Talk:Shirley Williams

Untitled
Shirley Williams was never leader of the liberal democrats. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.98.144.109 (talk) 23:42, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

She was Liberal Democrat Leader in the House of Lords. It's been corrected. 128.36.68.70 (talk) 18:22, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Did Shirley Williams convert to Roman Catholicism? Ausseagull (talk) 06:28, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * No, according to her autobiography, her father was a Catholic (he was a convert) and she was brought up in that faith (see p.23). Hazel75 (talk) 23:27, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

You may notice the Houses of Parliament IP address as a recent editor of this entry. Baroness Williams's office has updated her entry to make some minor factual changes, for example: 1. Spelling of her middle name. 2. She was a Cabinet Minister, not Cabinet Secretary. 3. Added info on chairmanship of Oxford University Labour Club and Sec Gen of the Fabian Society. 4. Added education info. 5. Removed 'UN Special Rep to the former Yugoslavia', a position Bns Williams never held. 6. Updated recent activities to reflect nuclear non-proliferation work. 7. Clarified membership of organisations. I hope this is useful. JI, Office of Baroness Williams —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.60.38.10 (talk) 13:51, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Hello, thanks for fixing those, and for saying who you are. If anyone's interested, it's [ this edit]. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:11, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

In what capacity did Williams help draft the constitutions of various countries?
It says in the article that, "Williams helped draft constitutions in Russia, Ukraine, and South Africa." The context in the article implies that this happened during the period in which she was resident in America but gives no hint in what capacity she acted in this role. Presumably it was with the agreement of some Russian politicians, but was it at the behest of the US State Department and with the willingness of all sides in Russia? Was the British government involved? On a Radio4 programme this morning Williams mentioned being one of three advisers who had been involved in the Russian negotiations. Who were the other advisers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.187.233.172 (talk) 09:37, 11 May 2010 (UTC) ‎

Place of birth
The article currently has London as Shirley's birth place. However the birth index shows her birth was registered in Chester. I can't find any definitive sources online which discuss her birth. I know there's a biog of her mother published in the early 90s which may shed light. Crisso (talk) 22:42, 8 April 2011 (UTC)


 * It turns out the transcriber made a mistake - it should be Chelsea, not Chester. If you click on the scanned image you will see this. This is also confirmed by Mark Peel's 2013 biography of Williams. Crisso (talk) 13:55, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Williams and the SDP
More is probably needed here on the period when Williams was considered a potential PM when Labour was at such a low ebb in the 1980s. Will aim to add material.Macs15 (talk) 23:57, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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More sources needed
There are multiple unsourced paragraphs, and at least 10 places I can see where sources are needed. Please can people not remove the "more citations needed" tag unless they've actually fixed the issue. The entire "Comprehensive schools", "Social Democratic Party", "Harvard University" sections are unsourced, as well as some paragraphs in other sections. Joseph2302 (talk) 18:11, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I think many people find it more helpful if the specific statements or sections needing referencing are tagged, rather than the article as a whole. DuncanHill (talk) 22:13, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

1993-2001?
We say she returned to the UK in 1993, but remained a professor at Harvard until 2001? Is that accurate? Was she a professor for a US university for eight years while living in the UK? (The section on Harvard is unfortunately largely unsourced.) TSP (talk) 23:57, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * According to  she commuted between the HoL and Harvard for 3 years after becoming a life peer in 1993. We don't have a source for her dates at Harvard. DuncanHill (talk) 01:13, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

United Nations Special Representative to the Former Yugoslavia
I can find no evidence of this on the UN's websites. See also the "Untitled" section at the top of this talk page, where an IP editor claiming to be from the Office of Baroness Williams describes UN Special Rep to the former Yugoslavia as "a position Bns Williams never held". The Guardian obituary has "a UN representative to the former Yugoslavia", which might not be the same thing as a Special Rep/Envoy. BBC obit contains no mention of Yugoslavia. Moscow Mule (talk) 00:34, 13 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I can find no evidence that she was ever a UN Special Representative, other than obvious cribs from Wikipedia. What I have found is a passage in describing her accompanying Paddy Ashdown and members of the UN High Commission to report on the situation in the Former Yugoslavia. DuncanHill (talk) 01:07, 13 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Removed - you don't need to ask on talk before removing unsourced and questionable information. If anyone wants to re-add something that is sourced, feel free. TSP (talk) 01:15, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Current session contributions
In Eternal links, "Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard" links to Contributions for Jamie Stone?? Martinevans123 (talk) 20:14, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * She won't have any current session contributions as she retired in 2016. DuncanHill (talk) 20:22, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Well quite. Thanks for fixing. How did that id error ever happen anyway? Martinevans123 (talk) 21:22, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Someone probably cut-and-pasted the template from the Stone article and forgot to change all the parameters. Hmm, after typing that I looked at the edit history, the template was added in September 2011, six years before Stone entered Parliament. Has Hansard changed its numbering? DuncanHill (talk) 21:30, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Well that was my first thought, I must admit. But not sure how to verify that in any way. Martinevans123 (talk) 21:31, 13 April 2021 (UTC)