Matt Cavanagh Explained

Matt Cavanagh (born 1971) is a British political adviser and author.[1] [2] He was a special adviser in the UK Labour government (2003–10).[1] He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett;[3] for Chancellor Gordon Brown;[4] for Defence Secretary Des Browne;[5] and for Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister from June 2007 to May 2010.[1] [6] Subsequently, he was an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy.[7] He now works in the private sector as Director of Government Relations for Prudential plc.[8]

Biography

Matthew Cavanagh was born in 1971.[9] He was educated at Bedford Modern School[10] and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read PPE, and then took a BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy.[1] From 1996 to 2000 he was lecturer in Philosophy at St Catherine's College, Oxford.[1] From 2000 to 2003 he was a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.[1]

Cavanagh is the author of Against Equality of Opportunity a controversial work of 2002 that criticises conventional understandings of the doctrine of equality of opportunity.[11] It gained positive reviews across the political spectrum, including in the Times Educational Supplement[12] and in The Spectator.[13] Other reviews were mixed, including Jeremy Waldron in the London Review of Books[14] and in the Guardian.[11]

Two years later in 2004, with Cavanagh now working as a special adviser, the Guardian returned to the book with a front-page story arguing that his views on race and equal opportunity made him unfit to work in government.[15] This led to widespread calls for Cavanagh to be sacked, with questions tabled in Parliament, and the affair rumbled on for a few days. The Guardian letters page carried a balance of letters for and against Cavanagh.[16]

In 2009 he was briefly in the news again, when he was accused of putting pressure on NHS statisticians to release statistics on knife crime prematurely.[17] The UK Statistics Watchdog reprimanded Downing Street, and again there were calls for his sacking, including from the Public Administration Committee.[18]

Cavanagh has written on Afghanistan and other subjects for Prospect[19] and The Spectator[20] magazines. He is a regular contributor to a number of blogs including the New Statesman,[21] The Spectator,[22] and Labour Uncut.[23]

He was the British national champion at Rugby fives in 2004 and 2006, and has since been a veteran winner.[24] [25]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Matt Cavanagh | Bruegel. 21 October 2015 .
  2. Book: Cavanagh, Matt. Against equality of opportunity. 23 August 2002. Oxford University Press. 9780191584046. 1171244285.
  3. News: Blunkett aide in row over race. Kevin. Maguire. The Guardian . 20 March 2004. www.theguardian.com.
  4. Web site: Special Advisers: 16 Jul 2009: Hansard Written Answers. TheyWorkForYou.
  5. Book: Mumford, Andrew. Counterinsurgency Wars and the Anglo-American Alliance: The Special Relationship on the Rocks. 2 January 2018. Georgetown University Press. 9781626164932. Google Books.
  6. Web site: House of Commons Hansard Ministerial Statements for 16 July 2009 (pt 0008). publications.parliament.uk.
  7. Web site: Matt Cavanagh > Associate Director for UK Migration Policy . IPPR . 2012-02-14.
  8. Web site: Vietnam UK Network. www.vietnamuknetwork.org.uk.
  9. Web site: Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records at Ancestry.co.uk. ancestry.co.uk. 8 July 2015.
  10. The Eagle, Magazine of Bedford Modern School
  11. News: John Crace . Equal wrongs | Education . The Guardian . 2002-03-26. 2012-02-14 . London.
  12. Web site: Why we should spurn equality and meritocracy . Times Higher Education . 2002-06-21 . 2012-02-14.
  13. Web site: Against Equality of Opportunity | Matt Cavanagh | Review by The Spectator . Spectator.co.uk . 2002-03-16 . 2012-02-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110508144115/http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/19930/more-like-a-beauty-contest.thtml . 8 May 2011 . dead .
  14. Jeremy Waldron reviews 'Against Equality of Opportunity' by Matt Cavanagh · LRB 19 September 2002 . London Review of Books . Lrb.co.uk . 19 September 2002. 24 . 18 . 2012-02-14. Waldron . Jeremy .
  15. News: Kevin Maguire . Blunkett aide in row over race | Politics . The Guardian . 2004-03-29. 2012-02-14 . London.
  16. News: Letters: Philosophy and the real world | Politics . The Guardian . 2004-03-22. 2012-02-14 . London.
  17. Web site: BBC - Mark Easton's UK: Knife "fact sheet": The e-mail trail.
  18. Web site: Uncorrected Evidence 504 . Publications.parliament.uk . 2009-05-07 . 2012-02-14.
  19. Web site: Inside the Anglo-Saxon war machine . Prospect Magazine . 2010-11-17 . 2012-02-14.
  20. Web site: Operation amnesia . The Spectator . 2011-04-13 . 2012-02-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110920062011/http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/6846068/operation-amnesia.thtml . 20 September 2011 . dead .
  21. Web site: Matt Cavanagh . New Statesman . 2012-02-14.
  22. Web site: Matt Cavanagh | Find Articles | Spectator Magazine . Spectator.co.uk . 2012-02-14.
  23. Web site: Cavanagh. Matt. Labour-Uncut. labour-uncut. 21 May 2013.
  24. Web site: Tournament Winners . RugbyFives.com . 13 August 2020.
  25. Web site: 2019 Veterans Matt Cavanagh champion 4th time.

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