Anthony Browne

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Anthony Howe Browne (19 January 1967) is a former Policy Director to the Mayor of London, former director of Policy Exchange and former head of government relations for Morgan Stanley for Europe, Middle East and Africa.[1] In September 2012 he took over the role of chief executive at the British Bankers Association from Angela Knight. [2]

Browne was appointed the UK government's Chair to the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) in December 2017.

Biography

From 1988-89 Browne worked as a Business analyst for management consultants Booz Allen Hamilton.[3] From 1989-92 he worked in various media jobs, including diarist for the Daily Telegraph's Peterborough column and producer for television production company Uden Associates. [4] From 1992 to 1997 he worked for BBC TV and Radio news, including working on the Money Programme and Business Breakfast. He was promoted to become business reporter, economics reporter and acting economics correspondent for main TV and Radio programmes, including the Today programme, World at One, One O'Clock and Nine O'Clock News. [5]

From 1997 to 2002, Browne worked at the Observer as economics correspondent, deputy business editor, health editor and environment editor. [6] In 2002 he joined The Times as the newspaper's environment editor, Brussels correspondent, and chief political correspondent. [7] During his time at The Times, Browne became embroiled in controversy over his comments on VDare, an anti-immigration US web forum, affiliated to the Center for American Unity. [8]

He holds a degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University. He is married with two children and lives in North London. [9]

In a 2002 Times article he wrote:

The only political party of which I have been a member is Labour, and the danger of giving encouragement to the racist British National Party is a strong reason to stay silent. But what is happening now is so extreme and so damaging, and the determination of pro-immigrationists to suppress debate and smear critics so fearsome, that silence is no longer an option.[10]

He subsequently wrote about the article on VDARE:

It was bubbling around inside my head making me toss and turn in the small hours, and then at 4 A.M. it exploded out in 2,500 words: a cri de coeur about what uncontrolled immigration is doing to Britain, and the almost ruthless determination of the pro-immigrationists to distort facts, smear opponents and stifle debate. Having researched the article for three months for a pamphlet, the facts just poured out of my fingertips.[11]

In a January 2003 VDARE article Browne wrote:

It isn’t every day that the interior minister of a mature western democracy publicly announces that his policies are leading to the collapse of social order and uncontrollable widespread communal violence, things more usually associated with places like Gujarat (and northern Nigeria.)

But last week David Blunkett, Britain’s Home Secretary, warned that society is “like a coiled spring” where the tensions and frustrations could spill over into “the disintegration of community relations and social cohesion,” with such widespread vigilantism that Britain could “tip into a situation we could not control.”[12]

VDARE's James Fulford said of this piece: "This one was actually an article we commissioned and paid for, the links, et cetera, added by me, and with some editing by Peter Brimelow, as usual."[13] The article was also posted at David Horowitz's Frontpagemag.[14]

Browne was also criticised over an August 2005 article which stated:

The support of Islamic fascism spans Britain’s Left. The wacko Socialist Workers Party joined forces with the Muslim Association of Britain, the democracy-despising, Shariah-law-wanting group, to form the Stop the War Coalition. The former Labour MP George Galloway created the Respect Party with the support of the MAB, and won a seat in Parliament by cultivating Muslim resentment. [15]

Browne had been the Times' chief political correspondent for less than a year when he left to join the right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange in 2007. [16] Browne was Director of Policy Exchange for just over a year. [17] According to ConservativeHome's ToryDiary 'During his time at PX there was a doubling of staff numbers but a concern that the think tank became too close to Project Cameron.' [18]

Browne was appointed as Policy Director to the Mayor of London on 21 July 2008. The Guardian remarked: 'Browne's appointment – the fourth from Policy Exchange to get a top job in the Tory party – marks a further high watermark in the influence of Policy Exchange on future Tory policy.' [19]

Mayor of London Gifts and hospitality register (as at 26 March 2010) [20]

