http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334163/Revealed-The-incredibly-close-links-Google-politicians-refuse-step-porn-row.html
Revealed: The incredibly close links between Google and the politicians who refuse to step in to porn row
Both David Cameron and George Osborne have met with Google executives
Google boss Eric Schmidt is a trusted business advisor to Mr Cameron
By Sam Greenhill
PUBLISHED:22:39, 31 May 2013 | UPDATED:11:00, 1 June 2013
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Google’s refusal to block grotesque child abuse websites is matched by the refusal of ministers to intervene.
But why is the Government so strangely reluctant to tackle the internet search company?
Google barely pays any tax and merrily snoops on Britons with its notorious Street View cars, so it is not as if ministers lack any provocation.
Close: There appears to be a number of links between internet giant Google and the Conservative government
Google has been allowed to carve itself a reputation as a big friendly giant of the corporate world, brimming with ethical compassion and coolness.
Gradually, the corporation’s ruthless streak is being exposed, but actually confronting the internet mammoth seems to be the last thing on the minds of ministers.
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By stunning coincidence, the cosy links between Google and the upper echelons of the Conservative Party could scarcely be more entangled.
On a beautiful summer’s day at a society wedding in Oxfordshire last year, the nexus was all too clearly illustrated.
David Cameron, accompanied by his wife Samantha and their daughter Florence, was among the congregation clapping enthusiastically outside a pretty Cotswold church.
Working relationship: Both Prime Minister David Cameron, left, and Chancellor George Osborne, right, have held meetings with Google executives
The bride was Naomi Gummer, 29, a senior Google executive with the brief of ‘public policy’.
She was previously a political adviser to Jeremy Hunt when he was Culture Secretary in charge of internet regulation – so he was in attendance too, resplendent in his morning suit.
The wedding guests quaffed champagne in the sunshine and congratulated proud father-of- the-bride Lord Chadlington, 70, who happens to be the president of Mr Cameron’s local constituency association.
He is also a PR adviser to the Conservative Party. But Miss Gummer is far from the most senior Google executive to bask in the collective adulation of the British Government.
Former employee: Rachel Whetstone, Google's top global spinner, was a Number 10 aide and was director of communications for Conservative leader Michael Howard. The pair are pictured together
Rachel Whetstone, Google’s top global spinner, is a former No 10 aide and was Michael Howard’s director of communications when he was Tory leader.
She is married to Steve Hilton, the T-shirt-wearing guru who is Mr Cameron’s close friend and former director of strategy at No 10.
The power couple are regarded as key members of the Notting Hill set of Conservatives who propelled Mr Cameron to Downing Street, and at one stage Miss Whetstone was known as their queen.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister is godfather to Miss Whetstone’s younger son, and Mr Hilton was godfather to Ivan Cameron, the late eldest child of David and Samantha.
The links do not end there, for Google has been assiduous at forging close ties at every level of Government.
It is not just a case of former government policy wonks exiting through Westminster’s ‘revolving door’ to Google – it works the other way too.
Amy Fisher was once Google’s PR chief for European affairs, but now she has bagged a job advising Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.
And nor is it just Conservative politicians to whom Google offers the bosom of friendship. Sarah Hunter, the internet giant’s head of public policy in the UK, is a former media adviser to Tony Blair.
And a lobbying veteran named D. J. Collins – a close friend of David Miliband and well-connected in New Labour circles – has in recent years been Google’s European director of communications.
Google spends a fortune on political lobbying, and politicians from all parties lap up the Google brand, delighted to be associated with its hip image.
Before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Cameron spoke to the annual Google Zeitgeist conference in 2006 and 2007.
Powerful: Google boss Eric Schmidt is a trusted member of David Cameron's council of business advisors
Since the 2010 election, Mr Cameron has met Google executives three times, while Chancellor George Osborne has held four meetings.
Culture minister Ed Vaizey has met the firm’s staff seven times, and universities minister David Willetts has held at least one meeting.
The symbiotic relationship was on show again last year when the Chancellor agreed to open Google Campus, a hi-tech centre in East London for start-up technology firms.
With Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, a trusted member of Mr Cameron’s council of business advisers, critics wonder if there is any chance the PM will take steps to rein in the internet giant.
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David Cameron should have declared land deal with party donor, says former watchdog
David Cameron should have declared his purchase of land neighbouring his Oxfordshire home from the chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest lobbying companies, the former parliamentary standards watchdog said on Wednesday.
