Don Foster (politician)

The Right Honourable Don Foster MP
Member of Parliament for Bath
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 April 1992
Preceded by	Chris Patten
Majority	11,883 (25.2%)
Personal details
Born	31 March 1947 (1947-03-31) (age 64) Preston, Lancashire, England
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Spouse(s)	Victoria Pettegree
Children	1 son, 1 daughter
Alma mater	Keele University
Website	Don Foster MP

Donald Michael Ellison Foster (born 31 March 1947) is a British Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, representing Bath in southwest England.

Early life

Foster was born in Preston, Lancashire, and educated at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Keele University where he was awarded a BSc degree in Physics and Psychology in 1969 and also received the CertEd the same year. He studied later for his MEd in Education at the University of Bath in 1981. He became a science teacher at the Sevenoaks School in Kent in 1969, before becoming a science project director with the Avon Education Authority in 1975. He became a lecturer in education at the University of Bristol in 1980, becoming a management consultant with Pannell Kerr Forster from 1989 until his election to the House of Commons.

Parliamentary career

As a local party activist he was a founder member of the Avon Liberal Democrats and was elected as a councillor to the Avon County Council in 1981 for Cabot ward, and was the SDP-Liberal Alliance group leader from 1981-6, he also served as the county's education committee chairman, and he remained a councillor until 1989. He unsuccessfully contested Bristol East at the 1987 general election where he finished in third place, some 11,659 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP Jonathan Sayeed. He was elected at the 1992 general election when he famously beat then-Chairman of the Conservative Party Chris Patten at Bath. He won the seat with a majority of 3,768 and remains the MP. He spoke of the World Heritage Site status of Bath and sent his best wishes to Patten in Hong Kong in his maiden speech on 12 May 1992.^[1]

In parliament Foster became a spokesman on education under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown in 1992 in which capacity he remained until 1999.

Foster supports a number of local charities, including Ted's Big Day Out and Julian House.^{[citation needed]} His main national charity is WaterAid and he has seen first hand their work in Ethiopia.^{[citation needed]}

On 13 October 2009, Foster became involved in the parliamentary expenses scandal as he announced through his website that he was being asked to pay back a substantial sum of money in connection with a mortgage he had been claiming for. It was later revealed in the local press that the sum totalled £4,082.02.^[2]

On 8 December 2010, in response to a call from the Football Supporter's Federation, he introduced a bill to parliament to introduce safe standing areas into English and Welsh football, the first of its kind since the Taylor Report.^[3]

On 9 December 2010, Foster was one of 28 Liberal Democrat MPs to vote in favour of Government proposals to increase the upper limit of university tuition fees. Reasons cited are that there is considerable evidence that many of the poorest people would pay less because of the system of paying back of the loan.^[4] The vote was particularly controversial for Liberal Democrats as many Lib Dem MPs had previously signed an NUS pledge promising to vote against tuition fee increases.^[5]

Personal life

Foster married Victoria Jane Dorcas Pettegree in 1968 in Oswestry and they have a son and a daughter and three grandchildren. His other interests include Third World issues; he is a member of Amnesty International and the Child Poverty Action Group. He also enjoys sport, music, ballet, travelling and reading. He is currently teaching himself to play the ukulele. He is a self-confessed fan of The West Wing.^{[citation needed]}

Publications

• Resource Based Learning in Science by Don Foster, 1979, Association for Science Education ISBN 0-902786-52-0
• Science with Gas by Don Foster, 1981
• Aspects of Science by Don Foster, 1984, Longman ISBN 0-201-14377-1
• Reading about Science by Don Foster, 1984
• Nuffield Science by Don Foster, 1986
• Teaching Science 11-13 Edited by Don Foster, Cecil Powell and Roger Lock, 1987, Routledge ISBN 0-7099-4931-6
• Education: Investing in Education by Don Foster, 1994, Liberal Democrat Publications ISBN 1-85187-243-4
• Making the Right Start: Nursery Education and Care by Don Foster, 1994, Liberal Democrat Publications ISBN 1-85187-264-7
• From the Three Rs to the Three Cs: A Personal View of Education by Don Foster, 2003 ISBN 0-9546078-0-5

See also

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team

Notes

1. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1992-05-12/Debate-2.html
2. ^ http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/MP-Foster-pay-163-4-000/article-1417460-detail/article.html
3. ^ http://www.fsf.org.uk/news/Safe-Standing-Bill-launched-in-Parliament.php
4. ^ "Tuition fees: How Liberal Democrat MPs voted". BBC News Online. 9 December 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11964669. Retrieved 14 December 2010. 
5. ^ "Lib-Dem and Labour MPs would vote together to oppose tuition fee rise since this vote over 50% of poorer students have abandoned their university plans". NUS Online. http://www.nus.org.uk/en/News/News/Lib-Dem-and-Labour-MPs-would-vote-together-to-oppose-tuition-fee-rise/. Retrieved 14 December 2010. 

External links

• Don Foster MP official site
• Profile at the Liberal Democrats
• Bath Liberal Democrats
• 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
• Profile: Don Foster BBC News

Video clips

• Fighting Talk - Radio Five Live
• BBC interview in 1992

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Chris Patten	Member of Parliament for Bath 1992–present	Incumbent

Persondata
Name	Foster, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	31 March 1947
Place of birth	Preston, Lancashire
Date of death
Place of death