Difference between revisions of "Claire Fox"

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{{Powerbase:LM network: Resources}}
 
{{Powerbase:LM network: Resources}}
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'''Claire Fox''' (DoB 5 June 1960 - Party name: [[Claire Foster]]) is a director and shareholder of the [[Academy of Ideas]] and the director of its principal operation, the [[Institute of Ideas]], an organisation that she founded in 2000 which is part of the [[LM network]]. The IoI describes its mission as "to expand the boundaries of public debate by organising conferences, discussions and salons, and publishing written conversations and exchanges."<ref>"[http://www.instituteofideas.com/people/claire_fox.html Claire Fox]", Institute of Ideas website, accessed November 2008</ref> The IoI has been successful in drawing in to its events not just well-known names but leading British scientific  institutions, like the [[Royal College of Physicians]]<ref>[http://www.instituteofideas.com/events/morbid.html Institute of Ideas website], accessed November 2008</ref> and the [[Royal Institution]]. <ref>[http://www.instituteofideas.com/events/riremains2004.html Institute of Ideas website], accessed November 2008</ref> She is the sister of [[Fiona Fox]].
 
  
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Fox was a member of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party]] (RCP) until its dissolution in 1996. The group is described by Andrew Billen, writing in [[The Times]], as “a Seventies Trotskyite splinter group”. Its leading light was [[Frank Furedi]], Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent.<ref> Andrew Billen, The Times,[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article802738.ece A prickly opinion on just about everything], 17 December 2002, accessed 3rd November 2008 </ref>. When the RCP disbanded, Fox relaunched the group publication [[Living Marxism]], the monthly review of the Revolutionary Communist Party, as LM. LM ran until March 2000, when it was sued out of existence as a result of a libel case brought against it by ITN journalists. Fox then went on to found the Institute of Ideas and to launch [[Spiked]], an online publication, with many of her former RCP colleagues. 
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“Claire Fox” was a member of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party]] until its dissolution in 1996 and remains a leading associate of its successor, the libertarian anti-environmental [[LM network]].  In particular, she founded and leads its largest entity, the [[Institute of Ideas]]. She lives in London, is unmarried and childless, and has two sisters, Gemma Fox, adopted and three years younger, who is a project manager for a women’s centre in Rhyl, north Wales, and [[Fiona Fox]], four years younger, who was also a leading member of the RCP, is also associated with the LM network and leads the [[Science Media Centre]].
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Fox began at [[Warwick University]] as a Conservative Party supporter and a member of the [[Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child]] (SPUC). Fox’s parents were Irish Catholics who migrated to England before moving to Wales, where Fox was born. After three years she left university with a lower second class degree (2:2) in literature as a libertarian Marxist and activist. She uses her change of heart on the issue of abortion to explain why free speech and challenging orthodoxies is vital to democracy.<ref>Andrew Billen, The Times, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article802738.ece A prickly opinion on just about everything], 17 December 2002, accessed 3rd November 2008</ref>
 
  
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Fox is a columnist for [[The Free Society]], which describes itself on its website as a group that has been "launched by the smokers’ lobby group Forest to give a voice to those who want less not more government interference in their daily lives".<ref>"[http://www.thefreesociety.org/Columnists/Claire-Fox Claire Fox]", The Free Society website, accessed November 2008</ref> She is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze.  
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==Early years and education==
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Fox was born in Barton-Upon-Irwell, a suburban area of Eccles in Greater Manchester, on 5th June 1960 to John Fox, who ran a successful plant-hire business, and Maura Cleary, who was noted for her strength of character.  Both came from Irish farming backgrounds and were highly religious.
  
