Derek Draper Has Worked As a Leadership Consultant, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach for Nearly Fifteen Years

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Derek Draper Has Worked As a Leadership Consultant, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach for Nearly Fifteen Years Derek Draper has worked as a leadership consultant, business psychologist and executive coach for nearly fifteen years. He is the co-founder and CEO of CDP Leadership Consultants and was previ- ously Managing Consultant and Head of Business Development for the UK and Europe at the global consultancy YSC. He has assessed and developed senior business people in around twenty FTSE 100 companies and in some of the largest privately held companies in the world. As well as working in the UK he has worked with businesses in Germany, the Nordics, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Africa. Prior to this he worked in politics, as chief aide to Peter (now Lord) Mandelson, and was the founder of Progress, the centre- ground think tank. He was also an entrepreneur in the marketing and communications sector helping build and sell a public affairs consultancy to Omnicon and then co-founding an advertising agency which was sold to Cello. Today, as well as leading CDP he has a small psychotherapy prac- tice in Bloomsbury and is a Governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. He is an active member of the Association for Business Psychology (ABP). He lives in London with his wife, the TV and radio presenter Kate Garraway, and their two children, Darcey and Bill. He tweets @derekdraper and you can sign up to receive his regular newsletter at www.derekdraper.net/signup. Create Space.indd 1 04/07/2018 12:06 This is a stimulating, thought-provoking and valuable guide for those who are serious about ‘being the best they can be’. It blends research, considered insights and storytelling to offer a very practical framework to take control and make space for reflection, learning, possibilities and being. It will act as a useful ‘coach’ in all aspects of one’s life and at all stages in one’s career. Valerie Scoular, former Group HR director at Barclays, British Airways and Dentsu Aegis Network What I most like about Create Space is the twelve stories at the heart of the book. They bring to life the ideas within it in an engaging and entertaining way. Whether you are at the start of your career, enjoy- ing your first management responsibilities, or sitting in the C-suite, this book has lots to offer. I highly recommend it. Henry Birch, chief executive of the Rank Group plc Create Space is coming at the right time. Leaders today are always on, and operating in environments which are rapidly changing. So figuring out how to get the space to think, learn, decide and grow is a very high-leverage piece of help. Austin Lally, Group CEO, Verisure This book sets out in a very well researched, practical way how you can create the physical and mental space to make better decisions, build deeper professional relationships and get the things that really matter done. Whether you work in business, the public sector or the third sector, if you aspire to master the art and science of leadership, this is a great guide. Gavyn Davies, chairman, Fulcrum Asset Management, and former chairman of the BBC Create Space.indd 2 04/07/2018 12:06 No matter how busy you think you are, find the time to read this book. Packed with far-reaching insights and simple steps for wresting back control of your diary and your career, Create Space is a must- read for thoughtful leaders looking to take their performance – and the performance of their teams – to the next level. Sarah Wood, founder and non-executive chair, Unruly.com (part of News Corp) Derek Draper will do something for you that no politician can; he will help you take back control. Robert Peston, ITV political editor (former BBC business editor) I’m moderately successful but permanently playing catch-up. I’m late for everything. I struggle to prioritise, and even to catch my breath. I juggle with only mixed results. I’m glad I stepped back and created enough space to read Derek Draper’s original, clever, prac- tical book. Space to think is the most basic necessity. Draper has shown me, for the first time, where I can find it. Euan Rellie, co-founder and senior MD, BDA (Business Development Asia) I see loads of business books and they can often be one idea stretched out to fill a book and a little bit too ‘ivory tower’. This book’s differ- ent. Each chapter takes a vital skill and digs deep to really understand it, through very lifelike and funny stories. There’s then a tonne of practical suggestions that will resonate with anyone who works in business. If you’re serious about your career, grab this now and get reading. Ian King, business editor, Sky News Create Space.indd 3 04/07/2018 12:06 DEREK DRAPER PROFILE BOOKS Create Space.indd 5 04/07/2018 12:06 First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Profile Books Ltd 3 Holford Yard Bevin Way London wc1x 9hd www.profilebooks.com Copyright © Derek Draper 2018 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 The right of Derek Draper to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain copyright permissions where required. Any omissions and errors of attribution are unintentional and will, if notified in writing to the publisher, be corrected in future printings. