Difference between revisions of "James Purnell"

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[[James Purnell]] MP is a well connected zionist and free marketeer. He is a leading member of the new generation of Labour MPs, often referred to as the "[[Primrose Hill Gang]]".  Other prominent members include [[Ed Miliband]] and [[David Miliband]], [[Douglas Alexander]], [[Ed Balls]] and [[Pat McFadden (British politician)|Pat McFadden]].  Despite being a leading Blairite, Purnell is popular amongst supporters of [[Gordon Brown]] too, and his pre-ministerial CV includes a stint as a PPS at the [[Treasury]].    He is a [[Labour Party]] MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, first being elected at the 2001 general election.  He was educated at [[Balliol College, Oxford]].
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[[File:James Purnell.jpg|200px|thumb|right|James Purnell]]
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{{Template:Revolving Door badge}}
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'''James Purnell''' MP (born 2 March 1970) is a former Labour MP. He was a leading member of the generation of Labour MPs, often referred to as the "[[Primrose Hill Gang]]".  Other prominent members include [[Ed Miliband]] and [[David Miliband]], [[Douglas Alexander]], [[Ed Balls]] and [[Pat McFadden]].  Despite being a leading Blairite, Purnell was popular amongst supporters of [[Gordon Brown]] too, and his pre-ministerial CV includes a stint as a PPS at the Treasury.    He was a [[Labour Party]] MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, first being elected at the 2001 general election.  He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. <ref>'James Purnell MP - Biography', [http://www.ccpr.org.uk/OneStopCMS/Core/CrawlerResourceServer.aspx?resource=3D973C69-2B24-4E85-AAF4-10192ADE3F17&mode=link&guid=14d1c2a3c1bc4b5f94997c77af176917 CCPR website], accessed 26 March, 2009.</ref>
  
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In 2004, in the government changes following the resignation of [[David Blunkett]], he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip. Following the Labour Party's third successive General Election victory in 2005, he was appointed to the position of Minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) for Media and Tourism (covering broadcasting, creative industries, tourism and licensing) in the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]]. In 2006 he was moved to be Minister for Pensions, replacing [[Stephen Timms]]. He was the minister in charge of seeing through the legislation that liberalised England and Wales' alcohol licensing laws.  
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In 2004, in the government changes following the resignation of [[David Blunkett]], he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip. Following the Labour Party's third successive General Election victory in 2005, he was appointed to the position of Minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) for Media and Tourism (covering broadcasting, creative industries, tourism and licensing) in the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]]. In 2006 he was moved to be Minister for Pensions, replacing [[Stephen Timms]]. He was the minister in charge of seeing through the legislation that liberalised England and Wales' alcohol licensing laws. On 28 June 2007, he was appointed to secretary of state for culture media and sport, a cabinet position in Gordon Brown's government.  Redress editors write: "As such, he will have an oversight role over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media."<ref>Redress Editors, [http://www.redress.cc/global/redress20070628 Gordon Brown appoints Israel apologist to oversee British media], Redress, 29 June 2007.</ref>
  
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Before entering Parliament, he had for many years worked as a special advisor to [[10 Downing Street|Number 10]].
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==Career==
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*1989-1992: a researcher to Rt. Hon. [[Tony Blair]] MP during his time as Shadow Employment Secretary.
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*1992-1994: After graduating, he went to [[Hydra Associates]].
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*1994-1995: a Research Fellow at the [[Institute for Public Policy Research]] on their media and communications project.
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*1995-1997: Head of Corporate Planning at the BBC from 1995-97.
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*1997-2001: returned to work for the Prime Minister Tony Blair as Special Adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy from.
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*2002-2004: Chair of [[Labour Friends of Israel]].
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*In May 2005 he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]].
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*in 2006 he became Minister of State for Pensions Reform at the [[Department of Work and Pensions]].
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*in June 2007: secretary of state for culture media and sport in Gordon Brown's government.
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*July 2009: Director, [[Open Left Project]], [[Demos]]<ref name="AC"> [http://acoba.independent.gov.uk/media/20565/acobaeleventhreport2009-2010.pdf Eleventh Report 2009-2010] ''Advisory Committee on Business Appointments'', accessed 27 November 2014 </ref>
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*in 2013: director, strategy and digital of the BBC, with a salary of £295,000. <ref> Tim Walker [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9870888/James-Purnells-new-BBC-job-is-good-news-for-the-women-in-his-life.html James Purnell's new BBC job is good news for the women in his life] The Telegraph, 15 Feb 2013, Accessed 9 September 2014 </ref>
  
 
The Guardian reports:
 
The Guardian reports:
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:Few people outside Westminster would be aware that, despite being only 35, Purnell has been at the heart of the most influential media policy decisions of the past decade. The blueprint for a converged media and telecommunications regulator was set by Purnell in his mid-20s incarnation as research fellow for the [[Institute for Public Policy Research]]; the policy foundations for the BBC's leading role in the digital age were laid when he worked for Birt as the BBC's head of corporate planning in the mid 1990s; and the legislation that set up [[Ofcom]], cleared the barriers to a monolithic ITV and paved the way to digital switchover, was a product of his work and that of [[Ed Richards]] when they were Downing Street advisers.
 
