Michael Forsyth - Revision history

Josh Leeson at 10:05, 23 December 2014

2014-12-23T10:05:53Z

Josh Leeson at 11:19, 22 December 2014

2014-12-22T11:19:02Z

Josh Leeson at 11:59, 19 December 2014

2014-12-19T11:59:27Z

Tom Griffin: /* Neo-con connections */

2013-07-12T14:51:46Z

Neo-con connections

Tom Griffin: /* Neo-con connections */ typo

2009-06-12T01:26:35Z

Neo-con connections: typo

David: /* To London, think tanks and PR */

2008-11-08T15:19:48Z

To London, think tanks and PR

David: /* The Forsyth Interregnum */

2008-11-08T15:05:56Z

The Forsyth Interregnum

David: /* Publications */

2008-11-07T11:27:56Z

Publications

David: /* To London, think tanks and PR */

2008-11-07T11:15:05Z

To London, think tanks and PR

David at 20:30, 6 November 2008

2008-11-06T20:30:47Z

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 ==Interests==
-*Non-executive Director, [[J & J Denholm]] Ltd (parent company of [[Denholm Group]] which has five divisions: shipping; logistics; seafoods; industrial services; oilfield services)
+*Non-executive director, [[J & J Denholm]] Ltd (parent company of [[Denholm Group]] which has five divisions: shipping; logistics; seafoods; industrial services; oilfield services)
-*Non-executive Chairman, [[Hyperion Insurance Group]] Ltd
+*Non-executive chairman, [[Hyperion Insurance Group]] Ltd
-*Non-executive Director, [[Denholm Logistics]] Ltd
+*Non-executive director, [[Denholm Logistics]] Ltd
-*Non-executive Director, [[Secure Trust Bank]] plc (w.e.f. 1 March 2014)<ref> [http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-forsyth-of-drumlean/1141 Lord Forsyth of Drumlean] ''Parliament.UK'', accessed 19 December 2014 </ref>
+*Non-executive director, [[Secure Trust Bank]] plc (w.e.f. 1 March 2014)<ref> [http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-forsyth-of-drumlean/1141 Lord Forsyth of Drumlean] ''Parliament.UK'', accessed 19 December 2014 </ref>
 ==Career==

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 ==Notes==
 <references/>
-[[Category:Lobbyists|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Conservative Party|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:House of Lords|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Revolving Door|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Finance sector lobbying|Forsyth, Michael]]
+[[Category:Lobbyists|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Conservative Party|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:House of Lords|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Revolving Door|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Financial sector lobbying|Forsyth, Michael]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 '''Michael Bruce Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean''' PC, (born 16 October 1954, Montrose) is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician. His highest office was as [[Secretary of State for Scotland]] from 1995 to 1997.
-Forsyth first entered parliament for Stirling in the 1983 election, and lost his seat to [[Anne McGuire]] from [[Labour Party|Labour]] in the 1997 election. In 1997, he received a knighthood and in 1999 was elevated to the [[House of Lords]] given a life peerage as '''Baron Forsyth of Drumlean''', of Drumlean in Stirling.
+Forsyth first entered parliament for Stirling in the 1983 election, and lost his seat to [[Anne McGuire]] from [[Labour Party|Labour]] in the 1997 election. In 1997, he received a knighthood and in 1999 was elevated to the [[House of Lords]] given a [[Conservative]] life peerage as '''Baron Forsyth of Drumlean''', of Drumlean in Stirling.
 ==Federation of Conservative Students==
@@ Line 41: / Line 42: @@
 :Last week Michael Forsyth, the Scottish health minister, was challenged in a Commons committee over the manner in which he had divested himself of his shareholding in [[Michael Forsyth Associates]], a lobbying company of which he had been chairman and director. The challenge by the Labour MP [[Dale Campbell-Savours]] - and the rebuttal - would have been more effective had the participants been allowed to refer to the Cabinet paper which covered Mr Forsyth's conduct on becoming a minister. As a result of this obsessional secrecy, it is impossible to say what the current version of the paper contains and to what extent it has been updated to meet contemporary conditions. The Prime Minister draws up the rules of this secret game and she decides whether her ministers are playing by them. It would be far better for the rules to be placed in the public domain where their adequacy, and the extent to which they were being followed, could be judged by Parliament and public.<ref>The Independent January 16 1990, Tuesday Leading Article: MPs and their interests SECTION: Editorial ; Pg. 18</ref>
+==Interests==
 ==Career==
@@ Line 65: / Line 70: @@
 ==Notes==
 <references/>
-[[Category:Lobbyists|Forsyth, Michael]]
+[[Category:Lobbyists|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Conservative Party|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:House of Lords|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Revolving Door|Forsyth, Michael]][[Category:Finance sector lobbying|Forsyth, Michael]]

