Rohan Silva
Rohan Silva was Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister David Cameron[1] and is now Special Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. Silva played a key role in drafting the coalition document and is reportedly 'very highly regarded by both the Chancellor and his cabinet colleagues'. [2]
Background
Born in Wakefield, the 29 year old studied law at Manchester and worked as an intern for Labour MP Nigel Griffiths. Journalist Josh Neicho reports that "Reading Popper and Isaiah Berlin for his Masters at LSE made him suspicious of Left-wing utopianism". "A natural supporter of the coalition who some see as a political chameleon", he is purportedly also "a protégé" of spindoctor Steve Hilton.[3]
Silva was ranked 39th (a place held jointly with Matthew Hancock and Rupert Harrison) in a list of the 'Top 100 most influential Right-wingers' by The Telegraph in October 2009. At this point, Silva, Hancock and Harrison were advisers to then Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.[4] By October 2011 his ranking was number 19, ahead of both Hancock (number 20) and Harrison (number 25). The Telegraph described him as having a 'very political, forensic brain and fizzes with new ideas'.[2]
In an article examining the Conservatives' "trick" of "appearing progressive and yet Thatcherite", New Statesman journalist Steve Richards mentions Silva as a case in point:
- [Silva] briefly worked for a Labour MP and switched sides on the assumption that the current Tory leadership was serious about its proclaimed progressive objectives... [He has] shown interest in the work of Phillip Blond, the so-called Red Tory who is about to launch his own think tank.[5]
In August 2010, Silva was described in The Economist as "perhaps the most ardent centrifugalist of the policy advisers".[6] He earns £60,000 a year. [7]
Silva was also Senior Policy Adviser for the 2010 General Election. Prior to this, he was a Policy Analyst at HM Treasury. He sits on the advisory panel of the Progressive Conservatism project at the think tank Demos.[8]
Silva is a trustee of the Battersea Arts Centre and the Citizenship Foundation.[9]
Contact, Resources, Notes
Notes
- ↑ Department of Information Services, "Parliamentary Information List", accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Iain Dale and Brian Brivati,"[The Top 100 most influential people on the Right 2011, 25-1]", The Telegraph, 04.10.09, accessed 10.09.10
- ↑ Josh Neicho, "All power to the new Tories", London Evening Standard, 26.07.10, accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Iain Dale and Brian Brivati,"Top 100 most influential Right-wingers: 50-1", The Telegraph, 05.10.09, accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Steve Richards, "The real hustle", New Statesman, 01.10.09, accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Staff writers, "The unlikely revolutionary", The Economist, 12.08.10, accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Cabinet Office Written Ministerial Statement on Special Adviser numbers, costs and revised model contract and code of conduct, 10 June, 2010 (accessed 7 September 2010).
- ↑ Citizenship Foundation, "Trustees",accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Citizenship Foundation, "Trustees",accessed 07.09.10
