- John Roper, Baron Roper
John Francis Hodgess Roper, Baron Roper (born
10 September 1935 ) is a British politician.John Roper was educated at
William Hulme's Grammar School (Manchester ),Reading School ,Magdalen College, Oxford (studying PPE) and theUniversity of Chicago .Roper started has career as an
economics lecturer at theUniversity of Manchester . He then went intopolitics and was electedMember of Parliament for Farnworth. He sat as aLabour Co-operative MP (1970–81) and for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from 1981 to 1983, when he was also the party'sChief Whip .Since 2000 he has been a
Life peer as Baron Roper, of Thorney Island in the City ofWestminster . He was the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in theHouse of Lords until 2005. He was subsequently appointed to thePrivy Council of the United Kingdom .He has controversially been accused by
Anthony Glees [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,991533,00.html "History on the rack"] , "The Guardian ", July 5, 2003] of being aStasi "agent of some influence" during his time atChatham House . [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,977356,00.html "The Stasi spy (cont)"] byAnthony Glees , "The Guardian ", June 14, 2003] Lord Roper rejects the charge indignantly. He says he was engaged in building bridges with East Germany in the 1980s as part of a Foreign Office-approved policy of thawing relations."He was deceived, he says, about the background of an undercover Stasi officer he employed as a research fellow when he was director of studies at Chatham House." [ [http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/artsandhumanities/story/0,,975079,00.html "The history men fall out over tales of spying, betrayal and buffoonery"] by David Leigh, "
The Guardian ", June 11, 2003]References
External links
* [http://www.libdems.org.uk/party/people/mr-lord-roper.html Lord Roper] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
* [http://www.roperld.com/RoperLord.htm Whos Who 2002 entry]siblings
tom roper of geology at birmingham university
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