Bow Group

Bow Group
Formation	February 7, 1951 (1951-02-07)
Type	Public policy think tank
Headquarters	London
Official languages	English
Chairman	Ben Harris-Quinney
Affiliations	Conservative Party
Website	bowgroup.org

The Bow Group is one of the oldest think tanks in the United Kingdom. Taking its name from the Bow area of London where it first met, it was founded in 1951. The group conducts research, publishes reports, engages in political debate, and produces the quarterly members magazine Crossbow.

History

On 29 November 1950, a steering meeting was held to set up a group for Conservatives under the age of 35. The resulting group had its first meeting in 7 February 1951 and was named after the place where the original steering meeting had been held: the Bow and Bromley Conservative Association. Their first pamphlet, Coloured People In Britain, was published in 1952.^{[citation needed]}

The group was established as an extra-parliamentary forum for young people. It was to be a broad church, stretching across the Conservative Party, but found itself opposed to the Conservative Monday Club, leading to a misperception that the group was 'left-wing'.

The Bow Group argued that it was open to all Conservatives, and that it neither expressed a collective view nor organised meetings of MPs; rather it adopted an independent freely critical standpoint, and was a think-tank capable of airing ideas from all sides of the Conservative Party. Ian Waller, writing in the Sunday Telegraph in 1971, disagreed, making comparisons between the Bow Group and the Conservative Monday Club, said that the two organisations, their members and aims, were as different as chalk from cheese, and that the then current mood among Conservatives meant that the Club's rising membership had overtaken that of the Bow Group. Bow Group membership in 1975 stood at 1000.

In the 1970s, the Group was also closely associated with the development of Post Keynesian economics and policy, which would come to fruition in Britain and throughout Europe in the late 1980s.

The ability of the Bow Group to house different strands of the Tory tradition was demonstrated at its 25th anniversary dinner in 1976. This occasion brought together both Margaret Thatcher, the new party leader, and Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister.

In the period to 1979, the concept of freedom infused much of the Group's work, although it was not directly associated with Mrs Thatcher, and indeed maintained an objective view of her government.

In 1984 the Group sought to keep Margaret Thatcher to her election promises, urging her to make tax cuts, reduce public spending, and reform the tax and social security system. The Group is not averse to opposing the policies of the Conservative Party.

The 90 policy papers published by the Group in the 1990s covered topics including pensions, the charity sector, shareholder democracy, people with disabilities, housing, education, public transport and the reform of governmental institutions.

In February 2005 it published a report by former government minister, Peter Lilley strongly opposing Labour Government plans to introduce identity cards into the UK.

Shortly before the 2005 party conference the Bow Group published a book, "From the ashes", a collection of essays detailing the visions held for the future of the party by senior Conservative figures, including the current Prime Minister David Cameron and all who stood in the leadership contest. This accompanied some powerful structured polling evidence released by the Bow Group at conference which made it clear just how far the party would have to go in rebranding itself to become electable once again.

Early in 2006 the Group hit the headlines once again, this time due to "Keep it simple", a paper which details the extent of maladministration in the UK tax system and gives some ideas for reform.

2010 saw the Bow Group publish an influential pamphlet on the future of UK rail transit, "The Right Track" authored by Tony Lodge and Lord Heseltine. The paper set out a proposed route for the UK's High Speed Rail Network (HS2) as an alternative to the then Labour Government's route. The paper was later to be the source of controversy in 2011 when though the Conservative led Coalition Government did not implement the proposals set out in the paper, in October 2011 the Shadow Transport Minister adopted the "Bow Group Route" as Labour Party Policy.

In 2011 current research secretary Richard Mabey produced a paper with Bernard Jenkin MP on the Alternative Vote system "Death of the Conviction Voter - Fairness and Tactics under AV" which was often cited during the 2011 AV referendum debate and was seen as being an influential contribution to the thinking of the "NOtoAV" campaign.

Also in 2011 Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney co-authored a paper with Dr Charles Tannock MEP on "The Eurozone & Germany - understanding the German Mind". The paper argued for greater engagement and dialogue between the UK and the German populous, and the necessity for policy makers in the UK to better understand the economic and foreign policy motivations of Germany as the nation at the centre of the eurozone. The paper was seen to advocate EU realism as an antidote to the increasingly controversial debate on EU membership within the UK Conservative Party.

The Bow Group remains at the forefront of new thinking within the Conservative Party, focusing in the new parliament on business & economics, foreign policy, health, education, social policy & culture media & sport. A selection of papers is available in the Research section of this site.

Membership

Further information: Category:Members of the Bow Group

Prominent members of the group have included: Christopher Bland, Michael Howard, Geoffrey Howe, Norman Lamont, Peter Lilley, William Rees-Mogg, Alastair Ross Goobey and Norman St John-Stevas.

Chairmen of the Bow Group

Years	Chairman
1951–52	Bruce Griffiths
1952–53	James Lemkin (first time)
1953–54	Stone
1954–55	Williams
1955–56	Geoffrey Howe
1956–58	James Lemkin (second time)
1958–59	Russell Lewis
1959–60	David Hennessy (first time)
1960–61	Tom Hooson
1961–62	David Howell
1962–63	David Hennessy (second time)
1963–64	John MacGregor
1964–65	Leon Brittan
1965–66	Henry Bosch
1966–67	Julian Critchley
1967–68	Dr Reginald Watts
1968–69	Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler
1969–70	Christopher Bland
1970–71	Michael Howard
1971–72	Norman Lamont
1972–73	Peter Lloyd
1973–75	Peter Lilley
1975–76	Patricia Hodgson
1976–77	Clarke
1977–78	Michael Stern
1978–79	Douglas French
1979–80	Barber
1980–81	Richard Simmons
1981–82	Nirj Deva
1982–83	Colin Coulson-Thomas
1983–84	David Shaw
1984–85	Michael Lingens
1985–86	Nick Perry
1986–87	Nigel Waterson
1987–88	Cheryl Gillan
1988–89	Marie-Louise Rossi
1989–90	Ian Donaldson
1990–91	David Harvey
1991–92	Jerome Dexter-Smith
1992–93	Nick Hawkins
1993–94	David Campbell Bannerman
1994–95	Alexander Nicoll
1995–96	Button
1996–97	Jeremy Bradshaw
1997–98	Nick Green
1998–99	Nick Edgar
1999–2000	Andrew Jones
2000–01	Guy Strafford
2001–02	Damian Hinds
2002–03	Jocelyn Ormond
2003–04	Giles Taylor
2004–05	Chris Philp
2005–06	Kwasi Kwarteng
2006–07	Sam Gyimah
2007–08	Chris Skidmore
2008–10	Annesley Abercorn
2010–11	Brian Cattell
2011–	Ben Harris-Quinney
^A Two consecutive terms.

See also

• List of UK think tanks

References

• Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, Foreword by George Pole, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972, (P/B), p. 28.

• Coxall, Bill, and Lynton Robins, Contemporary British Politics, Macmillan Publishers, London, first published 1989, revised reprint 1992, p. 239, (P/B), ISBN 0-333-34046-9

• Barr, James, The Bow Group: A History, Politico's Publishing, London, 2001, ISBN 1-84275-001-1
• Seawright, David (2010). The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826489746. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s92fCxPnF7MC. 

External links

• Bow Group official website