A New Social Class

Congratulations and good luck to David Pitt-Watson in his new job. He's the first Gen Sec since Larry Whitty who I haven't known because his previous period as AGS was just after I stopped working for the Party.

David's predecessors during that period were, before taking up their posts as GS:

• Larry Whitty 1985-1994, an economist and trades union officer,
• Tom Sawyer, 1994-1998, an engineer and trades union officer,
• Margaret McDonagh, 1998-2001, a Labour Party organiser,
• David Triesman, 2001-2003, a union official and former Communist activist,
• Matt Carter 2004-2005, a politics lecturer and Labour Party organiser,
• Peter Watt 2006-2007, a nurse and Labour Party organiser.

David Pitt-Watson's background is similar - the odd minor difference reflecting the Labour Party of today. Here's his CV:

David is Chair of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, a major Northern Rock shareholder. Previously, he was Chief Executive, Hermes Focus Asset Management and Corporate Focus Director, Hermes Investment Management Ltd. He headed a team of over 50 responsible for shareholder engagement, corporate governance and voting in all the 3,000 companies in which Hermes' clients invest world-wide. David has worked with the Focus Funds since 1999, and has led many of its programmes to turn around large public companies. Prior to joining Hermes, David had a distinguished business career which also encompassed politics and academia. Following an early career at 3i and McKinsey & Co, David was co-founder and ultimately Managing Director of Braxton Associates Limited, which became the strategic consulting arm of Deloitte & Touche. In that role he had 17 years of experience of boardroom decision-taking and corporate transformation. He has worked with LFIG for 20 years as an advisor on issues of management and business policies for Labour's front bench and from 1997-1999 was the Assistant General Secretary of the UK Labour Party. A graduate of Oxford and Stanford universities, David was visiting professor of strategic management at Cranfield School of Management (1990-1995).

I simply don't understand what Respect meant earlier today when they said of the appointment: "You couldn't make it up if you tried (shall we laugh or shall we cry?)"