Powerbase - User contributions [en]

Brian Monteith

2008-04-24T14:05:13Z

Tommy Sheridan:

'''Brian Monteith''', born on January 8, 1958 is a Scottish politician, and former Public Relations professional, who was a [[Member of the Scottish Parliament]] from 1999 until 2007. Educated at Portobello High School and [[Heriot-Watt University]] in Edinburgh, he worked in public relations before his election to the [[Scottish Parliament]] as a [[Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party]] member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region at the 1999 election]. He is a former adviser to Sir [[Michael Forsyth]].

==Career==

:Monteith, 40, went to Portobello High School and then studied architecture at Heriot Watt, though he admits he was not in all the top classes at school and he did not complete his university course. The patchiness of his academic life was probably down to his extra -curricular interests. The most obvious was his political work as vice -president of his student union and later chairman of the colourful [[Federation of Conservative Students]] (after Forsyth). He was a contemporary of [[Jack McConnell]] (Labour, at Stirling University) and Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat, at Glasgow University). He also organised a successful campaign to take Heriot Watt out of the NUS.

:...Monteith left university for London as a researcher for the right-wing [[Centre for Policy Studies]], where he worked with [[John Redwood]], among others. It was Forsyth who took him into public relations and he returned to Scotland to take up an eclectic client list which included projects for Labour and Liberal Democrat local authorities. He is a non-smoker who represents the [[Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco]] in Scotland and says there was always something he found in all those projects to believe in - in this case, the right of choice. Monteith now describes PR as having been a diversion from politics -"my real vocation in life" - which also interfered with that calling in 1992 when he won the Tory nomination to take on the late John Smith in Monklands East, but felt compelled to resign it after his PR agency failed.<ref>The Scotsman November 4, 1998, Wednesday BRIAN MONTEITH IS EDUCATION SPOKESMAN FOR THE SCOTTISH TORIES.SO WHAT'S HE GOT TO SMILE ABOUT? BYLINE: Tom Little SECTION: Pg. 12</ref>

: Monteith began his career in public relations in 1983, working for London lobbying firm [[Michael Forsyth Associates]], founded by the last government's Scottish secretary, Michael Forsyth.<ref>PR Week August 15, 1997 Monteith aims to sway Scottish devolution vote BYLINE: By JULIETTE GARSIDE</ref>

:Once known as "the Blue Trot"<ref>Scotland on Sunday July 9, 1995, Sunday New Tory team BYLINE: Michael Forsyth, The New Secretary Of State For Scotland, Has Launched A Charm Offensive To Underline His Insistence That He Has Changed Since He Last Stalked The Corridors Of The Scottish Office. Is It Cosmetic Or Is There Substance To The Claim, Asks Political Editor Kenny Farquharson SECTION: Pg. 9</ref>

: The influence of the FCS is most conspicuous in Scotland, where Brian Monteith, former national federation chairman, runs [[Leith Communications]], a public relations company, with [[Stephen Morrison]], once an FCS national committee member. Monteith was Scots YC chairman last year, and Morrison, also an Edinburgh councillor, is his successor. The pair work commercially for numerous constituency associations, and organised the successful anti-devolution campaign at the last Scottish Tory conference. Their agency - whose clients include the South African consul in Edinburgh - has reached a shortlist of four for a lucrative Scottish Office contract to popularise government policy north of the border. The political adviser to [[Malcolm Rifkind]], the Scottish Secretary, is [[Graham Carter]], another former FCS activist who stays in close touch with Morrison and Monteith.<ref>The Guardian (London) November 4, 1988 Banned Tory students re-emerge to continue the rightwing struggle / The fall and rise of members of the abolished Federation of Conservative Students find posts close to the heart of political power BYLINE: By DAVID ROSS</ref>
==Devolution==
He was the leader of the unsuccessful [[Think Twice]] "No-No" campaign in the 1997 devolution referendum that led to the creation of the [[Scottish Parliament]]. After his election, Monteith developed a reputation as a Thatcherite right winger within the Conservative group. He argued in favour of giving more financial powers to the Scottish Parliament and wanted to move his party in a different direction ideologically and strategically. In July, 2005 he resigned as his party's Finance Spokesperson, saying that he wanted the freedom to discuss policy matters that "cut across other policy portfolios".

