John Hoskyns

Sir John Leigh Austin Hungerford Hoskyns (23 August 1927 – 20 October 2014) was best known as a Policy Advisor to Margaret Thatcher while head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from May 1979 and April 1982.[1] Prior to this he acted as a policy adviser to her and the Shadow Cabinet from 1975–79, during which time he produced, together with Norman Strauss, a business executive from Unilever, the important "Stepping Stones" report of November 1977.

For other people named John Hoskyns, see John Hoskyns (disambiguation).

Education

Hoskyns was educated at Winchester College, an independent school in Winchester in Hampshire.

Life and career

Hoskyns' paternal grandfather was Dean of Christchurch and Archdeacon of Chichester, while his maternal grandfather, Austin Taylor, was MP for Toxteth and crossed The House in 1904 from Conservative to Liberal (over Free Trade) with Winston Churchill. [2] Hoskyns served as a regular soldier in the Rifle Brigade (1945–57). He then started a business career at IBM UK Ltd (1957–64), before founding the Hoskyns Group, an information technology services company where he was Chairman and Managing Director (1964–75). He was Director-General of the Institute of Directors (1984–89), and served on the boards of a number of public companies. He died at home in Suffolk on 20 October 2014 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Edwardstone.

The grave of Sir John Hoskyns in Edwardstone churchyard

The Stepping Stones Report, 1977

Without any political experience, he dedicated the year of 1977 to analysing what he considered to be wrong with the UK; this was a large part of the Stepping Stones Report. He created this report for the Tory party, working with Norman S. Strauss, then at Unilever. He created a diagram that showed how all these problems were interlinked.

For example, he claimed trade union power increases the level of unemployment as they raise wages above market clearing levels, which will eventually cause wages to be unsustainably and inefficiently high. This encourages politicians to run budget deficits and print money; this causes inflation, which makes unions more militant, as their members suffer under increased inflation, and also, workers will be more inclined to join unions for protection from the rising inflation. Thus, the TU's power increases as they gain members. The report states: 'The one precondition for success will be a complete change in the role of the trade unions movement'. When Margaret Thatcher, who read chemistry at Oxford, saw the diagram, she reportedly remarked it looked like a chemical plant.

Thatcher was an admirer of Hoskyns, writing in her autobiography that John's background was in business and computers; but over and above that experience, he had strong powers of analysis and had helped formulate our economic strategy in Opposition. He propagated the theory that a 'culture of decline' was the ultimate cause of many of Britain's economic problems... He kept our eye on the ball. [3]

The EU

He attacked the EU's "out-of-touch politicians, undemocratic institutions, dubious electoral systems and legal processes, financial corruption, creative accounting, secrecy, administrative incompetence, mercantilist instincts, foreign-policy confusion, institutionalised animosity towards the United States and Charlemagne-flavoured delusions of empire."[4]

After Downing Street

In March 1982 Hoskyns resigned from the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), frustrated by the slow pace of change,[5] including the refusal to appoint certain people to the CPRS, on the grounds that it was a non-political body.[6] He was knighted in 1982. Hoskyns became director general of the Institute of Directors from 1984 to 1989, strongly expressing views on current political matters.[1] He became chairman of the Burton Group in 1990, and, with former Thatcherite allies, he campaigned against the single European currency.[6] He published a memoir, "Just in time, inside the Thatcher revolution" in 2000.

Legacy

Hoskyns is reported to have been an inspiration for Dominic Cummings, advisor to some government ministers since 2011, and an influential advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019. Cummings wrote in 2015 "The best book I have read by someone who has worked in No 10 … is John Hoskyns’ [memoir] Just In Time. Extremely unusually for someone in a senior position in No 10, Hoskyns both had an intellectual understanding of complex systems and was a successful manager."[7]

30-year rule and official documents

At the end of 2011, the release of confidential documents under the UK Government's 30-year rule revealed Hoskyns' thoughts regarding the Liverpool Riots. He saw little point in spending more money on Liverpool saying "this money is likely to be money wasted".[8]

In the media

Hoskyns was interviewed about Stepping Stones and the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!.

See also
  1. "Sir John Hoskyns - obituary". Daily Telegraph. October 20, 2014.
  2. Death Of The Rev. B. G. Hoskyns The Times Friday, Sep 13, 1935; pg. 14; Issue 47168; col D.
  3. Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 30.
  4. "Letter by Sir John Hoskyns". The Times. July 15, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-07-15 – via bullen.demon.co.uk.
  5. Parker, David (29 January 2009). The Official History of Privatisation Vol. I: The Formative Years 1970-1987. Routledge. p. 484. ISBN 978-1-134-03140-5.
  6. Dennis Kavanagh (20 October 2014). "Sir John Hoskyns obituary". The Guardian.
  7. Andy Beckett (24 July 2020). "This is the man in No 10 who inspired Cummings – and he didn't last long". The Guardian.
  8. Travis, Alan (December 30, 2011). "Thatcher government toyed with evacuating Liverpool after 1981 riots". The Guardian.
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