Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

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Lord Andrew Adonis
Incumbent
Assumed office 
16 May or 23 May 2005
Born 22 February 1963 (1963-02-22) (age 45)
Political party Labour

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (born 22 February 1963)[1] is a United Kingdom Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He was appointed following the 2005 general election. He previously served as education and constitution policy advisor on the Number 10 Policy Unit from 1998 to 2005, heading it from 2001-2003.[1][2] Before joining the government, Adonis was an academic at Oxford university, then a journalist at the Financial Times and the Observer.[1][2][3]

Contents

[edit] Early and private life

Andrew (originally named Andreas) is the son of an immigrant Greek Cypriot father and an English mother.[4] His mother left the family when he was a toddler and has had no communication with him since.[4] Shortly thereafter, Andrew was placed in care and lived in a council children's home until the age of 11, when he was awarded a local education authority grant to attend Kingham Hill School[5]

After Kingham Hill Adonis went to nearby Oxford University graduating with a first class BA in modern history from Keble College [6]. He then completed a D.Phil on the British aristocracy of the late 19th century at Christ Church[5] before winning a fellowship at Nuffield College.[1] From 1991 to 1996 he was a public policy correspondent, industry correspondent and public policy editor at the Financial Times.[1] In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist and editor.[1]

He is married to Kathryn Davies,[1] with whom he has two young children named Edmund and Alice.[5]. The family lives in Islington, north London.[4]

[edit] Political background

From 1987 until 1991 Adonis was a councillor in Oxford for the Liberal Democrats.[1]

In 1994, he was selected by Westbury Constituency Liberal Democrats as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, but resigned after about 18 months, without fighting an election.[citation needed] The next year, he joined the Labour Party.[7] During the mid to late 1990s, he was politically active in Islington North, the constituency represented by hard-left MP Jeremy Corbyn; he was selected to contest St George's Ward, Islington Council for Labour in 1998 - coincidentally, the poet laureate Andrew Motion, a Labour Party member, lives in this ward - but withdrew from the process when the education and constitution policy advisor post previously referred to was offered. On 16 May 2005[8] or 23 May 2005[9] he was created a life peer as Baron Adonis, of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, elevation to membership of the House of Lords making possible his appointment as a government minister [10].


[edit] Selected publications

[edit] Books

  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Keith Thomas (Editor) (2004). Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective. 
  • Andrew Adonis, Stephen Pollard (1997). A Class Act: Myth of Britain's Classless Society. 
  • David Butler, Andrew Adonis & Tony Travers (1994). Failure in British government : the politics of the poll tax. 
  • Andrew Adonis (1993). Making Aristocracy Work: The Peerage and the Political System in Britain,. 
  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Andrew Tyrie (Editor) (1989). Subsidiarity: no panacea. 

[edit] Various New Statesman articles

  1. Ben Pimlott The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II – book review, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  2. Our progressives only look dead (prospects for a revival of progressivism in the United Kingdom), 1996, Andrew Adonis
  3. Christopher Booker and Richard North The Castle of Lies: Why Britain Must Get Out of Europe – book review, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  4. Anthony Barnett This Time: Our Constitutional Revolution – book review, 1996, Andrew Adonis

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Will Woodward (2005-10-28). The Guardian profile: Andrew Adonis. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  2. ^ a b Department for Education and Skills Ministerial Team. Department for Education and Skills. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  3. ^ Adviser Adonis made a minister. BBC News (2005-05-10). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  4. ^ a b c Mother: why I left minister as a toddler. Times Online (2005-06-12). Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  5. ^ a b c Ben Hall (2007-01-17). This is not a wacky utopia. Financial Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  6. ^ The Record, page 21. Keble College, 1984
  7. ^ Profile: Andrew Adonis. BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation) (2005-05-09). Retrieved on 2007-04-22.
  8. ^ Darryl Lundy. Person Page 14950. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
  9. ^ Lord Adonis. They Work For You. Retrieved on 2008-03-23.
  10. ^ Adonis will now be accountable. The Independent (2005-05-12). Retrieved on 2007-04-03.

[edit] External links