Date Detail Donor/Provider
07/10/2008 Localis Board Dinner (House of Lords) Localis
08/10/2008 Anthony leaving do from Policy Exchange Policy Exchange
13/10/2008 Lunch Francis Elliot, Deputy Political Editor, The Times
14/10/2008 Gala Dinner Policy Exchange
15/10/2008 Dinner- Corporation of London for new Chairman of Policy Committee Sir Michael Snyder
21/10/2008 Lunch Martin Ivens- Deputy Editor Sunday Times
21/10/2008 Dinner Lionel Barber- Editor of Financial Times
04/11/2008 Dinner Lord Birt
02/12/2008 Dinner Portland PR
08/01/2009 Dinner City of London Corporation
09/01/2009 Lunch Evening Standard
21/01/2009 Dinner Think London
28/01/2009 Transfer from Davos Airport to Apartment, Horlaubenstrasse 2c, 7260 Davos Dorf Barclays Capital
29/01/2009 Hospitality received at Bombardier Dinner, Davos, Switzerland Bombardier
28/01/2009 Hospitality received at Barclays Capital Dinner, Davos, Switzerland (in support of Mayoral speaking engagement) Barclays Capital
30/01/2009 Hositality received at Google reception, Davos, Switzerland Google
30/01/2009 Hospitality received at Business Leaders Lunch, Hotel Belvedere, Davos, Switzerland CBI
30/01/2009 Hospitality received at UBS Dinner, Davos UBS
26/02/2009 Dinner Finsbury PR
23/02/2009 Business Question Time Dinner LCCI
09/03/2009 Dinner The Independent
10/03/2009 Dinner Assura
16/03/2009 Lunch with Chinese Investors Think London/Deloitte
18/03/2009 Lunch Google
24/03/2009 International Trade Dinner provided by London Chamber of Commerce and Industry London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
01/04/2009 Roundtable dinner with Reform and Oliver Letwin Dinner sponsored by Ernst and Young
27/04/2009 London First dinner with Conservative MPs London First
28/04/2009 Lunch with LDA Board Member Edmund Lazarus
03/06/2009 The London First Economic Development Strategy Consultation Dinner hosted by Macquarie Group Macquarie Group
16/06/2009 Dinner with David Willets MP and London Skills and Employment Board members, hosted by Prudential plc Prudential
16/05/2009 Hospitality received from Confederation of British Industry Confederation of British Industry
04/06/2009 Dinner and debate "After the Banking Crisis" hosted by The Times The Times
17/06/2009Dinner with Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress Alderman- hosted by the City of London Corporation City of London Corporation
25/06/2009Dinner hosted for all participants at Job Creation and Workforce Development conference in New YorkMayor of New York
10/07/2009Lunch at MagdalenPeter MorganBT
13/07/2009Dinner at Marylebone Cricket ClubLondon Excellence
14/07/2009Dinner at Hotel RussellInstitute of Education
15/07/2009Lunch at National Portrait GalleryDaily Telegraph
05/08/2009Lunch at Loch FyneThe Institute for Public Policy Research
11/08/2009Dinner at Coq D'Argent, No 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJCitiGroup
12/08/2009 Lunch at Magdalen Restaurant Sunday Times
04/08/2009 Lunch at Inn the Park The Times
4-7/09/2009 Delegate package for Worldskills Calgary 2009 (comprising accomodation, pre- booked meals, transfers to the airport and competition site, guided tour of the competition site and pass for the closing ceremony) Worldskills London 2011
06/09/2009 Cowboy Hat World skills Calgary
21/09/2009 Lunch at Clifford Chance officesStuart Popham- Clifford Chance
05/10/2009 Dinner at the Pacific Restaurant, Manchester during Conservative Party Conference Institute for Public Policy Research
06/10/2009 Attendance at Conservative Party conference dinner as guest of CH2M Hill CH2M Hill
07/10/2009 Dinner at Adobe Restaurant, Manchester during the Conservative Party Conference Reform