:Few people outside Westminster would be aware that, despite being only 35, Purnell has been at the heart of the most influential media policy decisions of the past decade. The blueprint for a converged media and telecommunications regulator was set by Purnell in his mid-20s incarnation as research fellow for the [[Institute for Public Policy Research]]; the policy foundations for the BBC's leading role in the digital age were laid when he worked for Birt as the BBC's head of corporate planning in the mid 1990s; and the legislation that set up [[Ofcom]], cleared the barriers to a monolithic ITV and paved the way to digital switchover, was a product of his work and that of [[Ed Richards]] when they were Downing Street advisers.
  
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:Now, mirroring the path from ideas to implementation taken by Richards when he switched from a senior position at No 10 to a senior position at Ofcom, Purnell has completed the transition from thinker to doer. "For me it was wanting to move from an advisory role to doing something," he says of his decision to stand for parliament. {{ref|prog}}
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:Now, mirroring the path from ideas to implementation taken by Richards when he switched from a senior position at No 10 to a senior position at Ofcom, Purnell has completed the transition from thinker to doer. "For me it was wanting to move from an advisory role to doing something," he says of his decision to stand for parliament. <ref>The Guardian - [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/interviews/story/0,11660,1490315,00.html Purnell's progress]</ref>
  
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==Affiliations==
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==Zionist credentials==
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Purnell is amongst those arguing that some criticisms of Israel are anti semitic.  For example in a letter to Prospect he argued:
  
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*[[Labour Friends of Israel]]
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:not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is. As the (non-Jewish) chairman of Labour Friends of Israel for the last two years, I have been shocked by the occasional demonisation of Israel that I've encountered. Israel's government makes mistakes. So do the leaders of the Palestinians. But some people are trying to turn Israel into a global villain, the new pariah regime to take the place of apartheid-era South Africa.
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*[[Social Market Foundation]]
 
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*[[Compass]], speaker at their conference in June 2006.
 
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*[[Portland PR]]: He declares that he has done 'speechwriting' work for [[BSkyB]] under contract from Portland PR, run by former downing Street adviser [[Tim Allan]], who was Purnell's flatmate.[http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11176]
 
  
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==History and links==
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:I find it hard to reconcile that image to the reality on the ground-Israel is a democracy, suffering terrorist attacks, surrounded by countries that don't recognise its existence, the victim of well-funded terrorist organisations that preach antisemitic hate. The Palestinians deserve a viable state, and are suffering real poverty and hardship. There is suffering on both sides-neither can solve this problem without the other.
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James Purnell 
 
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Purnell's progress
 
  
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James Purnell had a hand in all the key media policy decisions of the past decade. Now the man who thought up Ofcom at 24 has landed a key role in the government. In his first interview he tells Matt Wells how Blair, Birt and Sky+ changed his life
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:So when some people talk as if Israel is entirely to blame, I ask why. The only answer I can find is that there is something deep in our cultural memory that makes us disposed to blame Jews. That tendency was put in its box by the Holocaust. But today it re-emerges-occasionally, but persistently. I would call it passive, or unexamined, antisemitism.
  
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Monday May 23, 2005
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:So not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is, and we should be very wary of it.<ref>James Purnell '[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=6694 Judt on antisemitism]', Letters, Prospect, 13 December 2004, Issue of February 2005, No. 107.</ref>
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The Guardian
 
  
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James Purnell, minister at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport
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In other words all those campaigning (from the left) for a boycott of Israel are anti-semitic, though as Purnell himself admits his judgment is rather based on an absence of any other option ('the only answer I can find'). It is as if the left have looked at the occupation of Palestinian land and had their analysis almost unknowingly overpowered by some mysterious prejudice 'deep in our cultural memory'.
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James Purnell, minister at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Photograph: Martin Godwin
 
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If you are a young, energetic MP with ambitions to get a touch on the tiller of power, the offer of a junior post at the ministry of fun might not initially seem like the best starting point. But for James Purnell, former No 10 policy aide, former John Birt strategist, and present occupant of the "one to watch" column in Westminster observers' notebooks, the position of minister for broadcasting at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is but the latest stage in a logical career trajectory.
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==Affiliations==
  