By Holly Watt, Claire Newell and Christopher Hope
10:27PM GMT 23 Nov 2011
73 Comments
Lord Chadlington, the chief executive of the Huntsworth Group, which owns a number of public affairs firms, bought the house and land neighbouring Mr Cameron’s constituency home for £715,000. The Conservative peer then sold Mr Cameron the land for £137,000, while the house appears to be empty. The disclosure will raise concerns about Lord Chadlington’s links with Mr Cameron.
Mr Cameron did not disclose the deal on either the House of Commons Register of Interests or the register of ministerial interests. A spokesman for Downing Street said: “The Prime Minister handled this issue properly and in accordance with the ministerial code.”
Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee of Standards in Public Life, said Mr Cameron should have declared the deal in the House of Commons Register of Members Interests as it involves a financial transaction with a political lobbyist. He told Channel Four News: “If you’re doing a private deal affecting your personal interests with one of the heads of the largest lobbying firms in this country then of course you should register that in your MP’s list of interests as quickly as possible.”
Lord Chadlington is the president of Mr Cameron’s constituency association. He was a very early supporter of Mr Cameron’s leadership campaign in 2005, publicly backing him and giving £14,000. Since then, Lord and Lady Chadlington have donated more than £60,000 to the party, while Huntsworth donated a further £45,000.
Figures published on Wednesday show that the couple gave another £5,300 to Mr Cameron’s Witney Conservative association in July. Huntsworth also donated £15,500 to Tory central office in August.
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Huntsworth owns several lobbying companies, including Grayling, Quiller and Citigate. The clients of the companies include Transport Sense, which is trying to change the route of the Coalition’s proposed high speed rail line.
John Mann, a Labour MP, said: “It looks like a rich man buying a house and land for Cameron as a favour. The problem is that the rich man is at the same time lobbying David Cameron’s government. It should be investigated by Sir Philip Mawer [the individual adviser on ministerial interests].’’ Last year, Mr Cameron warned that lobbying was “the next big scandal waiting to happen”. It had “tainted our politics for too long”.
Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha bought the Oxfordshire home in 2001, shortly after he became the MP for Witney, spending £650,000 on the main home and a further £10,000 for the separate piece of land. Lord Chadlington then bought the neighbouring property, which is opposite the Prime Minister’s, in November last year for £715,000.
Neighbours say it has been empty since then. In July, official Land Registry documents showed Mr Cameron paid Lord Chadlington £137,500 for the strip of land and a further section of land to extend Mr Cameron’s garden. The money came from cash left to Mr Cameron in his father’s will.
One local estate agent estimated that buying the extra land would have added up to £250,000 to the value of the Prime Minister’s constituency home. It would make the house worth up to £1.4 million based on local prices. A similar strip of agricultural land in the area would command only £5,000 to £12,000, but prices are much higher for gardens. Downing Street said a surveyor independently valued the land at £75,000. However, Mr Cameron paid £137,000 to allow for the fact that his home increased in value.
Mr Cameron had ensured the deal was cleared by Sue Gray, the Government’s head of propriety and ethics and James Bowler, the principal private secretary at Number 10. The Downing Street spokesman added: “Both of them advised that, because this was a public transaction and the full market rate was paid for the land, there was no need to declare it in the list of ministers’ interests.”
Downing Street sources added: “Lord Chadlington and David Cameron are long-standing friends and there is no suggestion whatsoever of any conflict of interest or financial gain.”
Lord Chadlington declined to comment on the purchase of the property opposite Mr Cameron’s house. A spokesman said: “To avoid any perception of a conflict, we instructed an independent surveyor to value the garages and land.’’
LIKE I SAID, DAVID CAMERON IS THEIR PET MONKEY, A MONKEY IN A CAGE.
I'd be ashamed of letting such people dictate to my soul.
Thats what I call selling your soul for a handful of beans.
Eternity is a long time, eternal damnation is the curse for the unrepentant wicked.
Peter Gummer, Baron Chadlington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Right Honourable
The Lord Chadlington
Personal details
Born
Peter Selwyn Gummer
24 August 1942 (age 71)
Nationality
English
Occupation
Businessman
Peter Selwyn Gummer, Baron Chadlington FCIPR FIoD FCinstM FRSA (born 24 August 1942) is an English businessman.