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 78816 048 3 eISBN 978 1 78283 447 2 Text design by [email protected] Typeset in Dante by MacGuru Ltd Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A. Create Space.indd 6 04/07/2018 12:06 Contents Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 PART 1 Create Space to Think 17 1 Space to Reflect – Raku and Her Sister’s Ghost 19 2 Space to Learn – Rachel and Her Need to Go It Alone 46 3 Space to Decide – Hans and His Family of Tyrants 71 PART 2 Create Space to Connect 91 4 Space to Check In – Nick and His Three Deadbeat Dads 93 5 Space to Share – The Spirits Team and Their Need to Get Nasty 108 6 Space to Relate – Amir and His Time in the Doghouse 127 PART 3 Create Space to Do 153 7 Space to Plan – The Brothers and Their Failing Magic Show 155 8 Space to Deliver – Tamsin and Her Missing Delivery 172 9 Space to Lead – Yulia and Her Hungry Sea Lions 203 PART 4 Create Space to Be 223 10 Space to Dream – Oscar and His Love of the Land 225 11 Space to Balance – Trevone and His Near-Death Experience 239 12 Space to Grow – Almantas and His Gladly Missed Targets 254 Create Space.indd 9 04/07/2018 12:06 x CONTENTS PART 5 The Three Gateways to Creating Space 263 Gateway 1 Set Your Personal Strategy 264 Gateway 2 Raise Your Personal Productivity 265 Gateway 3 Adopt the Space Mindset 266 Conclusion 275 List of tools and models 280 Appendix: Data analysis 282 Further reading and resources 287 Index 299 Create Space.indd 10 04/07/2018 12:06 Introduction HE two IDEAS at the heart of this book came to me during T two very different afternoons. One was spent hiking up a mountain in Kenya; the other in a noisy works canteen off a ring road on the outskirts of London. Oddly enough, both took place while I was working for the same client, a FTSE 100 giant, whose products fill aisles in every super- market in the world. A couple of years ago I was sent to Africa to work with some of the company’s local business leaders. After a few days, I had an afternoon off and hired a driver to take me to a nearby national park, close to the Serengeti and the Great Rift Valley. As I hiked up Mount Longonot with a guide, a herd of wild giraffe strolled across our path. Luckily, that day, no lions. Half-way up we stopped and surveyed the surrounding landscape. The dusty valley seemed to go on forever. Vast swathes of green, brown and yellow scrubland rolled on and on to an eventual horizon marked by dark, jagged mountain- tops. The only visible signs of humanity were a few indistinct clumps of grey, marking out various hamlets and small towns. I was struck dumb by the stillness and grandeur spread out before me. I had never before experienced such a sense of limitless, almost entirely empty space. What a contrast to my usual hectic existence. This land was where our ancestors first walked the earth. Roughly 200,000 years ago the first recognisably human figures had spread across this part of Africa, and every single one of us alive today has DNA that can be traced back to that group – some scientists argue to a specific man and woman. About 75,000 years ago these slender, Create Space.indd 1 04/07/2018 12:06 2 CREATE SPACE graceful, large-brained Homo sapiens began to journey slowly out of Africa. Over the next tens of thousands of years they settled pretty much everywhere on the planet, displacing several other hominid species, such as the Neanderthals, along the way.
Recommended publications
  • Views About the Adequacy of the Stipend to Attract Church of This House of Commons and Often Conducts Priests, Especially in Rural Parishes
    Thursday Volume 497 15 October 2009 No. 124 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Thursday 15 October 2009 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2009 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 419 15 OCTOBER 2009 420 open for such use as Parliament required. In the usual House of Commons fashion, however, it did not allow for funding from Parliament. We hope that Members will contribute Thursday 15 October 2009 generously to the appeal, and I repeat that they should visit the church as often as they can. I will certainly refer the hon. Gentleman’s question to The House met at half-past Ten o’clock the Church Commissioners. PRAYERS David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op): One of the most heavily used paved areas in this crowded and busy city must be the footpath between St. Margaret’s [MR.SPEAKER in the Chair] and the abbey, and the slabbed area in front of the church. Is it right that the church is having to fund the BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS restoration of those cracked and uneven areas? Should that not be either for Westminster city council or for the CANTERBURY CITY COUNCIL BILL (BY ORDER) national taxpayer? If that is part of the scheme, it is unfair. Motion made, That the Bill be now considered.
