Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (born 22 February 1963) is an English-Cypriot United Kingdom Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills. He was appointed following the 2005 general election. As he was never a Member of Parliament, for his appointment he was created a life peer, as Baron Adonis, of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, to become a member of the House of Lords, on 16 May 2005.

Adonis's previous role in the Number 10 Policy Unit is generally accepted as having driven most of Labour's key education reforms since the 1997 general election - most notably the programme of "City Academies". He served as an advisor on education, public services and constitutional reform from 1998 until his appointment as Under Secretary of State in 2005, headed the Policy Unit as a whole from 2001 until 2003 and edited the official biography of Roy Jenkins[1].

Contents

[edit] Early and private life

Lord Adonis is son of Nicos Adonis, a Greek Cypriot retired postman and former waiter, who immigrated to England in 1960, and Josephine Leadbeater alias Stevens (born 1943), a nurse. He was born one month after the wedding and was first named Andreas (the Greek form of 'Andrew'). His sister, Michelle Adonis, was born about one year after him. Mrs Leadbeater left the family when Andrew was a toddler and had no communication with him since, apparently because - as she puts it - her husband threatened her[2]. Nicos Adonis remarried twice (when Andrew was eight and twelve); he now lives mainly in Cyprus. Josephine Leadbeater lives in Norfolk[3].

Adonis was raised on a council estate near King's Cross in London[4]. He was awarded a local education authority grant to attend the private Kingham Hill School in Oxfordshire, near Chipping Norton. He graduated (with a BA in modern history) from Keble College, Oxford, subsequently completing a doctorate in 19th century political history at Christ Church, Oxford in 1988, and held a research fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford from then until 1991. From 1991 to 1996, he was a public policy correspondent, industry correspondent, and a public policy editor all at the Financial Times[5]. In 1996, he then moved to The Observer.

He is married to Kathryn Davies (born 31 January 1968), who was one of his undergraduate students at Oxford. Ms. Davies became a graduate of Jesus College, Oxford and worked for a couple of years in marketing of feminine hygiene products and in public relations at Procter & Gamble's brands, mainly in Germany. She grew up in Tunbridge Wells, but her father Mervyn Davies, a retired teacher, has Welsh origins. The family lives with their two young children in Islington, London.

[edit] Political background

Adonis only joined the Labour Party in 1995. Whilst at Oxford, he had been an active member of the Social Democratic Party in his late teens, and the merged Liberal Democrats after the SDP's merger with the Liberal Party in 1988. From 1987 until 1991, he served as a Liberal Democrat councillor there. In 1994, he was selected by Westbury Constituency Liberal Democrats as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, but resigned after about 18 months, without fighting an election[6].

It was rumoured that he had toyed with the idea of joining the Conservatives before switching to Labour after Blair's reforms from 1994 onwards[7]. In May 2006 even David Willetts, the Conservavtive Shadow Education Secretary, said: "I suspect I am the authentic voice of Andrew Adonis. If you want the Andrew Adonis argument for school reform, then you want the Conservative Party to do it."[8]

Although it is said that Lord Adonis is opposed to the elitism of the 'Oxbridge' universities, public schools and other independent schools, he is himself sometimes called an elitist since he is allegedly a part and a product of this elitism and Oxbridge insider relationships.

Also, as a co-author of the book A Class Act, Adonis calls for strong selection in schools. Furthermore he is regarded as being responsible for the introduction of top-up fees in England[9].

In 2003, Patrick Butler, Society editor at The Guardian, ranked Adonis after Ken Livingstone, Sir Ian Kennedy, James Strachan, Paul Dacre, Dave Prentis, Ed Balls and Geoff Mulgan as the eighth "most influential" - not powerful - figure in Britain's public services[10]. This may explain why he became, as Michael White at The Guardian puts it, "... a handy hate figure for critics of Tony Blair and the New Labour project"[11].

It is said that his understanding of education policy seems to add to the elitism of money and class roots a new layer, the elitism of the brainiest (sometimes called the tyranny of meritocracy) [12] through hidden selection at age 11. In October 2005 Martin Bright his former journalist colleague puts it in the New Statesman: "I have never been able to understand why, after writing so passionately about the injustice of the hierarchy in education, he chose to introduce a new layer through city academies."[13].

