Briefings for Britain is comprised of professionals from a wide range of academic, business and other backgrounds. Below is a brief introduction to our editors and contributors.
Briefings for Britain is a small group of volunteers, originally academics, who set up the website in 2017 in order to provide reasoned factual material to help to inform the national debate on Brexit. Most of its members did not previously know each other. The two co-editors are Graham Gudgin and Robert Tombs, both of Cambridge University. Its contributors come from a range of academic disciplines, universities, and organizations and cover the whole political spectrum: their names can be found on our website.
The group has no links with any political party. Neither of the editors receives any payment, not do any of the contributors. The newsletter editor, a student, receives a small payment. Briefings for Britain is entirely funded by well-wishers. It receives no financial support from any group or organization
Editors
Dr Graham Gudgin, Economist, Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Posts by Dr Graham Gudgin
Professor Robert Tombs, Emeritus Professor of French History, University of Cambridge. Posts by Professor Robert Tombs
Editorial Consultant: Dr Anna Bailey, political scientist, author of Politics Under the Influence. Vodka and Public Policy in Putin’s Russia (Cornell University Press)
Newsletter Editor: An Oxbridge-based PhD Student (who prefers to remain anonymous)
Advisory Committee
- Rt Hon Sir Richard Aikens
- Mr Nick Busvine
- Lord (Maurice) Glasman
- Dr Philip Cunliffe
- Professor Gwythian Prins
- Baroness (Ruth) Deech
- Professor Richard Tuck
- Mr Harry Western
- Dr Joanna Williams
Contributors
Law:
Rt Hon Sir Richard Aikens, former member of the Court of Appeal, and former Vice-President of the Consultative Council of European Judges. Posts by Sir Richard Aikens
Professor David Collins, Professor of International Economic Law, The City Law School, City University of London.
Baroness (Ruth) Deech, former chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and former Principal of St Anne’s College, University of Oxford. Posts by Baroness Deech
Business, Trade, and Finance:
Professor David Blake, Cass Business School, City University of London.
Mr Alexander Darwall, Devon Equity Management.
Mr Tony Lane, formerly head of International Trade Policy, Dept of Trade and Industry, and trade consultant.
Dr Ruth Lea CBE, Economic Advisor, Fellow of the RSA and the Royal Statistical Society
Mr Robert Lee, Former Chief Economist, Board of Executors (South Africa), Economic Consultant (UK), and private investor.
Mr Rory Maw, Bursar, Magdalen College, Oxford.
Catherine McBride is an economist who writes about trade and agriculture having spent many years trading equity, financial and agricultural commodity derivatives. She is a fellow of the Centre for Brexit Policy think tank and a commissioner on the UK’s Trade and Agriculture Commission scrutinising the UK’s new trade agreements.
Mr John Mills, Entrepreneur and Economist. Chairman of JML. Chair of Labour Leave and Labour Future. Posts by John Mills
Professor David Paton holds the Chair of Industrial Economics at Nottingham University Business School and is a member of Economists for Free Trade.
Dr Paul Sheard, Former Vice-Chairman and Chief Economist of S&P Global, now Research Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School.
Mr Rory Sutherland, Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne, Ogilvy Group UK.
Mr Edmund Truell, co-founder, the Pension Superfund.
Mr Peter Udale, CEO Pembridge Analytics.
‘Harry Western’, the pen-name of a senior economist working in the private sector who wishes to remain anonymous.
Professor Phil B Whyman Professor of Economics University of Central Lancashire Business School and Director of the Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise.
Professor George Yarrow, Chair of the Regulatory Policy Institute, and Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.
Philosophy/theory:
Professor Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, and Canon of Christ Church, University of Oxford.
Professor Paul Elbourne, Professor of the Philosophy of Language, Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
Dr James Orr, University Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge
Foreign policy/diplomacy/defence
Professor David Betz, Professor of war in the Modern World, Kings College, London
Mr Nick Busvine OBE is formerly of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, recently mayor of Sevenoaks, and is a partner at Herminius a Corporate Advisory firm
Dr Philip Cunliffe, Senior Lecturer in International Conflict, University of Kent
Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the Secret Intelligence Service, former master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Chair of the Trustees, University of London Posts by Sir Richard Dearlove
Mr Adrian Hill, former head of Commercial Department, British Embassy, Seoul, and former British Army Officer.
Dr Lee Jones, Reader in International Politics, Queen Mary, University of London
Sir Peter Marshall, formerly of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Assistant Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Professor Gwythian Prins, Emeritus Research Professor, London School of Economics. Posts by Gwythian Prins
Professor Michael Rainsborough, Professor of Strategic Theory, Kings College, London
Dr Philip Towle, Emeritus Reader in International Relations, and former Director of the Centre of International Studies, Cambridge
Sir Andrew Wood, former UK Ambassador to Yugoslavia and to Russia, and currently Associate Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House.
Politics and society:
Dr Anna Bailey, political scientist, author of Politics Under the Influence. Vodka and Public Policy in Putin’s Russia (Cornell University Press)
Professor David Coleman, Professor of Demography, University of Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.
Lord (Maurice) Glasman, Labour peer, political theorist, and Director of the Common Good Foundation.
Professor Robert J. Jackson, Distinguished Professor at Carleton University Ottawa, and Emeritus Fletcher Jones Professor of International Relations at the University of Redlands, California.
Professor Richard Tuck, FBA, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government at Harvard University.
History:
Professor David Abulafia, FBA, Professor of Mediterranean History, Cambridge.
Professor Robert Colls, Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University.
Sir Noel Malcolm, FBA, Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
Professor Andrew Roberts, historian, Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Dr Daniel Robinson, international history, Fellow of Magdalen College, University of Oxford. Former Senior Policy Adviser to the Minister for the Cabinet Office.
Professor Michael Vickers, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, University of Oxford
Literature:
Professor John Wilson Foster, former Professor of English Literature, University of British Columbia, and member of the Institute of Irish Studies, Queens University, Bellfast.
Dr Nicholas Shrimpton, Emeritus Fellow in English Literature, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.
Natural Sciences and Medicine:
Professor Angus Dalgleish, FRCP, is Professor of Oncology at St George’s, University of London.
Professor Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford.
Dr Ian Winter, senior lecturer, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge.
Website Administrator:
Mark Chaskelson, Creative Monarchy Website Design Agency Ipswich