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==Under investigation==
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Brought up in Clywd, North Wales, she was characterised as a dominating character even as a child.  Despite attending St. Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, a school she characterised as a "bog standard comp", she was able to obtain admission to Warwick University, finally achieving a lower second class degree in English and American literature. Her sister Fiona later also attended Warwick.
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When [[The Guardian]] investigated Claire Fox and the Institute of Ideas, they found links to pro-gun American libertarian groups and funding from pharmaceutical corporations.<ref>Stuart Jeffries, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/19/comment.radio Infamy's child: Claire Fox still takes joy in riling the liberal left]", The Guardian, 19 November 2005, accessed November 2008</ref>
 
  
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George Monbiot has been scathing in his criticism for Fox and the rest of the LM network, which he describes as a "bizarre and cultish network" whose members have become "the public face of the scientific establishment" in the UK. Monbiot explains that Fox and her LM associates "have taken on key roles in the formal infrastructure of public communication used by the science and medical establishment."<ref>George Monbiot, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2 Invasion of the Entryists]", The Guardian, 9 December 2003, accessed November 2008</ref>
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==Career==
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Following university, Fox became a social worker from 1981 to 1987, working in mental health, with the homeless in Coventry, and with battered women. She then became an English Language and Literature lecturer for special needs adults at Thurrock Technical College (now Thurrock and Basildon College) during 1987-90.  Obtaining a PCGE from Thames Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich) in Eltham during 1991-1992, she then taught at West Herts College during 1992-1999.
  
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Fox's sister [[Fiona Fox]] is the director of the [[Science Media Centre]]. Monbiot writes, "Fox has used the Science Media Centre (SMC) to promote the views of industry and to launch fierce attacks against those who question them." Monbiot adds that the SMC is "funded, among others, by the pharmaceutical companies [[Astra Zeneca]], [[Dupont]] and [[Pfizer]]."<ref>George Monbiot, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2 Invasion of the Entryists]", The Guardian, 9 December 2003, accessed November 2008</ref>
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==Revolutionary Communist Party==
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Disillusioned with the then Labour government and with a training in Catholic liberation theology, Fox joined the [[Socialist Workers Party]] as a student at Warwick University, despite a background as an anti-abortion activist with the [[Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child]]. Considering the SWP crude and untheoretical, she left them to join the [[Revolutionary Communist Tendency]], later renamed the [[Revolutionary Communist Party]], possibly due to their uncritical pro-Irish Republican line, which will have resonated with Fox’s Irish Catholic background.  Her strong Republican leanings are suggested by the role of her sister Fiona as a leading member of RCP front the [[Irish Freedom Movement]] and editor of its bulletin [[Irish Freedom]]. Though her anti-abortion and Catholic background delayed her admission, Claire Fox was eventually accepted and remained a member until its dissolution in 1996, becoming a branch organiser and editor of its magazine with a party name (pseudonym) of [[Claire Foster]].
  
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David Miller, researcher at the [[Stirling Media Research Institute]], says that while the SMC was set up to provide accurate, independent scientific information for the media, "its views are largely in line with government scientific policy". What is more, "70% of its funding comes from business, which could be said to have similar interests."<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/feb/11/highereducation.research Peer trouble: How failsafe is our current system at ensuring the quality and integrity of research?] Not very, says John Crace, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday February 11 2003 01.31 GMT</ref> Thus the SMC has taken a stance that is invariably supportive of GM crops and of the pharmaceutical companies.
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==LM network==
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Fox left teaching to become the editor of the RCP’s monthly magazine, [[Living Marxism]]. When the RCP disbanded, Fox relaunched it as [[LM]], taking the role of co-publisher.<ref>[ http://www.instituteofideas.com/people/claire_fox.html Profile] Institute of Ideas website acc 11 Mar 2011</ref>. After the magazine was bankrupted in a libel trial in 2000, Fox founded the Institute of Ideas, building on the existing RCP summer school, while other members set up on line magazine [[Spiked]]. She is a director, company secretary and shareholder of the company which runs the Institute, the [[Academy of Ideas]], and is the director of the Institute.
  