In 2003, he and his wife planned to send their son to the private Deutsche Schule in Richmond, London[14], which seemed inconsistent with his political statements and Labour affiliations[15]. Adonis is known to admire the German school system because of its early selection. However, his son and daughter first attended St Andrew's (Barnsbury) Church of England Primary School and later Canonbury Primary School both in Islington, London[16], which are close to their flat. Both schools are rated far below national average. [17] [18]

Regarding his personal involvement in changing Islington Green School into a City Academy, Adonis is charged to have a clear conflict of interest because it is the school he is likely to consider for his own children. In December 2005, the Department for Education and Skills announced to pass any decision on the Islington Green School to another minister in the department.[19]

[edit] Number 10 Policy Unit

Adonis is said to be an education policy expert. In his role at the Number 10 Policy Unit, Adonis is generally accepted as having driven most of Labour's key education reforms since the 1997 general election, [20] including, "Top-Up Fees", "City Academies" and "Fresh Start".

The strategy of the "Fresh Start" policy was to close and reopen "failing schools" with new names and new staff. In 2000, when the experiment began to fail dramatically with the resignation of the three "super-heads" in five days, Adonis resigned from the governing body of the Islington Arts and Media School. The BBC Two programme Head on the Block documented the problems of the school in its first year[21]. His "City Academies" programme has attracted strong criticism from educationalists, parents and Labour politicians[22].

In October 2003, Adonis was rumoured in the media to have been heavily involved in the resignation of the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Estelle Morris, when they failed to work effectively together.[23] Today his local newspaper in Islington has already called him "the Government's schools boss".[24] Although he frequently tries to camouflage his influence in public with an extreme servile behaviour, telling always how highly impressed and pleased he was to be at any school while even mixing up school names sometimes.[25]

In June 2005, Lord Adonis was named as one of the key persons in the forced bankruptcy in 2001 of Railtrack.[26]

[edit] Ministerhood and peerage

The move first to promote Adonis as a Minister of State and - after the public outcry - then to nominate him merely as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Skills is said to have followed the recognition that Adonis had played already a major role in the Department's policy outline, even in David Blunkett's days. Because of this, the former Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, was described by The Observer as "less than thrilled" over his elevation, at whatever rank[27].

The prospect of Adonis's Peerage and ministerhood was described by Roy Hattersley, former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and lifelong advocate of comprehensive schooling, as an example of Tony Blair's "kamikaze attacks on its the Labour Party's most cherished values" and that the appointment "wins high marks for [its] arrogant insensitivity"[28].

Lord Adonis's membership of the House of Lords is seen only as an attempt to overcome the flaw that he has not been elected[29]. Already in 2005 it was argued that the Peerage under Tony Blair since 1997 has been used quite strategically in comparison to the former seven years under John Major[30]. Important Cabinet officials have generally only been created life peers upon retirement from the House of Commons. Apparently Adonis's Peerage - without naming any relevant merits - has thrown another light on the discussion about the democratic legitimacy of the House of Lords as a parliamentary institution which was challenged by Adonis himself in 1988[31]. In April 2006, Lord Adonis finally became involved in police inquiries into the allegation of peerages for sale.[32]

One quotation of the without exception negative public reactions about his appointment to the Lords states: "His detractors refer to him as 'more Andrew than Adonis' but his elevation to office could signal a determination within Blair to secure a radical legacy."[33] While still an adviser on education, Adonis was nicknamed 'Tony Zoffis' by the education commentator Ted Wragg (who was not among Adonis' supporters); this nickname stuck and has begun to be used by others. And in 2006, a Conservative spokesman adds: "... an unelected lord, who is only a minister due to being a Blair favourite ..."[34]

In January 2006, Labour Party rebels demand openly to dismiss Lord Adonis from his post as Under-Secretary of State,[35] and Sir Simon Jenkins said that "It is what happens when you put an unelected lord in charge of sensitive social policy."[36]

[edit] Publications

  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Keith Thomas (Editor) (2004). Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective. ISBN 0199274878.
  • Andrew Adonis and Stephen Pollard (1997). A Class Act: the myth of Britain's classless society. ISBN 0241137209.
  • David Butler, Andrew Adonis & Tony Travers (1994). Failure in British government : the politics of the poll tax. ISBN 0198278756.
  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Tim Hames (Editor) (1994). A Conservative Revolution?: The Thatcher-Reagan Decade in Perspective. ISBN 0719036690.
  • Andrew Adonis (1993). Parliament Today. ISBN 0719039770.
  • Andrew Adonis (1993). Making Aristocracy Work: The Peerage and the Political System in Britain, 1884-1914. ISBN 0198203896.
  • Preston T King, Andrea Bosco & Andrew Adonis (1991). A constitution for Europe : a comparative study of federal constitutions and plans for the United States of Europe. ISBN 1872210155.
  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Andrew Tyrie (Editor) (1990). Subsidiarity: as history and policy. OCLC 34221638.
  • Andrew Adonis (Editor), Andrew Tyrie (Editor) (1989). Subsidiarity: no panacea. OCLC 34747295.