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Article continues
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*[[Labour Friends of Israel]] &ndash; served as chairman from 2002 to 2004.
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Few people outside Westminster would be aware that, despite being only 35, Purnell has been at the heart of the most influential media policy decisions of the past decade. The blueprint for a converged media and telecommunications regulator was set by Purnell in his mid-20s incarnation as research fellow for the Institute for Public Policy Research; the policy foundations for the BBC's leading role in the digital age were laid when he worked for Birt as the BBC's head of corporate planning in the mid 1990s; and the legislation that set up Ofcom, cleared the barriers to a monolithic ITV and paved the way to digital switchover, was a product of his work and that of Ed Richards when they were Downing Street advisers.
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*[[Social Market Foundation]]
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*[[Compass]], speaker at their conference in June 2006.
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*[[Portland PR]]: He declares that he has done 'speechwriting' work for [[BSkyB]] under contract from Portland PR, run by former downing Street adviser [[Tim Allan]], who was Purnell's flatmate. <ref>'Changes to the Register of Members' Interests: James Purnell', [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11176 TheyWorkForYou.com]</ref>
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*Director, [[Open Left Project]], [[Demos]], taken up as an unpaid appointment in July 2009 and paid in September 2009. [[ACOBA]] saw "no reason why he should not take this up as a paid appointment once the normal three-month waiting period for former Cabinet Ministers has elapsed".<ref name="AC"/>
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*Setting up as an independent consultant providing advice on strategy and governance to companies and third sector clients, and, additionally, undertaking work in journalism and television, including in TV drama, June 2010. Approved by [[ACOBA]] who saw "no reason why he should not set up as a consultant or undertake work as described, forthwith, subject to the conditions that, for 2 years after leaving office, he should not draw on any privileged information that was available to him as a Minister, or undertake any work as a consultant which involved providing advice to any company or organisation on the terms of any bid or contract relating directly to the Department for Work and Pensions, or become personally involved in lobbying UK Ministers or Crown servants, including Special Advisers, on behalf of any new employer in the fields specified".<ref name="AC1"> [http://acoba.independent.gov.uk/media/acoba/assets/acobatwelfthreport2010-2011.pdf Twelfth Report 2010-2011] ''Advisory Committee on Business Appointments'', accessed 8 December 2014 </ref>
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*Chair of [[Gleneagles Conference]] on Pensions, [[JP Morgan]], September 2010. Approved by [[ACOBA]] who saw "no reason why he should not chair the conference taking place next month".<ref name="AC1"/>
  
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Now, mirroring the path from ideas to implementation taken by Richards when he switched from a senior position at No 10 to a senior position at Ofcom, Purnell has completed the transition from thinker to doer. "For me it was wanting to move from an advisory role to doing something," he says of his decision to stand for parliament. "I wanted to be in a situation where I was helping to set the framework, and I believed strongly that what Gordon Brown and Tony Blair had done transforming the Labour party was important, but it was also important that other people came in and took that on so it became an embedded change rather than a passing fashion."
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==History and links==
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Unlike some previous occupants of junior ministerial posts at the DCMS, Purnell is a man on his way up - and he clearly intends to stamp his mark on the job. In the next few weeks, he will make a keynote speech that will outline his vision for a creative Britain. It is an area with which he is familiar, having sat on the creative industries taskforce set up in 1997 amidst the wave of euphoria that greeted the first post-Thatcher Labour victory - a well-intentioned attempt to capitalise on the creative successes in Britain that ended in Cool Britannia derision when hordes of pop stars were paraded incongruously in Downing Street. "What we did with Cool Britannia in 1997 was the right policy but the wrong message," he says. "It would be good if we could do it again, but without the parties."
 
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Purnell has already made a statement with his job title: unlike his predecessor, Lord McIntosh, who was minister for broadcasting, Purnell's job description has been updated to minister for the creative industries. "They are a massive part of the economy and I think Britain should be confident about that - 10-15% of our economy comes from the creative industries. It's a great success story. The tragedy would be if in 20 or 30 years' time we talk about these areas in the same way we do about shipbuilding or coal mining, areas where we used to be pre-eminent but then got overtaken."
 
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When describing his vision, Purnell talks about "modern Britain" a lot. It is a touchstone New Labour phrase - and Purnell is a quintessentially New Labour figure. More than that, he is a product of that curious world of professional politicians, advisers and lobbyists whose names, careers and even personal relationships can seem interchangeable to the casual observer. He was best man to Tim Allan, another former Blair aide who went on to become director of corporate affairs at BSkyB; he worked on media policy in Downing Street when Richards was working on the 2001 manifesto; he played football with another adviser-turned-MP, Andy Burnham; and was at Oxford at the same time as recently deposed education minister Stephen Twigg and newly-promoted housing minister Yvette Cooper.
 
