Andrew Ferguson Neil
Born	(1949-05-21) 21 May 1949 (age 63) Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
Occupation	BBC journalist, author and television presenter

Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.

He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics on BBC Two, The Sunday Politics on BBC One and This Week on BBC One. For the BBC he also anchors Straight Talk with Andrew Neil ^[1] and makes documentaries.^[2][3]

He is also Chairman of Spectator Magazines; Chairman of ITP Magazines (Dubai); and Chairman of World Media Rights (London).^[4]

Neil made his name at The Sunday Times where he was editor for 11 years. In 1995 he was made editor-in-chief of the Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Business and (from 2005) The Spectator, moving up to become chairman in July 2008.

Early life and career[link]

Neil was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire. He grew up in the Glenburn area, and attended the local Lancraigs Primary School. Aged 11, Neil passed his 11-plus examinations and sent to the then academically selective Paisley Grammar School.^[5] His father was a professional soldier who had worked his way up through the ranks; his mother worked in the local cotton mills.^{[citation needed]}

After school, Neil attended the University of Glasgow.^[6] While there he edited the student newspaper, the Glasgow University Guardian and dabbled in student television. He was also a member of the Dialectic Society and the Conservative Club and participated in Glasgow University Union inter-varsity debates. He graduated in 1971 with an MA with honours in political economy and political science,^[6][7] having been tutored by Vince Cable.^[8]

After graduation he briefly worked as sports correspondent for the local newspaper the Paisley Daily Express before working for the Conservative Party as a research assistant and then joined The Economist as a correspondent in 1973, and was later promoted to being the editor of the publication's section on Britain.

A passionate follower of cricket, Neil is a member of Marylebone Cricket Club.

[edit] The Sunday Times

Neil was editor of The Sunday Times from 1983 until 1994. His hiring was controversial. It was argued that he was appointed by Rupert Murdoch over more experienced colleagues, like Hugo Young and Brian MacArthur.^[9]

Opposition to perceived public school and Oxbridge attitudes was a hallmark of Neil's Sunday Times editorship. During his editorship, the newspaper lost a libel case over claims it had made concerning a witness interviewed in the Death on the Rock documentary on the Gibraltar shootings.^[10]

While at The Sunday Times in 1988, Neil met the former Miss India, Pamella Bordes, in a nightclub. The News of the World suggested she was an up-market prostitute. Sir Peregrine Worsthorne argued, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, that Neil was not fit to edit a serious Sunday newspaper, on the grounds that "playboys" should not be editors. In a subsequent libel case, Neil sued Worsthorne and won £1,000^[11] plus costs.

The Sunday Times during this period promoted a fringe and later discredited argument that, in Africa, AIDS was a quite separate condition from HIV.^[11] In 1992 Neil was criticised by Anti-Nazi groups^[12] and historian Hugh Trevor-Roper among others^[13] for employing, as a translator of the diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the Holocaust denier David Irving.^[12]

Sky[link]

In 1988 he also became founding chairman of Sky TV, also part of Murdoch's News Corporation. Neil was instrumental in the company's launch, overseeing the transformation of a down market, single channel satellite service into a four channel network in less than a year. He also brought The Simpsons to British television.^[14] Neil and Murdoch stood side by side at Sky's new headquarters in West London on 5 February 1989 to witness the launch of the service at 18.00. Sky was not an instant success; the uncertainty caused by the competition provided by British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and the initial shortage of satellite dishes were early problems.