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Fox's organisation, the Institute of Ideas, also takes funding from GM and pharmaceutical companies. Fox responded to Monbiot’s charges of "entryism" (infiltration) into the scientific establishment by saying: "Entryism is clandestine, and that's something you can't accuse us of being." She argues that the Institute of Ideas' funding is an open book. "We have received money from Pfizer, and they have never interfered. We have received money from Syngenta, which is involved in GM technology."<ref name="Gu">Stuart Jeffries, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/19/comment.radio Infamy's child: Claire Fox still takes joy in riling the liberal left]", The Guardian, 19 November 2005, accessed November 2008</ref>  
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==Other activities==
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Fox is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education, politics and the arts on programmes such as BBC Question Time, BBC Any Questions?, BBC Breakfast and SkyNews Review. She has been a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s [[The Moral Maze]] since 2001, later joined by LM associate [[Kenan Malik]] while other LM associates regularly appear on the programme as witnesses. She writes regularly for national newspapers and a range of specialist journals, has a monthly column in the MJ (Municipal Journal) and presented ‘Claire Fox News’ on the defunct internet TV channel [[18 Doughty Street]] during 2006/7. <ref>[ http://www.instituteofideas.com/people/claire_fox.html Profile] Institute of Ideas website acc 11 Mar 2011</ref> She is also a Member of the [[European Cultural Parliament]] and sits on the Advisory Board of the [[Economic Policy Centre]].
  
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When asked if she should be ideologically opposed to receiving funding from corporates, Fox responded:
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She is a columnist for [[The Free Society]], which describes itself on its website as a group that has been "launched by the smokers’ lobby group Forest to give a voice to those who want less not more government interference in their daily lives". <ref>"[http://www.thefreesociety.org/Columnists/Claire-Fox Claire Fox]", The Free Society website, accessed November 2008</ref>  
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:There is no such thing as clean money. So we're not selling out ... My peers who do take money from the government tell me there are always conditions. Whereas with [[Pfizer]], say, they have never tried to influence what we do.<ref name="Gu"/>
 
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==What others say==
 
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*George Monbiot casts Claire Fox and her RCP intimates as people who have moved from "the most distant fringes of the left to the extremities of the pro-corporate, libertarian right". He adds that "members of this group have colonised a crucial section of the British establishment". <ref>George Monbiot, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2 Invasion of the entryists]", The Guardian, 9 December 2003, accessed November 2008</ref>
 
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*Time Out London rated Fox 64th in their list of London's 100 top movers and shakers 2006 <ref> London Time Out [http://www.timeout.com/london/features/2307/4.html London's 100 top movers and shakers 2006] accessed 3 November 2008 </ref>
 
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==Controversial views==
 
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*Fox is strongly pro GM technology. She claims that "It's part of being a progressive person that I consider agriculture should be as efficient as possible. I support modern farming methods because I'm a modernist, not a sentimentalist. My parents were from a farming family and I know there's there's nothing to be sentimental about. GM offers great potential. It's not a panacea for the third world and companies will make lots of money out of it - but it's ever thus."<ref>Stuart Jeffries, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/19/comment.radio Infamy's child: Claire Fox still takes joy in riling the liberal left]", The Guardian, 19 November 2005, accessed November 2008</ref>
 
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*Fox has stood up for Gary Glitter's right to download child porn. In an interview with [[BBC]] radio 5live, she advocated her pro-choice stance to a level many found uncomfortable – the radio station's switchboard was overwhelmed by listeners angry at her position.<ref>Andrew Billen, The Times, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article802738.ece A prickly opinion on just about everything], 17 December 2002, accessed 3rd November 2008</ref> 
 
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*Fox is critical of multiculturalism, saying, "If you challenge multiculturalism you are seen to be a racist. But it's a political philosophy that needs to be looked at. If you don't, you're taking it on trust, which is intellectually dishonest."<ref> Stuart Jeffries, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5337073-103677,00.html Infamy's child], ''The Guardian'', 19 November 2005, accessed 3rd November 2008</ref>
 
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==='Asian people' and 'enlightened society'===
 
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*Fox has stated: 'I fear that there is a loss of nerve around a new issue in politics which is religious offence which is making Enlightenment ideals dead and dusted. How are we going to inspire young Asian people to want to be part of a rational, enlightened society if we are spineless in the face of some of these challenges? We have to hold our nerve.' <ref>quoted in BBC Report [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_07impartialitybbc.pdf Safeguarding impartiality in the 21st century]</ref>
 
  
 