He then subsequently resigned from the party altogether and became an independent when it came to light that he had been briefing the media against the Scottish Conservative leader, [[David McLetchie]] and his ongoing problems surrounding coverage of alleged erroneous expenses claims from the public purse.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4408856.stm MSP quits Tory group after probe], ''BBC Online'' Last Updated: Friday, 4 November 2005, 20:19 GMT</ref>

In 2006 he announced he would not stand again as an MSP, saying he "would rather return to commerce than be a one-man band swimming against the treacly tide of collectivism in the Scottish Parliament". <ref> [http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1091&id=1616472006 Monteith to stand down as MSP], ''[[The Scotsman]]'', 2006-11-01, accessed on 2007-02-10</ref>

Monteith works with numerous charities and is the Honorary President of [[English-Speaking Union Scotland]]. He is actively pursuing a return to public relations and has had two stints working for the Botswanan government. Monteith writes regularly for many newspapers including an opinion column for the ''[[Edinburgh Evening News]]''.

Furthermore, he is also well known for being a supporter of [[Hibernian FC]].

==PR background==

:I SAT in on a selection panel choosing candidates to fight in the 2003 elections for the Scottish parliament. What a rum lot - both the candidates and the selectors. Most of these apprentice politicians serve in the lower ranks of Scotland's professions. I predicted I would be reading the biographies of a few youthful lawyers and accountants, but the biggest contingency was folk from marketing and PR. It seems Brian Monteith MSP is a sort of inspiration for them all. 48,000 pounds a year plus perks, all for very little effort. You need not even be encumbered by constituents.<ref>Scotland on Sunday December 9, 2001, Sunday ILLUSTRIOUS LOBBYIST IN SHIMMERING PYJAMAS BYLINE: [[Peter Clarke]] SECTION: Pg. 6</ref>
==Views==
:One who does is Brian Monteith, the former Tory MSP and now research director of the Policy Institute think-tank. He says: "Public housing should be generally discouraged as a bad idea. How many private housing schemes do you see being pulled down only 30 years after being built because they are damp and deteriorating?
:"People need shoes but we don't think the state should cobble them together. The sale of public housing to tenants in the 1980s and 1990s was the largest single transfer of wealth Scotland has ever known - and the people that opposed it then are still clearly hoping to return us to those dark old days when we had more public housing than communist East Germany.
:"The lack of affordable housing is entirely due to the restrictive planning laws that make development harder.
"People who moan about the lack of housing for low-income families are often the first to complain about any developments near their own home."
:Mr Monteith's views are not widely held in Scotland. Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats all see a role for the state in housing.<ref>The Scotsman November 2, 2007, Friday 1 Edition Should our local authorities build council houses again? BYLINE: PETER MACMAHON SECTION: Pg. 10</ref>

==Affiliations==
*[[Leith Communications]]
*[[Forth Public Relations]] Executive director in 1995<ref>PR Week March 10, 1995 Communication Group Scotlandl buys Forth PR SECTION: Pg. 5</ref>
*[[Communication Group Scotland]]
*[[Scottish Parliament]] MSP from 1999-2007
*[[Policy Institute]]

==Notes==
<references/>

Policy Institute

2008-04-24T13:44:13Z

Tommy Sheridan: /* People */

The Policy Institute's (PI) foundation co-incided with the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It is institutionally independent from any political party. [[Bill Jamieson]], senior journalist at the right-leaning The [[Scotsman]] [[broadsheet]] (owned by the [[Barclay Brothers]], is the Director of the PI, which has no office, 'only a desk at the Scotsman', as its Executive Director [[Tom Miers]] phrased it. He is the only salaried member of the PI, joined the PI in May 2003 'to run the institute on a more full-time basis'. He formerly worked for the [[IEA]] in an administrative role. He described The Scotsman as very generous in allocating logistic re-sources to the PI and allowing a senior member of its staff to re-dedicate some of his time to the institute. Jamieson has been a frequent guest at the IEA and at the [[Bruges Group]] - a Thatcherite committed to a fight against deeper UK integration into the EU. The PI's board of trustees is less impressive than that of other more established Scottish think-tanks such as the [[David Hume Institute]] and the [[Scottish Council Foundation]]. It is composed of The Scotsman pundit Katie Grant, a top manager of [[Scottish Friendly Assurance]] [[Colin McLean]], and [[Allan Massie]], a journalist-turned-writer.
In the Scottish think-tank world, the [[David Hume Institute]] and the PI share a similar ideological background, but differ in their style. The DHI is more academic and more restrained than the polemic pro-market philosophy of the PI, which has likened the NHS to Soviet-style bureaucracy and generally demands that the forces of the free market are let loose on the public sector. This goal is fuelled by the PI's "mission and [its] purpose, which is broadly to research how the classical liberal ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment [...] can be applied to modern Scotland". The PI is a multi-issue think-tank that concentrates exclusively on Scotland's economy, public services, environmental and agricultural policies, and modernisation of governance. As it has no in-house expertise, scholars from the relevant fields are commissioned to write papers and newspaper contributions, so that the PI faciliates policy learning processes. The PI belonges to the neo-liberal privatisation advocacy community. The PI also has some features of a vanity think-tank, as it is the brainchild and hobbyhorse of a conservative journalist at odds with the perceived leftist Scottish consensus. It certainly serves the Scotsman as a reliable source for neo-liberal leaders and opinion pieces and, in a reciprocal process, as a further outlet of broadsheet's political views.

