de·mos
Demos say:
‘Powerful ideas.’
‘Demos is a think-tank focused on power and politics’
‘Our unique approach challenges the traditional, ‘ivory tower’ model of policymaking by giving a voice to people and communities, and involving them closely in our research.’
Demos thinktank: http://www.demos.co.uk
How risible!
Here are some of the ‘people and communities’ that Demos have ‘involved’ -‘closely’ in their research:
Risk, responsibility and reward Rebalancing Risk and Responsibility, a think piece launched today, argues that Government needs to use ‘nudge’-style policy instruments to reward those who take responsibility. The provocation paper launches a new research project which is being discussed at the party conferences and will report later in 2012. Read the pamphlet.
This time it’s personal: Welfare reform and the personalisation agenda
- When:
- 5th October 2010, 09:00AM
- Where:
- Conservative Party Conference. Jurys Inn, Birmingham – Room 102
Lord Freud, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Welfare Reform
Trevor Philips, Chair, EHRC
Marco Forato, Unum UK Chief Marketing Officer
Sam Fleming, Economics Editor, The Times (Chair)
This invitation-only roundtable seminar aims to flesh out the Coalition’s responsibility and personalisation agendas, and their impact on long-term welfare reform.
Building on ongoing research by the Progressive Conservatism Project at Demos, the event will ask how far Government can and should expect individuals and employers to take responsibility for welfare provision, how an insurance-based model might work and to what extent compulsion or opt-out mechanisms could work in building a culture of personal welfare provision in the UK.
This is a private event held under Chatham House rules at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.
‘Of Mutual Benefit’ Launch
- When:
- 10th March 2011, 08:30AM
- Where:
- Portcullis House, House of Commons
On Thursday 10 March, we launch Of Mutual Benefit, a new Progressive Conservatism Project report on welfare reform.
Confirmed speakers:
- Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform
- Rt Hon. Frank Field MP
- Jack McGarry , CEO of Unum UK
- Kitty Ussher, Director of Demos (Chair)
Of Mutual Benefit: Personalised welfare for the many looks at how radical reform to incapacity benefits could provide more generous, secure coverage for individuals whilst saving the taxpayer billions. The report argues for reform to encourage and incentivise greater take-up of private welfare solutions such as personal income protection.
This is a private, invitation-only roundtable taking place under Chatham House rules in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA. For more information on the project, please email sarah.kennedy@demos.co.uk.
In case you were wondering …..
DEMOS IS FUNDED BY:
Barclays Bank, Chartered Institute of Taxation, Corporation of London, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Lloyds TSB, London Stock Exchange, Luther Pendragon, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Provident Financial, The Co-operative Group, Unum
8% of their funding came from Fidelity Investments, Prudential, The Corporation of London and Unum.
Looking at the Project Income in their accounts – 18.79% income from 2010 came from Commercial Organisations = £122,642
The ‘big idea’ is to do away with public social security ‘welfare’ provision and for companies such as Unum to ‘replace’ it with ‘Payment Protection Insurance’
All well and good, you might think if you’re a high-earning executive or professional.
But in a land where the vast majority of people’s incomes are shrinking where millions of working families are only one push away from penury, how is that going to work out for us?
Then there’s the additional issue that even if you or your loved ones do get sick and become disabled there is no guarantee that Unum will pay out after you’ve poured all your blood, sweat and tears into that ‘protection plan’: Unum have been described by the Insurance Commissioner for California, John Garamendi, as an ‘outlaw company’ that has operated in an unlawful fashion for many years, running (disability) claims denial factories.”
It won’t ‘save the taxpayer billions’
It will bleed millions of taxpayers – we prefer the term ‘citizens’ or ‘people’ – dry with no certainty that it will pay out when you or one of your loved ones falls ill or become disabled.
Is that what Britain wants or needs?
It’s not just us as disabled people who need to be concerned about this.
This concerns every man, woman and child growing up in our country today.
We don’t recall ever being consulted about any of this. Do you?
