Demos

Demos is ostensibly a left-leaning think tank. However, it has been credited with introducing Thatcherism (policies of reduced state intervention, free markets, and entrepreneurialism) into the Labour party, with the resulting formation of New Labour. It was established in 1993 by Geoff Mulgan and Martin Jaques, former editor of the magazine Marxism Today. Disillusioned with the perceived failure of left-wing politics at the time, they were part of the drive to find a "third way" which was neither socialist nor Thatcherite.

Geoff Mulgan went on to head the policy unit at number ten under Tony Blair and Charles Leadbetter was often a key advisor to Blair. There is also a cross current of researchers going from Demos to Labour policy units and vice versa.

Demos claims to be beyond questions of party affiliation and has recently been hosting visits from David Cameron and publishing the report True Blue advising the Conservatives how to return to power.

This distancing from the Labour Party is perhaps not that surprising. It has always been strongly influenced by neoliberal ideas. The advisory board set up to help create Demos contained many prominent neoliberals including Arthur Seldon who is sometimes described as the architect of Thatcherism.

As can be seen from the list below, Demos relies for a great deal of its funding on its corporate sponsors. A 2005 Demos study into the break up of BT found in favour of doing so. The sponsors of this report were Cable and Wireless who stood to gain if BT was broken up.

Demos and culture

Demos engages extensively with art and culture. They advised the government on the rebranding of Britain as Cool Britannia and worked on the projects Demos Scotland 2020 and Demos Glasgow 2020 which examined how Scottish culture shaped attitudes.

Conduit for corporation

In the Dispatches programme ‘Politicians for Hire’, broadcast on 22 March 2010, Patricia Hewitt recommended Demos, along with Policy Exchange, as a think-tank which could be used by corporations seeking to influence government policy. Dispatches had set up a fictional US public affairs company and contacted Hewitt and several senior politicians asking them if they were interested in a position on the advisory board in their London office. Hewitt attended a bogus interview told the undercover reporter:

“Now the think tank and the seminar route I think is a very good one and will remain a good one and so identifying the right think-tank. Policy Exchange is a good one at the moment, Demos is another good one. And saying ok, does that think tank already have a relationship with Minister X? Can we invite Minister X to give a seminar on this subject? Your client would then sponsor the seminar and you do it via the think-tank. And that’s very useful, because what you get for your sponsorship is basically you sit next to the Minister.”

People associated with Demos

• Richard Reeves – director
• John Ashworth
• Sir Douglas Hague
• Stuart Hall
• Chris Ham
• Ian Hargreaves
• Lord Christopher Haskins
• Gerry Hassan
• Gerald Holtham
• Martin Jacques
• David Marquand
• Graham Mather
• Geoff Mulgan
• Yve Newbold
• Sue Richards
• Anita Roddick
• Arthur Seldon
• Lord Dennis Stevenson
• Martin Taylor
• Bob Tyrrell
• Ngaire Woods
• Andrew Mackenzie - Trustee. Between 2005 to 2007, Mackenzie was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Demos. He is no longer in this role but continues his involvement as a Trustee. He is also Non-executive Director with energy firm Centrica, Group Executive and Chief Executive Non Ferrous at BHP Billiton and Chief Executive Diamonds and Minerals with Rio Tinto plc (since 2004). He previously served 22 years with BP plc (in a variety of senior technical and engineering positions before becoming Group Vice President of BP Petrochemicals).

Catherine Fieschi

Madeline Bunting

Geoff Mulgan

Charles Leadbetter

Gerry Hassan

Martin Jacques

Tom Bentley

Nick Claydon - trustee - partner at corporate PR Company Brunswick

Simon Cooper - Trustee -

Andrew Mackenzie - Trustee - Chief executive of Industrial Minerals at Rio Tinto, London.

Mitt Rainey - Trustee

Maeve Sherlock - Trustee

Ed Straw - Trustee - Partner at Price Water Cooper House

Hillary Cottam

Arthur Seldon

Groups associated with Demos

Demos' policy entrepreneurs operated from a Mezzanine office as 'charities' engaging in 'social entrepreneurialism'. These exchanged personnel, with funding mostly pirated from the Lottery and put under the control of New Labour 'place men' working unaccountably. 'Individual entrepreneurialism' backed by big business becomes 'venture philanthropy' not 'lobbying'. All the clients who sublet space in the Mezzanine are part of a larger company which trades under the name 'The Mezzanine'. Those were arranged in the office space as below

Civitas and Ashoka in the north mezzanine

• UnLtd across from The Policy Network
• Smartchange across from Carnegie Youth Trust
• The International year of the Volunteer across from Timebank
• Timebank across from New Start

Foreign Policy Centre split into two sections Foreign Policy Centre Community Action Network also split into two sections Community Action Network ERA and below them Demos

Demos, CAN and the FPC took up most of the room, a central corridor divided the offices and there were additional communal meeting rooms. There was a north Mezzanine and a south Mezzanine. There were a total of 13 organisations: (1) Family Education Trust (2) New start Publishing (3) Era (4) Can (5) FPC (6) 3RE Green works Renew Trust (7) Charity Technology Trust (8) Timebank (9) International year of the volunteer (10) Smartchange (11) UnLtd (12) Carnegie (13) Policy Network.

Partners

3i Age Concern

BDO Stoy Hayward

BECTA

Bell Pottinger

British Energy

British Gas

BT Forum

Building Societies Association

Bull Information Systems

Cable and Wireless

Calouste Gulbenkian

Carnegie Young People's Initiative C&A

CFBT

Channel 4

Commission for Racial Equality

Community Action Network Coopers and Lybrand

Denplan Department for Culture, Media & Sport

Department for Education and Skills

Department of Trade and Industry

Design Council

Edexcel Foundation

EDS Ltd

egovernment solutions

ELWa - Education and Learning in Wales

Environment Agency

EzGov

Further education Development Fund

Forum for the Future

HEDRA Limited

IBM

ICA

I&DeA

Institute of Management

Jobs for the Future

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Ketchum Communications

Kids' Club Network

KPMG Consulting

Lifelong Learning Foundation

London Arts Board

London Tourist Board

Mercury

MMO2

NAHT

National College for School Leadership

National House-Building Council

National Union of Teachers

National Westminster Bank

Nationwide Building Society

NatWest Group

NatWest Life

NESTA New Opportunities Fund

North Southwark EAZ

Northern Foods

Norwich Union

Oracle Corporation UK Ltd

PAULO

Pearson

Pre-School Learning Alliance

ProShare

Prudential

Prudential Plc

Reed Personnel Services Plc

Resource

Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

Scottish and Newcastle

Scottish Power

SEEVEAZ

Sequent Computer Systems Ltd

Shell International

Solace

Solar Foundation

Sorrel Foundation

Tesco

Thames Water

The Architecture Foundation

The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust

The Camelot Foundation

The Charities Aid Foundation

The City of Athens

The Corporation of London

The Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust

The Economic and Social Research Council

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation

The Government of Ireland

The Government of Italy

The Housing Corporation

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

The Lattice Foundation

The London Planning Advisory Committee

The Lord Ashdown Charitable Settlement

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

The RAC

The Tedworth Charitable Trust

Tomorrow's People

T-Mobile (UK)

UKISC

Various local authorities

VSNTO

VSO

John Wiley and Sons

Woolworths

Affiliations

• Demos USA

Contact, References and Resources

Resources

• George Parker, Think-tank feels pinch as rival cashes in, Financial Times, 27 August 2008.
• William Clark The Tainted Word Variant, issue 13, Summer 2001
• Sourcewatch entry: Demos