Will Hutton

Formerly editor of the Observer, Hutton is Chief Executive of the Industrial Society, Employment Policy Institute and The Work Foundation who do much the same job. From 1990 to 1996 he had been economics editor of the Guardian. A former stockbroker, from 1983 to 1988 Hutton was economics correspondent for BBC 2's 'Newsnight'. He is a member of the governing council of the Policy Studies Institute, the Institute for Political Economy and Charter 88. He is on the editorial board of New Economy and is a governor of the London School of Economics. A trustee of the Scott Trust that owns the Guardian Media Group, rapporteur of the Kok group, a member of the Design Council's Millennium Commission and a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute.

For the Telegraph he is 'Britain's foremost critic of capitalism.' The Telegraph says that as "an outspoken advocate for affordable social housing. Mr Hutton's wife heads a company called First Premise, which owns and manages dozens of commercial and residential properties in London. The company specialises in renovating rundown properties - often with the help of public grants - and then makes a profit by selling or renting them out."

The Telegraph (former proprietor Conrad Black) added the humiliation of Ann Widdecombe's scorn: "I have nothing against property developers. However, the word hypocrite might be useful here. Mr Hutton has displayed a typical socialist attitude - 'do as I say, not as I do'." Mrs Hutton, uses her maiden name for the venture, and adds that First Premise's spin is that it has a proud track record of regenerating areas that other developers had been unwilling to take on. The Telegraph followed up with the gory details with the subtle Will Hutton is the Left-wing commentator famed for his attacks on Britain's landlord culture ... yet his family's housing empire is a monument to the profit motive.

Hutton edited On The Edge with Anthony Giddens above. Largely a defense of capitalism (its subtitle is 'living with global capitalism') that brought together George Soros, Manuel Castells, Paul Volcker, Jeff Faux and Larry Mishel, Vandana Shiva, Arlie Russel Hochschild, Robert Kuttner, Ulrich Beck, Richard Sennett, Polly Toynbee. They believe that markets are basically benevolent — a wealth creating process generating efficiencies.

Ignoring his place alongside Lord Stevenson on ERA, Hutton writes in the Guardian on Private Equity Companies in the usual contradictory/third way manner.

"This is not pro- but anti-wealth-creation. In this respect the attitude of private equity closely mimics that of the Chinese communist party. Both conceive of companies as networks of contracts between capital and labour that generate revenue streams to be manipulated by whoever has central control for personal or political advantage [...] Private equity cannot be outlawed; in any case it can do a good job."