    [Show full text]
  • Behind the Digital Campaign
    BEHIND THE DIGITAL CAMPAIGN An exploration of the use, impact and regulation of digital campaigning Andy Williamson, Laura Miller & Freddy Fallon Acknowledgements Authors: Dr Andy Williamson, Dr Laura Miller & Freddy Fallon The Hansard Society would like to thank all the interviewees for their contribution and their time. Thanks also go to Beccy Allen, Karishma Desai, Jonathan Goodstone, Tuga Alaskary, Daniel Baldwin, Nicholas Phillips and Virginia Gibbons for their assistance and support. Hansard Society, 40-43 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1JA Tel: 020 7438 1222. Fax: 020 7438 1229. Email: [email protected] Copyright © 2010 Hansard Society. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, without the prior permission of the Hansard Society. For more information about other Hansard Society publications visit our website at www.hansardsociety.org.uk Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................iii Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 1 Methods and Approaches...................................................................................................... 2 The Mediation of Political Life...................................................................................................... 4 A General History of Internet Campaigning .........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Revolving Doors Special by Richard Brooks and Solomon Hughes
    REVOLVING00 DOORS SPECIAL REPORT 1 PUBLIC SERVANTS, PRIVATE PAYDAYS How ministers and mandarins make life after government pay – a Revolving Doors Special by Richard Brooks and Solomon Hughes Post-Brexit, it’s all change at the top. A bunch of ministers are out of a job and advisers and top officials might find it’s time to move on, too. But fret not. A well-trodden path from the public to private sector ensures ministers and mandarins looking to profit from their time in government are all but guaranteed a job in business, usually in an area over which they have exerted great influence. Today’s public servants have joined an undeclared public-private partnership with their future employers if, that is, they serve their future paymasters well. This is the story of Britain’s well-oiled Revolving Door, and the price we all pay for it… ETIREMENT jobs for those at the top of Rpublic life aren’t all new. Whitehall’s Sir Humphreys have long walked into Great British boardrooms soon after picking up their retirement carriage clocks. The corporate heavyweights had to be kept plugged into the establishment, after all. But for the politicians who, constitutionally at least, made the decisions affecting public life, taking the business shilling after a life in office was seen as below the salt. A life in government meant a This trend became a central feature in the that he was “a pretty straight kinda guy”. life in public service, and it wasn’t to be sullied atmosphere of sleaze surrounding the It was a while before serious political sleaze by cashing in at the end of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release
    20 May 2009 TOM WATSON MP Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail, apologised today to Tom Watson MP in a Statement in Open Court Solicitors read before Mr Justice Eady. International Press Centre 76 Shoe Lane London EC4A 3JB Mr Watson complained of an article by Iain Dale, headed “Smears, glowering Tel 020 7353 5005 henchmen-like the Nixon White House” published in the Mail on Sunday on 12 Fax 020 7353 5553 April 2009 in which it was stated not only that Mr Watson was copied into emails DX 333 Chancery Lane sent by Downing Street press adviser Damian McBride to Derek Draper, but that Email [email protected] he “encouraged” them. The emails were reported to have made serious and Web site www.carter-ruck.com false allegations about the private lives of a number of Conservative Party MPs in the course of discussing proposals for a new website to be known as “Red Rag”. As the Court heard today, Associated Newspapers Limited now accepts that these allegations are entirely untrue. In fact, Mr Watson was not copied into any of the emails exchanged between Mr McBride and Mr Draper. As Mr Watson has already publicly made clear, he had no involvement in or knowledge of the “Red PRESS RELEASE Rag” website and he did not condone the content of the emails and, indeed, regarded them as completely inappropriate. Associated Newspapers Limited has unreservedly withdrawn the allegations, apologised to Mr Watson for the distress the article caused him and his family and has joined in the reading of the Statement in Open Court today.