Various New Statesman articles:

  1. Diana restated in modern form the Victorian values which preceded and will post-date the universal welfare state 1996, Andrew Adonis
  2. The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  3. Using Europe, Abusing Europeans: Britain and European Integration, 1945-1963 (book review), 1996, Andrew Adonis
  4. Our progressives only look dead (prospects for a revival of progressivism in the United Kingdom), 1996, Andrew Adonis
  5. The Castle of Lies: Why Britain Must Get Out of Europe, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  6. Parliament Under Pressure, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  7. The Eurosceptic Reader (book review), 1996, Andrew Adonis
  8. Our classless self-delusion: the old hierarchy may have gone but a new one has taken its place, 1996, Andrew Adonis
  9. This Time: Our Constitutional Revolution, 1996, Andrew Adonis

[edit] References

  1. ↑  The Guardian article on Adonis's lead role in education policy development
  2. ↑  The Guardian article on Adonis's ranking in public service
  3. ↑  The Guardian article on Adonis as a "figure of hate"
  4. ↑  The Times article on the IMAS problems
  5. ↑  The Telegraph article on criticism of City Academies
  6. ↑  The Times article containing praise for Adonis in his time as a governor
  7. ↑  The Guardian article on Adonis's childhood
  8. ↑  Article on Adonis's early career
  9. ↑  The Spectator article on Adonis as Jenkins's biographer
  10. ↑  The Times article on Nicos Adonis
  11. ↑  The Times article on Adonis's parents
  12. ↑  Historical document containing Adonis's Liberal Democrat PPC-ship
  13. ↑  The Guardian article on rumours of Adonis considering joining the Conservative Party
  14. ↑  The Guardian article on Adonis's input to policy of top-up fees
  15. ↑  New Statesman article on Adonis's power in the DfES
  16. ↑  NUS comment on Adonis's plans for his son's education
  17. ↑  The Observer article on Kelly's alleged opposition to Adonis as a minister of any rank
  18. ↑  The Guardian article on Hattersley's criticism of Adonis becoming a minister
  19. ↑  The Observer article on Blair's alleged difficulties in populating his Cabinet post-2005 General Election
  20. ↑  Pressure group's comment on Blair's use of the Peerage in a strategic manner
  21. ↑  Reprint of Adonis' 1998 article in The Guardian on the need for an elected House of Lords
  22. ↑  Source of quotation
  23. ↑  The Observer on why Estelle Morris resigned
  24. ↑  business.telegraph on how Tony Blair pressed for a takeover of Railtrack
  25. ↑  timesonline on details of Adonis´ involvement regarding the takeover of Railtrack
  26. ↑  Oct 2005 13:11:44:423 Islington Gazette 24 on a poject to merge a special needs school with a mainstream primary and secondary
  27. ↑  OFSTED Inspection Report 2004 for fromer school of Mr. Adonis' children
  28. ↑  "The Guradian" on Ofsted report expected for Canonbury - school of Mr. Adonis' and Mr. Boris Johnsons children
  29. ↑  Martin Bright revisits the great education divide
  30. ↑ "Lord enjoys school visits" Example of his servile talking
  31. ↑ " The Independent on Adonis' conflict of interest"
  32. ↑  Wimbledon Guardian on Lord Adonis´ visit to Harrow
  33. ↑  The Daily Telegraph: "Labour rebels demand sacking of Adonis"
  34. ↑  Sir Simon Jenkins of the The Sunday Times: "A simple way to better schools: don’t treat them like hospitals"
  35. ↑  Sundayherald: "Cash for honours: Who knew?"
  36. ↑  Guardian Unlimited Politics: "More rebels ready to challenge schools bill"

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/n/d/Andrew_Adonis%2C_Baron_Adonis_c321.html"