Dame Elizabeth "Liz" Anne Lucy Forgan, DBE (born 31 August 1944) is an English journalist and executive for radio and television.

Early life[link]

Forgan was educated at the independent Benenden School in Kent, a girls's boarding school, and at St Hugh's College, Oxford, then an all-female college.

She initially worked on newspapers starting with Teheran Journal as Arts Editor 1967-68, at the Hampstead and Highgate Express (1969–74), and on London's Evening Standard (1974–78, and later as a columnist 1997-98).

She was editor of The Guardian's women's pages from 1978 to 1982, a Guardian columnist during 1997 and 1998, becoming a non-executive director of the Guardian Media Group^[1] from 1998.

Media management[link]

Forgan was a founding commissioning editor and then Director of Programmes at the UK's Channel 4 from 1981 to 1990.^[2]

She joined the BBC in 1993 to become Managing Director, BBC Network Radio where she developed the format for BBC Radio Five Live and launched the DAB digital radio service.

She left the BBC in February 1996 over a disagreement with John Birt, then BBC Director General, over the decision to move BBC Radio News from Broadcasting House to Television Centre.^[3]

Forgan was appointed the sixth Chair of The Scott Trust in 2003,^[4] the owner of the Guardian newspapers hence becoming Britain's first female newspaper proprietor.

Public organisations[link]

Since April 2001, the Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund since 2001 and Heritage Lottery Fund.^[5]

She is also board member of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama,^[6] Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust, a former Board Member of the British Film Institute, a Trustee of the Media Trust and of the Phoenix Trust, and Chair of the Churches Conservation Trust.

In February 2009 Forgan became Chair of Arts Council England, the first woman to head the British arts funding organisation. Appointed in the last year of a Labour Government, she was viewed with suspicion by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. In the October 2010 Government spending review, the Arts Council suffered a 29.6% funding cut, and was also ordered to halve its administrative costs, a severe blow to the organisation.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Liz Forgan was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Radio Broadcasting in 2006 and previously awarded the OBE in 1998, also for services to Radio Broadcasting.

See also[link]

• Jill Tweedie for details of the National Portrait Gallery Group portrait of Forgan, Tweedie, Polly Toynbee and Mary Stott (editors of Guardian's Women's Page) and Posy Simmonds.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Heritage Lottery Fund

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

The Honourable Ed Vaizey MP
Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Margaret Hodge (Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism)
Shadow Minister for Culture
In office November 2006 – May 2010
Leader	David Cameron
Preceded by	Mark Field (culture) Malcolm Moss (culture, media and sport)
Succeeded by	Gloria De Piero
Member of Parliament for Wantage
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Robert V. Jackson
Majority	13,547 (24.1%)
Personal details
Born	(1968-06-05) 5 June 1968 (age 44)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford
Website	www.vaizey.com

Edward Henry Butler Vaizey (born 5 June 1968) is the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries in the UK, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State post with responsibilities in both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency of Wantage in the 2005 general election, and was re-elected in the 2010 general election.

He is a trained barrister, and regular columnist and commentator.

Early life[link]

Vaizey is the son of the late Lord Vaizey, a life peer, and Marina Vaizey, a well-known art historian. As the son of a peer he has the title "The Honourable Edward Vaizey". Vaizey spent part of his childhood growing up in Berkshire. He was educated at St Paul's School and Merton College, Oxford, where he rose to the rank of Librarian (Vice President) of the Oxford Union and took a BA in History, achieving a 2.1. After leaving Oxford, Vaizey worked for the Conservative politicians Kenneth Clarke and Michael Howard as an adviser on employment and education issues. He trained and practised as a barrister for several years, specialising in family law and child care cases.

Politics[link]

Vaizey first stood for Parliament at the 1997 general election, when he was the candidate for Bristol East. In the 2001 UK general election, he acted as an election aide to Iain Duncan Smith. He stood in the 2002 local elections in the safe Labour ward of Harrow Road in the City of Westminster.

He is seen^[who?] as a moderniser in the Conservative Party, contributing in both policy and image terms. He was a speechwriter for Michael Howard, leader of the Conservative Party until December 2005, and the editor of the Blue Books series, which looked at new approaches to Conservative policy in areas such as health and transport. He was one of Michael Howard's inner circle of advisers and a member of a group of young Conservatives sometimes disparagingly referred to as the "Notting Hill set", along with David Cameron — elected leader of the party in December 2005 — George Osborne, Michael Gove, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone. Like Gove and Boles, he is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society. He is also a Vice-Chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.^[1]

Member of Parliament[link]

In 2002, Vaizey was selected by Wantage Conservative Association as its candidate for the 2005 election, to succeed the sitting MP, Robert Jackson, who subsequently defected to Labour. Vaizey won a two-thirds majority on the final ballot of members. He was elected as Member of Parliament in that election, with 22,394 votes. His majority was 8,017 over the Liberal Democrats. This represented 43% of the voters and a 1.9% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.

When first elected to Parliament, Vaizey was a member of the Standing Committee on the Consumer Credit Bill. Before going on the front bench he was a member of the Modernisation and Environmental Audit Select Committees and was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative's Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group.

In November 2006, he was appointed to the Conservative front bench as a Shadow Minister for Culture, looking after arts and broadcasting policy.

