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Kenneth Baker

Kenneth Wilfrid Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, CH, PC, (born November 3, 1934), is a British politician, and former Conservative MP.

Son of a civil servant, he was educated at the former Hampton Grammar School, a boys' voluntary aided school, now Hampton School, an independent school, between 1946 and 1948, and thereafter at St Paul's School, a boys' independent school in Barnes, London and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked for Royal Dutch Shell before being elected as a Member of Parliament at a by-election in March 1968.^[1]

After being Minister for Information Technology from 1981, he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment in 1985, before serving as Secretary of State for Education from 1986 to 1989. Baker's most noted action in his time at the Department of Education was the introduction of the controversial "National Curriculum" through the 1988 Education Act. He also introduced in-service training days for teachers, which became popularly known as "Baker days".

He was Chairman of the Conservative Party at the time Margaret Thatcher resigned (November 1990), and after the change of regime was promoted to Secretary of State for the Home Department. His time as Secretary of State for the Home Department was marred by prison riots and bad publicity over the introduction of the Dangerous Dogs Act. During this time Baker, who wore brylcreem in his hair, came to be portrayed by the satirical programme "Spitting Image" as an oily snail. After the 1992 General Election he left the government rather than accept demotion to the job of Welsh Secretary. He chose not to run for re-election in 1997 and was made a life peer as Baron Baker of Dorking, in the County of Surrey.

In 2005 he published a book on King George IV, George IV: A Life in Caricature (Thames & Hudson).

In 2006, Lord Baker announced that he was introducing a bill into the House of Lords to prevent MPs not representing English constituencies voting on matters that had been devolved to assembies in Wales and Scotland, thus solving the West Lothian question.

• 1 He was elected at the Acton by-election on 28 March 1968, serving until the 1970 general election. He was elected at a by-election in St Marylebone on 22 October 1970, serving until the 1983 general election, when he moved to the seat of Mole Valley, which he represented until the 1997 general election.