In the ever
growing scandal exclusively broken by blogger Guido Fawkes, regarding the Smith Institute and its relationship with Gordon Brown,
The Treasury and other elements of Governement, and bearing in mind the ongoing
investigation by the Charity Commissioners, what do you think.
The Smith
Institute, a secretive organisation that claims to be a charity, yet appears to
be setting government policy, which is just not on, where members of its board
of trustees also own the Limited Company SI Events that organises its meetings
with and in No.11, over 200 times to date, that also shares the same office and
has the same staff.
The Offices (and
most of the staff)
are leased to the Smith Institute and SI Events by The New Statesman, owned by
Geoffrey Robinson, the ex paymaster general who lent all that money to Peter Mandleson,
and allegedly put his own fortune into ‘trusts’ in Jersey to avoid tax.
Companies House
tells us that SI Events ltd last filed accounts on
Is there a
conflict of interest, are the people involved with the Smith Institute involved
in forming UK Government policy.
Well, bearing in
mind that many of the directors and members of the Board of Governers at
present sit in the Lords, and sit on key committee’s, I think that it would be
hard to argue that they don’t.
In recent years
they have had over 200 meetings and seminars held at
But you
decide. All of the information below is
available on the Internet, but perhaps you would like to do a little more digging
yourself.
Shareholders of SI Events Ltd.
Baroness Rendell of Babergh
sits in the House of
Lords for Labour.
Better know under
the pseudonym Barbara Vine, she is a mystery
and psychological crime writer,
Specialising in
misperceived communication, chance and the humanness of criminal.
Baroness
Ramsay of Cartvale sits in the House of Lords for Labour.
Since 2005 she has been a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which provides parliamentary oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service. Annual Reports for 2005 which are currently being suppressed are those of the Intelligence Services Commissioner and the Interception of Communications Commissioner, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Lord
Haskell (Simon Haskell)
sits in the House of Lords for Labour.
Also on the LFIG
Executive Committee.(see below). He was
Chairman of the Perrotts Group from 1973-97. He gave £6,000 to the Labour Party
in 2001. Given life peerage 1993. His
profile on DODS is not available yet?. A member of the Labour Finance and
Industry group, is now the Liaison Peer with the Department of Trade &
Industry and serves on several committees and subcommittees., such as the
sub-committees looking at Science & Society.
Baron
Joffe (Joel Goodman Joffe) sits in the House of Lords as a Crossbench peer.
Joel Joffe,
former Deputy Chairman (and one of the founders) of Allied Dunbar Assurance,
gave more than £5,000 to the Labour Party in 1997 and £10,000 in march 2001. He
served on the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care and along with David (now also
Lord) Lipsey, produced a minority report which enabled the Government to ignore
the expensive provision of care recommended by the majority of Commission
members. He was given his peerage in the 1999 New Years Honours list.
Directors of SI Events Ltd
Robert
Wilfred Stevenson
also a director of The Smith Institute as Wilf Stevenson.
Wilf
has overall responsibility for the Institute's programme of research and
events.
Very
little background is available for Stevenson, although his registration at
companies house indicates that he holds 27 other directorships.
Konrad Caulkett
Konrad
is responsible for the development of the Smith Institute’s programme of events.
Also works for the Smith Institute.
Board of Trustees of The Smith
Institute
The Lord Haskel of Higher Broughton (Chairman) sits in the House of Lords for Labour.
Also on the LFIG
Executive Committee.(see below). He was Chairman of the Perrotts Group from
1973-97. He gave £6,000 to the Labour Party in 2001. Given life peerage 1993. His profile on DODS
is not available yet?. A member of the Labour Finance and Industry group, is
now the Liaison Peer with the Department of Trade & Industry and serves on
several committees and subcommittees., such as the sub-committees looking at
Science & Society.
Baron
Joffe (Joel Goodman Joffe) sits in the House of Lords as a Crossbench peer.
Joel Joffe,
former Deputy Chairman (and one of the founders) of Allied Dunbar Assurance,
gave more than £5,000 to the Labour Party in 1997 and £10,000 in march 2001. He
served on the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care and along with David (now also
Lord) Lipsey, produced a minority report which enabled the Government to ignore
the expensive provision of care recommended by the majority of Commission
members. He was given his peerage in the 1999 New Years Honours list.
