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| − | [[Special Advisers]] are employed by UK government departments outside the normal civil service hierarchy. Whilst there have been Special Advisers employed by Governments in the past, their numbers have increased by a huge amount under Tony Blair, rising to a total of 80 in November 2001. Tony Blair has 29, mainly in the new Downing Street Policy Directorate and his Strategic Communications Unit. | + | #redirect [[UK Government Special Advisers]] |
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| − | The bill for these Advisers was £4.4 million in 2001, making the average salary nearly £60,000. The total salary bill for Tony Blair's private office was £10.8 million in 1999. The pay of most Advisers is kept secret, but it is known that both [[Alastair Campbell]], Blair's Press Secretary and Jonathon Powell, Downing Street Chief of Staff, are paid more than £120,000.
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| − | Although Advisers like Alastair Campbell hold a huge amount of power, none of them are elected and very few of their jobs are advertised - they are all political appointees.
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| − | Many former advisers to the Labour Party have moved on to very well-paid jobs with lobbying and PR companies. [[Tim Allan]], a former Downing Street Adviser, became Director of Corporate Communications for Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB. [[Anji Hunter]], Tony Blair's former 'Gatekeeper' private secretary, took over as Director of Communications at BP on a salary of £200,000.
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| − | Like the majority of the Labour Government, most of the Special Advisers have been to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Several Advisers have been friends with senior Labour Party figures for many years, others are partners of millionaires or bosses and all come from a self-perpetuating middle class elite that thrives on patronage, using it to by-pass the grubby world of democracy and slip into positions of power and influence. When the 2001 election was called, most of the Government's Special Advisers resigned, mainly to work in the election campaign. Most returned to their jobs, although some lost their patron Minister in the June 2001 reshuffle and moved into the private sector. For full details, check out the new Former Advisers section.
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| − | Some advisers have now moved on to safe Labour seats, vacated by long-standing MPs who were given peerages to get them out of the way, including [[David Milliband]], [[James Purnell]] and [[Andy Burnham]], all former members of the [[Downing Street Policy Unit]].
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| − | ==Resources==
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| − | Info-Dynamics Research [http://www.gmb.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/5D3DCAA1-15AB-4CF0-B7A5-EB449C165AF2_ListofAdvisersApril2006congressFINAL.pdf Where are they now? The 1997/1998 Special Advisers to the Labour Government]
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| − | April 2006 Briefing for GMB.
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