==Affiliations==
 
==Affiliations==
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*[[Institute of Ideas]] - founder | [[Academy of Ideas]], Secretary and director appointed 16 March 2000 | [[Informinc]] appointed 29 January 1997, company dissolved 21 April 2004<ref>Data at Companies House, accessed 9 February 2011</ref> | [[Living Marxism]]
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*[[Informinc]] appointed 29 January 1997, company dissolved 21 April 2004<ref>Data at Companies House, accessed 9 February 2011</ref>  
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* [[Living Marxism]]
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* [[Academy of Ideas]], Secretary and director appointed 16 March 2000; [[Institute of Ideas]] - founder
 
*[[Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child]]
 
*[[Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child]]
 
*[[The Free Society]]
 
*[[The Free Society]]
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==External links ==
 
 
===Profiles===
 
===Profiles===
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*Andrew Billen, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-515993,00.html A prickly opinion on just about everything] (profile of Claire Fox), ''The Times'', December 17, 2002
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*Andrew Billen, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-515993,00.html A prickly opinion on just about everything] (profile of Claire Fox), ''The Times'', 17 December , 2002
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*Stuart Jeffries, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5337073-103677,00.html Infamy's child], ''The Guardian'', November 19, 2005. (profile of Claire Fox)
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*Blank, [http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/6128/daily-politico-claire-fox.thtml Daily Politico: Claire Fox], “Total Politics”, 17 August 2008 
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*Marc Kidson, '[http://www.cherwell.org/content/9159 What the big idea?]', Cherwell, 29 October 2009  
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*Dam, Mohana, [http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/discovery-of-india/412133/ Discovery of India], “Express India”, 18 January 2009
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*Caroline Scott, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2188787,00.html Claire and Fiona Fox, sisters], Sunday Times, 28 May 2006.
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*Fox, Claire, [http://www.newcultureforum.org.uk/home/?q=node/171 My Cultural Life], “New Culture Forum”,  
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*Stuart Jeffries, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5337073-103677,00.html Infamy's child], ''The Guardian'', 19 November 2005. (profile of Claire Fox)
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*Marc Kidson, '[http://www.cherwell.org/content/9159 What the big idea?]', “Cherwell”, 29 October 2009
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*Mukherjee, Uddalak, ‘[http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090111/jsp/calcutta/story_10371328.jsp Room to argue], “The Telegraph, Calcutta”, 11 January 2009 
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*Nye, Richard, “[http://www.sheengate.co.uk/richmond/features_article.php?id=504&title=Foxing%20clever&author=Richard%20Nye&art_monthpub=March&art_monthno=03&art_yearpub=2008&art_section=Features&Chooseyourimagefile=http://www.sheengate.co.uk/test/files/02_40_52_25_02_08_Claire%20Fox%20print%20quality.jpg&delete_image=files/02_40_52_25_02_08_Claire%20Fox%20print%20quality.jpg&art_rich=on&art_elmking=&art_guildwok=&art_surdowns=&art_buswest=&art_upby=Vivienne%20Rudcenko&art_live=on&art_uploaddate=28_02_08 Foxing Clever]”, “The Richmond Magazine” March 2008
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*Obermueller, Mailin and Diana Leca, [http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/culturaldiplomacynews/index.php?Interview-with-Claire-Fox-and-Angus-Kennedy-from-the-Institute-of-Ideas Interview with Claire Fox and Angus Kennedy from the Institute of Ideas], “Cultural Diplomacy News”, 28 August 2009  
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*Caroline Scott, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2188787,00.html Claire and Fiona Fox, sisters], “Sunday Times”, 28 May 2006.
 
*Huw Spanner, [http://www.spannermedia.com/interviews/Fox.htm Hope for the Best] (Interview with Claire Fox),' Spanner Media April 2007.
 
