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28-673: The Real Time Club (RTC) was founded as dining club in the 1960s by US American IT entrepreneur Alan Marshall. For the first 25 years of its existence the Real Time Club dined at numerous London restaurants, but dinners are now usually held at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall. The club celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2013 with a charity dinner hosted by Lord Lucas at the House of Lords . The founding members of

56-543: A disciplined way with words and stories, and a deep study of how to succeed as a dictator.' Since inheriting his title and remaining through election by his peers, Ralph Lucas continues to be active in the House of Lords. He has served on committees that addressed digital skills, the regeneration of seaside towns, and digital technology & democracy. He chairs the Enforcement Law Reform Group. He

84-487: A growing number of IT professionals from the finance sector, entrepreneurs and investors to the RTC dinners. The Real Time Club takes its name from the real time and time-sharing computing systems that the club's founders were pioneering at the time. Today the club covers a much larger range of interests. The club now sees the "real time" in its name as referring to the currentness and cutting edge nature of topics discussed in

112-498: A party group of sitting hereditary peers. A standing order of the House, approved prior to the commencement of the House of Lords Act 1999, mandates that the 90 elected hereditary peers consist of: By convention, whole-House elections elect members of the same affiliation as the departed peer. These numbers elected by each group reflected the relative strengths of the parties among hereditary peers in 1999; this allocation has remained unchanged since then. The fifteen peers elected by

140-523: A range of IT institutions and organisations. Similarly, the club maintains connections to the media, in particular through industry publications such as Computer Weekly and The Register . Over the years various special interest groups developed within the RTC, some of which have spun off specialist organisations such as the Brain Mind Forum. A selection of offices held by former RTC chairmen: Geoff McMullen and Stanley Gill served as president of

168-411: A result of rapidly improving state primaries and private tutors'. He has expressed his concerns over the dangers of charlatan tutors for very young children and rung warning bells over the ever rising fees of independent schools. Asked by a journalist why historians make the best school leaders, he replied, 'The subject combines a fascination with humanity (pretty essential to running a school well),

196-527: A successful technology sector in the UK, the Real Time Club also took a keen interest in IT education in school and university. Education and skilled workforce remain a reoccurring topic at the club's dinners, and the club supports various initiatives through its members or through direct sponsorship, including hack days for children and experimentation with 3D printing. While individual members keep engaged in policy making,

224-417: A year. The Real Time Club dinners are open to non-members. The membership procedures of the club has changed several times over the history of the club. Initially, access to the club was by invitation only. As of 2013 club membership is open to all regular dinner attendees. Through its members and in particular through the club council and the club officers, the Real Time Club maintains personal connection to

252-614: Is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers . He was a competitor on University Challenge for the 2004 "Professionals" series, when he competed on the House of Lords team. Lucas has been married three times. Firstly, he wed Clarissa Marie Lockett on 22 July 1978. They were divorced in 1995 after having two children. Secondly, Lucas married Amanda Atha in 1995. She died in 2000 and in 2001, he married Antonia Kennedy Rubinstein. He has one daughter with his third wife. List of excepted hereditary peers Under

280-697: Is one of the hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 , sitting as a Conservative . He inherited his titles on the death of his mother in 1991, served as a Tory whip in the Lords 1994-97 for the last three years of the John Major government, and continues to serve as a backbencher. Known generally and professionally as Ralph Lucas, in 2000 he became owner and publisher of The Good Schools Guide . Lady Florence Amabel Cowper, daughter of George Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper married Auberon Herbert and inherited

308-571: Is restricted to peers in the Peerages of England , Scotland , Great Britain and the United Kingdom . Peers in the Peerage of Ireland are only eligible for election if they hold a title in one of the other peerages, but if successful may use their Irish peerage title as a member of the House. The electorates are either the whole membership of the House of Lords (including life peers ), or

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336-465: Is the current owner of The Good Schools Guide . He was a Lord in Waiting (Government Whip in the House of Lords ) during 1994–97, and the shadow Lords minister for International Development during 1997–98. He remains an active backbencher, taking a particular interest in education, liberty, electronic government, planning, finance and parking regulation. In 1995, Ralph Lucas married Amanda Atha,

364-469: Is the son of the Anne Palmer, 11th Baroness Lucas and 7th Lady Dingwall and Major Hon Robert Jocelyn Palmer (fifth child and third son of the 3rd Earl of Selborne ). He attended Twyford School and Eton College . During his gap year in 1969, he accompanied Professor Thomas Frederick Hewer and Brigadier Brian Mortimer Archibald across Afghanistan and Iran, collecting plants for Kew Gardens and

392-554: The Barony of Lucas of Crudwell (from her grandfather, Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey ), and the Lordship of Dingwall (from her uncle Francis Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper ). They were the parents of four children, including Nan Ino Cooper, 10th Baroness Lucas (Ralph Lucas's maternal grandmother), and her elder daughter, Anne Rosemary, married Major The Hon Robert Jocelyn Palmer MC (son of Roundell Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne ). Lucas

