Tessa Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone

Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone, Baroness Blackstone, PC (born 27 September 1942 in Bures, Suffolk) is a British 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

It was said that 'her patrician manner is at odds with the horror she has inspired in Conservative quarters' (Donald MacLeod).

However, her background is middle-class: her father was the chief fire officer for Hertfordshire, her mother an actress 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.

Deputy Education Officer of the Inner London Education Authority (1983-86). She has also worked as a policy adviser in the Cabinet Office. Blackstone was known as a "dark-eyed evil genius" when, 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.

Politics

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

Self-described as 'vintage' rather than old or new Labour, Blackstone has been 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 in the House of Lords and sits as Baroness Blackstone, of Stoke Newington in Greater London.

Current activities

In 2004, she became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich which as seen significant growth in recent years.

Baroness Blackstone is a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association

She chairs the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) trust.

Publications

Her many publications on education and social policy issues include ‘Race Relations in Britain’ with Bhikhu Parekh and Peter Saunders (Routledge, 1997) and ‘Disadvantage and Education’ with Jo Mortimore (Heinemann, 1982). In the national media, she has broadcast and written extensively.

External links

* [http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/vc/vice-chancellor Vice-Chancellor – Baroness Blackstone at University of Greenwich]
* Donald MacLeod, "The Guardian", July 12, 2005, [http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,5500,1526015,00.html "Tessa Blackstone: Naval gazing"]