Next time you read anything in the news about some ‘report’ or other by one of these supposedly ‘independent’ thinktanks ‘follow the money‘ and remember: The Tories, The Blairite Right of Labour, AtoS, Unum, Demos ~ THEY’RE all in it together!
~ Black Triangle Campaign
With thanks to Na-saighneain and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Get the data: The Bureau’s financial lobby database
First Published July 9th, 2012 | by Financial Lobby Team | Published in All Stories, Financial Lobby, Get the Data, Top Stories
Off the charts: the Bureau for Investigative Journalism quantifies the UK’s financial lobby
The size and scale of Britain’s financial lobby has never been quantified – until now.
It took the Bureau’s Financial Lobby Team four months to map Britain’s financial services public affairs sector.
We sifted through policy consultations, registers and committee minutes, and contacted hundreds of people involved in lobbying.
Our study reveals 129 British-based organisations linked with financial services actively engaged in the UK policymaking and regulatory process. They spend a total of £92.8m and directly employ over 800 individuals.
The financial services lobby consists of public affairs staff at individual companies, public affairs consultancies, industry bodies, law firms, management consultancies, political donors, regulators and one local authority.
Our database divides into ‘Types of Organisations’ and provides a conservative estimate of the amount of money spent on public affairs engagement.
We also identify the number of people engaged with public affairs within a specific organisation and the political connections those organisations have.
There are a handful of organisations on our database which contribute to the public affairs debate but did not return calls, had no information on their website and did not file financial statements at Companies House.
We included these organisations as members of the financial services lobby but we did not attribute any financial information against their name.
We hope you find the Bureau’s Financial Lobby database useful.
We welcome your comments or suggestions.
With any database, names and situations change and positions come and go.
The Bureau is committed to quickly and accurately amend changes that may have happened since the database was compiled.
If you see anything that needs changing or that we have missed, please email info@thebureauinvestigates.com
Click here to see the Financial Lobby dataset in alphabetical order.
Click here to see the Financial Lobby dataset sorted by biggest lobbying funds.
This database is presented as a Google Docs spreadsheet. To download an editable version, select File > Download As.
Related article: How we calculated the size of the finance lobby
Sign up for email alerts from the Bureau here.
11 Responses
God help us, because there isn’t one politician willing to do so.
Whatever happened to labour, the party of the people, for the people? Simple. It’s been taken over by Blairites, who only care about the ‘middle’ and the wealthy.
Libdems? Same thing, with the added bonus(?) of selling out to the Tories, who never cared about the workers, or society’s vulnerable.
Austerity. Suffered by the many, unknown to a very, very few.
did anyone see that Demos was an anagram for ‘Sod ’em’, and for anyone giving up hope, just listen to Dame Anne Begg’s speech on Atos recently at Westminster Hall, it will put fire in your loins!
They can put any label they like on this and a big agenda is creating proffits off the back of illness ,disability & creating fear amoung the rest.When the population witness the suffering & misery and the incidences of deaths & abject poverty as they rise dramatically they will rush like the sheep they have been trained to be since Thatcher and pay to cover themselves from companies that will limit or weedle their way out of responsability when they have to pay out. We & Employers paid national insurance not just for pensions and benefits in time of need,but for a national health service to ensure the health and civilised treatment of our people.The political parties are now run by the wealthy elite & not just in the UK.We blame the EU and immigration because of the media and a need to find someone to blame but the same is happening to the people in other nations across the Globe & the truth is the wealthy elite steer the masses where they want us ,totaly under their control.After the next “Big One ” we be told the only solution for the future will be a single world Government which whatever way it is set up will be truely run by the same clan that are pushing through their adjenda now.What is to come will effect all classes and unless we all unite and break down the divisions that have been cleverly put in place we are ALL screwed.Labour has been silent because it is the same as the other two parties,we need reform of how we chose our Government & must stand firm and say No to the polices being forced on us .
Laz I totally agree with all that you say, but I am afraid that the British people will do nothing to help us not until it’s too late for them as well. While they can have their little holidays their nice little cars their four walls of bricks and they can go clubbing and shopping they will do nothing and will not care. This has all happened before throughout Human history and the lesson is never learned, look at the German people that were seduced by the Nazi regime they had their scapegoats too didn’t they.
