John McDonnell MP delivers Tress lecture 2016
The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP has delivered the 2016 Ronald Tress Memorial lecture to an audience of invited guests at the Houses of Parliament.
The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP has delivered the 2016 Ronald Tress Memorial lecture to an audience of invited guests at the Houses of Parliament.
Introduced by Professor David Latchman CBE, Master of Birkbeck, Mr McDonnell spoke about the enduring legacy of Ronald Tress and his work as part of the War Cabinet which laid the bedrock for the Welfare State directly after World War II.
This, said Mr McDonnell – a graduate of politics and sociology from Birkbeck – included a programme of housebuilding which enabled the young Shadow Chancellor to benefit from his own bedroom when he moved, along with his family, into their first council home.
The Labour MP delivered a wide-ranging lecture, during which he drew repeatedly on Professor Tress’ legacy as an academic who was part of “a remarkable generation who were swept up from wholly academic careers into the heart of Government itself”.
He went on to speak about how this would be an approach he was keen to emulate in his own work in formulating Labour party economic policy, drawing on the best research to inform the Party’s approach to economic and fiscal issues.
Ronald Tress was Master of Birkbeck from 1968 to 1977, during which time he established the Economics department. Prior to this, from 1941 to 1945, he was economic adviser to the British War Cabinet and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Bristol. In 1978 he was appointed director of the Leverhulme Trust.
Speaking after the event, Professor Philip Powell, Dean of the School of Business, Economics and Informatics, said:
“Ronald Tress has left an enduring legacy at Birkbeck, establishing an Economics Department which has grown into the current Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics. These disciplines are essential to the success of the School of Business, Economics and Informatics.
“It was gratifying that the Shadow Chancellor praised the Department for the high quality of its teaching and research, a combination which continues to attract students from across London and for which Birkbeck is rightly highly regarded.”
Further information:
- School of Business, Economics and Informatics
- Birkbeck Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics
- John McDonnell MP
- Professor Philip Powell
- Professor David Latchman, CBE