In the 2010 election he received a vote of 29,284, which was 52% of the votes cast, gaining him an increased majority. While many senior members of the Conservative Party were in negotiations with the Lib Dems in the days after 6 May 2010, Mr. Vaizey appeared regularly on telelvision to be questioned as a representative of the views of the Conservative Parliamentary Party at that time.

Expense claims[link]

On 18 May 2009 the Daily Telegraph reported that receipts submitted by Vaizey show that he ordered a £467 sofa, a £544 chair, a £280.50 low table and a £671 table in February 2007 from Oka, an upmarket furniture shop. The Commons fees office initially rejected the claim as the receipt said that the furniture was due to be delivered to Vaizey's home address in west London, but was later paid when Vaizey told the fees office that the furniture was intended for his second home in his Wantage constituency. Vaizey told the Daily Telegraph that we (he and his wife) "had it delivered to London because we would be in to collect it and we were driving down with it."^[2]

When these claims became public, Mr Vaizey said that he had repaid the cost of the Oka furniture and the antique chair which he had bought with taxpayers' money: "I accept that the £300 armchair was an antique item and therefore that claim should not have been made. I also accept that the Oka items could be deemed as being of higher quality than necessary. I have paid back both these claims. I have not claimed for any other furniture bought for my constituency home at any time before or since."^[2] Vaizey has described himself to be "relatively affluent". ^[3]

In November 2011, it was reported that Mr Vaizey had submitted expenses claims of 8p for a 350 yard car journey and 16p for a 700 yard journey.^[4]

Media career[link]

He has been a regular commentator on the Conservative Party in the press. He has written regular comment pieces for The Guardian since 1998, and contributes articles to the Sunday Times news review. He has also written for The Times and the Daily Telegraph and written editorials for the Evening Standard. Vaizey is also a regular broadcaster, appearing on Fi Glover's and Edwina Currie's shows on BBC Radio Five Live, as a regular panellist on five’s The Wright Stuff with Matthew Wright, BBC Radio 4's Despatch Box and Westminster Hour, and occasionally as a presenter of People and Politics on the BBC World Service.

On 24 September 2010 Ed Vaizey was named Number 10 in The 2010 Guardian Film Power 100 list. Bradshaw, Peter; Kermode, Mark (24 September 2010). "The 2010 Guardian Film Power 100". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/24/film-power-100-full-list. 

Bibliography[link]

• A Blue Tomorrow - New Visions for Modern Conservatives (2001) (ed. with Michael Gove and Nicholas Boles). ISBN 1-84275-027-5
• Blue Book on Health: Conservative Visions for Health Policy (2002) ISBN 1-84275-043-7
• Blue Book on Transport: Conservative Visions for Transport Policy (ed with Michael McManus) (2002) ISBN 1-84275-044-5
• Blue Book on Education (ed with Michael McManus) (2003)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ed Vaizey MP official constituency website
• Profile at the Conservative Party
• Wantage and Didcot Conservatives
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Works by or about Ed Vaizey in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Video game industry interview with Ed Vaizey, Bruceongames, 27 July 2009
• Art interview with Ed Vaizey, Artforums.co.uk, 15 December 2009

v t e Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom Headquarters: 2–4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DH Executive agencies Royal Parks Agency Non-departmental public bodies Advisory Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Sites Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships Advisory Committee on the Government Art Collection Advisory Council on Libraries English Marketing Advisory Board Legal Deposit Advisory Panel Public Lending Right Advisory Committee Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest Spoliation Advisory Panel Theatres Trust Treasure Valuation Committee Executive Arts Council of England Big Lottery Fund British Film Institute British Library British Museum Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment English Sports Council Football Licensing Authority Gambling Commission Geffrye Museum English Heritage Historic Royal Palaces Horniman Museum Horserace Betting Levy Board Imperial War Museum Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester Museums, Libraries and Archives Council National Gallery National Heritage Memorial Fund National Lottery Commission National Maritime Museum National Museums Liverpool National Museum of Science and Industry National Portrait Gallery Natural History Museum Olympic Delivery Authority Olympic Lottery Distributor Registrar of Public Lending Right Royal Armouries Museum Sir John Soane's Museum Sport England Tate UK Film Council UK Sport Victoria and Albert Museum VisitBritain Wallace Collection Tribunal Horserace Betting Levy Tribunal Public broadcasting authorities British Broadcasting Corporation Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) (Welsh Fourth Channel Authority) Statutory corporations Channel Four Television Corporation Historic Royal Palaces Office of Communications (Ofcom) Ministers Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt Under-Secretaries of State Culture, Communications and Creative Industries: Ed Vaizey Sport and the Olympics: Hugh Robertson Tourism and Heritage: John Penrose Category

Vernon Ellis Cosslett, FRS^[1] (16 Jun 1908 - 21 Nov 1990) was a British microscopist.

He worked with William Lawrence Bragg at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University on the electron microscope and founded the Electron Microscopy Department. He also developed improved x-ray machines. ^[2]

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1972^[1] and won the Royal Medal in 1979 "In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the design and development of the X-ray microscope, the scanning electron microprobe analyser, the high voltage and ultrahigh resolution (2.5A) electron microscopes and their applications in many disciplines." ^[3]

He was elected president of the Royal Microscopical Society ^[4]

References[link]