We don’t need self serving politicians we need Individuals who will represent their people, this is not a democracy this is a sham, If the people do nothing now all that our forefathers sacrificed for us is going to be in vain. Politicians think they are powerful but their power is shallow power and shallow power tends to burn brightly for a short time then burns out completely.
and thats our fate sealed for good ,started by blair now used by the torys to see us off and yes the population hasnt woke up to the fact that firms like these are not there for their benefit jeff3
Goes further back than Blair Jeffery.Plans were being hatched before the end of WW2.The Wealthy Elite Industrialists & Bankers had already traded with the 3rd Reich & were put out by Japan who refused to play ball long before the invasion of Poland and continued to Increace their fortunes during the main event that followed putting the country in debt for years after. Post war fear and a campaign devised to create it was used to split the World and devide Nations .Our population united with class devisions less predominant due to the National joint effort to overcome the Enemy worked together to re-build and make the Country a better place for all,but the Elite feared they would loose power and knowing at this time any blatant acts to supress the will of the people could cause civil up-rising, bided their time .Under the guise of the Cold War the Unions & many other organisations were infiltrated by the Intelligence agencies which is logical as no doubt it was feared Red Flag agents would do the same .The tools were in place for much later and adgitators were used to influence and steer these accociations to disrupt and thus cause division amoung us all .Under Ted Heath the start of the plan failed but in Mrs Thatchers years with clever use of the modernised and tightly controlled media it was easy to bring that stage of the plan to an effective conclusion ,her words were “There is No Society but Induviduals “,which was the final battle cry that declared Victory of the Devision of the Masses . The lessons learned ,the pre-war Power is now within their reach as all the safety nets are removed so society can be tightly controled to their likeing.A step toward the wrong outcome will prevoke another banking crash to bring us all to heel. Most modern countries ,especialy the EU & even former eastern block countries have their own Benefit and health systems & after living abroad I can tell you hand on heart that many are as good as ours and in some cases better .Past “health visitors” over for a free-bee have not been from those nations.The same measures are now being inplemented in Europe,Spain for example, to bring the same controls over the people as is happening here.The people need to communicate and not be fed by the media propaganda because to ever rid ourselves of this treatment by the Elite wa all have to say NO,not just here in blighty but everywhere.
There will be concequences for us all ,but we have reached a point in History where either we effect change in a non destructive manner or will fall into a New Dark age for Humanity.We have strenths and a will that surpasses the conditioned reactions of our past,we must find the Courage,Commitment & go through the Sufferage armed with a Compassionate Heart for our fellows and a Heart of Steel to face our opressors .God Bless and Good Luck .Laz
But will people listen Laz? If they are comfortable being fed lies (which we know they are) will they want to rock their comfortable boats, even if their boats are slowly leaking? but so slow they cannot or choose not to notice. My thinking is that they will do nothing until it’s too late, but then again it’s never too late is it.
i have been telling people this for years,as long as there not affected they say i dont care till its there turn.to have there heads chopped off .. jeff ..
http://www.justia.com/search.py?cx=001017683474852908061%3Aoct7h3tcday&q=unum+group&sa=Search+Justia&cof=FORID%3A11&siteurl=www.justia.com%2Fsearch.py%3Fcx%3D001017683474852908061%253Aoct7h3tcday%26q%3Dunum%26sa%3DSearch%2BJustia%26cof%3DFORID%253A11&ref=www.justia.com%2F&ss=1799j670337j6 and these cases are ongoing
its tony blair the tory who goes under labour disguise but he had talks with unum after they started to come over here from usa and set up shop ,putting advisers to goverment and insurance and putting people into power where they influenced those who govern that ms and so on is all in the patients mind and that cutting benefits for those who cant work is good for them so unum please please go back to america and take the dickhead partys tory and labour ops little torys back with you .there must be some states where your kind can prosper without being fined ops another blunder by you but over there you cannot hide away from the sick and disabled jeff3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4FZLec31nM