When Gordon joined SGS in 1965 with a scholarship from Cheshire County Council, he could not have imagined that this was the start of a journey that would take him to Oxford, Harvard, Eastern Europe and onto Westminster as an MP.

 ‘My first two to three years were a bit rocky,’ Gordon remembers.  ‘My family was working class - my Dad a Co-op refrigeration engineer and my Mum a housewife - and most of the boys around me at SGS came from professional backgrounds. I lapped up English, History, French, Latin, Music - but the sciences left me ill at ease and struggling’. What opened me up later were the add-on opportunities SGS gave me  - debating, drama, the school magazine, music, together with a batch of bright young teachers  - the opportunities I had to be in Ian Mathieson‘s ground breaking plays of  ‘Luther’ by  John Osborne and Gogol’s ‘ Government Inspector’, debating from Chris Dawson  in English and Micky Brewis my Latin teacher, as well as Donald ‘Bingo’ Roberts seamlessly pairing the classical world with films like The Third Man, Douglas Steele introducing me to medieval music and a superb pair of history teachers in Brian Coulson and Nick Henshall, who became a close friend.

It was the late 60s, change was in the air and with friends like Nicky Vites and Sabri Challah we transformed a staid Christian Fellowship into TCL - ‘to consider living’ and had a whole VI Form assembly based around The Moody Blues and their LP - ‘A Question of Balance’. We managed to get Joan Bakewell, a Stockport girl, to come at the height of her TV fame on ‘Late Night LineUp’ bewitching us all in her long Laura Ashley dress on a sunny day in the Hallam quadrangle - and in our Headmaster Francis Scott’s ‘new hall that spans the drive ‘we heard Edward Goldsmith editor of the Ecologist warning us all of pollution and threats to nature, half a century ago.

A History Scholarship at New College, Oxford followed for Gordon, culminating in gaining the top First-class degree in History across the university in his year. He joined the Oxford Union where he became good friends with Benazir Bhutto who later became Prime Minister of Pakistan; their friendship continued until Benazir’s death in 2007 when she was assassinated in Rawalpindi. Gordon had become a member of the Labour Party whilst still at SGS and so joined the Labour Club at Oxford.

Gordon continued his studies, first researching on medieval religion at the Warburg Institute in London and then a year in the States in 1978-9 on a Kennedy Scholarship in International Relations at Harvard University - with charismatic professors like  

Stanley Hoffmann gaming him and others for real live scenarios on the Middle East and the Iranian Revolution. 

As a Young Fabians rep on the British Youth Council (along with Peter Mandelson and future Cabinet Minister Eric Pickles for the Young Tories), Gordon went to Central and Eastern Europe representing the UK at a mini youth summit in Hungary in the Soviet bloc, and then leading a student trip to Romania and the Young Communists, whose head was Nicu Ceausescu, son of the Romanian dictator. The return visit involved Gordon having to accompany Nicu around the various youth organisations and keeping him out of drinking dens and striptease clubs in Soho. Of the young Romanian journalists accompanying Ceausescu, Gordon recalls that “I had never before seen people so afraid of anyone”.

Academic jobs were in short supply in the late 1970s and a friend suggested Gordon should go into PR. His assignments included saving truck manufacturing jobs and the Foden brass band in a US takeover, and medical projects ranging from clinical gloves to attending a European Sleep Conference in Vienna - ‘I learnt far more about the sciences and business than in school ‘. History and PR soon began to converge, with Gordon heading up the PR launch of English Heritage and thereafter, their public affairs adviser. In 1985, the combination of his skill sets landed him the job of Editor/publisher of History Today.

His experiences of Eastern Europe came into play when after the Soviet Union fell, the Russian history magazine Rodina, reached out to History Today to print previously forbidden documents. Gordon suggested a tripartite publication from Russian, English and German historians (from their history magazine Damals) to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War 2. Meetings across Germany and Russia resulted in a simultaneous publication in all three publications, with launches in Potsdam (on the anniversary of Hitler’s suicide) and one later in Moscow with Yeltsin’s blessing. All through the 1980s and 90s, Gordon was honing a passion for lifelong learning as a part-time tutor for the Open University and his adult learners covering 16th and 17th century courses.

Gordon was elected Labour MP for Blackpool South in 1997, and in all six times in General Elections. His commitment to education strengthened, chairing all party groups for Skills and Employment, as well as being on Education, Innovation and Skills Select Committees, and serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary to three Labour Cabinet Ministers. In Opposition after 2010 he served as Shadow Minister for Transport, Regional Growth and finally as Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Further Education and Skills, where he created a Lifelong Learning Commission which delivered widespread recommendations in 2019.

Gordon also set up an all-party Group in Parliament for Veterans and launched a Group of MPs from Seaside & Coastal Towns to lobby Ministers and highlight the needs of Blackpool and other coastal towns.  His past visits to and knowledge of the Soviet bloc came to the fore when as Chair of the Future of Europe in Parliament, he visited and talked to many of the new young post Communism politicians in the run up to their admission to the EU, He also chaired the all-party Estonia group in Parliament for over ten years, also visiting Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine on all-party Parliamentary visits and return visits from those countries’ Parliamentary counterparts.

Gordon left Parliament in 2019 but remains “very hands on” in public life and campaigning, particularly in education. He continues to be a Trustee of the History of Parliament, and, along with colleagues from the 2019 Lifelong Learning Commission, set up in December 2020 a national Right to Learn campaign to continue its importance for the future. Gordon is also a Trustee of a charitable trust helping disadvantaged young people to get into universities, colleges and good apprenticeships. Right to Learn has held several face to face and online events with a range of speakers - including Andreas Schleicher, the Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, Lord (David) Blunkett, local mayors and leaders across England, and a range of distinguished organisations.

Gordon has recently given written evidence from Right to Learn for the Parliamentary committee on the Lifelong Learning Bill currently going through Parliament and continues to work closely with David Blunkett and others committed to creating opportunities to learn, re-train and develop skills throughout people’s lives. Gordon was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University last November for his work and campaigning and has also been made a Companion of the British Academy of Management.

Where does the strength of this conviction come from? ‘I was the first person in my family to go on to school till 18 and to university - my grandfather was a boilermaker all his working life but who loved historical novels (that’s where I get it from), my father, who had to retrain in the mid-1960s - a lean time for my parents - having lost his job as a steam/ diesel engineer when those industries shrank, and over 20 years I taught adult learners, especially women, who had missed out earlier. That’s what drives me - I am a historian and treasure the past, but also want to see more opportunities for younger and older people, both face to face as well as in the digital world, in the decade ahead. I am hugely grateful to all the people - not least from SGS - who over the years have inspired and encouraged me to achieve those goals’.