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Arnold Kemp, former editor of the [[Glasgow Herald]], writes in his memoir that:
-:At the start of Forsyth's tenure there appeared an American adviser, [[Grover Norquist]].  He had apparently been a member of the republican team which had destabilised the [[Michael Dukakis|Dukakis]] presidential campaign of 1998.  He was supposed to be the master if the blacker arts of disinformation.  According to anecdote he travelled round Scotland talking to people and compiling a 'hit list' of the politically incorrect in the party.  [[John McKay]] was said to have spent an uncomfortable day in his company visiting the Borders.  [[William Hughes|Hughes]] confirmed that his serviceshad been paid for by a right-wing American organisation though he could not recall its name. (It was, in fact, the [[Heritage Foundation]]). Hughes had an hour or so with him.  He told him: 'You might be good for the States but I doubt if you're applicable to Scotland'.  He did not think anything much came from his recommendations.  but it is a fair deduction, admittedly from circumstantial evidence, that a decision was taken to purge the list of parlimentary candidates of 'unsuitable' names.<ref>Arnold Kemp, The Hollow Drum: Scotland since the war, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1993, p. 195</ref>
+:At the start of Forsyth's tenure there appeared an American adviser, [[Grover Norquist]].  He had apparently been a member of the republican team which had destabilised the [[Michael Dukakis|Dukakis]] presidential campaign of 1998.  He was supposed to be the master if the blacker arts of disinformation.  According to anecdote he travelled round Scotland talking to people and compiling a 'hit list' of the politically incorrect in the party.  [[John McKay]] was said to have spent an uncomfortable day in his company visiting the Borders.  [[William Hughes (Conservative Party)|Hughes]] confirmed that his serviceshad been paid for by a right-wing American organisation though he could not recall its name. (It was, in fact, the [[Heritage Foundation]]). Hughes had an hour or so with him.  He told him: 'You might be good for the States but I doubt if you're applicable to Scotland'.  He did not think anything much came from his recommendations.  but it is a fair deduction, admittedly from circumstantial evidence, that a decision was taken to purge the list of parlimentary candidates of 'unsuitable' names.<ref>Arnold Kemp, The Hollow Drum: Scotland since the war, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1993, p. 195</ref>
 ===Clashing with the traditionalists===

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 ===Neo-con connections===
-Arnold Kemp, former editor of the [[glasgow Herald]], writes in his memoir that:
+Arnold Kemp, former editor of the [[Glasgow Herald]], writes in his memoir that:
 :At the start of Forsyth's tenure there appeared an American adviser, [[Grover Norquist]].  He had apparently been a member of the republican team which had destabilised the [[Michael Dukakis|Dukakis]] presidential campaign of 1998.  He was supposed to be the master if the blacker arts of disinformation.  According to anecdote he travelled round Scotland talking to people and compiling a 'hit list' of the politically incorrect in the party.  [[John McKay]] was said to have spent an uncomfortable day in his company visiting the Borders.  [[William Hughes|Hughes]] confirmed that his serviceshad been paid for by a right-wing American organisation though he could not recall its name. (It was, in fact, the [[Heritage Foundation]]). Hughes had an hour or so with him.  He told him: 'You might be good for the States but I doubt if you're applicable to Scotland'.  He did not think anything much came from his recommendations.  but it is a fair deduction, admittedly from circumstantial evidence, that a decision was taken to purge the list of parlimentary candidates of 'unsuitable' names.<ref>Arnold Kemp, The Hollow Drum: Scotland since the war, Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1993, p. 195</ref>