He is President of David Cameron's Witney Conservative constituency association, and is a PR adviser and donor to the Conservative Party.[1]
Contents
[hide] 1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Charitable work
4 Personal life
5 References
Early life and education[edit]
Gummer was born on 24 August 1942 to Selwyn Gummer, a Church of England priest, and his wife Margaret Mason.[2] Gummer has two brothers; John Gummer, Baron Deben, former Chairman of the Conservative Party,[3] and Mark Selwyn Gummer, a businessman. He was educated at The King's School, Rochester before matriculating to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he read Moral Science and Theology,[4] with the aim of becoming a priest.[5] Reading the works of philosophers such as Albert Camus led him to change his mind,[5] and after gaining a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts he instead went into journalism.[2]
Career[edit]
While writing for a trade press department Gummer found that he enjoyed the business side of things far more than the journalism, and decided to go into business.[6] After several years working for other companies he founded a public relations (PR) firm called Shandwick in 1974, serving as its Chairman. Within seven years Shandwick was the largest PR company in the United Kingdom,[6] and in 1984 it became publicly listed.[7] In 1998 it was sold to the Interpublic Group of Companies,[6] and is now part of Huntsworth.[7] Initially chairman of Huntsworth, Gummer was appointed chief executive on 25 September 2005 after the resignation of Richard Nichols, the group's previous chief executive.[8] Gummer left this position on 12 May 2005, instead becoming an executive director.[9]
As well as his public relations work Gummer is also a non-executive director of Britax, a former director of Halifax and a visiting fellow at the University of Gloucestershire.[4] He has been made a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, the Institute of Directors, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Royal Society of Arts.[2] In September 1996 Gummer became Chairman of the Royal Opera House.[10] Following a report by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee led by Gerald Kaufman which described the management of the Royal Opera House as "abysmal" with "incompetence, disastrous financial planning and misjudgement", Gummer resigned in December 1997.[5] On 16 October 1996, he was created a Conservative working peer, with the title of Baron Chadlington, of Dean in the County of Oxfordshire.[11] In 2011, David Cameron bought a plot of land from him for £140,000.[12]
Charitable work[edit]
From 1999 until 2007, Gummer was a Director of the original Action on Addiction in London, a charity and addiction research center investigating drug and alcohol dependence. He also served on their Board of Trustees.[13] In 2007, the original Action on Addiction (established in 1989) merged with The Chemical Dependency Centre (established in 1985) and Clouds (established in 1987). The single charity, dedicated to the research and treatment of drug and alcohol dependence, took on the name Action on Addiction.[14]
Personal life[edit]
He married Lucy Dudley-Hill, 15 years his junior, on 23 October 1982.[2] They met after she came to Shandwick for a job interview, and after five days they were engaged.[5] They have four children; Naomi, born 10 January 1984, Chloe, born 17 November 1985, Eleanor, born 5 August 1988 and James, born 4 August 1990.[2]
Naomi Gummer is public policy adviser at Google, and was previously political adviser to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.[15]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Row after Tory peer's daughter is given job in culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's department
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "ThePeerage.com - Person Page 19112". ThePeerage.com. 21 Mar 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
3.Jump up ^ Chalfont, Alun (20 April 1999). "Canon Selwyn Gunner". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
4.^ Jump up to: a b "Lord Chadlington of Dean". University of Gloucestershire. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d Ross, Deborah (8 December 1997). "Interview-lord Chadlington: Lord, what a nightmare at the opera". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2009-05-01.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c "Pop! PR Face2Face: Lord Chadlington, Chief Executive, The Huntsworth Group". PR Jots. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
7.^ Jump up to: a b "Huntsworth: Group Board". Huntsworth. Retrieved 2009-05-01.[dead link]
8.Jump up ^ Feisst, Melanie (26 September 2005). "Huntsworth appoints Lord Chadlington". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
9.Jump up ^ "Peter Chadlington - Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
10.Jump up ^ "Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport First Report". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
11.Jump up ^ The London Gazette: no. 54558. p. 13993. 22 October 1996. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
12.Jump up ^ Channel 4 report
13.Jump up ^ Company Check, List of Directors of UK Companies and Organizations: Peter Selwyn Gummer, Director, Action on Addiction. (Retrieved July 24, 2013).
14.Jump up ^ UK Government Charity Commission website, Action on Addiction listing. (Retrieved May 1, 2013).
