Richard Grayson (academic)

Richard Grayson
Personal details
Born 18 April 1969
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Lucy Grayson
Children Edward Grayson
Alma mater University of East Anglia
The Queen's College, Oxford
Occupation Professor of Twentieth Century History
Profession Goldsmiths, University of London
Religion Church of England

Professor Richard Sean Grayson (born 18 April 1969 in Hemel Hempstead)[1] is Professor of Twentieth Century History at Goldsmiths, University of London.[2] He was educated at Lime Walk Primary School, Hemel Hempstead (Comprehensive) School, the University of East Anglia (1st Class BA Honours in English and American History), and The Queen’s College, Oxford (Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History).[3]

Academic research

His historical research is currently concentrated on Ireland and the First World War, with his most important book being Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War (Continuum, 2009). It has been widely well reviewed.[4] He also edited At War with the 16th (Irish) Division, 1914-18: The Staniforth Letters (2012).[5] Previous work includes books on Austen Chamberlain’s term of office as foreign secretary, the inter-war Liberal Party, Leo Amery and appeasement, the Channel Tunnel project, and Mods and Rockers in the 1960s.[6]

Grayson is involved in a number of First World War centenary projects. He is the chair of the Academy Advisory Group for the digital projects run by the Imperial War Museums,[7] including Operation War Diary[8] and Lives of the First World War.[9] He is an Associate Member of the First World War Centenary Committee in Northern Ireland and contributed to the two-part Ireland’s Great War due to be broadcast on the BBC in 2014.[10] He co-edits the IrelandWW1 website[11] and is involved in the Living Legacies 1914-1918 First World War Engagement Centre.[12]

Political activities

His work on public policy includes an edited volume on social liberalism co-edited with David Howarth and Duncan Brack and including contributions from Chris Huhne, Matthew Taylor, Nick Clegg and Steve Webb. In 2002 he co-wrote a pamphlet with Nick Clegg on secondary education systems, based on research in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.[13] The pamphlet recommended the policy which became the ‘pupil premium’ included in the 2010 coalition agreement.[14] With Jonathan Rutherford he co-edited After the Crash: Reinventing the Left in Britain[15] which included chapters from Jon Cruddas, Caroline Lucas and Steve Webb. He has published an article on public policy in Newark, New Jersey, examining the work of Mayor Cory Booker, a friend from his time studying at Oxford.[16] He has commentated on politics for both the Independent and the Guardian (see ‘Political Commentary’ section below) and appeared on Any Questions[17] and was the only member of the panel to reach the venue on time when Any Questions? was cancelled for the first time in its history in April 2011[18]

He has been involved in the Liberal Democrats at several levels of the party. He the party’s National Youth and Student Officer in 1991-2, Director of the Centre for Reform (now called CentreForum) in 1998-9, and was Director of Policy of the Liberal Democrats in 1999-2004. That role also included spending two years as Charles Kennedy’s speechwriter.[19] He was the party’s parliamentary candidate for Hemel Hempstead constituency in the 2005 and 2010 general elections, gaining 4.4% and 6% increases in the vote to move into second place.[20] In 2008 he was listed as 48th on the Daily Telegraph’s list of the 50 most influential Liberal Democrats[21] and in 2009 was placed in 39th.[22] He was Vice-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee in 2008-10[23] and has been a critic of the coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. In particular, he has argued that ‘The Liberal Democrat leadership believed in "savage cuts" long before they entered government’, that they have ‘no electoral mandate’ for parts of the 2010 Budget and that ‘Liberal Democrats may soon realise that a centre-left party is being led from the centre-right.’[24] This argument was cited in several newspapers, and has been developed in longer pieces for Compass and the New Statesman.[25] In December 2010 he urged Liberal Democrat members to seize the opportunity of Ed Miliband's leadership by engaging in dialogue with Labour.[26] Following that, he was invited by Ed Miliband to contribute to Labour's policy review and he accepted the invitation.[27][28] However, he remained a member of the Liberal Democrat 'Facing the Future' policy review, which reported in July 2011.[29] Grayson left the Liberal Democrats in 2013[30] and has since joined the Labour Party.[31]

He blogs for the Huffington Post having written on subjects from politics and history to his support for Queens Park Rangers F.C.[32]

