Lord Roper
Since 2000 Lord Roper has been a Life Peer. He was the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords from 2001 until May 2005, and is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute for German Studies of the University of Birmingham.
John Roper was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School (Manchester), Reading School, Magdalen College, Oxford (studying PPE) and the University of Chicago (studying Economics).
John started has career in 1961 as an economics lecturer at the University of Manchester. He left the University in 1970 and went into politics. He was a Labour MP (1970–81), an Opposition spokesman on defence (1979-81), and Chief Whip of the Social Democratic Party from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1989 he was a senior member of staff of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and edited its journal "International Affairs". He was, from April 1990 until September 1995, the first director of the Institute for Security Studies of Western European Union in Paris.
Lord Roper’s publications include:
"Towards Regional Co-operatives" (1967)
"The Teaching of Economics at University Level" (1970)
"The Future of British Defence Policy" (1985)