Boissieu, an organisation which looks to promote better understanding between Britain and France and to contribute to the development of joint action. She is the Chair to the British Section of the Council.^[6]

Publications

Her many publications, which mainly cover education and social policy issues, include:

• ‘Disadvantage and Education’ with Jo Mortimore (Heinemann, 1982)
• ‘Race Relations in Britain’ with Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Saunders (Routledge, 1997)
• Blackstone, Tessa (1997). "The Boy Who Threw an Inkwell: Bevan and Education". In Goodman, Geoffrey (ed.). The State of the Nation: The Political Legacy of Aneurin Bevan. London: Gollancz. pp. 156–178. ISBN 0-575-06308-4.

In the national media, she has broadcast and written extensively.

References

1. Who's Who of Women in World Politics. London: Bowker-Saur. 1991. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-86291-627-5. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
2. Dod, Charles Roger; Dod, Robert Phipps (2002). Dod's Parliamentary Companion. London: Dod's Parliamentary Companion. p. 476. ISBN 978-0-905702-36-0. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
3. The London Gazette: no. 50867. p. 3867. 23 March 1987.
4. "Letters: Harsh judgments on the pope and religion". The Guardian. London. 15 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
5. "Baroness Blackstone announced as future Orbit Chair". Orbit Group.
6. http://www.francobritishcouncil.org.uk/pages/baroness-blackstone-takes-over-as-fbc-chair.html

External links

• Vice-Chancellor – Baroness Blackstone at University of Greenwich
• Donald MacLeod, The Guardian, 12 July 2005, "Tessa Blackstone: Naval gazing"