Main publications

Political commentary

External links

References

  1. ↑ Jock Gallagher, ed., Who’s Who in the Liberal Democrats, 3rd Edition, (Malvern: PCA Books, 2002), pp. 154-5
  2. ↑ http://www.gold.ac.uk/history/staff/graysonprofrichard/> (accessed 1 September 2010)
  3. ↑ http://www.hhlibdems.org.uk/pages/richardgrayson.html (accessed 24 June 2010); Jock Gallagher, ed., Who’s Who in the Liberal Democrats, 3rd Edition, (Malvern: PCA Books, 2002), pp. 154-5.
  4. ↑ http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/belfast-boys-9781441105196/(accessed 11 July 2014).
  5. ↑ http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/At-War-with-the-16th-Irish-Division-1914-1918/p/3614/ (accessed 11 July 2014).
  6. ↑ http://www.gold.ac.uk/history/staff/graysonprofrichard/> (accessed 11 July 2014).
  7. ↑ http://www.1914.org/news/academic-advisors-help-iwms-digital-centenary-programme/(accessed 11 July 2014).
  8. ↑ http://www.operationwardiary.org/(accessed 11 July 2014).
  9. ↑ https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/(accessed 11 July 2014.)
  10. ↑ http://www.gold.ac.uk/history/staff/graysonprofrichard/ (accessed 11 July 2014).
  11. ↑ http://www.irelandww1.org/ (accessed 11 July 2014)
  12. ↑ http://www.irelandww1.org/ (accessed 11 July 2014).
  13. ↑ http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/wp_education.pdf (accessed 24 June 2010).
  14. ↑ http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/409088/pfg_coalition.pdf p. 15 (accessed 24 June 2010).
  15. ↑ http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/After%20the%20Crash%20(Final).pdf (accessed 24 June 2010).
  16. ↑ 'Localism the American Way', Public Policy Research, 17, 2 (2010), pp. 75-9.
  17. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions_transcripts_20060303.shtml (accessed 24 June 2010).
  18. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8454990/Any-Questions-cancelled-for-the-first-time-in-its-history.html (accessed 7 September 2011).
  19. ↑ http://www.hhlibdems.org.uk/pages/richardgrayson.html (accessed 29 June 2010).
  20. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/html/310.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/c12.stm (accessed 24 June 2010).
  21. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/liberaldemocrats/2824165/The-50-most-influential-Liberal-Democrats-41-50.html (accessed 29 June 2010).
  22. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/liberaldemocrats/6206525/Top-50-most-influential-Liberal-Democrats-50-26.html (accessed 29 June 2010).
  23. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-grayson (accessed 24 June 2010).
  24. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/22/lib-dem-leadership-cuts and http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/22/budget-2010-liberal-democrats-richard-grayson (accessed 24 June 2010)
  25. ↑ Times 23 June 2010, p. 7 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/budget/article2569152.ece (accessed 29 June 2010).; Guardian, 24 June 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/23/george-osborne-fairness-claim-fraud (accessed 29 June 2010), p. 33; Daily Mirror, 24 June 2010, p. 8 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/06/24/clegg-revolt-115875-22355825/ (accessed 29 June 2010).
  26. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/11/richard-grayson-lib-dem-labour-coalition
  27. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/13/ed-miliband-disillusioned-liberal-democrats-labour
  28. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-grayson
  29. ↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/siteFiles/resources/PDF/Consult/101%20-%20Facing%20the%20Future.pdf (accessed 7 September 2011)
  30. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/11/liberal-democrats-why-im-leaving
  31. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/15/lib-dems-disillusioned-labour-hopeful
  32. ↑ http://huffingtonpost.co.uk/richard-grayson (accessed 7 September 2011).
  33. ↑ http://www.oneworld-publications.com/cgi-bin/cart/commerce.cgi?pid=564&log_pid=yes
  34. ↑ http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/After%20the%20Crash%20(Final).pdf
  35. ↑ http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/wp_education.pdf
  36. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/20/local-councils-public-sector-cuts
  37. ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/07/liberal-democrats-social-party
  38. ↑ http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/compass/documents/Compass%20LD%20Journey%20WEB.pdf
  39. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/22/lib-dem-leadership-cuts (accessed 24 June 2010)
  40. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/09/liberal-democrats-prisoners-voting-rights (accessed 24 June 2010)
  41. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/09/labour-liberal-democrats-progressive-alliance (accessed 24 June 2010)
  42. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/richard-grayson-the-liberal-democrats-still-face-a-long-journey-490644.html (accessed 24 June 2010)