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 Forsyth first entered parliament for Stirling in the 1983 election, and lost his seat to [[Anne McGuire]] from [[Labour Party|Labour]] in the 1997 election. In 1997, he received a knighthood and in 1999 was elevated to the [[House of Lords]] given a life peerage as '''Baron Forsyth of Drumlean''', of Drumlean in Stirling.
-==To London, think tanks and PR==
+==Federation of Conservative Students==
-:LONDON did not realise what was about to hit it when the young Michael Forsyth moved south of the border soon after graduating. From the outset he realised that if he were to achieve his ultimate ambition, he had to move close to the centre of power. Already a convert to the free-enterprise creed of Dr [[Madsen Pirie]] and his [[Adam Smith Institute]], Michael Forsyth saw himself as something of an evangelist. It was his duty to proclaim the "Gospel" at every opportunity. He was preaching Thatcherism before the word was coined, even before Margaret Thatcher knew such a thing existed. After a spell with an organisation known as the [[Campaign Against Building Organisation]], he was re-cruited by the public relations company [[KH Publicity]] in the late 70s. [[Tate and Lyle]] were one of this firm's most prestigious clients and they had run into some difficulty over dealings in South Africa. Michael Forsyth was specifically recruited by the agency to handle this more than delicate problem that was generating unfavourable publicity and was therefore a threat to profits. Those who worked for the public relations company at the time did not doubt Michael Forsyth's brainpower or his dedication to work. What they might just have underestimated was his ambition.  Soon they realised this young whippersnapper with the Scottish accent was a force to be reckoned with...
+==To London, think tanks and PR - Late 1970s==
 :Within months of his recruitment to the firm several senior employees had left. At the same time Michael Forsyth was riding the promotion ladder and within months of joining KH Publicity, he was made a director. Amid all the disruption that was then taking place in the company, employees and directors alike were deeply shocked by the tragic suicide of a colleague. At the time it must have hit Michael Forsyth particularly hard as he was sharing an office with the unfortunate executive. Michael Forsyth worked more than diligently and loved to drive around in flash cars. But more than any-thing he was a political animal. He had to get into mainstream politics and the first step he reckoned was to become a local government councillor. Living in Pimlico, his son attended the kindergarten where Diana Princess of Wales was employed be-fore her marriage, he chose Westminster City Council to cut his electoral teeth. Aged 24, Michael Forsyth already knew where his future lay. His election to the council in the Churchill ward must have come as great a surprise to him just as much as it was a shock to his Labour opponents.
-:From almost the first meeting Michael Forsyth pursued the free- market theories as taught at the feet of Madsen Pirie and his like. From the start he did not concern himself with the minutiae of local government politics. Where a lesser person might have dipped a toe in the water, he jumped straight in from the high div-ing board. Straight away he was into the big and controversial issue, promoting compulsory competitive tendering. While it never happened during his term of office with Westminster City Council, he now has the satisfaction of knowing that privatisation in the many fields he had long been advocating was to take off big-time as soon as he entered Parliament and have since become part of history. Unquestionably Michael Forsyth was setting out the future programme for the Thatcher government. The direct works departments of councils, he argued, gave employees the right to tax ratepayers, so they could enjoy inefficient jobs and easy conditions...Certainly, at this stage in his political career, Michael Forsyth was not one for diplomacy.  During Jim Callaghan's win-ter of discontent, the future Secretary of State for Scotland led a brigade of vigilante cleaners in Westminster, in a bid to thwart strikers.
+:From almost the first meeting Michael Forsyth pursued the free- market theories as taught at the feet of Madsen Pirie and his like. From the start he did not concern himself with the minutiae of local government politics. Where a lesser person might have dipped a toe in the water, he jumped straight in from the high div-ing board. Straight away he was into the big and controversial issue, promoting compulsory competitive tendering. While it never happened during his term of office with Westminster City Council, he now has the satisfaction of knowing that privatisation in the many fields he had long been advocating was to take off big-time as soon as he entered Parliament and have since become part of history. Unquestionably Michael Forsyth was setting out the future programme for the Thatcher government. The direct works departments of councils, he argued, gave employees the right to tax ratepayers, so they could enjoy inefficient jobs and easy conditions...Certainly, at this stage in his political career, Michael Forsyth was not one for diplomacy.  During [[Jim Callaghan]]'s winter of discontent, the future Secretary of State for Scotland led a brigade of vigilante cleaners in Westminster, in a bid to thwart strikers.
-:Outside politics, but only just, Michael Forsyth in 1981 set up his own company, Michael Forsyth As-sociates, a public relations-cum-political lobbying organisation. KH Publicity was not faring as well as it had done previously, and anyway he realised his views on priva-tisation were attracting interest from firms anxious to break into areas that the current thinking concluded would be run only by the State or local government . . . just as they had always been. It was time for Michael Forsyth to break out on his own and he took his opportunity. A major client was the [[Prichard Services Group]], a company that was to win street-cleaning contracts from Margaret Thatcher's favourite Wandsworth council, and British Laundry, Cleaning and Rental Services, which was to win NHS deals. Forsyth played a key role in lobbying the Department of Health and Social Security and other depart-ments for the introduction of competitive tendering into the NHS and elsewhere. He organised meetings with clients and key figures in Government. His was a highly successful campaign. Much earlier the young Michael Forsyth produced pamphlets that brought congratulatory telephone calls from 10 Downing Street after Margaret Thatcher won the election. She told him that he was making the right sounds, that he should carry on with what he was saying, and that he had a major role to play in the future of British politics.
+:Outside politics, but only just, Michael Forsyth in 1981 set up his own company, [[Michael Forsyth Associates]], a public relations-cum-political lobbying organisation. [[KH Publicity]] was not faring as well as it had done previously, and anyway he realised his views on priva-tisation were attracting interest from firms anxious to break into areas that the current thinking concluded would be run only by the State or local government . . . just as they had always been. It was time for Michael Forsyth to break out on his own and he took his opportunity. A major client was the [[Prichard Services Group]], a company that was to win street-cleaning contracts from Margaret Thatcher's favourite Wandsworth council, and British Laundry, Cleaning and Rental Services, which was to win NHS deals. Forsyth played a key role in lobbying the Department of Health and Social Security and other depart-ments for the introduction of competitive tendering into the NHS and elsewhere. He organised meetings with clients and key figures in Government. His was a highly successful campaign. Much earlier the young Michael Forsyth produced pamphlets that brought congratulatory telephone calls from 10 Downing Street after Margaret Thatcher won the election. She told him that he was making the right sounds, that he should carry on with what he was saying, and that he had a major role to play in the future of British politics.
 :At the time, Michael Forsyth was a mere city councillor, and this was praise indeed. Could a young ambitious man have hoped for greater encouragement than this? Through his pamphlets he was upsetting architects, trade unions, and, not least, senior local govern-ment officers who felt the long- tried system of "in -house" direct- labour workforces was the only option open to rate-payers. It was not just manual labourers who feared for their insecure jobs.  Professionals such as architects whose careers had begun in local government and until then might reasonably have expected would end there, were also deeply concerned by outbursts from this young councillor, who, by all rights, should have carried little political weight. Michael Forsyth ignored complaints and continued to speak out relentlessly. He wanted everything to go out to tender. This he argued could save ratepayers something between 20% and 40% on their bills. In one of his pamphlets Michael Forsyth insisted it was only when private contractors were brought in to take over operations previously carried out by councils that public sector wastage would become apparent. "The public service has been swindled for years," he insisted.<ref>The Herald (Glasgow) March 29, 1997 The brash Scots councillor in London had his own solution to the dustmen's strike. He pulled on a pair of overalls and started clearing rubbish BYLINE: James Mckillop SECTION: Pg. 4</ref>
 ==Minister==