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The swirl of special advisers, to which he was linked, became synonymous with the dark side of the New Labour machine: the radical website Red Star Research puts the case for the prosecution bluntly. "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 bypass the grubby world of democracy and slip into positions of power and influence."
 
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Purnell bats away the criticism, saying one of the reasons that he moved into elected politics, and away from the shadowy world of strategy and policy advice, was to realise his ambitions to make a difference to people's lives. "Politics is a difficult business. There are skills that you need to do the job - but that doesn't mean I'm not passionate about changing the world, about building a modern social democracy."
 
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At least Purnell can claim not to have bypassed the grubby democratic world. Since 2001 he has been MP for Stalybridge and Hyde - his most famous ex-constituent is Harold Shipman - a solidly safe traditional Labour seat in Greater Manchester.
 
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Which is why, dressed in a crisply expensive suit and a deeply fashionable white shirt and sporting a trendy Make Poverty History wristband, he looks as if he would feel more at home in his smart St Martin's Lane flat than his constituency home in Broadbottom. Naturally, he begs to differ, citing his campaigns for secondary schools in local council estates as his proudest achievements as an MP. Although he retains one important link with the capital: he is an ardent, season ticket-holding Arsenal fan - which, after his team's FA Cup final victory at the weekend, will make the next visit to his constituency somewhat awkward.
 
  
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Now, however, he is a member of the government, responsible for what is about to become a key area of policy - digital switchover. It is an issue in which Purnell has been immersed for more than a decade, so at least he is aware of the pitfalls. He knows, for example, that at some point policymakers and broadcasters are going to have to deal with the as-yet unknown number of "digital refusniks" - the poor and the elderly who do not want or think they cannot afford digital. But he is also aware that BSkyB, in particular, will vigorously oppose any attempt to subsidise the switchover. "We have to operate within the state aid framework and we are not planning a mass, government-funded distribution of set-top boxes or anything like that."
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From The Guardian:
  
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So, while the government cannot escape the fact that the BBC-backed Freeview system is the best way to fill in the final few, ministers cannot be seen to favour any one platform. "We get hundreds of letters every month from people saying we can't get Freeview, and we are not in favour of any particular platform, we are platform neutral, but we want to be able to offer people a choice there," he says, diplomatically.
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===When James met Liz, Tim and Ed, and they all ended up working for Tony===
  
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Purnell is clearly a digital optimist: he thinks technology like the BBC's digital media player and Sky+ will help viewers and listeners sift out quality from the dross in the digital age. He is a fan of both: using the BBC radio player to listen to Gilles Peterson and Sky+ to navigate his TV viewing. "Sky+ changed my life," he says, somewhat overstating the point.
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:After spending part of his childhood in France, [[James Purnell]] is enrolled at the Royal Grammar in Guildford, Surrey, where he becomes friends with [[Tim Allan]]. Also at school in Guildford is [[Liz Lloyd]].
  
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While Purnell is a fan of Sky technology, his relationship with the BBC is more of an issue, as charter review negotiations reach their final phase. He was vigorously opposed to Greg Dyke's stance on the David Kelly affair, becoming one of Labour's Hutton obsessives. Today, he declines to "pick over the scars" of Hutton, tactfully praising Dyke instead for inspiring his staff and his strategic success in backing Freeview. He is also astute enough not to be drawn on the competency of the current management at the BBC.
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:The paths of Tim and James diverge at university: Tim goes to study social and political sciences at Cambridge, while James reads politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College, Oxford. There, James meets [[Yvette Cooper]], now minister of state for housing; [[Stephanie Flanders]], who went on to work for Bill Clinton and is now Newsnight's economics editor; [[Christy Swords]], now director of regulatory affairs for ITV; and [[Lucy Walker]], now a film-maker, to whom he is engaged.
  