Baroness Rendell of Babergh
sits in the House of
Lords for Labour.
Better know under
the pseudonym Barbara Vine, she is a mystery
and psychological crime writer,
Specialising in
misperceived communication, chance and the humanness of criminal.
Baroness
Ramsay of Cartvale sits in the House of Lords for Labour.
Since 2005 she has been a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which provides parliamentary oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service. Annual Reports for 2005 which are currently being suppressed are those of the Intelligence Services Commissioner and the Interception of Communications Commissioner, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
The Director and
major shareholder Ballathie Estates Ltd gave £25,000 to the Labour Party in May
2001. A month after the donation he was appointed as the Chairman of the
Scottish New Deal Advisory Task Force.
He was previously
Chairman of Aberdeen Enterprise Trust and Head Start Aberdeen.
John Milligan
formed Strathclyde Process Engineering in 1973 and Atlantic Power and Gas in
1982, where he remained Chairman until 1998. made about £44m before tax for his
stake in Atlantic Power that he sold in 1998. He is a non-executive Director of
Petroleum Geo-Services (a company floated on the New York Stock Exchange) which
merged with Atlantic Power in 1998. He is also a non-executive Director of
Aberdeen Development Capital. He is a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurial
Studies at The Robert Gordon University and a long-standing member (including
three years as Chairman) of their Board of Governors, and a sponsor of an
Industry/Education Partnership with
Paul Myners He is a member of the Court of the Bank of England (director) and a
Trustee of Glyndebourne.
He is a respected
authority on corporate governance. He has compiled influential reports on institutional
investment, pension funds and governance for H.M. Treasury and the Department
of Trade and Industry. Chairman of the
Guardian Media Group, publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers, and
Land Securities Group.
Married to Alison
Myners, a Trustee of The
The
Archbishop of York, the Right Rev. Dr John Sentamu
John Sentamu b.
He read theology
at
A week before his
enthronement he called for a rediscovery of English pride and
cultural identity.
One of Sentamu's favourite
references is to the "Chocolate Trinity" of God-fearing Quaker
capitalists who were involved in developing the chocolate industry.
George Cadbury: "More
than just a sweet man", Joseph Rowntree:
…an adventurer to the end of life, forever peering forward, never content
with what had been achieved", and Joseph Storrs Fry II (J.S. Fry):
"…the very model of the pre-1860 Quaker, with his plain dress a relic
of the past and a reflection of his narrow conservative approach to both
religion and business."
Advisory Committee members 2006 –
Smith Institute
Rob Allen,
International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College London
Professor Linda Colley, University of Princeton
Professor Christopher Hood, All Souls College, Oxford
Amanda Jordan, The SMART Company
Professor Heather Joshi, Bedford Group for Lifecourse Studies
Professor Ruth Lister, Loughborough University & Donald Dewar Visiting
Professor, Glasgow University
Professor Sheldon Leader, University of Essex (Chair)
Abigail McKnight, CASE, London School of Economics
Deborah Mattinson, Opinion Leader Research
Jenny Smith, Catalyst
Sarah Smith, Channel 4 News
Polly Toynbee, The Guardian
Lord Larry Whitty, National Consumer Council
Alf Young, Glasgow Herald
So, the big question is Does the
Smith Institue have an unbias political view, in order to keep their Charitable
status they must.
In November 03 a
meeting was held in
The list of attendees
is laid out below.
