Mary Goudie
Mary Teresa Goudie, Baroness Goudie (born 2 September, 1946) is a Labour member of House of Lords. According to the Scotsman which named her as 13th most powerful woman in Scotland in 2004, 'Baroness Mary Goudie is one of Scottish Labour’s most prolific and accomplished networkers. The life peer was a close friend of the late Donald Dewar, and she is close to Gordon Brown and Wendy Alexander. However, her friendship with leading lights in the Brown camp has not stopped her from forming close links with both Tony and Cherie Blair. Baroness Goudie is the founder of the exclusive Aeolus networking dinner club.'[1]
Contents
New Labour fundraiser
David Osler writes:
- Further down the food chain from the high-value donor unit is the 1000 Club, Labour's organisation for those in a position to contribute a comparatively modest annual £1,000 or so, which has existed since the early 1990s. The symbolism is all-important here. While its activities may make middle-class participants feel like big shots, it has few links with the real centres of power in the Labour Party.
- Early efforts were headed by Jack Cunningham, with a steering committee including Lord Graham of Edmonton. Labour right fixer Mary Goudie, MEP Pauline Green, and Sarah Macaulay of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, later to marry Gordon Brown. Great and good involvement in the early period also included European commissioner Bruce Millan, novelist Ruth Rendell, Jonathan Powell and Tom Sawyer. Three of the steering committee have since been awarded peerages, and are now known as Baroness Goudie, Baroness Rendell and Lord Sawyer respectively.[2]
New Labour-Business linker
Goudie is known as a key link between business and Labour in Scotland and beyond:
- Labour’s tentacles in Scottish business run deep, giving access to a variety of cut-price services during campaigns, and allowing the party to use business figures to attack the claims of opposing parties.
- A key pro-Labour business figure is Baroness Goudie, the Labour peer and secretary of the Scottish Industry Forum. While the forum claims to be independent, critics accuse it of being too close to Labour. Baroness Goudie is the former organiser of the Labour Solidarity Campaign and is married to James Goudie QC, a barrister with Lord Derry Irvine’s chambers. John Reid, the former Scottish Secretary, employed Goudie to act on his behalf when he was investigated by Elizabeth Filkin, the Commons sleaze watchdog, in 1999.[3]
Career
- 1990-1995 European director of public affairs for the World Wide Fund for Nature (UK)
- 1995-1998 public affairs consultant.
- 1998 made a Life peer as Baroness Goudie, of Roundwood in the London Borough of Brent.
- 1998-2006 Strategic and Management Consultant for the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
Affiliations
- director of the House magazine
- director of the Hansard Society
- PiggyBankKids, trustee
- Secretary of the Scottish Industry Forum.
- member of the Napier University Court [4]
- Patron of the National Science Club
From the Register of Lords Interests, December 2006:
Remunerated directorships
- MTG One Ltd (strategic and management consultancy)
- Chairman, Stakeholders
Visits
- Visit to Jordan (10-14 June 2006) to attend a conference - fare paid personally, accommodation paid by Global Women's Action Network for Children
Office-holder in voluntary organisations
- Trustee of PiggyBankKids
- Board member, Pfizer Foundation UK
Voluntary organisations
- Member of the APEX/GMB Trade Union
- Member of the Labour Party
- Member of the Society of Labour Lawyers
- Member of the Merchants House of Glasgow
- Patron of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland
External links
- Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 27 July 1998
Notes
- ^Gillian Bowditch, 'Scotland's top 50 powerful women'The Scotsman, Tue 31 Aug 2004.
- ^ David Osler Taking It On Trust What Next? No. 25
- ^Murdo MacLeod 'In the grip of the Party', Scotland on Sunday, Sun 21 Apr 2002
