Stern rebuke

While your editorial [see related article] 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 President-elect, Lord Stern, was a political adviser to the last Labour government?

First, he is a crossbench peer. Second, 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.