    [Show full text]
  • Highlights London Book Fair 2018 Highlights
    Highlights London Book Fair 2018 Highlights Welcome to our 2018 International Book Rights Highlights For more information please go to our website to browse our shelves and find out more about what we do and who we represent. Contents Gregory & Company titles Crime, Suspense, Thriller 1-15 Contemporary Fiction 16 Historical Fiction 17 Romantic Fiction 18 DHA Fiction Literary/Upmarket Fiction 20-28 Crime, Suspense, Thriller 29-33 Commercial Fiction 34-37 DHA Non-Fiction Business & Lifestyle 38-39 History, Philosophy, Politics 40-45 Nature & Travel 46-49 Centenary Celebrations 50 Upcoming Publications 51-52 Film & TV News 53-54 DHA Sub-agents 55 Agents US Rights: Veronique Baxter; Georgia Glover; Anthony Goff (AG); Andrew Gordon (AMG); Jane Gregory; Lizzy Kremer; Harriet Moore; Caroline Walsh Film & TV Rights: Clare Israel; Nicky Lund; Penelope Killick; Georgina Ruffhead Translation Rights: Alice Howe: [email protected] Direct: France; Germany; Netherlands Subagented: Italy Claire Morris: [email protected] Gregory & Company list, all territories Direct: Germany; Greece; Netherlands; Portugal; Scandinavia; Spain; Vietnam plus miscellaneous requests Subagented: Brazil; China; Croatia; Czech Republic; France; Hungary; Israel; Japan; Korea; Poland; Romania; Russia; Serbia; Slovenia; Taiwan; Thailand; Turkey Emily Randle: [email protected] Direct: Afrikaans; all Indian languages; Brazil; Portugal; Vietnam; Wales; plus miscellaneous requests Subagented: China; Bulgaria; Hungary, Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Russia, Serbia; Taiwan; Thailand; Ukraine Giulia Bernabè: [email protected] Direct: Arabic; Croatia; Estonia; Greece; Israel; Latvia; Lithuania; Scandinavia; Slovenia; Spain and Spanish in Latin America; Sub-agented: Czech Republic; Poland; Romania; Slovakia; Turkey Contact t: +44 (0)20 7434 5900 f: +44 (0)20 7437 1072 www.davidhigham.co.uk Gregory & Company Titles Snap Belinda Bauer Snap decisions can be fatal .
    [Show full text]
  • Privacy, Probity and Public Interest Whittle and Cooper Cover Image © Reuters © Image Cover , –7 the Independent
    Whittle and Cooper cover C:Layout 1 01/07/2009 15:43 Page 1 RISJ REUTERS REUTERS CHALLENGES INSTITUTE for the STUDY of INSTITUTE for the JOURNALISM CHALLENGES STUDY of JOURNALISM | Privacy, probity and public interest probity Privacy, “'Privacy, Probity and Public Interest' shows how privacy has come Privacy, probity and to be both better protected by the courts and more widely ignored: big questions, riveting examples and sharp analysis.” Baroness Onora O'Neill, President of the British Academy and public interest Professor of Philosophy, Cambridge University “is report is from the frontline. Although it contains an admirable survey of the law and the stance of the regulators, it does much more. It gives interested parties a voice. e authors provide their own thoughtful commentary; they do not shirk the difficult questions. Stephen Whittle and Glenda Cooper Everyone should be interested in this debate, and I wholeheartedly commend this report to anyone who is.” Andrew Caldecott, QC, Specialist in Media Law “An erudite and compelling exposition of one of the most important ethical dilemmas facing British Journalism in the internet era. e authors identify a route towards a new journalism that can respect privacy without compromising its democratic obligation to hold power to account.” Tim Luckhurst Professor of Journalism, University of Kent Stephen Whittle is a journalist and was the BBC's Controller of Editorial Policy (2001–2006). As Controller, he was involved in some of the most high profile BBC investigations such as The Secret Policeman, Licence To Kill, and Panoramas on the Olympics and care of the elderly.
