A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and Australian Senate. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber; compare frontbencher and backbencher.

United Kingdom[link]

Crossbench members of the British House of Lords are not aligned to any particular party. These include the judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876. In addition, former Speakers of the House of Commons (such as Lord Martin and Baroness Boothroyd) and former Lord Speakers of the House of Lords (such as Baroness Hayman), who by convention are not aligned with any party, also sit as Crossbenchers.

By their own description, many Crossbenchers are known for bringing specialist knowledge to the House,^[1] since most Crossbenchers have been created peers for reasons other than party or political affiliation.^{[citation needed]} Since 2000, the House of Lords Appointments Commission has nominated a total of 57 non-party-political life peers (as of 2011), who joined the House of Lords as Crossbenchers.

As of 1 October 2011, there are 183 Crossbenchers in the House of Lords—making them the third largest grouping after the Labour and Conservative parties. Of this total, 151 are life peers and 32 are hereditary peers (including a royal office-holder).^[2] From April 2007 to 2009, the number of Crossbenchers was higher than the number of Conservatives in the Lords for the first time.^[3]

Although the Lords Spiritual (archbishops and senior bishops of the Church of England) also have no party affiliation, they are not considered Crossbenchers and do not sit on the crossbenches, their seats being on the Government side of the Lords Chamber.^[4]

Convenor[link]

The Crossbenchers do not take a collective position on issues, although they do elect from among themselves a convenor for administrative purposes, and to keep them up-to-date with the business of the House. The current convenor is Lord Laming, who took office in September 2011.^[5] While convenors are not part of the "usual channels" (i.e., the party whips who decide the business of the House), they have been included in their discussions in recent years.^[6]

The following have served as Convenor of the Crossbenchers:^[7]

• Lord Strang (1968–1974)
• Baroness Hylton-Foster (1974–1995)
• Lord Weatherill (1995–1999; Alternate Convenor 1993–1995)
• Lord Craig of Radley (1999–2004)
• Lord Williamson of Horton (2004–2007)
• Baroness D’Souza (2007–2011)
• Lord Laming (2011–present)

Australia[link]

The term refers to both independent and minor party members in various Parliaments of Australia.

The present Australian Parliament, as elected at the 2010 election, is the 43rd Federal Parliament since Federation. It is the first hung parliament in the House of Representatives since the 1940 election, with Labor and the Coalition winning 72 seats each of 150 total. Six crossbenchers hold the balance of power: Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply, independent MP Bob Katter and National Party of Western Australia MP Tony Crook declared their support for the Coalition on confidence and supply. The resulting 76–74 margin entitled Labor to form a minority government.

In the 76-seat Senate, where no party tends to have a majority of seats, the Greens gained the sole balance of power with a total of nine of eleven crossbench seats. Labor holding 31 seats, they require an additional eight non-Labor votes to pass legislation. The Coalition holds 34 seats, while the two remaining seats are occupied by independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan.

See also[link]

• Backbencher
• Bench (metonymy)
• Frontbencher

References[link]

External links[link]

• Crossbench Peers - Official Site
• BBC Politics - Crossbench Peers

Tony Windsor MP
Member of the Australian Parliament for New England
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 November 2001
Preceded by	Stuart St. Clair
Majority	21.5%
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Tamworth
In office 25 May 1991 – 16 October 2001
Preceded by	Noel Park
Succeeded by	John Cull
Personal details
Born	(1950-09-02) 2 September 1950 (age 61) Quirindi, New South Wales
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Independent (1991 - present)
Spouse(s)	Lyn
Children	1 (female); 2 (male)
Residence	Tamworth, New South Wales
Alma mater	University of New England
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Economist, farmer
Website	http://www.tonywindsor.com.au/

Antony Harold Curties "Tony" Windsor (born 2 September 1950), an Australian politician, is an independent member of the House of Representatives since 2001, representing the Division of New England, New South Wales. Prior to his election to the federal parliament, Windsor was an independent member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1991 to 2001, representing the electoral district of Tamworth.

