David Shutt, who became a Liberal Democrat peer in 2000, died in his home town of Halifax last month. He played a seminal role in the origins of openDemocracy, as it was he who gave it the “go ahead” in his broad, Yorkshire accent.
I did not know him personally but always liked him and want to recount this brief but absolutely vital part of the website’s history as a salute to his lasting influence.
In 1999 I applied to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for a grant to launch ‘Joined Up Thinking’. The project emerged out of the far-reaching constitutional changes being implemented by Tony Blair’s New Labour government. In February 1998 I had sent Blair a short, strong memo setting out why his reforms had to be integrated into a new constitutional settlement. His Chief of Staff, Jonathan Powell, wrote back from 10 Downing Street saying that the Prime Minister “found it extremely helpful and we will give the issue some thought”.