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On Birt, however, you get the sense that Purnell is torn. On the one hand, he is keen to praise his former boss: "I worked with John Birt for three years and I learned a lot from him. I think people will look back and give him much more credit for what he did at the BBC than they do now. It's easy to forget there were people in the Conservative administration who were dead set on privatising the BBC and he saw that off." But Purnell is conflicted: Birt, now a policy adviser in Downing Street, was on the opposite side of a row with Tessa Jowell, Purnell's boss at the DCMS, over a plan to share out the licence fee for public service television to broadcasters other than the BBC. Jowell won, and Purnell is careful to put clear blue water between him and Birt: "I work for Tessa now, and I work for the government."
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:After university, James and Tim both pitch up in the office of [[Tony Blair]], a rising star in the shadow cabinet. (Liz arrives later, and is now Tony's longest-serving member of staff: she will become deputy chief of staff at No 10 when she returns from maternity leave.) After the 1992 election James goes to work for the media consultants [[Hydra Associates]] before becoming a research fellow at the [[Institute of Public Policy Research]]. There, he comes up with the idea (and name) for [[Ofcom]]. Appearing on the Today programme opposite [[Patricia Hodgson]], then chief strategist for [[John Birt]] at the BBC, James impresses Patricia so much that she hires him.
  
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Fortunately, Purnell is a big supporter of the licence fee. "It's not perfect - it's a bit like democracy - it's the best system in the absence of any other." He is convinced it can survive into the digital age - perhaps beyond the review that Ofcom will conduct halfway through the next charter, around the point of digital switchover. But he is also clear that the BBC must respond to the demands of its audience - his first public visit as a minister was to the corporation's digital station 1Xtra, aimed at young black listeners; a favourite radio show is Zane Lowe's programme on Radio 1. Lowe is one of the new breed of presenters who have turned around the fortunes of the BBC's pop station.
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:As head of corporate planning, James works on [[Extending Choice in the Digital Age]], the 1996 strategy paper that sets out John's plan to launch the BBC into the multi-channel world. Early work on the plan is done by John's favourite consultants, McKinsey, but the then director general is less than impressed by the result and orders James to cancel his Christmas holidays to knock it into shape. Tim, meanwhile, is rising up the New Labour ladder and becomes deputy to [[Alastair Campbell]], first in opposition and then at No 10. James and Tim are reunited when James joins Downing Street in 1997, as special adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy.
  
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But press attention so far has not focused on Purnell's musical tastes: the Sunday Telegraph unearthed an article he wrote in 2003 as a backbencher, condemning the proposed London Olympics bid as the "wrong priority" for Britain. It was embarrassing -Purnell counts tourism in his ministerial brief - but he warned Jowell of the article on his appointment, and it would hardly be a surprise if the Labour press machine was behind the placing of the story in an effort to get the bad news out of the way as quickly as possible. (One of the first things he was given along with his ministerial red box was a Back the Bid badge, which has not left his lapel since.)
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:An avid Arsenal fan, James becomes a member of the Demon Eyes football team that counts another special adviser and future MP [[Andy Burnham]] as its top scorer; another teammate is [[Dan Corry]], now special adviser to [[Ruth Kelly]], the education secretary.
  
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Ordinarily, it would be tempting to tip Purnell for a cabinet position in the not too distant future - but his Blairite credentials may count against him as the Brown age dawns. Yet you can already detect Purnell positioning himself for a post-Blair world - notice how he mentioned Brown first when talking about the Blair-led changes to the Labour party. "Politically the task for us is to try and win a fourth term - and create the kind of change that becomes very difficult for an opposition coming [to power] to reverse." As the Conservative party prepares to go to war with itself again, Purnell urges unity and clarity of purpose in Labour. "I think it's perfectly possible if we are united and clear about what we want to do, we can win 60 seats back at the next election." Is he seriously suggesting Labour post-Blair can return to power with a landslide? "If you look at places where people thought the Tories might win, the Labour vote came out quite strongly. It's where they thought the Tories weren't anywhere that they registered a protest vote." So has Labour replaced the Tories as the natural party of government? "Never take the electorate for granted." But is it a big change in the political landscape? "It's an earthquake - but politics can change quickly again," he adds.
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:Tim leaves Downing Street in 1998 to become director of corporate communications at [[BSkyB]]; meanwhile another Birt protege, [[Ed Richards]], controller of corporate strategy at the BBC, becomes part of the No 10 gang, working on preparation for the 2001 election manifesto.
  
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So it does - and it will be fascinating to see where Purnell ends up when the Blair-Brown fight is finally over.
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:James and Ed do the groundwork for the Communications Act of 2003, which establishes [[Ofcom]] and sets the framework for media and telecommunications policy in the digital age.
  
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When James met Liz, Tim and Ed, and they all ended up working for Tony
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:James quits No 10 to enter the selection process for the 2001 election, and is elected to the safe Greater Manchester seat of Stalybridge and Hyde. After the election, Ed succeeds him as Blair's media policy adviser.
  