420-832: The British Computer Society . Charles Hughes held office at the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists . Basil Cousins co-founded OpenForum Europe . Philip Virgo is Chairman of the Conservative Technology Forum and was a founding officer at the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM) . Lord Harry Renwick also held office at PITCOM and is President of EURIM. Ralph Palmer, 12th Baron Lucas Ralph Matthew Palmer, 12th Baron Lucas and 8th Lord Dingwall (born 7 June 1951), addressed formally as Lord Lucas and Dingwall,

448-571: The Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain , who sit as ex officio members . The initial cohort of excepted hereditary peers were elected in the 1999 House of Lords elections . Between 1999 and November 2002, vacancies among this group were filled by runners-up in the 1999 election. Since then, by-elections to the House of Lords have filled vacancies. Candidature for both the 1999 elections and subsequent by-elections

476-484: The Royal Horticultural Society as a private expedition. He returned to study physics at Balliol College, Oxford . He took articles as a chartered accountant with Farrow, Bersey, Gain, Vincent & Co and successor firms, and worked at S. G. Warburg & Co. Ltd. from 1976 to 1988. On the death of his mother in 1991, he succeeded her as 12th Baron Lucas and 8th Lord Dingwall . He

504-584: The Cholmondeley, Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby and Carington families. In 1902 it was ruled by the House of Lords that the then joint office holders ( the 1st Earl of Ancaster , the 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley , and the Earl Carrington, later Marquess of Lincolnshire ) had to agree on a deputy to exercise the office, subject to the approval of the Sovereign. Should there be no such agreement,

532-497: The Real Time Club were entrepreneurs and early IT professionals. In its early years the Real Time Club engaged actively in lobbying and policy making to help setting the scene for a thriving IT industry in the UK. Consequently politicians, civil servants and members of the media became regular attendees at the club dinners as the club engaged with Parliament and media. The RTC published a number of influential reports and engaged with parliamentary committees. As part of its effort to foster

560-758: The Sovereign should appoint a deputy until an agreement be reached. In 1912 an agreement was reached. The office, or right to appoint the person to exercise the office, would thereafter rotate among the three joint office holders and their heirs after them, changing at the start of each successive reign. Cholmondeley and his heirs would serve in every other reign; Ancaster and Carrington would each serve once in four reigns. Pursuant to section 1 of House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Pursuant to section 1 of House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Pursuant to section 2 of House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Pursuant to section 1 of House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Pursuant to section 2 of House of Lords Reform Act 2014 As of July 2024 ,

588-622: The club's focus has shifted away from lobbying. Today the Real Time Club sees itself primarily as networking society and debating platform. The club always had a strong connection to London's City which it maintains to this day. The founding members were entrepreneurs who turned to the financial institutions for venture capital and as clients for their early network applications. The early themes of venture capital and entrepreneurship were soon complemented with international competitiveness and national infrastructure. Recently, high performance computing, security and system integrity are topics that draw

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616-559: The club. Every year the Real Time Club runs a series of dinners with speakers on a broad range of topics related to technology. Meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule and a robust debate is explicitly encouraged. Although for the first 25 years of its existence the RTC dined at numerous London restaurants, dinners are now usually held at the National Liberal Club . There are around six to eight dinners

644-424: The co-founder with Sarah Drummond of The Good Schools Guide , became owner, publisher and editor of the guide in 2000; he added international schools overseas to the guide in 2006. As editor of The Good Schools Guide , Ralph Lucas has highlighted the continued improvement of state and Special Education Needs schools: the first edition of The Good Schools Guide in 1986 listed just ten state schools – 4 per cent of

672-571: The reforms of the House of Lords Act 1999 , the majority of hereditary peers became ineligible to be members of the House of Lords , the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Section 2 of the Act, however, provides an exception from this general exclusion of membership for up to 92 hereditary peers: 90 to be elected by the House, as well as the holders of two royal offices,

700-417: The total; by the 2016 edition, more than 300 state schools were reviewed, a quarter of the 1,200 schools reviewed that year. In the 2019 edition, nearly 400 of the 1,297 schools selected for review were state schools and 140 were SEN schools. Ralph Lucas has commented on state schools as strong competitors for the most talented students, saying, 'Many prep schools are facing a "slow and gentle good night" as

728-474: The whole House were intended to provide a group of experienced members ready to serve as deputy speakers or other officers. A small number of hereditary peers sit in the Lords by virtue of their being granted life peerages (see listing ). These are not listed below. The Earl Marshal is an hereditary post held by the Duke of Norfolk . The Lord Great Chamberlain is a hereditary office in gross post among

756-542: Was instrumental in adding what became known as the Lucas amendment, 'An apology, an offer of treatment or other redress, shall not of itself amount to an admission of negligence or breach of statutory duty' to the Compensation Act of 2006, allowing people to apologise to victims without legal penalty. He met his third wife, Antonia Rubenstein, when serving as a patron on the prison reform charity, Safe Ground , and

784-700: Was instrumental in establishing the Family Man and Fathers Inside family relationships project. Ralph Lucas has been involved in encouraging a relationship between The Eden Project and Eastbourne . With Lady Lucas, he set up the Making Natural History project, using creative works to highlight environmental issues in and beyond Eastbourne. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA) in 1986 and

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