Talk:Dennis Stevenson
SourceWatch has been contacted by Dennis Stevenson re errors on the content on the article page. Seems I missed checking this one when it was first posted. As it stands the article doesn't include reference links within the body of the text, only one at the bottom. Will return once I have had a bit more of a look. cheers --Bob Burton 18:35, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
Deleted reference to Stevenson as being "an associate of Demos". The Demos page doesn't list him as an associate. Nor is it listed as a past affiliation at. --Bob Burton 19:11, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
References: Aside from a few conspiratorial/speculative jumps and some outdated information this article cited a set of articles that seem to be neither online or in Nexis. They are
- Independent on Sunday 5/9/93
- Independent on Sunday 24/1/93
- Independent 27/9/96
- Sunday Times 20/10/96
- Sunday Times 21/06/98
- Evening Standard 30/6/98
- Sunday Business 2/5/99
For the moment, I'm inclined to take the direct quotes as accurate but it would ne nice to get the full references and check this to be the case.
Some of the other commentary, relying on old articles, hasn't been updated. And the author has also included some sliughtly meandering commentary not on Stevenson but the companies etc he was involved with. I'll clean out a little of the offtopic material and where appropriate shift it to the side pages and focus the page on a profile of Stevenson himself.--Bob Burton 20:12, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
Original version: His SRU was a secretive consultancy founded with Peter Wallis in the 1970s (Stevenson keeps a low media profile) which at the time of Demos’ launch was advising the BBC governors on the future of broadcasting and Gordon Brown on Labour’s industrial policy. (Independent on Sunday 5/9/93) SRU was recently taken over by Brunswick PR Ltd (Alan Parker its Managing Director is also a Demos trustee).
- more appropriate on the SRU page, though perhaps a minor mention on this page once verified.
Original version: Chairman of numerous companies notably: HBOS plc, and Manpower Inc. (a large American company providing temporary employment services for administrative and professional positions which was given the contract for the New Deal’s ‘Working Links’), directors include Rozanne L. Ridgway a career diplomat for 32 years, she was President of the Atlantic Council; currently a director of Boeing, a trustee of the Brookings Institution and George C. Marshall Foundation. Recruitment is a key aspect to Stevenson’s work.
- co directorships incorporated into lead; descripotion of Manpower best on Manpower page esp Ridgway material which is peripheral to an article on Stevenson.--Bob Burton 20:12, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
into which Stevenson introduced the Atlantic Council of the United States director Marjorie Scardino as chief executive.
- not referenced.
At the age of 26 he was sent by Edward Heath to negotiate with top Japanese bankers.
- “I spent five years negotiating that deal and afterward I was used by the British government for all direct investment.”
- not referenced
His British Council work involves their 2002 psy-op ‘Connecting Futures Research’ based in Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia and Turkey which propagandises that “63% continue to place the UK high on their list of favourite nations. Only 19% view Britain with less approval than before, while 18% actually look at us more favourably”. Stevenson went to Ramallah giving out crayons to local kids; improving Britain’s image abroad and keeping quiet about his arms company friends.
- ditto
Given the early FO connections Stevenson could well be Mandelson's missing link with MI6.
- conspiracist speculation
Stevenson is an overseer, parachuting in at the behest of some invisible command.
- ditto
He has been given a honourable role in the affair (so too was fellow director Norman Tebbit) and now even advises the Law Society.
- unreferenced
Stevenson moves easily between the areas of corporate power broking and social policy think tanks that provides seemingly informal initiatives exploiting the ambiguous terrain between state and private sector. He attended the 1995 Bilderberg Group meeting in Turnberry and is still on the Demos advisory panel.
- Demos/Bilberberg links unreferenced, other commentary a little superfluous
Time for a cup of tea. --Bob Burton 20:38, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
- Consigna plc, - not referenced and not in disclosed list
- There were two statesments in brackets as asides that I am guessing are supposed to be sourced to Sunday Business 2/5/99). These are: "(Stevenson got this directorship because of Pearson’s shareholding in the bank, the Halifax is a Lazard client, but Stevenson was chosen because it was also a client of his SRU)" and "(Margaret Thatcher supposedly vetoed his appointment to the Tate but Tim Bell interceded on his behalf)". This needs checking. --Bob Burton 22:14, 8 Feb 2006 (EST)
I have reinstated the British Council stuff and added some refs. I have also rewritten the intro to give a sense of the importance of Stevewnson, rather than just a list of his known affiliations. He is a key fixer in the nnew labour/business nexus and to list only his affiliations whitout any analysis undermines the possibility of comprehension. The Demos connection is important as is the Bilderberg one. I will find a ref for that and reinstate some of this (also the Alan Parker link).
--Davidmiller 05:59, 9 Feb 2006 (EST)