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After spending part of his childhood in France, James Purnell is enrolled at the Royal Grammar in Guildford, Surrey, where he becomes friends with Tim Allan. Also at school in Guildford is Liz Lloyd.
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:James's first step towards government comes as parliamentary private secretary to Kelly, then financial secretary to the Treasury. In December 2004 he joins the whips' office. After the 2005 election, Tony calls - and James is left to settle into his swanky new office at the [[Department for Culture, Media and Sport]], with good wishes from Tim and his other best friend, [[David Farr]], the playwright.<ref> [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/interviews/story/0,11660,1490315,00.html Purnell's progress], The Guardian</ref>
  
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The paths of Tim and James diverge at university: Tim goes to study social and political sciences at Cambridge, while James reads politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College, Oxford. There, James meets [[Yvette Cooper]], now minister of state for housing; Stephanie Flanders, who went on to work for Bill Clinton and is now Newsnight's economics editor; [[Christy Swords]], now director of regulatory affairs for ITV; and [[Lucy Walker]], now a film-maker, to whom he is engaged.
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==Contact, References and Resources==
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===Contact===
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:Website: [http://www.jamespurnell.org.uk/ www.jamespurnell.org.uk]
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:Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000979113608
  
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After university, James and Tim both pitch up in the office of Tony Blair, a rising star in the shadow cabinet. (Liz arrives later, and is now Tony's longest-serving member of staff: she will become deputy chief of staff at No 10 when she returns from maternity leave.) After the 1992 election James goes to work for the media consultants [[Hydra Associates]] before becoming a research fellow at the [[Institute of Public Policy Research]]. There, he comes up with the idea (and name) for Ofcom. Appearing on the Today programme opposite [[Patricia Hodgson]], then chief strategist for [[John Birt]] at the BBC, James impresses Patricia so much that she hires him.
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===Resources===
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As head of corporate planning, James works on Extending Choice in the Digital Age, the 1996 strategy paper that sets out John's plan to launch the BBC into the multichannel world. Early work on the plan is done by John's favourite consultants, [[McKinsey]], but the then director general is less than impressed by the result and orders James to cancel his Christmas holidays to knock it into shape. Tim, meanwhile, is rising up the New Labour ladder and becomes deputy to [[Alastair Campbell]], first in opposition and then at No 10. James and Tim are reunited when James joins Downing Street in 1997, as special adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy.
 
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An avid Arsenal fan, James becomes a member of the Demon Eyes football team that counts another special adviser and future MP [[Andy Burnham]] as its top scorer; another teammate is [[Dan Corry]], now special adviser to [[Ruth Kelly]], the education secretary.
 
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Tim leaves Downing Street in 1998 to become director of corporate communications at BSkyB; meanwhile another Birt protege, Ed Richards, controller of corporate strategy at the BBC, becomes part of the No 10 gang, working on preparation for the 2001 election manifesto.
 
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James and Ed do the groundwork for the Communications Act of 2003, which establishes Ofcom and sets the framework for media and telecommunications policy in the digital age.
 
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James quits No 10 to enter the selection process for the 2001 election, and is elected to the safe Greater Manchester seat of Stalybridge and Hyde. After the election, Ed succeeds him as Blair's media policy adviser.
 
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James's first step towards government comes as parliamentary private secretary to Kelly, then financial secretary to the Treasury. In December 2004 he joins the whips' office. After the 2005 election, Tony calls - and James is left to settle into his swanky new office at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with good wishes from Tim and his other best friend, [[David Farr]], the playwright.
 
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==External links==
 
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*[http://www.jamespurnell.org.uk/ James Purnell MP] official site
 
 
*[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-7096,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: James Purnell MP]
 
*[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-7096,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: James Purnell MP]
 
*[http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/james_purnell/stalybridge_and_hyde TheyWorkForYou.com - James Purnell MP]
 
*[http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/james_purnell/stalybridge_and_hyde TheyWorkForYou.com - James Purnell MP]
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*[http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/politics-news/2008/01/24/blairite-purnell-rises-to-top-job-under-brown-91466-20391934/ 'Blairite' Purnell rises to top job under Brown], IC Wales, 24 Jan 2008.
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===Notes===
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<references/>
  
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==Notes==
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[[Category:Balliol alumni|Purnell, James]]
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#{{note|prog}}''The Guardian'' - [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/interviews/story/0,11660,1490315,00.html Purnell's progress]
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[[Category:Israel Lobby|Purnell, James]]
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[[Category:Special Advisers|Purnell, James]]
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[[Category:MP|Purnell, James]]
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[[Category:Labour Party|Purnell, James]]
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[[Category:British Politician|Purnell, James]]

