Bill Rodgers

William Thomas Rodgers, Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank (born 1928), often known as Bill Rodgers was one of the "Gang of Four" senior British Labour Party politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party. He subsequently helped to lead the SDP into the merger that formed the Liberal Democrats, and later served as that party's leader in the House of Lords.

Rodgers first entered the British House of Commons in 1962, and served in Labour Governments under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, becoming Secretary of State for Transport in Callaghan's Cabinet in 1976. He held the post until Labour's defeat in the 1979 general election. With Labour drifting to the left, Rodgers joined Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen in forming the Social Democratic Party in 1981.

At the 1983 general election the SDP-Liberal Alliance won many votes but few seats, and Rodgers lost his seat of Stockton-on-Tees. He remained outside Parliament until his appointment to the Lords in 1992. During that time he was Director-General of the Royal Institute of British Architects and also became Chairman of the Advertising Standards Agency.

In 1987 Rodgers was chairman of the successful "Yes to Unity" campaign within the SDP in favour of merger with the Liberal Party. He became the Liberal Democrats' Lords spokesman on Home Affairs in 1994 and was its leader in the Lords between 1997 and 2001. His autobiography was titled Fourth Among Equals, reflecting his position as the least prominent of the SDP's founders.



In the News

Treating HIV-infected Infants Early Helps Them Live Longer
Hundreds of thousands of babies around the world are born each year with HIV -- more than half a million in 2006 alone. Now the initial results of an ongoing clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease suggests, that more HIV-infected infants survive if they are given therapy early on, regardless of their apparent state of health.

Experimental Drug Boosts Survival In Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
An experimental drug has shown promise in extending the survival period for women with recurrent ovarian cancer whose treatment options have dwindled. Early testing data showed that pertuzumab added weeks to the lives of Stage 3 ovarian cancer patients whose disease had returned after treatment with existing chemotherapy.

Write a Brilliant Pantomime With Billy &Wolfy
A lighthearted description (with "comments"from William Shakespeare and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) of "how to write [English] pantomime scripts covering, basic rules, choosing the story, shaping the pantomime, shaping individual scenes, use of music, and writing and producing for children."Also includes an overview of this form of "Christmas entertainment based on a fairy tale,"and three scripts. From a pantomime script author.

Coal Tar-based Pavement Sealers Implicated As A Source Of Urban Water
A water pollution episode in Austin, Texas, is raising questions about the environmental impact of coal tar-based sealants used on thousands of parking lots throughout the United States, according to an article in Chemical and Engineering News.

FCC Consumer Facts: Children's Educational Television
Fact sheet on the Children's Television Act (CTA), which was enacted in 1990 "to increase the amount of educational and informational programming for children available on television."Discusses the requirements for programming and commercial matter, and the additional Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines set forth in 2004 and effective January 2006 (and which are being challenged by various media companies and groups), and provides links to related FCC policy material and documents.

[Funny] A referee has sent himself off in an English amateur league ma
Andy Wain had to abandon the Sunday league match between Peterborough North End and a Royal Mail side in the 63rd minute after throwing down his whistle and marching up to confront North End's keeper.

UMR Study Finds Gas Pipelines Could Serve As Wireless Links
Detecting leaks and conducting maintenance in America's aging network of natural gas pipelines will eventually be a job for wireless robots, according to researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Cell Phone Users Beware: Talking And Listening Impairs Your Ability To
New research shows that people have greater difficultly maintaining a fixed speed, or keeping their car safe in a single lane when performing tasks that simulated conversing on a mobile phone, than if they were driving without the distraction.

New Clues Found In Ongoing Mystery Of Giant Galactic Blobs
Astronomers have numerous technical terms and numbering systems for describing the universe, but one type of mysterious object has yet to be classified. For now, these oddities are named for their strange appearance. They are called blobs.

[Funny] A referee has sent himself off in an English amateur league ma
Andy Wain had to abandon the Sunday league match between Peterborough North End and a Royal Mail side in the 63rd minute after throwing down his whistle and marching up to confront North End's keeper.


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