==People==

'''Director'''

[[Bill Jamieson]]

'''Executive Director'''

[[Tom Miers]]

'''Research Director'''

[[Brian Monteith]]

'''Press Officer'''

[[Neil Rafferty]]

'''Trustees'''

*Prof. [[Peter Jones]]
*Sir [[Donald MacKay]]
*[[Colin McLean]]
*[[Allan Massie]]
*[[Andrew Neil]]
*Prof. Sir [[Alan Peacock]]
*[[Amy Rafferty]]

==Funding==
Of the PI's sponsors since 2003 about half were trusts, such as the [[Tay Charitable Trust]] and the [[Binks Trust]]. Companies, e.g. [[Scottish Equitable]], [[Holyrood Holdings]] (Barclay Bros holding company for [[Telegraph Media Group]], The Scotsman, the [[Spectator Magazine]], Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News), and [[Stagecoach]], the trade association [[Federation of Small Business]] and individuals make up the other half.

==Contact details==
Address: 65 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 4NA Tel: 07725 813 123

==External links==
Website Policy Institute: http://www.policyinstitute.info/
[[Category:Think Tanks]][[Category:Water: Advocates for Privatisation of Scottish water]]

Policy Institute

2008-04-24T13:39:06Z

Tommy Sheridan:

The Policy Institute's (PI) foundation co-incided with the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It is institutionally independent from any political party. [[Bill Jamieson]], senior journalist at the right-leaning The [[Scotsman]] [[broadsheet]] (owned by the [[Barclay Brothers]], is the Director of the PI, which has no office, 'only a desk at the Scotsman', as its Executive Director [[Tom Miers]] phrased it. He is the only salaried member of the PI, joined the PI in May 2003 'to run the institute on a more full-time basis'. He formerly worked for the [[IEA]] in an administrative role. He described The Scotsman as very generous in allocating logistic re-sources to the PI and allowing a senior member of its staff to re-dedicate some of his time to the institute. Jamieson has been a frequent guest at the IEA and at the [[Bruges Group]] - a Thatcherite committed to a fight against deeper UK integration into the EU. The PI's board of trustees is less impressive than that of other more established Scottish think-tanks such as the [[David Hume Institute]] and the [[Scottish Council Foundation]]. It is composed of The Scotsman pundit Katie Grant, a top manager of [[Scottish Friendly Assurance]] [[Colin McLean]], and [[Allan Massie]], a journalist-turned-writer.
In the Scottish think-tank world, the [[David Hume Institute]] and the PI share a similar ideological background, but differ in their style. The DHI is more academic and more restrained than the polemic pro-market philosophy of the PI, which has likened the NHS to Soviet-style bureaucracy and generally demands that the forces of the free market are let loose on the public sector. This goal is fuelled by the PI's "mission and [its] purpose, which is broadly to research how the classical liberal ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment [...] can be applied to modern Scotland". The PI is a multi-issue think-tank that concentrates exclusively on Scotland's economy, public services, environmental and agricultural policies, and modernisation of governance. As it has no in-house expertise, scholars from the relevant fields are commissioned to write papers and newspaper contributions, so that the PI faciliates policy learning processes. The PI belonges to the neo-liberal privatisation advocacy community. The PI also has some features of a vanity think-tank, as it is the brainchild and hobbyhorse of a conservative journalist at odds with the perceived leftist Scottish consensus. It certainly serves the Scotsman as a reliable source for neo-liberal leaders and opinion pieces and, in a reciprocal process, as a further outlet of broadsheet's political views.