The failure of BSB in November 1990 led to a merger, although few programmes acquired by BSB were screened on Sky One, and BSB's satellites were sold. The new company was called British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). The merger may have saved Sky financially; despite its popularity, Sky had very few major advertisers to begin with, and was also beginning to suffer from embarrassing breakdowns. Acquiring BSB's healthier advertising contracts and equipment apparently solved these problems. BSkyB would not make a profit for a decade but is now^[when?] one of the most profitable and successful television companies in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Post-News Corp career[link]

He eventually parted company with Murdoch on bad terms and became a writer for the Daily Mail. In 1996 he became editor-in-chief of the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Scotsman, Sunday Business (later just The Business) and The European. Press Holdings sold The Scotsman in December 2005, ending Neil's relationship with the newspaper. Neil has not enjoyed great success with the circulations of the newspapers (indeed The European folded shortly after he took over). The Business also closed down in February 2008. He exchanged his role as Chief Executive of Press Holdings for Chairman in July 2008.^[15]

In June 2008, Neil led a consortium which bought talent agency Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) from CSS Stellar plc for £4 million. Neil will be chairman of the new company in addition to his other activities.^[16] Neil served as Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews from 1999 - 2002.

Broadcasting[link]

Nick Clegg being interviewed by Andrew Neil for The Daily Politics

As well as Neil's newspaper activities he has also maintained a television career. While working at The Economist he provided news reports, for example to American networks. When at The Sunday Times he contributed to BBC radio and television as well as commenting on the various controversies provoked by the paper in his role as Editor. During the 1990s Neil fronted political programmes for the BBC, notably Despatch Box on BBC Two and the interview show Is This Your Life? (made by Open Media for Channel 4) which was nominated for a BAFTA award for "Best Talk Show".^[17] Following the revamp of the BBC's political programming in early 2003 Neil has been the presenter of the BBC One weekly political roundup show, This Week, and co-presenter of The Daily Politics which broadcasts every day that Parliament sits.^[6]

In November 2004 it was announced that Neil was to become Chief Executive of The Spectator.

After being overlooked to present the BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight, Neil has presented This Week with ex-Conservative minister Michael Portillo, and Labour MP for Hackney Diane Abbott.^[6] Neil also presents the weekly one-on-one political interview programme Straight Talk with Andrew Neil on the BBC News Channel.

[edit] Private Eye

A photograph of Neil in a vest and baseball cap, embracing a much younger woman, ran over several editions of satirical magazine Private Eye, after it became known that he found the picture embarrassing^{[citation needed]}. This still surfaces regularly. A long-running joke within the letters page is that a reader will ask the editor if he has any photographs related to some topic in the news, but by unfortunate double entendre it can be construed as a request for this photo, which is duly published alongside the letter. The photograph is of a woman with whom Neil was briefly involved while in the United States in the early nineties ^[18] and is frequently accompanied in the paper by references to the woman's ethnicity. Neil has found "fascinating" what he sees as an example of "public school racism" on the part of the Eye's editorial staff.^[18]

The magazine nicknamed him Brillo, after his wiry hair which is seen as bearing a resemblance to a form of kitchen scouring pad. In addition, it often misspells his surname with an extra L, in reference to Neil's relationship with Pamella Bordes, whose name is written with two Ls.

Personal life[link]

Neil has never married and, although he has 14 godchildren, he has no children of his own.^[19] Neil has, for more than a year, been dating Swedish-born IT engineer Susan Nilsson. Nilsson, formerly a competitive swimmer, is a graduate of Stockholm School of Economics and is presently director of operations at EF Education First.^[20]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Andrew Neil on Twitter
• Archive of Neil's recent articles at The Scotsman^{[dead link]}
• Observer: Biography
• London Speaker Bureau: Biography
• The Business Magazine: Publisher in Chief
• BBC News: Biography
• The Daily Politics website
• Toby Young article in Vanity Fair^{[dead link]}
• Andrew Neil interview, Rob McGibbon, Access Interviews, 15 February 2008
• MediaGuardian's stories on Andrew Neil

v t e Press Holdings Current assets Telegraph Media Group The Daily Telegraph · The Sunday Telegraph Other Apollo · The Spectator Former assets The Business · The Scotsman Publications (Edinburgh Evening News · Herald & Post · The Scotsman · Scotland on Sunday) People David and Frederick Barclay · Andrew Neil Category

Anthony Clare
Hosting television discussion After Dark in 1987
Born	(1942-12-24)24 December 1942 Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Died	28 October 2007(2007-10-28) (aged 64) Paris, France
Cause of death	Myocardial infarction
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Psychiatrist, author, broadcaster
Known for	In the Psychiatrist's Chair
Spouse	Jane Hogan
Children	7

Anthony Ward Clare (24 December 1942 – 28 October 2007) was an Irish psychiatrist well known in the UK and Ireland as a presenter of radio and TV programmes.

