Ron –The Candidate

Ron is the Liberal Democrats’ spokesman for the Newcastle North constituency. In the General Election of 2005 Ron stood as Liberal Democrat candidate in Newcastle North.  The swing to the Liberal Democrats (11.2%) was the highest on Tyneside as we moved from a poor third place in 2001 to a credible second place.  The full result was:

Ron – The Councillor
In taking the last Tory seat on Gateshead Council in 1996 Ron joined Lib Dem Councillors Frank Hindle and Charles Jevon as Low Fell’s representatives. All three have been re-elected since then with more than 50% of the vote. In 2004 all three were re-elected again with more than 60% of the vote.

Ron – The Campaigner
As Campaign Manager for the Liberal Democrats in the 1999 North East European Constituency, Ron was part of a team that saw the biggest swing to the Liberal Democrats anywhere in England. Indeed the North-East saw the fourth highest Lib Dem share of the vote in the country.

As Campaign Manager for the Liberal Democrats in Pelaw and Heworth ward in Gateshead, Ron has been part of a team that saw this once solid Labour ward won in four consecutive local elections by the Liberal Democrats between 1999 and 2003.

Ron has also won elections to the Northumbria University Board of Governors as the representative of the academic staff (2001), and to be Chair of the London School of Economics Student Union (1988).

Ron – The Liberal Democrat
Between 2001 and 2004 Ron was Chair of the Liberal Democrats in the North East, a time in which we won our first MEP for the region (Fiona Hall) and gained control of Newcastle and Durham City Councils. He has been Secretary and Chair of Gateshead Liberal Democrats, Chair and Treasurer of Gateshead East Liberal Democrats and Secretary of the London School of Economics Student Social and Liberal Democrats (the Party’s first name!) in 1988/9.

Ron – The Academic
After gaining a First and a Master’s degree from the LSE in the late 1980s Ron worked in industry for three years before becoming a University Lecturer. Ron is now a Principal Lecturer at Northumbria University. Ron has also served on Advisory, Examination and Validation Boards for other Universities and colleges in the UK and Spain.

Ron has published papers on public sector pay, modernising government, executive pay, business ethics, management philosophy and circus. He has chaired and spoken at a variety of conferences and appeared on Newsnight, Business Breakfast, Working Lunch, Kilroy and other TV and Radio programmes as an academic.

Ron – Family
Ron is married to Shakuntala and they have a son, Roshan born in 2001 and a daughter, Sophia born in 2004. Roshan and Sophia are true liberal citizens of the world having their ethnic origins in India, England, Hungary, Germany and the Czech Republic.Ron’s ancestry comes from the worlds of show-businesses and circus – a family tradition well maintained by his brother.