sentences:  He has been an active member of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor, the Liberal Party, since 1956.A former Chairman of the Union of Liberal Students, he contested the 1959 General Election in West Lewisham, being the youngest candidate of any party that year.He was a board member of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd since 1975 and its chair from 1987–1999; he retired in 2007.