Career[link]

Clare was born in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland and educated at Gonzaga College. In 1966, he graduated from University College, Dublin (UCD) where he was an auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. During his time in UCD, he won the 1964 Observer Mace debating competition, speaking in a team with Patrick Cosgrave.^[1] Following initial training in psychiatry at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, he moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at The Maudsley Hospital, in London where he studied under Professor Michael Shepherd. Clare held a doctorate in medicine and a master's degree in philosophy, and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.^[2]

Author of several popular books on psychiatry, Clare held the positions of Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin and Medical Director of St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin. He was due to retire from his current post as Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist at St. Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan, County Dublin when he died suddenly of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 64.^[3]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Clare was the best-known psychiatrist in Britain. His first media appearances were on the light-hearted BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme Stop the Week. He was also for many years the voice of the BBC popular science programme QED. Clare became famous for his probing interviews on radio and television with well-known figures such as Bob Monkhouse and Paddy Ashdown^[4] in several series of In the Psychiatrist's Chair,^[5] which ran from 1982.^[6]

As a young man Clare lost his Catholic faith and later explained why in a newspaper interview.

I can't really believe in a God that can suddenly and haphazardly intervene during one moment of history, causing air crashes, genocide and famine.^[4]

Clare married Jane Hogan in 1966 and they had seven children together.^[4]

TV Programmes[link]

• QED
• After Dark
• In the Psychiatrist's Chair

Radio Programmes[link]

• In the Psychiatrist's Chair
• Father Figures
• All in the Mind

Books[link]

• Depression and How to Survive It (Co-written with Spike Milligan)
• Lovelaw
• In the Psychiatrist's Chair I, II & III
• On Men: Masculinity In Crisis
• Psychiatry in Dissent: Controversial Issues in Thought and Practice

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anthony Clare at the Internet Movie Database
• The chair man: Anthony Clare Guardian Newspaper article
• Obituary in The Times, 31 October 2007
• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Guardian obituary (includes additional section on his hosting of the After Dark television programme)
• Anthony Clare - Obituary
• Obituary, The Independent, 31 October 2007
• Ed Carty, Anthony Clare, the psychiatrist with the chair, dies aged 64, The Independent, 31 October 2007
• Richard Ingrams, Richard Ingrams' Week: Memories of my time in the psychiatrist's chair, The Independent, 3 November 2007
• Psychiatrist Anthony Clare dies aged 64, Daily Mail, 30 October 2007

The Right Honourable Ed Balls MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 January 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Alan Johnson
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 8 October 2010 – 20 January 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Alan Johnson
Succeeded by	Yvette Cooper
Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In office 11 May 2010 – 8 October 2010
Leader	Harriet Harman Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Michael Gove (CSF)
Succeeded by	Andy Burnham
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Alan Johnson (EaS)
Succeeded by	Michael Gove (E)
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 6 May 2006 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ivan Lewis
Succeeded by	Kitty Ussher
Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Majority	1,101 (2.3%)
Member of Parliament for Normanton
In office 5 May 2005 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Bill O'Brien
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Majority	10,002 (51.2%)
Personal details
Born	(1967-02-25) 25 February 1967 (age 45) Norwich, Norfolk, England
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Spouse(s)	Yvette Cooper
Children	Ellie Joe Maddy
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford Harvard University
Profession	Economist
Religion	Church of England[1]
Website	Official website

Edward Michael Balls, (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Morley and Outwood since 2010, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. From 2005 to 2010, he was the MP for Normanton and he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010.

