Demos
Demos is ostensibly a left-leaning think tank. However, it has been credited with introducing Thatcherism (policies of reduced state intervention, free markets, and entrepreneurialism) into the Labour party, with the resulting formation of New Labour. It was established in 1993 by Geoff Mulgan and Martin Jaques, former editor of the magazine Marxism Today. Disillusioned with the perceived failure of left-wing politics at the time, they were part of the drive to find a "third way" which was neither socialist nor Thatcherite.
Geoff Mulgan went on to head the policy unit at number ten under Tony Blair and Charles Leadbetter was often a key advisor to Blair. There is also a cross current of researchers going from Demos to Labour policy units and vice versa.
Demos claims to be beyond questions of party affiliation and has recently been hosting visits from David Cameron and publishing the report True Blue[1] advising the Conservatives how to return to power.
This distancing from the Labour Party is perhaps not that surprising. It has always been strongly influenced by neoliberal ideas. The advisory board set up to help create Demos contained many prominent neoliberals including Arthur Seldon who is sometimes described as the architect of Thatcherism. [2]
As can be seen from the list below, Demos relies for a great deal of its funding on its corporate sponsors. A 2005 Demos study into the break up of BT found in favour of doing so. The sponsors of this report were Cable and Wireless who stood to gain if BT was broken up.[3]
Contents
Demos and culture
Demos engages extensively with art and culture. They advised the government on the rebranding of Britain as Cool Britannia and worked on the projects Demos Scotland 2020 and Demos Glasgow 2020 which examined how Scottish culture shaped attitudes.
People associated with Demos
- Richard Reeves – director [4]
- John Ashworth
- Sir Douglas Hague
- Stuart Hall
- Chris Ham
- Ian Hargreaves
- Lord Christopher Haskins
- Gerry Hassan
- Gerald Holtham
- Martin Jacques
- David Marquand
- Graham Mather
- Geoff Mulgan
- Yve Newbold
- Sue Richards
- Anita Roddick
- Arthur Seldon
- Lord Dennis Stevenson
- Martin Taylor
- Bob Tyrrell
- Ngaire Woods
- Andrew Mackenzie - Trustee. Between 2005 to 2007, Mackenzie was Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Demos. He is no longer in this role but continues his involvement as a Trustee. He is also Non-executive Director with energy firm Centrica, Group Executive and Chief Executive Non Ferrous at BHP Billiton and Chief Executive Diamonds and Minerals with Rio Tinto plc (since 2004). He previously served 22 years with BP plc (in a variety of senior technical and engineering positions before becoming Group Vice President of BP Petrochemicals)[5].
Madeline Bunting
Nick Claydon - trustee - partner at corporate PR Company Brunswick
Simon Cooper - Trustee -
Andrew Mackenzie - Trustee - Chief executive of Industrial Minerals at Rio Tinto, London.
Mitt Rainey - Trustee
Maeve Sherlock - Trustee
Ed Straw - Trustee - Partner at Price Water Cooper House
Hillary Cottam
Arthur Seldon
Groups associated with Demos
Demos' policy entrepreneurs operated from a Mezzanine office as 'charities' engaging in 'social entrepreneurialism'. These exchanged personnel, with funding mostly pirated from the Lottery and put under the control of New Labour 'place men' working unaccountably. 'Individual entrepreneurialism' backed by big business becomes 'venture philanthropy' not 'lobbying'. All the clients who sublet space in the Mezzanine are part of a larger company which trades under the name 'The Mezzanine'. Those were arranged in the office space as below
Civitas and Ashoka in the north mezzanine
- UnLtd across from The Policy Network
- Smartchange across from Carnegie Youth Trust
- The International year of the Volunteer across from Timebank
- Timebank across from New Start
Foreign Policy Centre split into two sections Foreign Policy Centre Community Action Network also split into two sections Community Action Network ERA and below them Demos
Demos, CAN and the FPC took up most of the room, a central corridor divided the offices and there were additional communal meeting rooms. There was a north Mezzanine and a south Mezzanine. There were a total of 13 organisations: (1) Family Education Trust (2) New start Publishing (3) Era (4) Can (5) FPC (6) 3RE Green works Renew Trust (7) Charity Technology Trust (8) Timebank (9) International year of the volunteer (10) Smartchange (11) UnLtd (12) Carnegie (13) Policy Network.
Partners
[7] 3i Age Concern
BDO Stoy Hayward
BECTA
Bell Pottinger
British Energy
British Gas
BT Forum
Building Societies Association
Bull Information Systems
Cable and Wireless
Calouste Gulbenkian
Carnegie Young People's Initiative C&A
CFBT
Channel 4
Commission for Racial Equality
Community Action Network Coopers and Lybrand
Denplan Department for Culture, Media & Sport
Department for Education and Skills
Department of Trade and Industry
Design Council
Edexcel Foundation
EDS Ltd
egovernment solutions
ELWa - Education and Learning in Wales
Environment Agency
EzGov
Further education Development Fund
Forum for the Future
HEDRA Limited
IBM
ICA
I&DeA
Institute of Management
Jobs for the Future
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Ketchum Communications
Kids' Club Network
KPMG Consulting
Lifelong Learning Foundation
London Arts Board
London Tourist Board
Mercury
MMO2
NAHT
National College for School Leadership
National House-Building Council
National Union of Teachers
National Westminster Bank
Nationwide Building Society
NatWest Group
NatWest Life
NESTA New Opportunities Fund
North Southwark EAZ
Northern Foods
Norwich Union
Oracle Corporation UK Ltd
PAULO
Pearson
Pre-School Learning Alliance
ProShare
Prudential
Prudential Plc
Reed Personnel Services Plc
Resource
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Scottish and Newcastle
Scottish Power
SEEVEAZ
Sequent Computer Systems Ltd
Shell International
Solace
Solar Foundation
Sorrel Foundation
Tesco
Thames Water
The Architecture Foundation
The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
The Camelot Foundation
The Charities Aid Foundation
The City of Athens
The Corporation of London
The Esmee Fairbairn Charitable Trust
The Economic and Social Research Council
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
The Government of Ireland
The Government of Italy
The Housing Corporation
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
The Lattice Foundation
The London Planning Advisory Committee
The Lord Ashdown Charitable Settlement
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
The RAC
The Tedworth Charitable Trust
Tomorrow's People
T-Mobile (UK)
UKISC
Various local authorities
VSNTO
VSO
John Wiley and Sons
Woolworths
Affiliations
Contact, References and Resources
Contact
Resources
- George Parker, Think-tank feels pinch as rival cashes in, Financial Times, 27 August 2008.
- William Clark The Tainted Word Variant, issue 13, Summer 2001
- Sourcewatch entry: Demos
References
- ↑ http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/trueblue accessed 16 April 2008
- ↑ "Obituary: Arthur Seldon', The Economist, undated in archived form, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ Alex Law The Conformist Imagination, Variant magazine, No. 23, Summer 2005, accessed February 2009.
- ↑ George Parker, Think-tank feels pinch as rival cashes in, Financial Times, 27 August 2008.
- ↑ Centrica Management Accessed 26th August 2008
- ↑ [1] accessed 14 April 2008
- ↑ [2]accessed 16 April 2006
