ONE OF the best-placed people to give a view about the effects of the Government’s spending cuts on the Merseyside economy will deliver a keynote lecture at the University of Liverpool next week.
Merseyside-born Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, will outline alternative policies to the Government’s ongoing austerity measures.
The lecture, entitled In Place of Austerity, is the second in the University of Liverpool Management School’s Burning Issues series, sponsored by law firm Weightmans and the Liverpool Daily Post. The lecture series looks at the issues that are shaping the economic and business environments.
Mr Barber was born in Southport and attended St Mary’s College, in Crosby. After a gap year teaching with VSO in Ghana, he took a degree in social sciences at City University London, where he became president of the Student Union.
After working for an industrial training board for a year, he joined the TUC in 1975, becoming head of the press office in 1979 and the Industrial Relations Department in 1987.
He was appointed deputy general secretary in 1993 and elected general secretary in 2003.
Professor Tom Cannon, head of strategic development at the University of Liverpool Management School, said: “There can be few bigger issues than the changes currently affecting the public sector, and it’s the biggest burning issue facing the city at the moment – and nobody is better placed than local man Brendan Barber to discuss these issues.”
Mr Barber has served on a number of public bodies, including the ACAS Council, and is currently a non-executive director of the Court of the Bank of England.
The TUC represents 55 unions with a total membership of around 6.2m people working in all sectors of the economy.
Future speakers in the Burning Issues lecture series include John Cridland, director general of the CBI; Lord John Birt, former director general of the BBC; and Will Hutton, executive vice-chair of The Work Foundation.
Next week’s lecture will take place on Wednesday, October 26, in the Leggate Theatre, in the university’s Victoria Gallery and Museum.
It starts at 5.30pm and will be followed by a networking reception.
It is open to all and tickets are free, but booking a place is essential either via the website www. liv.ac.uk/events/burning-issues or by calling 0151 794 2650.
At last month’s inaugural Burning Issues lecture, the former chief executive of the Football Association, Professor Brian Barwick, gave a talk entitled The Power of Leadership to an audience of 200 business people and academics.
Croxteth-born Prof Barwick said business leaders should take inspiration from sporting leaders such as Bill Shankly and Sir Bobby Robson.
