Common Purpose

Take the example of Common Purpose (CP). This was started by Demos trustee Julia Middleton. It has been around for sometime but gained a great deal of funding with the advent of New Labour and its service towards business elites. Initially money was put in by David Bell, the Chairman of the Financial Times (and the Millennium Bridge Trust). CP is another strange organisation, a kind of secret society for careerists.

Again the board has some mysterious figures presiding including Lord Dahrendorf, the chairman of the right-wing Ditchley Foundation and Prof. Laurence Martin of the like-minded Royal Institute of International Affairs. It could well be a note paper job, but CP is composed of representatives of big business (mostly Labour party donors) including multi-nationals, the police, the MOD, banks and their associates, eyes down for a Full House: *Gillian Ashmore (Cabinet Office),

• Sir Jeremy Beecham (Association of Metropolitan Authorities),
• David Bell (Financial Times),
• Dr Andrew Bird (Zeneca),
• Dr Kevin Bond (Yorkshire Water),
• Jeremy Hall (Dean Clough Ltd),
• Richard Hatfield (Ministry of Defence),
• John Lee (Halifax plc),
• Ruth MacKenzie (ex-Scottish Opera),
• Vincent McGinlay (Marks & Spencer plc),
• Baroness Genista McIntosh (Royal National Theatre),
• Tim Melville-Ross (Institute of Directors),
• Sir Alastair Morton (Shadow Strategic Railway Authority and British Railways Board),
• Sir Herman Ouseley (Commission for Racial Equality),
• Janet Paraskeva (National LotteryCharities Board),
• Graham Prentice (Nestlé UK Ltd),
• John Rivers (Rolls-Royce plc),
• Gerry Robinson (Arts Council of England),
• Richard Sambrook (BBC),
• Barry Shaw (Cleveland Constabulary),
• Jan Shawe (Prudential Corporation plc),
• Vivien Stern (The InternationalCentre for Prison Studies),
• Peter Stoddart (Nissan UK Ltd),
• Paul Whitehouse (Sussex Police),
• Ken Williams (Norfolk Constabulary),
• Ruth Wishart (Freelance Journalist).

Their list of corporate sponsors is impressive and they say they have offices in every UK city. Put politely CP tries to promote 'corporate community engagement', the synergy between big business and well... it's a bit like the asbestos factory owner's daughter handing out religious tracts to the workers coughing at the factory gates. Relationships between corporate CP funders such as BAe, Royal Ordinance and GEC Marconi and say the work of CP trustee David Grayson of the national Disability Council are ignored however. The idea is to accentuate the positive. The real value of CP must be measured by its closeness to power - access to which is what is on offer. The board has only one member who is openly employed by government, Gillian Ashmore, her record speaks for itself:

"Gillian Ashmore is currently on secondment from the Department of Transport to the British Railways Board working on railway privatisation. She joined the Civil Service in 1971 and has worked variously in the Departments of the Environment, Transport, Employment and Trade and Industry. On the Transport side, she has worked mainly in the public transport field. In the

latter two Departments she was Deputy Director of the Enterprise and Deregulation Unit. Mrs. Ashmore has also been a non-executive director of P & O European Transport."^[1]

Incredibly with a line up like that the CP constitution has the cheek to say the organisation:

"is diverse and non-aligned. It draws on the widest possible variety of sectors, areas, and social groups and recognises only peer level and geographical boundaries as common factors to each group. It is always independent, always balanced and owes no historical or other allegiance to any other organisation. Common Purpose works for the benefit of

society as a whole..."^[2]

What a pack of lies. CP creates the illusion that it is for ordinary people, but it is not only run by an elite, its projects cater exclusively for an elite:

"the rising generation of decision makers" as they say in their web site. This also states that: "We are looking for applicants who are decision-makers in their city, towns or area", and that "participants are over 30 and already hold a position of considerable responsibility". They say their long-term aim is "educating the next generation of leaders in each city or town". On this basis it is a fraudulent organisation.

Funded by big business and public bodies (everyone from Arms companies, Banks to curiously the Scottish Arts Council - probably through Ruth Wishart's connection) they operate for their benefit while their constitution lies that they seek "the advancement of education for the public benefit... to educate men and women from a broad range of geographical, political, ethnic, institutional, social and economic backgrounds."

We have mourned and you have not wept

With Trustees such as Gerry Robinson, the ex-Coca Cola salesman who is now chairman of the Arts Council of England and Janet Paraskeva, the director of the National Lotteries Charities Board (the 'independent organisation' which distributes National Lottery money supposedly to charities and community groups')^[3]. CP has specialised in channelling money away from genuine charitable causes. Demos is also partially funded directly via the Arts Council/Lottery 'New Opportunities Fund'.

The illusion of independence from funders and government was abandoned with CP's biggest project,'Citizen's Connection'. Tony Blair's old flat mate Lord Falconer's New Millennium Experience Company(NMEC) said that: "Camelot, NMEC and Common Purpose created...Citizens Connection."^[4]

But the legal position of the Camelot Group plc is that as the operator of the UK National Lottery it is supposed to be "not responsible for the allocation of funds raised". Except when it is. The NMEC was (is?) an extraordinary concoction. According to their press release the 'NMEC is a non-Departmental Public Body and a company, independent from government with one shareholder, Lord Falconer'. This makes it an Anstalt a finacial vehicle more commonly associated with Swiss Bank accounts and money laundering. The 'off-shore account' was pioneered by the Mafia: their Lotteries ('the numbers racket') were deemed illegal because of the evidence that they preyed upon the poor - the National Lottery magically does the reverse.

NMEC is funded by the National Lottery via the Millennium Commission (who tried to be independent from government but were threatened with a judicial review). NMEC ran the Dome and a National Programme of events across the UK. It is misleading to gather allthis up as the problem with 'the Dome'. For instance, Labour MP Robert Marshall-Andrews tabled a Commons question on numerous secret contracts worth some £450 million - awarded by the NMEC, 'a company with no direct lines of information or accountability'. But with millions pouring down the drain (well into a few people's pockets) an attempted diamond heist and daily financial craziness at the Dome, no one really noticed anything unusual when Camelot, whoever runs Common Purpose and Lord Falconer gave £2 million to Common Purpose to run a web site which links to the governments' sites, which is all Citizen's Connection is.

Amusingly an exactly similar organisation to 'Citizen's Connection' already existed with Lord Young's School for Social Entrepreneurs, which is funded by HSBC, the National Lottery and a peculiar 'charity' the Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust, run by the wife of the former chairman of the SAC, Magnus Linklater.

People have to pay to join up for any CP programme, so who is this money going to? Just about all of CP projects are extensions of PR exercises run by big companies, such as the 'Your Turn' project, which was directly run by BT's PR consultants, so effectively these are being underwritten. Yet - even while CP got millions for their web site - 'Your Turn' was specifically given additional funding by the National Lottery Charities Board, which as we have seen with CP board member, Janet Paraskeva has a conflict of interest, which she regards as a common purpose and her turn for some money.

Notes

• ^.http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199394/cmhansrd/1994-02-08/Writtens4.html)
• ^. http://www.commonpurpose.org.uk/Public/jobs/pforum.htm. Barclays also sponsored Common Purpose's Alchemist Awards to various friends including the Founders of Jubilee 2000 which aims to ask the banks to abandon third world debts.
• ^. Which recently shiftily changed its name to the 'Community Fund'. Monopoly anyone?
• ^. http://www.camelotplc.com/press/archive/pressreleases/pressczclaunc.asp