Regional
economic policy
Lokale und
regionale Wirtschafts- und Strukturpolitik
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS / TEILNEHMERLISTE
Organisers / Organisatoren
Dr. Gero Maass
Director,
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Wilf Stevenson
Director
Smith Institute
German
Delegation / Deutsche Delegation
Heinrich Aller
Mitglied des Landtages von
Niedersachsen
Finanzminister a.D. des Landes
Niedersachsen
Vorsitzender des Ausschusses für
Haushalt und Finanzen
(Member of the Land Parliament of
Lower-Saxony)
Friedhelm
Bertelsmeier
Verkehrsreferent in der Deutschen
Botschaft
(Transport Officer, German Embassy)
Tilo Braune
Staatssekretär im BMVBW
(State secretary, Federal Ministry
of Transport, Building and
Housing)
Angelika Ehmler
Dolmetscherin (Interpreter)
BMVBW
Dr. Katharina Erdmenger
Leiterin des Referates „Aufbau Ost, Struktur- und
Regionalpolitik, Unternehmens- und Industriepolitik“
DGB Bundesvorstand
(Head of the Regional and Structural Policy Department,
German Trade Union Federation)
Dr. Herbert Jakoby
Leiter der Abteilung für Europa und Internationales,
Staatskanzlei des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
(Head of the European and International
Department in the
Office of the Minister-President of Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Dr. Utz Ingo Küpper
Geschäftsführer
Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungsförderung
der Stadt Dortmund
(Managing Director of city development agency,
Jens Lattmann
Beigeordneter des Deutschen Städtetages, Köln
(Councillor, German Association of Cities and Towns)
Dr. Hartmut Mangold
Unterabteilungsleiter: Aufbau Ost, Raumentwicklung &
Strukturplanung
(Deputy of Department, Reconstruction East, Regional
Planning and Structural Policy)
BMVBW
Thomas Matussek
Botschafter der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
(Ambassador of the
Catherine McDowell
Wirtschaftsreferentin in der Deutsche Botschaft
(Commercial Officer, German Embassy)
Dr. Dieter Rehfeld
Direktor des Forschungsschwerpunktes Innovative Räume
Institut Arbeit und Technik
(Institute for Work & Technology, Consultancy within the
Wissenschaftszentrum North-Rhine
Dieter Schlimmer
Stv. Geschäftsführer, Landes-Gewerbeförderungsstelle des
(Deputy Director of agency promoting small trades &
businesses, affiliated to Chamber of Industry & Commerce of
North-Rhine
Esther Zimmermann
Freie Universität
British Delegation / Britische Delegation
Kate Alexander
Ed Balls
Chief Economic Adviser
HM Treasury
Ken Bodfish
SEEDA
Abby Johnson Brennan
EMDA
Konrad Caulkett
Smith Institute
Philip Cox
ODPM
Ros Dunn
HM Treasury
Karl Eddy
KPMG
Mike Emmerich
Institute for Political and Economic Governance
Bryan Gray
NWRDA
Karen Harris
Pat Hayes
LB Lewisham
Professor Mark Hepworth
Local Futures Group
John Healey MP
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
Rachel Jones
National Assembly for
Rt.Hon. Rhodri Morgan AM
National Assembly for
John Neve
DTI
Tony Pilch
Smith Institute
Richard Samuda
KPMG
Neil Sherlock
KPMG
Ben Shimshon
Smith Institute
Cllr David Sparks
Tom Wilson
Stewart Wood
Council of Economic Advisers
HM Treasury
Sam Woods
HM Treasury
Interpreters / Übersetzer
Brigitte Puhl
Dr. Winfried Haag
Are
these the people who are shaping our lives, are these millionaires and business
chiefs making millions at our expense deciding and shaping government policy.
Or
is it the members of the Labour
Finance and Industry Group, (LFIG), and its offshoots the Industry Forum and the business unit at
Millbank, are another
group of millionaires and businessmen who according to their web site ‘Have a major
policy input into the development of the manifesto, in particular on local
government best value, tourism, the city, corporate governance, the need to
invest in science and R&D etc
LFIG members include Ministers, MPs, Lords and MEPs, as well as many
senior figures from business.
Policy input produced by this group includes ;
Local Transport Plans that Work, Report of Fringe Meeting, Labour
Spring Conference,
PLP
Transport Cmtee and LFIG Submission: Towards a new Labour Transport
Strategy - download
Company
Law Reform Director & Auditor Liability Consultation Response - download.
Company
Law Reform Threshold Responses - download.
Response
to Raising the Thresholds, Consultation Document - download
Address by Simon Bartley of
SME:
Facts and Issues - download.
Together
with the Smith Institute these are the guys making the rules, government just
implements them with legislation, some of the most stupid and punitive
legislation this country has ever seen.
The
companies of these guys get the best of the government contracts, and you and I
pay for it all with ever increasing stealth taxes.
Awash
with money for business and
Its almost like putting the
prisoners in charge of the prisons.
Time
I think for the Charitiy Commissioners, the Bloggers, Parliamentary committee’s
and investigative journalists to keep digging.