Affiliations

External links

There is also a section in the essay which puts forward the idea of a reviving or recasting of the cold war:

What Browne's, Moore's and Gove's comments illustrate is the attempt to justify illberal policies in the name of defending 'liberal' western values against an alien 'totalitarian' threat. This is the paradoxical project that is now the major theme of centre-Right thinking on multiculturalism and the 'war on terror'. Indeed, the debate on multiculturalism has become a part of what many regard as a new 'cultural' cold war to promote a 'moderate' (i.e. pro-western) Islam across the globe - and particularly in Europe. This is a model that has been endorsed by Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has spoken of a new cold war against 'Muslim extremism', fought through the 'soft power' of cultural influence. The role of thinktanks would then not only be to supply political parties with policy suggestions but also to popularise the idea of 'Islamism' as an existential threat to the West that requires a hardline, Cold War-style response. As Dean Godson, a research director at PX who has strong links to well-known Washington neoconservatives, wrote in 2006: 'During the Cold War, organisations such as the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office would assert the superiority of the West over its totalitarian rivals. And magazines such as Encounter did hand-to-hand combat with Soviet fellow travellers. For any kind of truly moderate Islam to flourish, we need first to recapture our own self-confidence.'

It also adds that:

Encounter, of course, was covertly funded by the CIA. But Godson's suggestion has been taken up with the launch of Standpoint magazine, published by another thinktank, the Social Affairs Unit (SAU). Its editor Daniel Johnson explicitly sees Standpoint as a 21st-century version of Encounter, except with Islamism replacing communism as the threat to western civilisation. By uniting around the formula of the 'defence of the liberal West against the Islamists', the magazine has been able to incorporate pro-Iraq war 'liberal' writers, such as Nick Cohen and Julie Burchill, with neoconservatives. Michael Gove serves on the magazine's advisory board, as does Gertrude Himmelfarb (one of Gordon Brown's favourite historians and wife and mother of the leading US neoconservatives Irving and William Kristol).

The references of the essay contain links to some of the debate over other think tanks', such as [Demos] attitude to aspects of the debate:

Martin Bright, 'Hamas at Olympia', New Statesman (10 July 2008). Nick Cohen, 'Demos and IslamExpo', Harry's Place (16 July 2008).

The Social Affairs Unit contains two former members of the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, Antonio Martino and John O’Sullivan, which had strong ties to both the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Information Research Department and Encounter.

References

  1. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  2. Boris Johnson’s adviser named CEO of BBA, Financial Times, 12 June 2012
  3. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  4. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  5. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  6. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  7. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  8. Bloggers target Times writer, by Chris Tryhorn, Media Guardian, 3 August 2005.
  9. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  10. Britain is losing Britain, by Anthony Browne, The Times, 7 August 2002.
  11. The London Times’ Anthony Browne Writes VDARE.COM About His Dramatic Article, Anthony Browne, VDARE, 13 August 2002.
  12. Britain on the Brink, by Anthony Browne, VDARE.com, 28 January 2003.
  13. Guilt By Association (With VDARE.COM!) In Britain, by James Fulford, VDARE.com, 18 August 2005.
  14. Britain on the Brink, by Anthony Browne, FrontPageMag.Com, 3 February 2003.
  15. Anthony Browne, Fundamentally, we're useful idiots, The Times, 1 August 2005.
  16. 'Times loses three reporters', Media Guardian, 6 March 2007.
  17. Mayor appoints Policy Director, Greater London Authority, 21 July 2008
  18. Anthony Browne leaves Policy Exchange to become Boris Johnson's Policy Director, ToryDiary, ConservativeHome, 21 July 2008.
  19. David Hencke, A change in the political weather, guardian.co.uk, 22 July 2008.
  20. Mayor of London Gifts and hospitality register, Gifts and hospitality register - Anthony Browne [Accessed 26 March 2010]