Social Affairs Unit
From Neocon Europe
The Social Affairs Unit (SAU) is a British think tank that studies various cultural, social and economic issues, with an "emphasis on the value of personal responsibility".[1]According to its website its mission is to "identify research with a potential to inform public policy and translate it from academic discourse into public debate". The manifesto for the Henry Jackson Society was published by the Unit in 2006[2].
Contents |
Background
It was founded in 1980 by Julius Gould (professor and director) and Digby Anderson (doctor and chairman). SAU's launch was reported in The Times on 13 December 1980. The article said the new think-tank was 'being set up by a group of a dozen people, chiefly academics, who want to correct what they consider to be a preponderance of left-wing ideology in the Social Sciences.' [3] In its early years it was interested in 'critical evaluation' of the welfare state and it boasts how many of the ideas such a parental accountability and local autonomy within education have made their mark on policy today. Ironically these issues are the 'hot' issues today!
As well as taking on a critical approach to analysing the welfare state the Social Affairs unit aim to tackle the "long tradition of English disdain for entrepreneurship and affluence", the think tank's research is this area focuses on "why the English have these mental habits, and what - if anything - we ought to do about them"[4]
SAU publishes a monthly magazine, Standpoint.[5]
SAU version
According to the SAU in 2002:
- The SAU is an independent research and educational trust committed to the promotion of lively and wide-ranging debate on social affairs. Its authors, (over 200), have analyzed the factors which make for a free and orderly society in which enterprise can flourish. It is committed to international co-operation in ideas: e.g. Health Lifestyle and Environment: Countering the Panic with the Manhattan Institute, a forthcoming Anglo-French project on food and alcohol policy, and The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America, also published as a National Review book in the USA, which won the 1994 Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award for the best book from a think-tank. Current areas of work include consumer affairs, the critical appraisal of welfare and public spending and problems of freedom and personal responsibility. [6][7]
Staff
Director
Trustees
Julius Gould | John Greenwood | Anthony O'Hear | Frank Sharratt
International Advisory Council
Digby Anderson | Alejandro Chafuen | Christie Davies | Adrian Furnham | Jacques Garello | Nathan Glazer |Simon Green | Leonard Liggio | Theodore Malloch | David Martin | Antonio Martino | Michael Novak | John O’Sullivan | Geoffrey Partington | Arthur Seldon CBE
Other contributors and authors
Jeremy Black | Lilian Pizzichini | Myles Harris | Richard D North | Harry Phibbs | Douglas Murray | Peter Mullen
Funding
In its earlier days the SAU was funded by the Heritage Foundation along with other groups linked to the Foundation's attacks on the left.[8]Apparently an independent organisation and corporate intervention free, it was originally founded and encouraged by the neo-liberal Institute of Economic Affairs and remained linked to it until 2005 in the form of the recently deceased Arthur Seldon, former joint founding president of the Institute.
Contact, References and Resources
Contact
- The Social Affairs Unit
- 314-322 Regent St
- London W1B 5SA
- Tel: 020 7637 4356
- Fax: 020 7436 8530
Social Affairs Unit website is organised by a blogging company called 'tbbc: the Big Blog' that manages blogging sites for Ideal Government, Stephen Pollard, Economics UK and Adam Smith Institute as well as the Social Affairs Unit.
Resources
Articles
Examples of their articles can be viewed on their website and tend to contradict their wish to talk about issues that can be translated to all since they are on rather obscure political and scientific research[9].
Publications
- David Conning, A New Diet of Reason: Healthy eating and government policy 1983-1995.
- Violence, Disorder and Incivility in British Hospitals: The Case for Zero Tolerance (Research Reports), by Theodore Dalrymple, 2002.
- Douglas Murray, Neoconservatism: Why We Need It, 2005.
- From Rushdie to 7/7: The Radicalisation of Islam in Britain, by Anthony McRoy, 2005.
- When Students Turn to Terror: Terrorist and Extremist Activity on British Campuses, by Anthony Glees and Chris Pope, 2005, ISBN 1904863078.
- Anti-Totalitarianism: The Left Wing Case for a Neoconservative Foreign Policy, by Oliver Kamm, 2006.
- The Dotted Red Line: Britain's Defence Policy in the Modern World, by Jeremy Black, 2006, ISBN 1904863132
- The British Moment: The Case for Democratic Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century, Manifesto of the Henry Jackson Society, 2006.
- Warning: Immigration Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth, by Anthony Scholefield, 2007.
- Jeremy Black, The Holocaust, , 2008.
- Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan, by Caroline Fourest, with a foreword by Denis MacShane, 2008.
- The Disrespect Agenda: Or How the Wrong Kind of Niceness Is Making Us Weak and Unhappy, by Lincoln Allison, Forthcoming, 2008.
References
- ↑ About Us, Morals and manners for the new millennium...., The Social Affairs Unit, Accessed 27-May-2009
- ↑ Henry Jackson Society Manifesto, The British Moment: The Case for Democratic Geopolitics in the Twenty-first Century, Amazon.co.uk, Accessed 27-May-2009
- ↑ Frances Gibb, 'New unit to challenge left-wing ideologies', The Times, Saturday, Dec 13, 1980; pg. 3; Issue 60801; col F
- ↑ About Us, Morals and manners for the new millennium...., The Social Affairs Unit, Accessed 27-May-2009
- ↑ About Us Standpoint.Online (accessed: 7 October 2008)
- ↑ Social Affairs Unit, Original URL, betterworld.com
- ↑ Social Affairs Unit, Web archive versions, betterworld.com, Accessed 27-May-2009
- ↑ InterNation (1987) The Heritage Foundation goes abroad, The Nation, June 6
- ↑ Article Topics, Article Topics, The Social Affairs Unit, Accessed 27-May-2009