*Huw Spanner, [http://www.spannermedia.com/interviews/Fox.htm Hope for the Best] (Interview with Claire Fox),' Spanner Media April 2007.
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
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[[Category:LM network|Fox, Claire]][[Category:GM|Fox, Claire]][[Category:Pro-GM Lobbyists|Fox, Claire]]
 
[[Category:LM network|Fox, Claire]][[Category:GM|Fox, Claire]][[Category:Pro-GM Lobbyists|Fox, Claire]]

Revision as of 20:23, 12 March 2011

LM network resources

“Claire Fox” was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party until its dissolution in 1996 and remains a leading associate of its successor, the libertarian anti-environmental LM network. In particular, she founded and leads its largest entity, the Institute of Ideas. She lives in London, is unmarried and childless, and has two sisters, Gemma Fox, adopted and three years younger, who is a project manager for a women’s centre in Rhyl, north Wales, and Fiona Fox, four years younger, who was also a leading member of the RCP, is also associated with the LM network and leads the Science Media Centre.

Early years and education

Fox was born in Barton-Upon-Irwell, a suburban area of Eccles in Greater Manchester, on 5th June 1960 to John Fox, who ran a successful plant-hire business, and Maura Cleary, who was noted for her strength of character. Both came from Irish farming backgrounds and were highly religious.

Brought up in Clywd, North Wales, she was characterised as a dominating character even as a child. Despite attending St. Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, a school she characterised as a "bog standard comp", she was able to obtain admission to Warwick University, finally achieving a lower second class degree in English and American literature. Her sister Fiona later also attended Warwick.

Career

Following university, Fox became a social worker from 1981 to 1987, working in mental health, with the homeless in Coventry, and with battered women. She then became an English Language and Literature lecturer for special needs adults at Thurrock Technical College (now Thurrock and Basildon College) during 1987-90. Obtaining a PCGE from Thames Polytechnic (now the University of Greenwich) in Eltham during 1991-1992, she then taught at West Herts College during 1992-1999.

Revolutionary Communist Party

Disillusioned with the then Labour government and with a training in Catholic liberation theology, Fox joined the Socialist Workers Party as a student at Warwick University, despite a background as an anti-abortion activist with the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. Considering the SWP crude and untheoretical, she left them to join the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, later renamed the Revolutionary Communist Party, possibly due to their uncritical pro-Irish Republican line, which will have resonated with Fox’s Irish Catholic background. Her strong Republican leanings are suggested by the role of her sister Fiona as a leading member of RCP front the Irish Freedom Movement and editor of its bulletin Irish Freedom. Though her anti-abortion and Catholic background delayed her admission, Claire Fox was eventually accepted and remained a member until its dissolution in 1996, becoming a branch organiser and editor of its magazine with a party name (pseudonym) of Claire Foster.

LM network

Fox left teaching to become the editor of the RCP’s monthly magazine, Living Marxism. When the RCP disbanded, Fox relaunched it as LM, taking the role of co-publisher.[1]. After the magazine was bankrupted in a libel trial in 2000, Fox founded the Institute of Ideas, building on the existing RCP summer school, while other members set up on line magazine Spiked. She is a director, company secretary and shareholder of the company which runs the Institute, the Academy of Ideas, and is the director of the Institute.

Other activities

Fox is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education, politics and the arts on programmes such as BBC Question Time, BBC Any Questions?, BBC Breakfast and SkyNews Review. She has been a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze since 2001, later joined by LM associate Kenan Malik while other LM associates regularly appear on the programme as witnesses. She writes regularly for national newspapers and a range of specialist journals, has a monthly column in the MJ (Municipal Journal) and presented ‘Claire Fox News’ on the defunct internet TV channel 18 Doughty Street during 2006/7. [2] She is also a Member of the European Cultural Parliament and sits on the Advisory Board of the Economic Policy Centre.

She is a columnist for The Free Society, which describes itself on its website as a group that has been "launched by the smokers’ lobby group Forest to give a voice to those who want less not more government interference in their daily lives". [3]

Affiliations

Reference

  • Institute of Ideas, Claire Fox Institute of Ideas website, accessed 29 Dec 2010


Profiles

Notes

  1. ↑ [ http://www.instituteofideas.com/people/claire_fox.html Profile] Institute of Ideas website acc 11 Mar 2011
  2. ↑ [ http://www.instituteofideas.com/people/claire_fox.html Profile] Institute of Ideas website acc 11 Mar 2011
  3. ↑ "Claire Fox", The Free Society website, accessed November 2008
  4. ↑ Data at Companies House, accessed 9 February 2011
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