Latest revision as of 14:20, 3 March 2015

James Purnell
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James Purnell MP (born 2 March 1970) is a former Labour MP. He was a leading member of the generation of Labour MPs, often referred to as the "Primrose Hill Gang". Other prominent members include Ed Miliband and David Miliband, Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls and Pat McFadden. Despite being a leading Blairite, Purnell was popular amongst supporters of Gordon Brown too, and his pre-ministerial CV includes a stint as a PPS at the Treasury. He was a Labour Party MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, first being elected at the 2001 general election. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. [1]

In 2004, in the government changes following the resignation of David Blunkett, he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip. Following the Labour Party's third successive General Election victory in 2005, he was appointed to the position of Minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) for Media and Tourism (covering broadcasting, creative industries, tourism and licensing) in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2006 he was moved to be Minister for Pensions, replacing Stephen Timms. He was the minister in charge of seeing through the legislation that liberalised England and Wales' alcohol licensing laws. On 28 June 2007, he was appointed to secretary of state for culture media and sport, a cabinet position in Gordon Brown's government. Redress editors write: "As such, he will have an oversight role over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media."[2]

Career

  • 1989-1992: a researcher to Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP during his time as Shadow Employment Secretary.
  • 1992-1994: After graduating, he went to Hydra Associates.
  • 1994-1995: a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research on their media and communications project.
  • 1995-1997: Head of Corporate Planning at the BBC from 1995-97.
  • 1997-2001: returned to work for the Prime Minister Tony Blair as Special Adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy from.
  • 2002-2004: Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
  • In May 2005 he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
  • in 2006 he became Minister of State for Pensions Reform at the Department of Work and Pensions.
  • in June 2007: secretary of state for culture media and sport in Gordon Brown's government.
  • July 2009: Director, Open Left Project, Demos[3]
  • in 2013: director, strategy and digital of the BBC, with a salary of £295,000. [4]

The Guardian reports:

Few people outside Westminster would be aware that, despite being only 35, Purnell has been at the heart of the most influential media policy decisions of the past decade. The blueprint for a converged media and telecommunications regulator was set by Purnell in his mid-20s incarnation as research fellow for the Institute for Public Policy Research; the policy foundations for the BBC's leading role in the digital age were laid when he worked for Birt as the BBC's head of corporate planning in the mid 1990s; and the legislation that set up Ofcom, cleared the barriers to a monolithic ITV and paved the way to digital switchover, was a product of his work and that of Ed Richards when they were Downing Street advisers.
Now, mirroring the path from ideas to implementation taken by Richards when he switched from a senior position at No 10 to a senior position at Ofcom, Purnell has completed the transition from thinker to doer. "For me it was wanting to move from an advisory role to doing something," he says of his decision to stand for parliament. [5]

Zionist credentials

Purnell is amongst those arguing that some criticisms of Israel are anti semitic. For example in a letter to Prospect he argued:

not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is. As the (non-Jewish) chairman of Labour Friends of Israel for the last two years, I have been shocked by the occasional demonisation of Israel that I've encountered. Israel's government makes mistakes. So do the leaders of the Palestinians. But some people are trying to turn Israel into a global villain, the new pariah regime to take the place of apartheid-era South Africa.
I find it hard to reconcile that image to the reality on the ground-Israel is a democracy, suffering terrorist attacks, surrounded by countries that don't recognise its existence, the victim of well-funded terrorist organisations that preach antisemitic hate. The Palestinians deserve a viable state, and are suffering real poverty and hardship. There is suffering on both sides-neither can solve this problem without the other.
So when some people talk as if Israel is entirely to blame, I ask why. The only answer I can find is that there is something deep in our cultural memory that makes us disposed to blame Jews. That tendency was put in its box by the Holocaust. But today it re-emerges-occasionally, but persistently. I would call it passive, or unexamined, antisemitism.
So not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But some is, and we should be very wary of it.[6]

In other words all those campaigning (from the left) for a boycott of Israel are anti-semitic, though as Purnell himself admits his judgment is rather based on an absence of any other option ('the only answer I can find'). It is as if the left have looked at the occupation of Palestinian land and had their analysis almost unknowingly overpowered by some mysterious prejudice 'deep in our cultural memory'.