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:05, 8 November 2008
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	:Last week Michael Forsyth, the Scottish health minister, was challenged in a Commons committee over the manner in which he had divested himself of his shareholding in [[Michael Forsyth Associates]], a lobbying company of which he had been chairman and director. The challenge by the Labour MP [[Dale Campbell-Savours]] - and the rebuttal - would have been more effective had the participants been allowed to refer to the Cabinet paper which covered Mr Forsyth's conduct on becoming a minister. As a result of this obsessional secrecy, it is impossible to say what the current version of the paper contains and to what extent it has been updated to meet contemporary conditions. The Prime Minister draws up the rules of this secret game and she decides whether her ministers are playing by them. It would be far better for the rules to be placed in the public domain where their adequacy, and the extent to which they were being followed, could be judged by Parliament and public.<ref>The Independent January 16 1990, Tuesday Leading Article: MPs and their interests SECTION: Editorial ; Pg. 18</ref>		:Last week Michael Forsyth, the Scottish health minister, was challenged in a Commons committee over the manner in which he had divested himself of his shareholding in [[Michael Forsyth Associates]], a lobbying company of which he had been chairman and director. The challenge by the Labour MP [[Dale Campbell-Savours]] - and the rebuttal - would have been more effective had the participants been allowed to refer to the Cabinet paper which covered Mr Forsyth's conduct on becoming a minister. As a result of this obsessional secrecy, it is impossible to say what the current version of the paper contains and to what extent it has been updated to meet contemporary conditions. The Prime Minister draws up the rules of this secret game and she decides whether her ministers are playing by them. It would be far better for the rules to be placed in the public domain where their adequacy, and the extent to which they were being followed, could be judged by Parliament and public.<ref>The Independent January 16 1990, Tuesday Leading Article: MPs and their interests SECTION: Editorial ; Pg. 18</ref>

