Dick Taverne facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Lord Taverne KC
Official portrait, 2018
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office 13 October 1969 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Harold Lever
Succeeded by	Patrick Jenkin
Minister of State for the Treasury
In office 6 April 1968 – 13 October 1969
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Bill Rodgers
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office 6 April 1966 – 6 April 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	George Thomas
Succeeded by	Elystan Morgan
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 5 February 1996 – 7 March 2025 Life Peerage
Member of Parliament for Lincoln
In office 8 March 1962 – 20 September 1974
Preceded by	Geoffrey de Freitas
Succeeded by	Margaret Jackson
Personal details
Born	(1928-10-18) 18 October 1928 (age 96)
Political party	Labour (until 1972) Democratic Labour (1972–80) SDP (1981–88) Liberal Democrats (since 1988)
Children	2, including Suzanna
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

Dick Taverne, also known as Baron Taverne, was an important British politician. He was born on October 18, 1928. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1962 to 1974. An MP is someone elected to represent a group of people in the country's main law-making body, the Parliament. He started his political journey with the Labour Party. Later, he joined other parties like the Democratic Labour Party, the Social Democratic Party, and finally the Liberal Democrats. He also became a "life peer", which means he was given a special title and a seat in the House of Lords for his lifetime, helping to make laws and discuss important issues. He served in the House of Lords from 1996 until 2025.

Dick Taverne's Early Life and Education

Dick Taverne went to Charterhouse School and then to Balliol College, Oxford. At university, he studied Philosophy and Ancient History. After his studies, he became a barrister in 1954. A barrister is a type of lawyer who represents people in court. He became a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1965, which is a special title for experienced barristers.

His Time as a Member of Parliament

Taverne first tried to become an MP for Putney in 1959, but he did not win. However, he was elected as the MP for Lincoln in a special election called a by-election in March 1962.

During the 1960s, when Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister, Taverne held several important government jobs.

• From 1966 to 1968, he was a minister in the Home Office, which deals with law and order in the country.
• From 1968 to 1969, he was a Minister of State at the Treasury.
• From 1969 to 1970, he became the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. This role involved managing the country's money and taxes.

In 1970, he helped start the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This is an important independent group that studies how the government spends money and collects taxes. He was its first Director and later its chairman.

Changing Political Parties

In 1972, the local Labour Party in Lincoln decided they no longer wanted Dick Taverne as their candidate. This was because they disagreed with his views on the European Economic Community (EEC), which was a group of European countries working together.

Because of this disagreement, he left the Labour Party and resigned from Parliament. He then created his own political group called the Lincoln Democratic Labour Association. He ran again in a by-election in March 1973 as an independent candidate and won back his seat. He kept his seat in the February 1974 general election.

However, he lost his seat in Parliament in the October 1974 general election. Even after losing his seat, he stayed active with the Democratic Labour Association until it closed down after the 1979 general election. He was a key thinker in social democracy, which is a political idea about fairness and equality. He wrote a book called The Future of the Left: Lincoln and After in 1974.

When the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed in the early 1980s, he joined them. He was part of their national committee from 1981 to 1987. He ran as an SDP candidate in two more elections but did not win. When the SDP joined with the Liberal Party to form the new Liberal Democrats, he joined them. He was part of their policy committee from 1989 to 1990.

On February 5, 1996, he was given the special title of Baron Taverne. This made him a life peer, meaning he had a seat in the House of Lords for his lifetime. He sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat until 2025.

Helping Science and Society

Dick Taverne became very interested in science and how it affects public life. In 2002, he started a charity called Sense about Science. This group helps people understand science better and encourages using evidence to make decisions about scientific issues.

He was elected President of the Research Defence Society in 2004. He was also a member of important committees in the House of Lords that looked at how animals are used in scientific research and other science and technology topics.

He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of Humanists UK. These groups promote a non-religious view of life and support human rights. He was also a vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group. He won an award in 2005 for being a great communicator of science in Parliament. He was also a member of Republic, a group that wants to replace the monarchy with an elected head of state.

In 2010, he signed an open letter with other public figures. This letter was published in The Guardian newspaper and expressed their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK.

Books by Dick Taverne

Dick Taverne wrote two books.

• The March of Unreason, published in March 2005.
• Against the Tide, his memoir, published in 2014.

See also

• List of UK minor party and independent MPs elected
• Lincoln Democratic Labour Association
• Candidate deselection (Labour Party)