Balls is married to current Shadow Home Secretary and fellow Labour MP Yvette Cooper. In 2008 they were the first married couple to serve together in a British Cabinet.

Early life[link]

Balls' father is the zoologist Michael Balls,^[2] criticised for campaigning against the grammar school system in Norfolk, then sending his son to fee-paying schools.^[3] Balls was born in Norwich and educated at Bawburgh Primary School in Norwich, Crossdale Drive Primary School in Nottinghamshire, and then the private all-boys Nottingham High School, where he played the violin.^[4][5] He went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (graduating ahead of David Cameron), and later Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics.^[6]

Balls joined the Labour Party when he was 16 years old.^[7] Whilst at Oxford he was an active member of the Labour Club, but also signed up to the Conservative Association, "because they used to book top-flight political speakers, and only members were allowed to attend their lectures" according to friends.^[8] Whilst at Oxford he was a founding member of the all-male drinking club, The Steamers.^[9][10]

Economist[link]

He joined the Financial Times as a writer in 1990 until his appointment as an economic adviser to Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1994. When Labour won the 1997 general election, Brown became Chancellor and Balls continued to work as an economic adviser to him. He went on to serve as Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers.

While he was chief economic adviser to the Treasury, Balls attended the Bilderberg annual conference of politicians, financiers and businessmen in 2001 and 2003, and returned to the United Kingdom on Conrad Black's private jet on both occasions. In 2010 when after details were reported in the press, Balls commented, "It saved the taxpayer the cost of a plane fare and on both occasions I declared it at the time to the permanent secretary in the normal way."^[11]

Political career[link]

In July 2004, Balls was selected to stand as Labour and Co-operative candidate for the parliamentary seat of Normanton in West Yorkshire, a Labour stronghold whose MP, Bill O'Brien, was retiring. He stepped down as chief economic adviser to the Treasury, but was given a position at the Smith Institute, a political think tank. HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office confirmed that "the normal and proper procedures were followed."^[12]

Member of Parliament[link]

In the 2005 general election, he was elected MP for Normanton with a majority of 10,002 and 51.2% of the vote. After the Boundary Commission proposed boundary changes which would abolish the constituency, Balls ran a campaign, in connection with the local newspaper the Wakefield Express,^[13] to save the seat and, together with the three other Wakefield MPs (his wife Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh and Jon Trickett), fought an unsuccessful High Court challenge against the Boundary Commission's proposals.

In March 2007 he was selected to be the Labour Party candidate for the new Morley and Outwood constituency, which contains parts of the abolished Normanton and Morley and Rothwell constituencies.^[14]

Cabinet[link]

Balls became Economic Secretary to the Treasury, a junior ministerial position in HM Treasury, in the government reshuffle of May 2006. When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 Jun 2007, Balls was promoted to Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

In October 2008, Balls announced that the government had decided to scrap SATs tests for 14-year-olds,^[15] a move which was broadly welcomed by teachers, parent groups and opposition MPs.^[16][17] The decision to continue with SATs tests for 11-year-olds was described by head teachers' leader Mick Brookes as a missed opportunity.^[18]

Balls sponsored the Children, Schools and Families Bill which had its first reading on 19 November 2009.^[19] Part of the proposed legislation will see regulation of parents who home educate their children in England, introduced in response to the Badman Review, with annual inspections to determine quality of education and welfare of the child. Home educators across the UK petitioned their MPs to remove the proposed legislation.^[20]

Several parts of the bill, including the proposed register for home educators, and compulsory sex education lessons, were abandoned as they had failed to gain cross party support prior to the pending May 2010 election.^[21]

Labour leadership election[link]

At the 2010 general election, Balls narrowly won the newly-created Morley and Outwood seat with 37.6% of the vote.^[22][23] The general election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservatives having the most votes and seats, but no overall majority. Several days after the election, on 11 May, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats announced that they would form a coalition government, shortly after Gordon Brown resigned as both Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party.

