Philip Gould, Baron Gould of Brookwood

Philip Gould, Baron Gould of Brookwood (born 30 March, 1950) is a British political adviser closely linked with the Labour Party and Tony Blair. He was strategy and polling adviser to the party in the General Elections of 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2005. Gould was one of the key architects of the modern communications revolution inside the Labour Party of the 1980s, which resulted in the emergence of New Labour. As such, he was a close colleague of Labour's Director of Communications in the late 1980s, Peter Mandelson, and Alastair Campbell.

Gould studied history at the London School of Economics, where he was taught by the eminent political scientist, Michael Oakeshott. More recently he has returned to the LSE to teach a course in Politics and Communication.

After a career in advertising, and with the success of his wife Gail Rebuck (later CEO of Random House UK), Gould was able to leave and founded his own polling and strategy company, Philip Gould Associates, in 1985. Appointed by Mandelson (a friend from University), Gould recruited the Shadow Communications Agency, a team of communication volunteers, who created Labour's admired, if unsuccessful, 1987 election campaign.

This led to his position of influence within the Labour Party under Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair.

In afterword of his (only) book 'the unfinished revolution' he proposes the amalgamation of the Labour and Liberal Democratic Parties. The purpose of this being the unity of all Anti-conservative forces in Britain. This should facilitate the creation of 'THE PROGRESSIVE CENTURY', 'a century in which progressive politics can take hold, and in which the great majority of working people are helped and supported... not now and again but again and again'. This being in contrast to the previous 'conservative century'.

He was the writer of a leaked memo which, in 2000, described the New Labour brand as being contaminated. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/840440.stm]

He was made a life peer as Baron Gould of Brookwood, of Brookwood in the County of Surrey on 7 June 2004.

He has two daughters, Grace Gould and Georgia Gould.

Works

* Gould, Philip (1999). "The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party" Abacus, ISBN 0-349-11177-4

References

* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/minutes/040719/ldminute.htm Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords] House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 19 July 2004