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How
the Anglo-American elite shares its 'values'
By John Pilger
12/16/07 "ICH"
-- -- When Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke recently about
his government's devotion to the United States, "founded on the
values we share", he was echoing his Foreign Office minister Kim
Howells, who was preparing to welcome the Saudi dictator to
Britain with effusions of "shared values". The meaning was the
same in both cases. The values shared are those of rapacious
power and wealth, with democracy and human rights irrelevant, as
the bloodbath in Iraq and the suffering of the Palestinians
attest, to name only two examples.
The "values we share" are celebrated by a shadowy organisation
that has just held its annual conference. This is the
British-American Project for the Successor Generation (BAP), set
up in 1985 with money from a Philadelphia trust with a long
history of supporting right-wing causes. Although the BAP does
not publicly acknowledge this origin, the source of its
inspiration was a call by President Reagan in 1983 for
"successor generations" on both sides of the Atlantic to "work
together in the future on defence and security matters". He made
numerous references to "shared values". Attending this ceremony
in the White House Situation Room were the ideologues Rupert
Murdoch and the late James Goldsmith.
As Reagan made clear, the need for the BAP arose from
Washington's anxiety about the growing opposition in Britain to
nuclear weapons, especially the stationing of cruise missiles in
Europe. "A special concern," he said, "will be the successor
generations, as these younger people are the ones who will have
to work together in the future on defence and security issues."
A new, preferably young elite – journalists, academics,
economists, "civil society" and liberal community leaders of one
sort or another – would offset the growing "anti-Americanism".
The aims of this latter-day network, according to David Willetts,
the former director of studies at Britain's right-wing Centre
for Policy Studies, now a member of the Tory shadow cabinet, are
simply to "help reinforce Anglo-American links, especially if
some members already do or will occupy positions of influence".
A former British ambassador to Washington, Sir John Kerr, was
more direct. In a speech to BAP members, he said the
organisation's "powerful combination of eminent Fellows and
close Atlantic links threatened to put the embassy out of a
job". An American BAP organiser describes the BAP network as
committed to "grooming leaders" while promoting "the leading
global role that [the US and Britain] continue to play".
The BAP's British "alumni" are drawn largely from new Labour and
its court. No fewer than four BAP "fellows" and one advisory
board member became ministers in the first Blair government. The
new Labour names include Peter Mandelson, George Robertson,
Baroness Symons, Jonathan Powell (Blair's chief of staff),
Baroness Scotland, Douglas Alexander, Geoff Mulgan, Matthew
Taylor and David Miliband. Some are Fabian Society members and
describe themselves as being "on the left". Trevor Phillips,
chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, is another
member. They object to whispers of "a conspiracy". The mutuality
of class or aspiration is merely assured, unspoken, and the warm
embrace of power flattering and often productive.
BAP conferences are held alternately in the US and Britain. This
year's was in Newcastle, with the theme "Faith and Justice". On
the US board is Diana Negroponte, the wife of John Negroponte,
Bush's former national security chief notorious for his
associations with death-squad politics in central America. He
follows another leading neocon, Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the
invasion of Iraq and discredited head of the World Bank. Since
1985, BAP "alumni" and "fellows" have been brought together
courtesy of Coca-Cola, Monsanto, Saatchi & Saatchi, Philip
Morris and British Airways, among other multinationals. Nick
Butler, formerly a top dog at BP, has been a leading light.
For many, the conferences have the revivalist pleasures honed by
American PR techniques, with management games, personal
presentations, and a closing jolly revue to lighten the serious
business. The 2002 conference report noted: "Many BAP alumni are
directly involved with US and UK military and defence
establishments."
The BAP rarely gets publicity, which may have something to do
with the high proportion of journalists who are alumni.
Prominent BAP journalists are David Lipsey, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
and assorted Murdochites. The BBC is well represented. On the
popular Today programme, James Naughtie, whose broadcasting has
long reflected his own transatlantic interests, has been an
alumnus since 1989. Today's newest voice, Evan Davis, formerly
the BBC's zealous economics editor, is a member. And at the top
of the BAP website home page is a photograph of the famous BBC
broadcaster Jeremy Paxman and his endorsement. "A marvellous way
of meeting a varied cross-section of transatlantic friends,"
says he.
This article was first published in the New Statesman
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