    [Show full text]
  • Robinson, Emily. 2010. Our Historic Mission' Party Political Pasts And
    Robinson, Emily. 2010. Our Historic Mission’ Party Political Pasts and Futures in Contemporary Britain. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29014/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] 'Our Historic Mission' Party Political Pasts and Futures in Contemporary Britain Emily Robinson Goldsmiths College, University of London PhD 2010 ABSTRACf The temporal positioning of political parties is an important aspect of their philosophical stance. This cannot simply be characterised as forward-facing progressivism and backwards-looking conservatism; since at least the late nineteenth century both progressive and conservative positions have involved a complex combination of nostalgia, obligation and inheritance. But while conservatives have emphasised a filial duty towards the past as enduring tradition, progressives have stressed the need to bear memories of past injustice forward, in order to achieve a different future. The contention of this thesis is that since the late 1970s these temporal positions have begun to dissolve. Both Labour and the Conservatives now favour what might be termed an 'affirmative presentist' approach to political time, whereby the present is viewed as both the 'achievement' of the past and the 'creator' of the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Serpent's Tail
    Contents 4 Profile Books 35 Souvenir Press 42 Serpent’s Tail 55 Viper 60 Sort Of Books 62 Profile Paperbacks 75 Souvenir Press Paperbacks 79 Serpent’s Tail Paperbacks 84 Viper Paperbacks 89 Recently Published 93 Selected Backlist 113 Audio 114 Contact Information PROFILE BOOKS CELEBRATING 25 YEARS 4 5 The Confidence Men The Nation of Plants How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most A Radical Manifesto for Humans Remarkable Escape in History Stefano Mancuso Margalit Fox The true story of two First World War prisoners who pulled This playful manifesto – presented for the plant nation by a off one of the most ingenious escapes of all time leading neurobiologist – is an international bestseller Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during As plants see it, humans are not the masters of the First World War, two British officers, Harry Jones Earth but only one of its most unpleasant and and Cedric Hill, cunningly join forces. To stave off irksome residents. They have been on the planet boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board for about 300,000 years (nothing compared to and holds fake séances for fellow prisoners. One the three billon years of plant evolution), yet have day, an Ottoman official approaches him with a changed the conditions of the planet so drastically query: could Jones contact the spirits to find a vast as to make it a dangerous place for their own treasure rumoured to be buried nearby? Jones, a survival. It’s time for plants to offer advice. lawyer, and Hill, a magician, use the Ouija board – and their keen understanding of the psychology of In this playful, philosophical manifesto, Stefano deception – to build a trap for their captors that will Mancuso, expert on plant intelligence, presents a lead them to freedom.
    [Show full text]
  • The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
    The Best Democracy Money Can Buy Greg Palast is an internationally recognized expert on the control of corporate power working with labor unions and consumer groups in the USA, South America and Europe. In America, among his more noted cases, he directed government investigations and prosecution of racketeering by nuclear plant builders and, for the Chugach Natives of Alaska, probed charges of fraud by oil companies in the grounding of the Exxon Valdez. Five years ago, Palast turned his investigative skills to journalism. His 1998 undercover exposé of corruption at the heart of Tony Blair’s cabinet, “Lobbygate,” earned him the distinction of being the first journalist in memory berated personally on the floor of Parliament by a prime minister—as well as an award for Story of the Year. His column for Britain’s Observer newspaper, “Inside Corporate America,” and other writings, have won him the Financial Times David Thomas Prize (1997) and nomination as Business journalist of the Year (1999). In America, Palast broke the story of how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush removed thousands of Black and Democratic voters from registration roles prior to the presidential election. The series of revelations appeared in The Nation, the Washington Post, Harper’s, the Guardian—and in Salon.com which named the exposé Politics Story of the Year. Palast’s investigative reports can also be seen on BBC Television—“Newsnight’s own Sam Spade.” Publication of Democracy and Regulation, Palast’s lectures at Cambridge University and the University of Sao Paulo, coauthored by Theo MacGregor and Jerrold Oppenheim, is forthcoming.
