Legatum Institute CEO Philippa Stroud is, after 7 years as CEO, stepping down, saying:
Over the last few months the Legatum Institute has been incubating a new project, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). I have been asked to take up the reins of this new initiative as its founding CEO, and it feels an enormously exciting opportunity not to be missed.
Philippa is going to lead ARC – a new global conference that is apparently committed to formulating and advocating a positive and hope-filled vision in response to life’s most fundamental social, economic, philosophical and cultural questions. High-minded objectives with a high quality organising committee. Unofficially, it is being touted as the antidote conference to the Davos/WEF worldview – according to Jordan Peterson it aims to end the catastrophising prevalent in Davos because
… it is existentially perilous to insist upon the impending end of the world in this doomsaying manner—lest the ensuing panicked tyranny produce exactly the result that is, in principle, most feared. The use of increasingly powerful and invasive technology to monitor and control everything, in combination with the willingness and ability to use compulsion and force, can lead only to tyranny and despair, regardless of the hypothetical nobility of the end goal.
We have improved almost everything, and appear to be rapidly getting better at doing precisely that. As the great British historian Macaulay long ago inquired: “On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?”
We have therefore initiated the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), a new movement of hopeful vision, local, national and international in its aim and scope, aimed at the collective, voluntary establishment of a maximally attractive route forward. The ARC will open itself up to widespread public membership, as rapidly and extensively as is practically manageable, at as low a cost as is possible and desirable, so that everyone interested can aid in voluntarily formulating this story and strategy, and to discuss how its implementation might be encouraged.
The first conference, slated to be held in Greenwich in late October, concentrates on issues metaphysical, cultural and practical. Jordan is aiming for two thousand initial attendees; open to a wide swathe of the public “under the assumption that each citizen has the inalienable right and is well-equipped when engaged, informed and consulted to choose and adhere to the desirable, sustainable, productive and generous future path.” Something like this is well-needed. Much of the Western business, cultural and media elite has lost self-belief and any sense of optimism about the future.
The refugee crisis has become the humanitarian challenge of our time according to new Legatum Institute report.
Today as we mark UN World Refugee Day, there are more people on the move than ever before. The worldwide number of registered refugees forcibly displaced by war, persecution and violence continues to climb. In total, at least 66 million people globally are experiencing forced displacement, and many more are exposed to high levels of socioeconomic vulnerability, facing insecurity and natural hazards.
The Legatum Institute’s Global People Movements report highlights that the factors that lie behind the hazardous journeys undertaken by refugees, migrants and victims of trafficking are both varied and complex. What is clear is that these are increasingly journeys of necessity, not opportunity. It is apparent that the challenge of accommodating the current levels of displacement has become too great for 20th Century approaches, with outmoded interventions seeing many refugees and migrants spending decades in accommodation that was originally designed for temporary relief.
The Charity Commission has ruled that a pro-Brexit report from the Legatum Institute crossed a line and “may be seen as promoting a political view”. They asked the institute to remove the report from their website.
Every day Guido gets reports and policy papers from the likes of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Resolution Foundation which promote more taxpayer spending on welfare, more redistribution and more taxation. Never do they suggest that supporting traditional family structures, tackling delinquent fathers or cutting taxes and letting parents keep more of their earnings to spend on their own families would be an alternative path to promoting the welfare of families. Never.
The Charity Commission said of Legatum’s report
… to be consistent with the charity’s object to advance education, a report of this nature should make clear that a desired outcome of free trade is only one of a number of the potential political outcomes that might be sought. It should present balanced, neutral evidence and analysis explaining why it has chosen to adopt a free trade perspective over others.
So the next time a report from a left-wing charity doesn’t make clear that throwing more benefits at families is only one of a number of potential political outcomes that might promote the welfare of families, Guido will be on to the Charity Commission demanding the report is withdrawn in favour of something more balanced and neutral. That seems to be the precedent…
It is an old trick to use the protection of parliamentary privilege to get out something you would have difficulty getting past newspaper lawyers. Yesterday’s claim by pro-remain MPs that the Legatum think-tank’s founder Christopher Chandler, was an “object of interest” to French intelligence is based on information originating from Robert Eringer. Eringer has been convicted of criminal defamation five times and is just not credible.
Eringer’s central allegation revolved round confusing two similarly named firms; “Sovereign Asset Management AG” which was closed down by the Swiss authorities and “Sovereign Asset Management Limited” which was operated by Chandler. Some of the allegations were made under Labour MP Liam Byrne’s byline in the New European and were rebutted at length last December. Throw in a Russian link and you have a great conspiracy theory. Unfortunately it doesn’t make any sense.
What is going on is that remainers in parliament are hitting out at a think-tank that was once home to a Brexit research team that has now moved to the Institute of Economic Affairs and so in any event no longer has any involvement in the Brexit issue. That was the real motivation for originally making these claims…
Download: Letter For the Attention of Rt. Hon. Liam Byrne MP
Tory MP Bob Seely has used parliamentary privilege to allege that the founder of the Legatum Institute, Christopher Chandler, was an “object of interest” to the French intelligence agency DST since 2002 “on suspicion of working for the Russian intelligence services”. Seely says the French intelligence documents naming Chandler were passed to him, Chris Bryant, Ben Bradshaw, Liam Byrne and Adam Holloway. Popcorn…
UPDATE: Legatum Group respond:
“Christopher Chandler has never been associated directly or indirectly with Russian intelligence or the Russian state. Neither Christopher Chandler nor anyone at Legatum is aware of any such alleged “investigation” by French authorities, not 16 years ago or at any time since. To be clear Christopher Chandler has never been approached at any time by the French or any other authorities regarding Russia and maintains a sterling record of ethical business practices earned over many decades. These accusations are complete nonsense, and have been previously rebutted by the Legatum Group (here).”
Shanker Singham has resigned from the Legatum Institute as Director of Economic Policy and is taking his three-strong team with him from Mayfair to Westminster to join the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). This is the wonk-land equivalent of Manchester City signing Manchester United’s top strikers…
Guido sources say Shanker resigned on Wednesday and the board of the IEA agreed to take him and his team pretty swiftly. The IEA is creating a new International Trade and Competition Unit for Shanker’s team, bringing with him lawyer Victoria Hewson; economist Catherine McBride; and research analyst Dr Radomir Tylecote. The three – who have a wealth of experience from the legal, technology, business and think tank worlds – will take up their roles later this month. Shanker’s team are widely recognised as the top Brexit wonks outside government.
The IEA’s Mark Littlewood tells Guido:
“I have huge admiration for the work Shanker and his team have done at the Legatum Institute. Under Philippa Stroud’s leadership, Legatum have gone from strength to strength, becoming thought leaders in crucial policy areas of which trade is only one. I look forward to continuing our strong relationship with them, and to Shanker and his team continuing their work at the IEA.”
Shanker Singham says: “We look forward to being a resource to all who need us in the trade, competition and regulatory policy space.” It is fair to say that the philanthropists who back Legatum were extremely uncomfortable with the critical political attention that the polarising Brexit work was bringing them and that this was distracting from their greater philanthropic endeavours on other issues. At the IEA Shanker will be at liberty to engage with the Westminster debate and key players more directly…