Early life[link]

Windsor was born in Quirindi, New South Wales, and was educated at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Tamworth and the University of New England where he graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics. He was a farmer at Werris Creek before entering politics.^[1][2] He was one of three sons raised by his mother after his father was killed in a farm accident when Windsor was eight years old.^[3]

New South Wales political career[link]

In the 1991 election, Windsor was first elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Member for Tamworth. Windsor was originally a National Party candidate for this seat, but allegations in regards to a drink-driving incident arose on the day of his pre-selection, and the National Party endorsed another candidate.^[4][5] In spite of the allegations, Windsor won as an independent candidate and held the seat for ten years. Windsor was one of the four independents who held the balance of power after Nick Greiner's Liberal-National Coalition lost 10 seats, resulting in a hung parliament. His decision to support the Coalition ensured a second term in government for Greiner. After an adverse ruling by the Independent Commission Against Corruption against Greiner for offering former minister Terry Metherell a patronage job, Windsor and the other three independents gave Greiner an ultimatum to resign or face a no-confidence motion in Parliament, and Greiner resigned.^[6][7]

Windsor resigned from the state parliament in September 2001 in order to contest the federal seat of New England.^[1]

Federal political career[link]

Windsor won the seat of New England, and in doing so, defeated the incumbent National Party MP Stuart St. Clair.^[8] The National Party and its predecessor, the Country Party, had held New England continuously since 1922.

In September 2004, in an interview with Tony Vermeer from The Sunday Telegraph,^[9] Windsor was the centre of controversy over an alleged breach of the Commonwealth Electoral Act. Windsor claimed that he had been approached, in May 2004, by a figure associated with the National Party with the offer of a diplomatic position in exchange for retiring from politics. Windsor made the allegations during the course of the 2004 Federal election campaign,^[10] some five months after the incident allegedly occurred.^[11] The Australian Electoral Commission referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).^[10] Windsor was re-elected and, in November 2004, speaking under parliamentary privilege, said that National Party leader John Anderson and Senator Sandy Macdonald had made the offer through an intermediary, Tamworth businessman Greg McGuire. Windsor also claimed that the AFP had referred the matter to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for determination.^[9] Anderson, Macdonald, and McGuire denied the claims.^[11][12][13] The AFP investigated Windsor's claims and advised that the matter would not be prosecuted.^[10][14]

2010 Federal election[link]

As one of the four independents elected to the House of Representatives at the 2010 Australian federal election (the others were Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Andrew Wilkie), Windsor was at the centre of negotiations to determine the government after both major parties failed to win a majority in their own right. Windsor, together with Oakeshott and Katter initially resolved to form a bloc to assist negotiations with the major parties to form government.^[15] However, several days later, Windsor claimed it should not be assumed that the three rural independents would move together.^[16][17] In a press conference on 7 September 2010, Windsor revealed that he would support a Labor government during confidence motions and supply bills.^[18]

Political views[link]

Windsor describes himself as a conservative.^[3] He has endorsed a referendum on the death penalty and supports liberalisation of gun control. In an interview published in The Sydney Morning Herald following the 2010 Federal election, it was reported that Windsor supports a rent resources tax, deep cuts to carbon emissions, and improved services to rural and regional areas such as Labor's proposed national broadband network but wants to ensure the scheme is fully costed.^[3] The same article claimed that Windsor supports the Coalition's position on water, and the Greens position on a universal dental scheme.^[3]

He has fought a long-standing battle protecting the interests of local landholders and farmers living on one of NSW's richest agricultural regions, the Liverpool Plains, due to the impact of mining on underlying groundwater. The region is rich in coal deposits and mining companies, such as BHP Billiton and Whitehaven Coal, have sought to acquire land. Greens have campaigned alongside Windsor, against mining companies.^[19] During the 2010 federal election campaign, it was revealed that Windsor had sold his family farm at Werris Creek to a wholly owned subsidiary of Whitehaven Coal, and then leased the property back. The reported sale was for more than A$4.5 million.^[20] The Australian subsequently claimed that Windsor yielded a return about three times greater than other farmers who sold their properties to the same company in the previous 18 months.^[21]

Windsor was present at the February 2011 announcement by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, on the proposed July 2012 introduction of a tax on carbon emissions, together with Greens senators Bob Brown and Christine Milne, the Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, and independent MP Rob Oakeshott. Windsor downplayed his presence at the announcement, stating, "Please don't construe from my presence here that I will be supporting anything."^[22] He was later reported as stating that he would not accept increased transport fuel costs for country people.^[23] He subsequently announced that he was supporting Gillard's carbon policy, as a matter of principle, and stated: "This is about the history of people, most of whom haven't even been born yet. And if I'm sacked from politics because of that, well, I'll remove myself with a smile on my face."^[24]

References[link]

Andrew Wilkie
Andrew Wilkie speaking at anti-pulp mill rally in 2007
Member of the Australian Parliament for Denison
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 August 2010
Preceded by	Duncan Kerr
Majority	1.2%
Personal details
Born	(1961-11-08) 8 November 1961 (age 50) Tamworth, New South Wales
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Independent
Residence	Tasmania
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Soldier, Intelligence officer
Website	Andrew Wilkie's website

Andrew Wilkie ran for the Australian Greens in 2007

Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961, Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Denison. He was formerly an army officer and then intelligence analyst.

