Geoff Mulgan
Geoff Mulgan initially worked at the Greater London Council. He was a 1986-87 Harkness Fellow (which reinforces Anglo-American links) at MIT. He was co-founder and director of the London based think tank Demos from 1993-98.[1] Mulgan's CV on the Demos website[2] does not mention that he joined the British American Project (BAP) in 1996.[3] In September 2003 he was appointed head of policy at No 10 in addition to his role as head of the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office.[4]
Background
Geoff Mulgan was described in an article in The Guardian as "the ultimate New Labourite" [5]. He has been a key advisor to Tony Blair and was one of the founders of the think tank Demos which has close ties to New Labour.[6] He was one of the key figures in the drive to 'modernise' left-wing politics.
In the 1980s Mulgan was part of the Comedia consultancy, which, with Roger Liddle's Pieda, advised city administrations[7], spreading a politicised cultural 'redevelopment' purge of 'old-fashioned' left-wing people in positions of power in an effort to 'modernise'. From 1990-92 Mulgan was special adviser to Gordon Brown when he was shadowing the Department of Trade and Industry, and became 'the Clinton campaign's link to Labour, which involved lots of telephone calls with the Americans - mainly advising them how not to repeat our mistakes.'(Independent On Sunday 24 January 1993)
Demos aimed to transpose the mishmash of Marxism Today's 'fetishised' Thatcherism into Labour policy. Mulgan was part of a 1995 'secret committee' led by Mandelson 'to examine policy changes', which met with Blair on alternate Fridays. The group contained no MPs, preferring Roger Liddle and Derek Scott (both former SDP), Patricia Hewitt (not then an MP), and TV producer Michael Wills. Here Mandelson and Liddle urged Blair to use the SDP as a party model. (Guardian 15 July 1995)
As Demos' 'policy entrepreneur' Mulgan was 'seconded' to concoct a consensus around key issues. Typically this connected markets and the future as a matter of inevitability, as determinism; or conflated Daniel Bell's end of ideology dictum with a British (Atlanticist) version of neo-Conservatism.
His appointment to the PM's Policy Unit converted Demos' experiments into new shibboleths surrounding 'social exclusion' largely to coerce NGOs dealing with the poor. He is the first person to go from political adviser to civil servant as Director of the Cabinet Office's Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) and Forward Strategy Unit. [1]
The PIU reviewed the UK's energy policy at a 4 July 2001 seminar: Mulgan introduces, hands over to Chair, Kevin Tebbit (MOD). Then there are presentations by Sian Davies (the Henley Centre, which has several Demos members), Bob Tyrrell (Demos) and Ged Davis (Shell, a Demos funder) and closing comments from Mulgan. Lunch everyone? [2]
He's also a trustee of the Political Quarterly (with BAP's Richard Holme) and Prospect magazine. There is an American Demos and an American Prospect (with the Congress for Cultural Freedom's Daniel Bell on board).
Mulgan is a Trustee of Crime Concern, the Prudential's (�750,000 Home Office-funded) adjunct to their 'Corporate Social Responsibility' initiatives. The board includes: Princess Anne, Lords Brittan, Carr, Hunt and Merlyn-Rees, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy (Kingfisher plc), Michael Hastings (BBC), Nathaniel Sloane (Accenture), Matt Baggott (Deputy Chief Constable, West Midlands Police), Liz Wicksteed (Home Office) and Sir Stanley Kalms (Treasurer of the Conservative Party). [3]
Demos brought over several free-market ideologues including Philip Bobbitt (LBJ's nephew). He was Reagan's legal counsel from 1980-81, on the Select Committee/cover-up on Iran/Contra and Director for Intelligence at the NSC 1997-98. Demos also advertised an April meeting with George Soros.
Affiliations
As of February 2009 Geoff Mulgan is:
- Director of the Young Foundation[8]
- A senior fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government - which is run by another former Demos director Tom Bentley[9]
- A member of the controversial British American Project[10]
Career
- 1982-4: administrator at the Greater London Council
- 1984-6: investment executive (for Greater London Enterprise).
- 1986-7: Harkness Fellow at MIT (specialising in telecommunications).
- 1987-90: researcher at the Centre for Communication and Information Studies and lecturer at the Polytechnic of Central London specialising in policy relating to digital technologies and broadband; member of Comedia consultancy (mainly working for city administrations in the UK and abroad); occasional consultant for the European Commission on telecommunications policy, appointed as expert 1990; co-founder and director of Rhythm Radio.[11]
- 1990-92: special adviser to Gordon Brown MP, focusing on trade and industry policy.
- 1992-3: Fellow at the British Film Institute, specialising in film and broadcasting policy, with particular reference to the future of the BBC.
- 1993-7: founder and director of Demos, think-tank 'responsible for a range of research projects on diverse issues including privacy, parental leave and local government reform, and publishing authors ranging from MPs Alan Duncan, Nigel Foreman, Vincent Cable and Roger Freeman, to intellectuals such as John Gray, Roger Scruton, and Theodore Zeldin.'
- 1997 - August 2000, Special Advisor to Tony Blair in the Prime Minister's Policy Unit on 'social policy issues'. Responsible for 'social exclusion, welfare to work, family, urban, voluntary sector and other issues'.
- September 2000 - 2004 Director of the Performance and Innovation Unit from 11 September 2000[12]
Other affiliations
- World Economic Forum, Global Leader of Tomorrow
Books
- Good and Bad Power: the ideals and betrayals of government (Penguin, 2006
- Connexity (Harvard Business Press and Jonathon Cape, 1998)
- Saturday Night or Sunday Morning (Comedia, 1987)
- Communication and Control: Networks and the New Economies of Communication (Blackwells, 1991)
- Politics in an Antipolitical Age (Polity, 1994)
- Life After Politics (Harper Collins, 1997
Notes
- ↑ "Geoff Mulgan - England", World-Wide Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ "Geoff Mulgan", Demos website, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ Andy Beckett, "Friends in high places", The Guardian, 6 November 2004, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ "No 10 press shake-up unveiled", BBC News Online, 3 September 2003, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ John Harris, "The power of influence", The Guardian, 26 May 2006, accessed 15 April 2009
- ↑ John Harris, "The power of influence", The Guardian, 26 May 2006, accessed 15 April 2009
- ↑ "Improving Public Services", 22 June 2001, Number10, the website of the prime minister's office, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ http://www.youngfoundation.org.uk/about Accessed 15 Apr 2008
- ↑ http://www.anzsog.edu.au/staff/staff.php Accessed 15 April 2007
- ↑ Andy Beckett Friends in high places You won't have heard of the British-American Project, but its members include some of the most powerful men and women in the UK. Officially it exists to promote the 'special relationship', but it has been described as a Trojan horse for US foreign policy. Even its supporters joke that it's funded by the CIA. Should we be worried? Andy Beckett reports, The Guardian, Saturday 6 November 2004 Accessed 13 April 2008
- ↑ Hermes Database, September 1, 2000, Cabinet Office Senior Appointment: Director Of The Performance And Innovation Unit
- ↑ Hermes Database, September 1, 2000, Cabinet Office Senior Appointment: Director Of The Performance And Innovation Unit
