From his student days at the then riot-prone London School of Economics to his two decades as Director General (and more recently Ralph Harris Fellow) of the Institute of Economic Affairs, the UK’s most influential think tank, John Blundell has championed the role of the private sector including the example set by the University of Buckingham.
John Blundell first came to national attention while an undergraduate becoming national vice chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students; campaigning for Mrs Margaret Thatcher MP to become leader of the opposition; and writing a strong repudiation of compulsory student unions for The Daily Telegraph.
On graduation John rapidly became deeply involved in campaigning for the self employed, small business community through the National Federation of Self Employed, today called the Federation of Small Business or FSB. It’s hard for us now to recall that in the 1970s there were people in public life who wished to “destroy the capacity to pursue self-employment”.
John also fought against the far left for four years as a Lambeth Borough Councillor during the reign of “Red” Ted Knight and witnessed the birth of New Labour first hand in the form of Councillor Peter Mandelson’s impassioned speeches.
Today the FSB openly acknowledges John’s key role in building its reputation in press, parliamentary and scholarly/intellectual circles by his relentless attacks on the myths of the day. John himself is very proud of his role in introducing the Federation to the idea of group legal insurance. Over the past 25 years many tens of thousands of small businesses have been helped under this programme; it is even said that the Federation’s symbol on a small businessman’s door makes government inspectors back away.