Norman Blackwell
He was with Plessy between 1976 and 1978 and a former partner of McKinsey & Company from 1978 to 1994. Having been already Special Adviser in 1986 and 1987 from 1995 to 1997 he was Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, following which he was Director of Group Development.
NatWest Group, from 1997-2000 and non-executive director of Dixons Group from 2000 to 2003, chairman of Comensura in 2001. Appointed a Director of Standard Life in June 2003 and is Chairman of Standard Life Assurance Limited. He is Chairman of Interserve plc, non-executive Chairman of SmartStream Technologies Group, Senior Independent Director of Slough Estates plc, a non-executive with The Corporate Services Group 2000, and a Board Member of the Office of Fair Trading.
He is also a special adviser to KPMG’s Corporate Finance Practice, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies and an active member of the House of Lords.
Politics
In the Financial Times, Blackwell, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies, argues that the Conservatives should be leading the argument that “Britain cannot afford not to cut taxes”. Blackwell states that public spending will rise to 42%t of GDP by 2007 and tax rises will inevitably follow. Blackwell's argument is that high taxes divert resources from wealth creating enterprises into low productivity public consumption, and force more people into benefits, which put up taxes even further. Blackwell argues that the Government should ensure that public spending grows below the rate of economic growth, so that as tax revenues rise, some of the new income can be used to reduce tax rates rather than fund public sector expansion. To encourage increased savings, Mr Blackwell argues that tax reductions should be diverted into long term savings and pension schemes. [1]
The CPS were also said to be part of covert lobbying attempts surrounding the right's anti-Europe stance:
- behind the campaign is a more shadowy alliance traversing the worlds of academia, politics and business. Everyone is linked to everyone else, whether it is by family, membership of anti-European organisations or party allegiance and more specifically Conservative Party affiliation. It has been a carefully orchestrated affair...[Conrad] Black is a board member of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), the right-wing think tank and one of the founding pillars of the anti-Europe alliance. [2]
Blackwell is associated with the Bruges Group,
- the second lynchpin, along with the CPS, of the anti-Europe alliance. Another who has addressed the organisation is Irwin Stelzer, the right-wing commentator who is one of the few people with an open line to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Sun. Stelzer, an American, is Murdoch's key economic adviser...Founded in 1989 by a group of 13 academics, the Bruges Group gained its inspiration from Thatcher's speech in the city a year earlier in which she said: 'We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level.' [3]
Blackwell was part of a panel of commentators who gave evidence at the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee— as part of its inquiry into “choice and voice” in public services. The others included: Sir Christopher Gent, formerly Chief Executive of Vodafone and now Deputy Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Reform thinktank, will be joined on the panel by Lord (Norman) Blackwell, Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies and Philip Collins, Director of the Social Market Foundation. [4] All three organisations are within a stone's throw away from each other and parliament.
Further reading
Blackwell, N. (2006) Cameron must state his Tory principles, The Guardian, Sunday October 1.
Blackwell, N. (2007) Three cheers for selection: how grammar schools help the poor, Centre for Policy Studies, January 3. See also: Think tank calls for return to grammar schools
BBC (2003) The Conservatives should learn from the way George Bush made Texas the springboard of his presidential campaign, says the Tories' policy chief, October 8. "We should make all hospitals fully independent," said Lord Blackwell. "We should also give people the choice to take their £1,200 a year which goes to the NHS and put it with a private healthcare provider."
Kruger, D. (2002) Is Labour learning to let go? The Observer NHS debate, Observer, May 26. Daniel Kruger is Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies, and co-author with Norman Blackwell of Better Healthcare for All: Replacing the NHS Monopoly.
