Ronald Butt

Background

Butt was born and grew up in south London, the son of Herbert Butt and Elizabeth Clare Butt (née Morley).

Education

He was educated at Street Dunstan"s College, London.

Career

Before the outbreak of the Second World War he held pacifist views and had to wrestle with his conscience before deciding to join the Army. He served in the Intelligence Corps and took part in the Normandy campaign after Doctorate-Day. After the war, he read history at Street Catherine"s College, Oxford, where he gained a first.

He embarked on postgraduate research at Oxford but decided instead on a career as a journalist.

Butt joined the Financial Times in 1951 where, after a spell as a commodities correspondent, he became a political correspondent and eventually political editors In 1967 Butt joined The Sunday Times as a political columnist, assistant editor and leader writer

He wrote from a conservative standpoint but criticised Mrs Thatcher’s government for the introduction of the poll tax He also criticised policies that he saw as undermining family life.

He retired in 1991. From 1964-1965 he was a resident research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he worked on his first book The Power of Parliament published in 1967.

lieutenant argued that the Commons had rarely made or unmade governments in the past, and that back-bench MPs were still able to influence governments. Regarded as an important contribution to the debate on Parliament’s role, it was mentioned in parliamentary debate. His second book A History of Parliament: The Middle Ages was published in 1989 and it was the first history to describe in narrative form Parliament’s development throughout the Middle Ages.

lieutenant emphasised the political impetus behind Parliament’s growth.

He was working on a second volume at the time of his death. He was also involved in the work of Family and Youth Concern (which became the Family Education Trust).

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987.

Politics

Butt was best known for the weekly personal column he wrote for The Times between 1968 and 1991, commentating on British politics. This assessed the function of Parliament in contemporary British politics and questioned the prevailing view that the power of the House of Commons had declined.

Membership

Butt was a member of the Butler Committee on Mentally Abnormal Offenders from 1972-1975 and was a member of the Council of Westfield College, University of London, from 1971-1989.

Connections

colleague:

Geoffrey Owen