Policy Network
Thought of as Peter Mandelson's think tank, The Policy Network was set up in 2000 by a section of Blair's inner circle and bankrolled by Evelyn de Rothschild.[1] It includes:
- Andrew Adonis, head of Downing Street's policy unit,
- Roger Liddle, a senior member of the No 10 policy unit who sold access to ministers (and now working for Mandelson in Brussels) [1]
- Adair Turner, the former CBI director who was part of Blair's secretive 'blue sky' think tank,
- Philip Gould, now Lord Gould, the prime minister's pollster who fabricated the results of 'focus groups' to come up with answers acceptable to the creation of 'New Labour.'
- Anthony Giddens, architect of the Blairite Third Way.
- Patrick Diamond director
Contents
Background
The Policy Network was set up when Mandelson resigned after the Hinduja affair. A source close to the think tank claimed it "was all part of attempts by Downing Street and friends to 'feather bed' his second fall from grace". The de Rothschilds fund the charity, the Policy Network Foundation which funds the Policy Network.
Mandelson said he would be using the Network's high profile platform to launch an attack on the policies of the anti-globalisation protesters. 'The social movement opposed to globalisation is heading up a whole number of cul de sacs,' he said. 'Nevertheless those of us on the Centre Left need to rise to a higher level of engagement. We cannot reduce important debate about serious matters to an issue of crowd control.'[2] And this has also been a focus of the Foreign Policy Centre and Demos and in the work of John Lloyd.
The Policy Network moved from its Mezzanine office to its current location, 11 Tufton Street, home of the Social Market Foundation and where the Adam Smith Institute hold their meetings.
The Network also provides the secretariat for the Progressive Governance Network.
People
Board
Giuliano Amato - Italian Minister for the Interior | Magdalena Andersson - Political Advisor to the Swedish Government | Dr Ron Asmus - Executive Director of the German Marshall Foundation Matt Browne - Director of APCO Worldwide | Charles Clarke - UK Member of Parliament | Patrick Diamond - Director of Policy Network | Lord Anthony Giddens - UK Peer and former Director of the London School of Economics | Patricia Hewitt - UK Secretary of State for Health | Trinidad Jimenez - International Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) | Juergen Kroenig - Writer and broadcaster | Roger Liddle - Principal Economic Advisor at the Bureau of European Policy Advisors | Will Marshall - President of the Progressive Policy Institute, Washington DC | Jon Mendelsohn - Director of LLM Communications | Alan Milburn - UK Member of Parliament | Alain Minc - Chair of AM Conseil | Mike Moore - former Prime Minister of New Zealand | Wolfgang Nowak - Managing Director of the Alfred Herrhausen Society | Trevor Phillips - Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights | Lord Giles Radice - UK Peer | Poul Nyrup Rasmussen - President of the Party of European Socialists | Olaf Scholz - Member of the Bundestag | Heather Simpson - Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of New Zealand | Dominique Strauss-Kahn - French Member of Parliament | Tibor Szanyi - Hungarian Secretary of State | Helle Thorning-Schmidt - Leader of the Danish Social Democratic Party | Prof Loukas Tsoukalis - President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP | Frank Vandenbroucke - Flemish Government Minister | Michiel van Hulten - Chair of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) | Dr Patrick Weil - Senior Research Fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research
Resources
On Liddle see also BBC Online and Red Pepper
Notes
- ↑ Jonathon Carr-Brown,Rothschild bankrolls Mandelson think tank, The Sunday Times - Britain, September 22, 2002
- ↑ The Observer September 9, 2001, Mandelson back in political limelight', Kamal Ahmed Political Editor SECTION: First Edition; Observer News Pages, Pg. 3
