Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi

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Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, born June 21, 1946 is the co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi and Saatchi and M&C Saatchi.

1 Biography
2 Criticism of the 2005 Conservative General Election Campaign
3 Bibliography
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, to Jewish parents, he is the brother of Charles Saatchi.

Following Michael Howard's elevation to the leadership of the Conservative Party in November 2003, Lord Saatchi was appointed joint chairman of the party with Liam Fox. He had responsibility for running the party machine, and remained in this post until after the 2005 general election.

He is also chairman of Finsbury Foods plc, and is a Governor of the London School of Economics from where he had graduated with a First class honours degree in Economics. Saatchi is a trustee of the Museum of Garden History, and also a director of the Centre for Policy Studies. He was also a trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1988 to 1996.

He had been created a life peer as Baron Saatchi, of Staplefield in the County of West Sussex in 1996 and is number 305 in the Sunday Times Rich List 2004, with an estimated wealth of £132m.

Saatchi is married to novelist Josephine Hart (Damage).

[edit] Criticism of the 2005 Conservative General Election Campaign

Lord Saatchi published his reflections on the election campaign in a Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet If this is Conservatism, I am a Conservative in a chapter entitled How I Lost the Election. Among his failings listed in the document, Lord Saatchi highlighted the following:

I DID NOT convince the Party that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
I DID NOT dispel the illusion of research, which said that, as immigration was the number one issue in deciding how people vote, it should be the number one topic.
I DID NOT prevent economics, the Conservatives' former ace of trumps, becoming a 'second order issue.'
I DID NOT avoid the underestimation of public intelligence, as in the policy description 'Lower Taxes' when in fact taxes would be higher.