15.Jump up ^ Revealed: The incredibly close links between Google and the politicians who refuse to step in to porn row
Charitable work[edit]
From 1999 until 2007, Gummer was a Director of the original Action on Addiction in London, a charity and addiction research center investigating drug and alcohol dependence. He also served on their Board of Trustees.[13] In 2007, the original Action on Addiction (established in 1989) merged with The Chemical Dependency Centre (established in 1985) and Clouds (established in 1987). The single charity, dedicated to the research and treatment of drug and alcohol dependence, took on the name Action on Addiction.[14]
Personal life[edit]
He married Lucy Dudley-Hill, 15 years his junior, on 23 October 1982.[2] They met after she came to Shandwick for a job interview, and after five days they were engaged.[5] They have four children; Naomi, born 10 January 1984, Chloe, born 17 November 1985, Eleanor, born 5 August 1988 and James, born 4 August 1990.[2]
Naomi Gummer is public policy adviser at Google, and was previously political adviser to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.[15]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Row after Tory peer's daughter is given job in culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's department
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "ThePeerage.com - Person Page 19112". ThePeerage.com. 21 Mar 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
3.Jump up ^ Chalfont, Alun (20 April 1999). "Canon Selwyn Gunner". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
4.^ Jump up to: a b "Lord Chadlington of Dean". University of Gloucestershire. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d Ross, Deborah (8 December 1997). "Interview-lord Chadlington: Lord, what a nightmare at the opera". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2009-05-01.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c "Pop! PR Face2Face: Lord Chadlington, Chief Executive, The Huntsworth Group". PR Jots. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
7.^ Jump up to: a b "Huntsworth: Group Board". Huntsworth. Retrieved 2009-05-01.[dead link]
8.Jump up ^ Feisst, Melanie (26 September 2005). "Huntsworth appoints Lord Chadlington". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
9.Jump up ^ "Peter Chadlington - Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
10.Jump up ^ "Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport First Report". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
11.Jump up ^ The London Gazette: no. 54558. p. 13993. 22 October 1996. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
12.Jump up ^ Channel 4 report
13.Jump up ^ Company Check, List of Directors of UK Companies and Organizations: Peter Selwyn Gummer, Director, Action on Addiction. (Retrieved July 24, 2013).
14.Jump up ^ UK Government Charity Commission website, Action on Addiction listing. (Retrieved May 1, 2013).
15.Jump up ^ Revealed: The incredibly close links between Google and the politicians who refuse to step in to porn row
Charitable work[edit]
From 1999 until 2007, Gummer was a Director of the original Action on Addiction in London, a charity and addiction research center investigating drug and alcohol dependence. He also served on their Board of Trustees.[13] In 2007, the original Action on Addiction (established in 1989) merged with The Chemical Dependency Centre (established in 1985) and Clouds (established in 1987). The single charity, dedicated to the research and treatment of drug and alcohol dependence, took on the name Action on Addiction.[14]
Personal life[edit]
He married Lucy Dudley-Hill, 15 years his junior, on 23 October 1982.[2] They met after she came to Shandwick for a job interview, and after five days they were engaged.[5] They have four children; Naomi, born 10 January 1984, Chloe, born 17 November 1985, Eleanor, born 5 August 1988 and James, born 4 August 1990.[2]
Naomi Gummer is public policy adviser at Google, and was previously political adviser to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.[15]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Row after Tory peer's daughter is given job in culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's department
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d e "ThePeerage.com - Person Page 19112". ThePeerage.com. 21 Mar 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
3.Jump up ^ Chalfont, Alun (20 April 1999). "Canon Selwyn Gunner". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
4.^ Jump up to: a b "Lord Chadlington of Dean". University of Gloucestershire. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d Ross, Deborah (8 December 1997). "Interview-lord Chadlington: Lord, what a nightmare at the opera". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2009-05-01.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c "Pop! PR Face2Face: Lord Chadlington, Chief Executive, The Huntsworth Group". PR Jots. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
7.^ Jump up to: a b "Huntsworth: Group Board". Huntsworth. Retrieved 2009-05-01.[dead link]
8.Jump up ^ Feisst, Melanie (26 September 2005). "Huntsworth appoints Lord Chadlington". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
9.Jump up ^ "Peter Chadlington - Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
10.Jump up ^ "Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport First Report". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
11.Jump up ^ The London Gazette: no. 54558. p. 13993. 22 October 1996. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
12.Jump up ^ Channel 4 report
13.Jump up ^ Company Check, List of Directors of UK Companies and Organizations: Peter Selwyn Gummer, Director, Action on Addiction. (Retrieved July 24, 2013).
14.Jump up ^ UK Government Charity Commission website, Action on Addiction listing. (Retrieved May 1, 2013).
15.Jump up ^ Revealed: The incredibly close links between Google and the politicians who refuse to step in to porn row
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