==People==

'''Director'''

Bill Jamieson

'''Executive Director'''

Tom Miers

'''Research Director'''

Brian Monteith

'''Press Officer'''

Neil Rafferty

'''Trustees'''

*[[Prof. Peter Jones]]
*[[Sir Donald MacKay]]
*[[Colin McLean]]
*[[Allan Massie]]
*[[Andrew Neil]]
*[[Prof. Sir Alan Peacock]]
*[[Amy Rafferty]]

==Funding==
Of the PI's sponsors since 2003 about half were trusts, such as the [[Tay Charitable Trust]] and the [[Binks Trust]]. Companies, e.g. [[Scottish Equitable]], [[Holyrood Holdings]] (Barclay Bros holding company for [[Telegraph Media Group]], The Scotsman, the [[Spectator Magazine]], Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News), and [[Stagecoach]], the trade association [[Federation of Small Business]] and individuals make up the other half.

==Contact details==
Address: 65 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 4NA Tel: 07725 813 123

==External links==
Website Policy Institute: http://www.policyinstitute.info/
[[Category:Think Tanks]][[Category:Water: Advocates for Privatisation of Scottish water]]

Society of British Aerospace Companies

2008-03-05T12:05:02Z

Tommy Sheridan:

==committees==
===Aviation Security Board [ASG] ===

Name Organisation Community Role Anthony Barlow Midlands Aerospace Alliance

*Ms [[Catherine Barratt]] GE Security - Homeland Protection
Sales Specialist
*Mr [[Jan Blackhall]] Capita Symonds
Head of Engineering
*Mr Simon Brimble Ove Arup & Partners International Limited

Mr Michael Brunton Host Systems Ltd
Managing Director
Mr [[Michael Burns]] [[QinetiQ Group]] PLC
Director - Aviation Markets
Mr Chris Chalk Mott MacDonald

Mr Greg Cook Mott MacDonald
Divisional Director - Aviation Development
Mr Paul Crombie Honeywell Airport Solutions

Mr Robert Edley Geo. Robson & Co (Conveyors) Ltd
Joint Managing Director
Mr Tony Ellerbeck Aviation Security (SW) Ltd
Consultant to Marketwise
Mr Richard Garner MPD Group Ltd

Mr Brian Goddard BAE SYSTEMS PLC
Business Manager
Mr Chris Gordon-Wilson Security Consortium International Ltd
Managing Director
Mr James Kimmance PB Ltd

Ms Donna McDonnell CEM Systems Ltd
Director of Operations
Mr Jim McKenzie Real Time Engineering Ltd
Travel & Transport Director
Mr Martin Miller Smart Approach Ltd
Sales Director
Mr Kevin Moore ERA Technology Ltd
Business Development Manager
Mr Derrick Rawle MPD Group Ltd

Mr Tim Rowe CSE International Ltd

Mr David Scotter SBAC
Facilitator
Mr Stewart Smith BFBS Consultants Limited
Director/Security Advisor
Mr Malcolm Trigg Vector Management Ltd
Managing Director Chairman
Mr David Unwin Davis Langdon

Mr Barry Walker TPS Consult

Mr Dominic Walker QinetiQ Group PLC
Sales Manager - QinetiQ Airport Radar
Mr Nick Wells Atkins
Project Development Manager
Mr David Wilson-Le-Moine Thales Security Systems UK Ltd
Head of Sales & Marketing
Mr Alan Young Logan Teleflex (UK) Ltd
Business Development Manager<REF>[http://mrm.sbac.co.uk/ngen_public/community/common/memberdirectory.asp?id=119 community: Aviation Security Board ASG], accessed 27-2-2008</REF>

==Defence Industrial Strategy==

Defence Industrial Strategy
The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) was launched by the Government on 15 December 2005 to implement MoD's Defence Industrial Policy. SBAC was directly involved in discussions with the Government and played a key role in ensuring that the views of industry were fully represented and taken into account. Implementation of the DIS has since been a core SBAC activity and Government is now beginning the process of defining a DIS 2.0 in which SBAC is closely engaged. MOD has issued an Industry Engagement Strategy for DIS v2.0. This includes a series of briefings for industry, details of which will be circulated to all SBAC members.

http://www.sbac.co.uk/pages/95142763.asp

Last Thursday I announced the award of a £124M contract to BAE Systems for Project Taranis, a project to develop Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. BAE Systems are leading an industry team including Rolls-Royce, Qinetiq, and Smiths Aerospace. Project TARANIS will explore how cutting edge technology can be integrated into the UAV to deliver a new front line capability and play a key role in sustaining vital capabilities and expertise here in the UK. It is a great example of the Ministry of Defence and industry jointly funding research and development for mutual benefit and the rapid pull through of new technologies encouraged in the Defence Technology Strategy

Lord Drayson Speech; Anniversary of launch of Defence Industrial Strategy, 15th Dec, City Forum Ltd, Bishopgate, London
==Notes==
<references/>