Affiliations

  • Labour Friends of Israel – served as chairman from 2002 to 2004.
  • Social Market Foundation
  • Compass, speaker at their conference in June 2006.
  • Portland PR: He declares that he has done 'speechwriting' work for BSkyB under contract from Portland PR, run by former downing Street adviser Tim Allan, who was Purnell's flatmate. [7]
  • Director, Open Left Project, Demos, taken up as an unpaid appointment in July 2009 and paid in September 2009. ACOBA saw "no reason why he should not take this up as a paid appointment once the normal three-month waiting period for former Cabinet Ministers has elapsed".[3]
  • Setting up as an independent consultant providing advice on strategy and governance to companies and third sector clients, and, additionally, undertaking work in journalism and television, including in TV drama, June 2010. Approved by ACOBA who saw "no reason why he should not set up as a consultant or undertake work as described, forthwith, subject to the conditions that, for 2 years after leaving office, he should not draw on any privileged information that was available to him as a Minister, or undertake any work as a consultant which involved providing advice to any company or organisation on the terms of any bid or contract relating directly to the Department for Work and Pensions, or become personally involved in lobbying UK Ministers or Crown servants, including Special Advisers, on behalf of any new employer in the fields specified".[8]
  • Chair of Gleneagles Conference on Pensions, JP Morgan, September 2010. Approved by ACOBA who saw "no reason why he should not chair the conference taking place next month".[8]

History and links

From The Guardian:

When James met Liz, Tim and Ed, and they all ended up working for Tony

After spending part of his childhood in France, James Purnell is enrolled at the Royal Grammar in Guildford, Surrey, where he becomes friends with Tim Allan. Also at school in Guildford is Liz Lloyd.
The paths of Tim and James diverge at university: Tim goes to study social and political sciences at Cambridge, while James reads politics, philosophy and economics at Balliol College, Oxford. There, James meets Yvette Cooper, now minister of state for housing; Stephanie Flanders, who went on to work for Bill Clinton and is now Newsnight's economics editor; Christy Swords, now director of regulatory affairs for ITV; and Lucy Walker, now a film-maker, to whom he is engaged.
After university, James and Tim both pitch up in the office of Tony Blair, a rising star in the shadow cabinet. (Liz arrives later, and is now Tony's longest-serving member of staff: she will become deputy chief of staff at No 10 when she returns from maternity leave.) After the 1992 election James goes to work for the media consultants Hydra Associates before becoming a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research. There, he comes up with the idea (and name) for Ofcom. Appearing on the Today programme opposite Patricia Hodgson, then chief strategist for John Birt at the BBC, James impresses Patricia so much that she hires him.
As head of corporate planning, James works on Extending Choice in the Digital Age, the 1996 strategy paper that sets out John's plan to launch the BBC into the multi-channel world. Early work on the plan is done by John's favourite consultants, McKinsey, but the then director general is less than impressed by the result and orders James to cancel his Christmas holidays to knock it into shape. Tim, meanwhile, is rising up the New Labour ladder and becomes deputy to Alastair Campbell, first in opposition and then at No 10. James and Tim are reunited when James joins Downing Street in 1997, as special adviser on culture, media, sport and the knowledge economy.
An avid Arsenal fan, James becomes a member of the Demon Eyes football team that counts another special adviser and future MP Andy Burnham as its top scorer; another teammate is Dan Corry, now special adviser to Ruth Kelly, the education secretary.
Tim leaves Downing Street in 1998 to become director of corporate communications at BSkyB; meanwhile another Birt protege, Ed Richards, controller of corporate strategy at the BBC, becomes part of the No 10 gang, working on preparation for the 2001 election manifesto.
James and Ed do the groundwork for the Communications Act of 2003, which establishes Ofcom and sets the framework for media and telecommunications policy in the digital age.
James quits No 10 to enter the selection process for the 2001 election, and is elected to the safe Greater Manchester seat of Stalybridge and Hyde. After the election, Ed succeeds him as Blair's media policy adviser.
James's first step towards government comes as parliamentary private secretary to Kelly, then financial secretary to the Treasury. In December 2004 he joins the whips' office. After the 2005 election, Tony calls - and James is left to settle into his swanky new office at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with good wishes from Tim and his other best friend, David Farr, the playwright.[9]

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Website: www.jamespurnell.org.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000979113608

Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ 'James Purnell MP - Biography', CCPR website, accessed 26 March, 2009.
  2. ↑ Redress Editors, Gordon Brown appoints Israel apologist to oversee British media, Redress, 29 June 2007.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Eleventh Report 2009-2010 Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, accessed 27 November 2014
  4. ↑ Tim Walker James Purnell's new BBC job is good news for the women in his life The Telegraph, 15 Feb 2013, Accessed 9 September 2014
  5. ↑ The Guardian - Purnell's progress
  6. ↑ James Purnell 'Judt on antisemitism', Letters, Prospect, 13 December 2004, Issue of February 2005, No. 107.
  7. ↑ 'Changes to the Register of Members' Interests: James Purnell', TheyWorkForYou.com
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Twelfth Report 2010-2011 Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, accessed 8 December 2014
  9. ↑ Purnell's progress, The Guardian
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