−	~~==The Forsyth Interregnum==~~

−	:CHAIRMEN of Conservative associations throughout Scotland have received a letter advising them not to hand over membership lists to party headquarters. The letter, anonymous but claiming to be from a constituency chairman, will heighten fears over the confidentiality of membership lists once they are handed over to party headquarters.
−
−	:Eighteen associations out of 72 have failed to meet the deadline for submitting membership lists asked for by central office in Chester Street, Edinburgh, so the names and addresses can be put on the mailing list for Scottish Conservative, the new quarterly party magazine to be produced by Leith Communications, run by Brian Monteith. Although only one association, Glasgow Hillhead, formerly a marginal, has voted to withhold its lists, 17 others have not met the mid-November deadline. The letter has highlighted fears among rank-and-file members about changes at central office and the appointment of certain staff and party advisers. Concern over lists has also been expressed by Andrew Barnett, president of St Andrews University Conservative Association, in a six-page complaint to Bill Hughes, deputy chairman of the party, over the 'high-handed' attitude of Chester Street in suspending the assocation's Royal Bank of Scotland account after it refused to co-operate fully in providing membership details for Scottish Conservatives. Barnett said: 'My association is perfectly capable of mailing the magazine internally, saving considerable expense.' Grass-roots workers fear association membership lists could fall into the hands of groups not directly connected with the Tory party, as happened with the membership list of the now-defunct Federation of Conservative Students, bought by David Irving, the neo-fascist author. (See story, left).
−
−	:That incident is specifically mentioned by Barnett in the letter to Hughes, which was also distributed to Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish secretary, and a number of other party officials and chairmen of marginal seats, such as North East Fife.Barnett also called for a formal apology from Michael Forsyth, chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party, over the 'unscrupulous' action of his staff, plus reimbursement of expenses to free the association bank account.<ref>The Times (London) November 26 1989, Sunday Tories in fear over abuse of party names; Scotland BYLINE: [[Mark Whittet]] SECTION: Issue 8624.</ref>

	==Career==		==Career==