In 2003 Wilkie resigned from his position in the Office of National Assessments, an Australian intelligence agency, over concerns that intelligence was being misrepresented for political purposes in making the case for Australia's contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the Howard government.

Since then he has been active in Australian politics. He was a Greens candidate for both the federal Division of Bennelong in the 2004 federal election and for the Senate in Tasmania at the 2007 federal election. In 2010 he ran as an independent candidate for the state seat of Denison at the Tasmanian state election, narrowly missing out on the final vacancy. Later in the year, again as an independent candidate, he ran for the federal seat of Denison at the federal election and won.^[1]

Before politics[link]

Wilkie trained at the Royal Military College, Duntroon^[2] and graduated in 1984.^[3] He joined the Young Liberals while a cadet. After graduation and being stationed in Brisbane, he became a member of the Liberal Party.^[4] His military career spanned 1980–2000 and he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[5] He was seconded to the Office of National Assessments (ONA), an Australian intelligence agency, from 1999 until late 2000.^[5][6] After a stint with US defence company Raytheon,^[2] Wilkie returned to the ONA shortly after the 11 September attacks.^[5][6]

In the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, the Australian, British and United States governments were asserting that intelligence reports showed that Iraq held weapons of mass destruction. Wilkie resigned from the ONA on 11 March 2003,^[3] claiming that the reports did not support such claims and in the years since his resignation, no valid evidence supporting the pre-war claims of weapons of mass destruction has ever been found.

Wilkie has stated that he increasingly encountered ethical conflict between his duty as an intelligence officer and his respect for the truth and, on 11 March 2003, he resigned from the ONA and placed evidence of this conflict before the Australian public. In response to widespread opposition to the war, Wilkie gave extensive television interviews and accepted numerous offers of public speaking engagements.^{[citation needed]} He subsequently gave evidence to official British and Australian inquiries into the government's case for involvement in the Iraq war.^[6]

In 2004, Wilkie published Axis of Deceit, an account of the reasons for his decision and its results.^[7] He describes his views on the nature of intelligence agencies and the analyst's work, the history of the Iraq war, the untruths of politicians and the attempts to suppress the truth.^{[citation needed]}

Wilkie was a member of the Australian Greens by 2004 and ran unsuccessfully on the Tasmanian Senate ticket in 2007. He resigned from the party in 2008, criticising it for a lack of professionalism.^[8]

Political career[link]

Wilkie stood as the Australian Greens candidate for Bennelong against John Howard in the Australian House of Representatives in the 2004 federal election.^[4] He was a supporter of the 'Not happy John!' campaign which ran during the election campaign.^[9] Polling 16 per cent of the primary vote, Wilkie achieved the fifth-highest Green vote percentage across the nation. This result was a considerable increase from the Greens' previous (2001) election figure of 5%. Although Wilkie's vote was nowhere near enough to win the seat, there was a swing of 3.18% against John Howard, the sitting Liberal Party member and Prime Minister, who achieved a primary vote of 49.89%, which resulted in the seat being decided on preferences.^[10] The seat reverted to a margin of 5% in 2007, but Green votes were amongst the preferences that saw Labor's Maxine McKew defeat Howard.

He was nominated as the Greens' second Tasmanian candidate for the Australian Senate at the 2007 federal election, behind the Greens federal leader, Bob Brown.^[11]

Wilkie ran as an independent candidate in the state Division of Denison in the 2010 Tasmanian state election.^[12] He won 8.44 per cent of first preference votes,^[13] and was beaten by 315 votes by Liberal candidate Elise Archer after distribution of preferences.^[14]

Wilkie stood as an independent for the federal Division of Denison in the 2010 federal election^[15] and won more than 20 per cent of the primary vote. He was elected to the seat with just over 51 per cent of the two-candidate-preferred vote.^[1][16] Following the election, he declared that he would back the Australian Labor Party minority government, in return for the Gillard government committing A$340 million to the Royal Hobart Hospital and a commitment to reduce problem gambling.^[17] In contrast the Coalition offered one billion funding for the same hospital in their offer to Wilkie, which was perceived by Wilkie as "almost reckless".^[18] Wilkie described this as being part of the evidence that Labor would better be able to offer a more stable, competent and ethical government than the Coalition. The agreement to support the government only extended to issues of supply and no confidence motions.^[17]

