Ann Rossiter
Ann Rossiter is Director of Social Market Foundation, a "Blairite" think tank headquartered in London.
She categorises the think tank as "ideologically difficult to place." It has been resolutely “Blairite” in its policy lines in the past, plus it still has not shrugged its pro-Tory, right-leaning origins. Rossiter says the SMF’s focus in on the labour market and low earners. Yet, she seems coy on key questions about government size and taxation needed to support services. “We have the ear of government because we have independence,” says Rossiter. “We don't have an agenda.”
Rossiter may have brought new “clout” to the firm as she came with notoriety. During the “Blair Babes” era (Reeves, 2008), Rossiter was his speechwriter. Additional popularity came when public relations firm AS Biss named her one of the “ten political stars of the future.”
Career:
Prior to SMF, Rossiter spent 4 years as a director of Fishburn Hedges, the corporate communications consultancy, and of Lexington Communications [1] It's owned by advertising giant, Abbott Mead Vickers.
She also worked for 4 years at the BBC in political research and programming. Finally, she once worked in parliament for MPs John Denham and Glenda Jackson on pensions and transport policy. Rossiter drew up Labour party policy on stakeholder pensions in the early 1990s.
Notes
- ^ The Guardian, LexisNexis [2] "Thinktanks: Do great minds think alike?", accessed 27 April 2008.
- ^ The Observer, LexisNexis [3] "Business: Mammon: The marketing of Blairism: Nick Mathiason meets Ann Rossiter, head of the Social Market Foundation think-tank, and leading light in the Third Way", accessed 27 April 2008.
- ^ PR Week, LexisNexis [4] "Decade-old AS Biss names ten to watch", accessed 27 April 2008.
