Kenneth Baker

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Kenneth Wilfrid Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, CH, PC, (born November 3, 1934), is a British politician, and former Conservative MP.

Son of a civil servant, he was educated at the former Hampton Grammar School, a boys' voluntary aided school, now renamed Hampton School, an independent school, between 1946 and 1948, and thereafter at St Paul's School, a boys' independent school in Barnes, London and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked for Royal Dutch Shell before being elected as a Member of Parliament at a by-election in March 1968.^[1] He served as Secretary of State for the Home Department, Secretary of State for Education, and Secretary of State for the Environment. He was Chairman of the Conservative Party at the time Margaret Thatcher resigned (November 1990). He chose not to run for re-election in 1997 and was made a life peer as Baron Baker of Dorking, in the County of Surrey.

Baker's most noted action in his time at the Department of Education was the introduction of the controversial "National Curriculum" through the 1988 Education Act. He also introduced in-service training days for teachers, which became popularly known as "Baker days".

In 2005 he published a book on King George IV, George IV: A Life in Caricature (Thames & Hudson).

In 2006, Lord Baker announced that he was introducing a bill into the House of Lords to prevent MPs not representing English constituencies voting on matters that had been devolved to assembies in Wales and Scotland, thus solving the West Lothian question.

[edit] Notes

• 1 He was elected at the Acton by-election on 28 March 1968, serving until the 1970 general election. He was elected at a by-election in St Marylebone on 22 October 1970, serving until the 1983 general election, when he moved to the seat of Mole Valley, which he represented until the 1997 general election.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Bernard Floud	Member of Parliament for Acton 1968–1970	Succeeded by Nigel Spearing
Preceded by Quintin Hogg	Member of Parliament for St. Marylebone 1970–1983	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Constituency created	Member of Parliament for Mole Valley 1983–1997	Succeeded by Sir Paul Beresford
Political offices
Preceded by Patrick Jenkin	Secretary of State for the Environment 1985–1986	Succeeded by Nicholas Ridley
Preceded by Sir Keith Joseph	Secretary of State for Education and Science 1986–1989	Succeeded by John MacGregor
Preceded by Peter Brooke	Chairman of the Conservative Party 1989–1990	Succeeded by Chris Patten
Preceded by Tony Newton	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1989–1990	Succeeded by Chris Patten
Preceded by David Waddington	Home Secretary 1990–1992	Succeeded by Kenneth Clarke