Balls announced, in Nottingham, on 19 May 2010 that he was standing in the election to replace Brown. Balls was the third candidate to secure the minimum of 33 nominations from members of the Parliamentary Labour Party in order to enter the leadership race. The other contenders were former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, former Health Secretary Andy Burnham, backbencher Diane Abbott and former Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who would go on to win.

Shadow Cabinet[link]

New Labour Leader Ed Miliband appointed Balls Shadow Home Secretary on 8 October 2010, a job he held until 20 January 2011, when the resignation of Alan Johnson due to "personal reasons" led Miliband to announce Balls as Labour's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.^[24] As Shadow Chancellor, Balls regularly appears with Miliband at joint press conferences relating to Labour policy. Together with Miliband, Balls has promoted a "five-point plan for jobs and growth" since he took office as Shadow Chancellor. The plan is described as aimed at helping the UK economy, and involves a bonus tax on banks, bringing forward long-term investment, cutting VAT to 17.5%, cutting VAT on home improvements to 5% for one year, and instigating a one year national insurance break.^[25]

Political activities[link]

Balls has played a prominent role in the Fabian Society. In 1992 he wrote a Fabian pamphlet advocating Bank of England independence, a policy adopted when Gordon Brown became Chancellor in 1997.^[6][26]

Balls was elected Vice-Chair of the Fabian Society for 2006 and Chair of the Fabian Society for 2007. As Vice-Chair of the Fabian Society, he launched the Fabian Life Chances Commission report in April 2006^[27] and opened the Society's Next Decade lecture series in November 2006,^[28] arguing for closer European cooperation on the environment.

Balls has been a central figure in New Labour's economic reform agenda. He and Gordon Brown have differed from the Blairites in being keen to stress their roots in Labour party intellectual traditions such as Fabianism and the co-operative movement as well as their modernising credentials in policy and electoral terms. In a New Statesman interview in March 2006, Martin Bright writes that Balls "says the use of the term 'socialist' is less of a problem for his generation than it has been for older politicians like Blair and Brown, who remain bruised by the ideological warfare of the 1970s and 1980s".^[29]

"When I was at college, the economic system in eastern Europe was crumbling. We didn't have to ask the question of whether we should adopt a globally integrated, market-based model. For me, it is now a question of what values you have. Socialism, as represented by the Labour Party, the Fabian Society, the Co-operative movement, is a tradition I can be proud of", said Balls.^[29]

Personal life[link]

He married Yvette Cooper MP, who later became Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in Eastbourne on 10 January 1998.^[30] Cooper is Member of Parliament for Morley & Outwood's neighbouring constituency of Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford. They have three children.^[31] Cooper and Balls were the first married couple to serve together in the British cabinet.^[32]

In 2010 Balls was fined £60 and given three points on his licence for talking on his mobile telephone whilst driving.^[33]

Ed Balls is a fan of Norwich City.^[34]

In September 2010, the British Stammering Association announced that Balls had become a patron of the Association. Its Chief Executive, Norbert Lieckfeldt, paid tribute to him for having been very public in his declaration that he has at times struggled with his speech.^[35][36][37]

Allegations over allowances[link]

In September 2007, with his wife Yvette Cooper MP, he was accused by Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker of "breaking the spirit of Commons rules" by using MPs' allowances to help pay for a £655,000 home in north London.^[38] Balls and Cooper bought a four bedroom house in Stoke Newington, and registered this as their second home (rather than their home in Castleford, West Yorkshire) in order to qualify for up to £44,000 a year to subsidise a reported £438,000 mortgage under the Commons Additional Costs Allowance, of which they claimed £24,400. Both worked in London full-time and their children attended local London schools. Balls and Cooper claimed that "The whole family travel between their Yorkshire home and London each week when Parliament is sitting. As they are all in London during the week, their children have always attended the nearest school to their London house."^[39]

Balls and Cooper "flipped" the designation of their second home three times within the space of two years, to take advantage of the expenses system.^[40]

See also[link]

• Ed Balls document leak

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed Balls

• Ed Balls official constituency website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted

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