Wilkie was unexpectedly admitted to hospital on 12 November 2010 to have his gallbladder removed.^[19][20] This did not interfere with his ability to attend Parliamentary sittings and he was present at the debate on same-sex marriage on 15 November, where he seconded the motion raised by Greens member Adam Bandt.^[21]

In April 2011 during push for gambling reform initiated by Wilkie, News Limited media reported allegations by a former Duntroon army cadet that in 1983 Wilkie had forced junior cadets to salute to Adolf Hitler on the 50th anniversary of the latter's rise to power.^[22] In response, Wilkie said he had been "involved in bastardisation of teenage army cadets" at Duntroon during the 1980s and apologised for this "inappropriate behaviour" but could not recall the specific incident alleged.^[23] With regard to the allegation and its publication, he accused pro-Pokies advocates of running a smear campaign against him.^[23]

On 21 January 2012 Wilkie announced that he was withdrawing his support for the Labor Government after it broke the agreement he had signed with Julia Gillard to implement mandatory pre-commitment for all poker machines by 2014. He stated that he would support the government's alternative plan to trial pre-commitment in the ACT and require that pre-commitment technology be installed in all poker machines built from 2013, but that this fell short of what he had been promised in return for supporting the government.^[24] Gillard and Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin argued that there was not enough support in the House of Representatives for Wilkie's preferred option for it to be passed, and that they had been advised it was technically unfeasible to implement mandatory commitment within the time frame he had specified.^[25] In making his announcement, Wilkie stated that he would only support motions of no confidence against the government "in the event of serious misconduct" and would "consider budget measures on their merits".^[25]

Policies[link]

Wilkie made the removal of poker machines his primary campaign issue in the 2010 Tasmanian state election. He is strongly opposed to the Gunns pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. Wilkie is a supporter of voluntary euthanasia, provided that there are safeguards in place, he is also in favour of same-sex marriage and access to abortion. He is in support of a National Broadband Network and is opposed to WorkChoices.^[26]

During Wilkie's maiden speech to Federal Parliament on 30 September 2010, he called for withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan. He said Australia should be more willing to say "no" more often to the United States. He said that there can be no hope for peace in Afghanistan until foreign troops are withdrawn: "No-one should be fooled by the Australian Government's periodic efforts to tinker around the edges with Australia's commitment to Afghanistan" and that "The reality is that the best plan the Australian Government can come up with so far is simply to continue to support whatever the US Government comes up with and that alone is no plan—it's just reinforcing failure."

Wilkie's comments came amid Opposition calls for more support for Australia's troops in Afghanistan. During his speech Wilkie also canvassed his push for legislation to protect whistleblowers, measures to tackle problem gambling and a more humane approach to asylum seekers.^[27]

In March 2011 he called Liberal MPs Cory Bernardi and Scott Morrison "a disgrace to high office" calling on Tony Abbott to sack them both and referring to endemic racism in the Liberal party.^[28]

Pokies and pre-commitment[link]

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Wilkie campaigned heavily against poker machines (colloquially "pokies") at the 2010 federal election, and immediately began forging ties with independent anti-pokies Senator Nick Xenophon as soon as it was apparent that he was elected.^[29] Wilkie claims that problem gamblers in Australia lose $5 billion each year on pokies.^[30] In exchange for Wilkie's support, the Labor government are legislating for mandatory "pre-commitment" technology which would require persons using high-bet machines to pre-commit how much they are willing to bet on a machine before they begin play,^[31] as well as introducing $1 maximum bet per spin machines which would not require pre-commitment, which Wilkie argues would be safer.^[32] The Abbott Coalition opposes the plans, with Abbott saying "it is not Liberal Party policy" and it will be "expensive and ineffective". According to polling, the Labor government's plans are supported by a clear majority of voters across the spectrum.^[33] Wilkie and Xenophon argue that "$12 billion a year is lost on the pokies. 100,000 Australians are problem gamblers and an additional 200,000 are significantly at risk of developing a full-blown addiction", and that the legislation is necessary to "[help] those who sometimes lose up to $1200 an hour on the pokies."^[34]