    [Show full text]
  • Fp169:Free Press Template Changed Fonts.Qxd.Qxd
    fp169:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 30/04/2009 21:42 Page 1 FREE Press No 169 March-April 2009 £1 Journal of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL The Damian McBride smear up an online presence to match the bloggers know only too well that once commanding lead established by right- the information is out on the internet it scandal is a symptom of an wing bloggers on behalf of the is considered to be in the public endemic cross-party culture Conservative Party. domain and will almost certainly be Just as in the USA, where the followed up by mainstream journalists. of media manipulation, Democrats’ campaign team built up an Here we can begin to see the true writes Nicholas Jones overwhelming online lead for Barrack extent of the collusion which can Obama, it is the hunger for power on occur. Bloggers run sensational stories hat got lost amid the furore the part of political activists on the which are sometimes fed to them by over Damian McBride’s right which has helped to put the frustrated journalists who are unable to lurid smears against Conservatives way ahead in the blogos- print or broadcast such items. Once Conservative politicians was phere. published online, they gain greater cre- the appeal by the schools But Labour’s failure to generate polit- dence and are out there, ready and Wsecretary Ed Balls that leaders of all the ical blogs on the left which are any- waiting to be exploited by Opposition main parties should examine the con- thing like as effective as those on the politicians.
    [Show full text]
  • Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
    Monday Volume 492 18 May 2009 No. 78 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 18 May 2009 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2009 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; Tel: 0044 (0) 208876344; e-mail: [email protected] 1187 18 MAY 2009 1188 Mr. Prentice: The police have been severely criticised House of Commons for their kettling technique, which they used in the G20 demonstrations a few weeks ago. Will my friend assure Monday 18 May 2009 me that there is no question whatever of the police using Tasers for crowd control? The House met at half-past Two o’clock Mr. Coaker: To reassure my hon. Friend, I have said to the Joint Committee on Human Rights that Tasers PRAYERS should not be used in public order control situations, and Tasers were not used during the G20 demonstrations. Officers equipped with Tasers raided a residence in an [MR.SPEAKER in the Chair] operation to arrest individuals suspected of criminal damage at the G20 protest. My hon. Friend makes an important point, however: there is a right to protest in this country, and Tasers are not appropriate for use in Oral Answers to Questions controlling such demonstrations. Chris Huhne (Eastleigh) (LD): Three weeks ago, four HOME DEPARTMENT environmental protesters dressed as suffragettes superglued themselves to a statue of Viscount Falkland in Parliament.
    [Show full text]
  • Tittle-Tattle
    Tittle-Tattle Tom Easton Balls to the wall The Daily Mirror neatly summed up the post-election fate of two of New Labour’s so-called big beasts when its 15 June headline read: ‘Ed Balls has a new job: Ex-shadow chancellor follows David Miliband to America after election defeat’.1 Milband’s job with the International Rescue Committee (see Lobsters passim) earns him a reported annual £300,000 whereas Balls’s one year at Harvard’s Mossavar-Rahmani Business and Government Center is said to be unpaid. But as the defeated former MP for Morley and Outwood received a reported £88,000 golden goodbye from the British taxpayer and then attended the Bilderberg conference in June, it’s safe to assume austerity will not be a worry for the household of he and his MP wife Yvette Cooper, especially after their second-home flipping antics revealed in the expenses scandal.2 Balls and Miliband have returned to their roots in many ways. Both left Oxford to take US scholarships, returning with the neoliberal, neocon attitudes which outfitted them nicely to be spear carriers in the stage army that became New Labour. Miliband went into the think-tank world before No 10 and then the ultra-safe seat of South Shields, deep within New Labour’s North-East redoubt. Balls, with no journalistic background, landed a leader-writer job with the Financial Times before becoming Treasury adviser to Gordon Brown. Then, like Miliband with no experience of electoral politics, he was parachuted into a former mining seat in Yorkshire in 2005 near to the one his wife had similarly been given in 1997.
    [Show full text]