 For a long time a lecturer close to young people, he was asked by the Wilson government to join the founding Sports Council, an advisory body to harness amateur physical recreation.Twenty years later he would make his first speech in the Lords on Sporting Events (controls) bill.Wilson took notice of Donoughue's communication skills, displayed in his career at the London School of Economics and in his journalism, when he was appointed head of the policy research unit on 2 December 1976, after two years on the staff.