The plan came under sustained attack from clubs, hotels and other businesses which financially benefit from pokies.^[35] Xenophon responded by accusing them of misrepresenting plans and creating hype around the issue.^[36] Strategy papers erroneously placed on the Clubs Queensland public website seem to indicate that clubs are deliberately and purposefully exaggerating the impact that the pre-commitment reforms will have on their services.^[37] The same papers outlined some strategies that the clubs could use to exploit loopholes in the proposed reform.^[37]

AFL and the NRL have aligned themselves with the campaign in opposing the pre-commitment plans. Commentators from the Nine Network gave planned political arguments without disclosure during commentary of a Semi-Final NRL game, prompting the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to investigate, stating "Channel Nine broadcast political material without adequately identifying it as such during the NRL first preliminary final". One of the accused commentators stated that the remarks were a "directive from up top that it be read by at least somebody". Investigations are predicted to take months.^{[38][39][40][41]} Andrew Demetriou, Chief Executive Officer of the AFL, rejected suggestions that the AFL was joining Clubs Australia in their media campaign,^[42] and also stated "The fellow from Clubs Australia, I don't even know his name, but please, stop talking on our behalf, just shut up, that'd be a good help".^[43] Activist group, GetUp! attempted to counter the anti pre commitment campaign by running political commercials during the NRL grand final.^[44][45]

Personal life[link]

Wilkie lives with his wife and their two daughters in Sandy Bay, Tasmania.^[46]

References[link]

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Wilkie, Andrew (2004). Axis of Deceit. Melbourne: Schwarz Publishing. ISBN 0-9750769-2-2.  (The story of the intelligence officer who risked all to tell the truth about WMD and Iraq: cover)

External links[link]

• Andrew Wilkie's website
• Andrew Wilkie's maiden speech to Parliament
• Wilkie talks about the war with Jeff Fleischer of Mother Jones

Senator Christine Milne BA(Hons), CertEduc
Leader of the Ausralian Greens
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 April 2012
Deputy	Adam Bandt
Preceded by	Bob Brown
Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens
In office 10 November 2008 – 13 April 2012
Leader	Bob Brown
Preceded by	New position
Succeeded by	Adam Bandt
Senator for Tasmania
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2005
Constituency	Tasmania
Personal details
Born	(1953-05-14) 14 May 1953 (age 59) Latrobe, Tasmania
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Greens (2000-present)
Other political affiliations	Tasmanian Greens (1989-1996)
Website	christine-milne.greensmps.org.au

Christine Anne Milne (born 14 May 1953, Latrobe, Tasmania)^[1] is an Australian Senator and leader of the parliamentary caucus of the Australian Greens.^[2]

From 1975 to 1984 Milne worked as a secondary school teacher, teaching English, History and Social Science. She first came to public attention for her role in opposing the building of the Wesley Vale pulp mill near Bass Strait in North Western Tasmania on the basis of its allegedly harmful environmental impact. She also participated in the in the ultimately successful campaign opposing the Franklin Dam and was arrested and jailed in 1983.^[3]

Political career[link]

Milne was first elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly in 1989 as a member of the Tasmanian Greens in the electorate of Lyons,^[1] one of five Green politicians elected at that election. She was part of the Labor–Green Accord, a political agreement between the Australian Labor Party and the Tasmanian Greens to form government after the 1989 general election had resulted in a hung parliament.^[4] When Bob Brown stood down in 1993 to contest the federal election, she became leader of the Greens in the Tasmanian Parliament and the first female leader of a political party in Tasmania.^[1]

She oversaw a loose alliance between the Greens and Liberals after the 1996 general election, allowing the Liberals to govern in a minority until 1998 when the major parties voted to restructure the House of Assembly (from 35 to 25 seats), a move the Greens claimed was deliberately aimed at removing their influence in parliament. Liberal Premier Tony Rundle immediately called an election, which his party subsequently lost. Milne lost her seat, leaving the Greens with only one seat.

After her career in state politics, she was an advisor to Senator Bob Brown from 2000 until she was elected to represent Tasmania in the Federal Senate at the 2004 federal election.^[5] Preferences to Family First from the Australian Labor Party almost prevented her from being elected; however, she managed to reach a quota mostly as a result of the high level of below-the-line voting in Tasmania. The other Green elected at that election was Rachel Siewert from Western Australia.

Milne was Vice President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, also known as the World Conservation Union) from 2005 to 2008.^[6] She became Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens on 10 November 2008.^[5]

In 2009, she effectively debated the shortcomings of Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority Bill 2009^[7].

