Bernard Donoughue, Baron Donoughue

Bernard Donoughue, Baron Donoughue (born 8 September 1934) is a British Labour Party politician, academic, businessman and author.

According to his autobiography, Donoughue was born into poverty. He is the son of Thomas Joseph Donoughue. He was educated at Campbell Secondary Modern School and Northampton Grammar School. He then studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1957. He then attended Nuffield College, Oxford, where he graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1963. He was also Heary Fellow at Harvard.

Donoughue went into politics to be "associated with Labour governments which defended the interests of working people and underprivileged people.” Always at the centre of London, the capital and of politics, education and business, Donoughue was a member of the editorial staff of The Economist in 1959 and 1960 when a young Labour activist supporting Hugh Gaitskill. He was senior research officer of the Political and Economic Planning Institute between 1960-1963. For a longtime a lecturer close to young people he was asked by the Wilson government to join the founding Sports Council, an advisory body to harness amateur physical recreation. Twenty years later he would make his first speech in the Lords on Sporting Events (controls) bill.

A young idealist he took his first job was as a lecturer at the radical institute in Portugal street founded on liberal/socialist principles inclining students towards progressive change. He rose to a senior lecturer at the LSE between 1963 and 1974. during a period of considerable expansion in tertiary sector education. Wilson took notice of his communication skills when he was appointed head of the policy research unit on 2 December 1976, after two years on the staff. Two years before there were a flurry of questions in both houses about whether these unaccredited "political" advisers were paid from public funds. Wilson expanded the department in No.10 who had a profound influence like never before on policy formation. For the first time the Official Report published the salaries; and as being part of the Civil Service department.

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