Dear Sir,
While your editorial (RF 25/07/2012, p2) makes some pleasing comments on the higher profile achieved by the British Academy in recent years, may I correct the misleading impression you have given that our new President-elect, Lord Stern, was a political adviser to the last Labour government?
Firstly, he is a crossbench peer, not Labour Party. Secondly, he has never been a political adviser to any party. He was a senior civil servant for three years, including Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury. As an academic he is currently a member of committees that advise the Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (a Liberal Democrat), and the Secretary of State at the Department for International Development (a Conservative).
Yours sincerely
ADAM ROBERTS
President, British Academy
25 July 2012