On 13 April 2012, Milne became the leader of the Australian Greens Party after the resignation of Bob Brown.^[8]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Personal Home Page
• Australian Greens' YouTube Channel
• Senator Christine Milne's YouTube Channel

External links[link]

• Articles by Milne

• Milne, Christine (2008-03-20). "A Road to Nowhere". New Matilda. http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/03/20/road-nowhere. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 

• Green Christine: A Profile of Senator Milne by Amanda Lohrey, The Monthly, February 2008

Lane Fox in 2011.

Martha Lane Fox (born 10 February 1973) is an English businesswoman and charity trustee, who has been engaged as a public servant chairperson on various e-commerce projects and investigations. A board member of Channel 4, mydeco.com ^[1] and Marks & Spencer, she co-founded Lastminute.com, an icon of the dotcom boom of the early 2000s.

Early life[link]

Born in Oxford, Lane Fox is the daughter of author and classical historian Robin Lane Fox. She was educated at Oxford High School, Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where she read ancient and modern history.^[2]

Business career[link]

After university she showed interest in acting and prison governorship but joined the consulting firm Spectrum, involved in IT and media companies. Her first project was for British Telecom called "What is the Internet ?", here she met fellow employee Brent Hoberman.

In 1998, Lane Fox and Hoberman founded Lastminute.com, an online travel and gift business that generated great publicity, becoming an icon of the UK internet boom and floating at the peak of the dot-com bubble.^[2] On 20 November 2003, it was announced that she would step down as managing director of Lastminute.com. The company survived the dotcom crash to be bought for £577m in 2005.^[3] Lane Fox's personal share holding at the time the company was bought was worth £13 million.^[2]

On 28 December 2003, it was revealed by The Sunday Telegraph that Lane Fox would become "right hand woman" of Galen Weston, owner of Selfridges, and take over the day-to-day running of the business.

In 2005, advertising executive Julian Douglas shared an idea of his with her about launching a Tokyo-esque private karaoke bar in London. Falling in love with the idea, together with Nick Thistleton she launched a private karaoke company Lucky Voice with a club in London's Soho.^[2] The company have seven bars countrywide, an online application, and an additional product to be used with computers.

In 2007 Lane Fox joined the board of Marks & Spencer as a non-executive director.^[2] She is also on the board of Channel 4. In 2007 Lane Fox joined the board of interior design and furniture website mydeco.com, the new start-up venture of her lastminute.com partner Brent Hoberman.

On 16 June 2009, she was appointed the UK Government's Digital Inclusion Champion to head a two year campaign ^[4] to make the British public more 'tech savvy'.^[5][6][7] She has argued that "I don't think you can be a proper citizen of our society in the future if you are not engaged online."^[8]

On 22 March 2010 her government role was expanded when it was announced that she would set up a new Digital Public Services Unit within the Cabinet Office. ^[9]

In June 2010, the new Government asked Lane Fox to expand her role as UK Digital Champion advising how online public services delivery can help to provide better, and more efficient services as well as getting more people online. She was invited to sit on Cabinet Office's Efficiency and Reform Board. In July 2010 David Cameron hosted an event at 10 Downing Street to celebrate her Manifesto for a Networked Nation - a challenge for people and organisations in every sector and every corner of the country to work together to inspire, encourage and support as many new people as possible to get online by the end of the Olympic year. By the beginning of 2011 the Race Online 2012 campaign had over 1000 partners pledging to reach almost 2 million adults.

Charity work[link]

Lane Fox is a strong and vocal advocate of causes such as human rights, women's rights and social justice. In 2007 she founded Antigone,^[10], a grant-making trust to support charities based in the UK.

She is a patron of Reprieve, a legal action charity, which made the news during its involvement in the release of UK resident Binyam Mohammed from Guantanamo Bay.^[2] Lane Fox is also a patron of Camfed, dedicated to fighting poverty, HIV and AIDS in rural Africa through the education of girls and young women.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Lane Fox lives in Marylebone, London, with her long term partner, television producer Chris Gorell Barnes.^[12]

In May 2004 she was severely injured in a car accident in the tourist resort of Essaouira in Morocco, and she was flown to England for treatment. She was discharged from hospital in December 2005 after recovering at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and later at Wellington Hospital, a private hospital in London. She had skin grafts, and fractured bones were held in position with internal metal supports.^[2][13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• A BBC News interview with Martha Lane Fox
• A BBC News article about her stepping down as MD
• Lucky Voice Home online karaoke
• Race Online 2012, part of the digital inclusion initiative