Mark Littlewood - end of an era

As some of you may have read, Mark Littlewood is stepping down after 14 years as director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

I don’t claim to know Mark very well, but I know him well enough to pay him this small tribute.

Our paths first crossed over 20 years ago but it wasn’t until 2008 that we met and worked together.

After leaving the Liberal Democrats, for whom he was a pugnacious and occasionally controversial head of media, Mark had set up a small think tank called Progressive Vision.

His interest in the smoking issue was evident pretty quickly and in 2008 PV and Forest co-hosted two events at the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth.

The following year we repeated the exercise at the 2009 Lib Dem conference, also in Bournemouth, and that went well too.

Prior to that, in June 2009, we also joined forces for the launch of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign at a pub in Westminster.

I'm sure further collaborations would have followed had it not been for an unexpected development.

In December 2009 Mark was appointed director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

I was a bit surprised, if I’m honest. Previous DGs may have been free market evangelists but their style was very different to that of Mark, who had a rather more abrasive, even populist, approach to politics.

In hindsight though his appointment was a brave and inspired choice that soon bore fruit as the IEA's media presence quickly escalated.

Yes, it could be argued that, occasionally, the IEA under Mark has over-stepped that fine line between think tank and pressure group, but the positives, in my view, have far outweighed the negatives.

The huge amount of media coverage the IEA has enjoyed under Mark’s leadership, and the frequency with which IEA commentators appear on TV and radio, and in the press, is extraordinary.

The case for free markets and less regulation requires constant advocacy, and under Mark the IEA has led the way.

But it's not just about column inches. The arguments have to stand up to scrutiny too and the huge number of IEA pamphlets and reports supports the intellectual rigour behind the operation.

Kudos too to Mark’s eye for talent (and I mean that in the best possible way!).

Chris Snowdon, who joined the IEA in 2011, is one example. Kate Andrews, now economics editor at The Spectator, is another.

Madeline Grant and Annabel Denham were recruited and later snapped up by the Telegraph, and other talents have included Ruth Porter, who left for Policy Exchange (and other adventures!), and Emily Carver, now a presenter at GB News.

As it happens, Forest’s connection with the IEA goes back long before Mark and me, but it was only during Mark’s tenure that it was allowed to develop.

Chairman of Forest from 1987 to 2006 was the late Lord Harris of High Cross. In 1956 Ralph was one of the founders of the IEA, which he led from 1957 to 1988.

Russell Lewis, who died last year and was a non-executive director of Forest for 30 years, was acting director of the IEA in 1992, while John Burton, another non-executive director, is a fellow of the IEA.

Despite those associations, Forest and the IEA were kept largely at arm's length by Mark's predecessor.

Wearing my journalist hat, for example, I remember pitching a proposal to produce a magazine for the IEA but it was rejected partly, I was told, because of my role with Forest.

In contrast, since Mark became director-general the IEA has hosted numerous Forest events although, to be fair, the events space didn’t really exist before Mark took over because it was his idea, if I recall.

Nevertheless, he has also been a guest speaker at several other Forest events, including our 40th anniversary dinner at Boisdale of Canary Wharf, and I can’t imagine his immediate predecessor accepting similar invitations.

We’ve even been on the same side in an Oxford Union debate, but what I value most, perhaps, are the many laughs we’ve had.

Politics is a serious business but there’s no reason it can’t be fun too.

Sadly, Ralph Harris didn't live to see Mark appointed director-general but I'm sure he would have approved and been a huge fan, just like John Burton.

In fact, I think Ralph would have seen in Mark a kindred spirit.

To begin with, don't be fooled by the title, Baron Harris of High Cross. Ralph was brought up by working class parents on a council estate in Tottenham.

He went to the local grammar school and won a place at Cambridge where he graduated with a first class degree, not unlike Mark who went to an all boys secondary school (formerly a grammar school), then studied at Balliol College, Oxford.

At the IEA Ralph was known as the "hustler". It was his colleague Arthur Selsdon who was credited with having the intellectual nous, and it was Ralph (who was no mug himself) who sold Selsdon's ideas to anyone who would listen.

If he'll forgive me, because I don't mean it in a derogatory way, you could describe Mark in much the same way.

But the similarities with Lord Harris don't end there because there are reports that Mark is also in line for a peerage in Liz Truss’s resignation honours list.

If that is the former PM’s legacy to the nation it’s a not bad one because I’m pretty sure Mark would make a fine working peer.

Either way, it's the end of an era, but what fun it’s been.

See also: Mark Littlewood to step down as IEA director general and successor search begins (IEA)

Below: launching the Save Our Pubs & Club campaign with Forest in 2009. Left to right: Mark and his Progressive Vision colleagues Angela Harbutt and Shane Frith; at the Forest Freedom Dinner; and at Forest’s 40th anniversary dinner in 2019.