About Iain
Early years
Iain was born in Cambridge and raised in a working farming family in the Essex village of Ashdon, near Saffron Walden. He attended the local primary school and Saffron Walden County High School in the late 1970s and emerged with A Levels in History, German and Economics. He then studied German , Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, achieving an upper second class degree in 1985.
Career
Upon leaving university Iain spent two years working in Parliament for the then MP for Norwich North, Patrick Thompson, who held the marginal seat of Norwich North. Iain managed his re-election campaign in 1987 where the Conservative majority was increased to more than 7,000.
He then became Public Affairs Manager for the British Ports Federation where he led a campaign to persuade the Thatcher government to repeal the outdated and very damaging National Dock Labour Scheme, which essentially gave dockworkers a job for life. The repeal of this legislation enabled ports like Liverpool Bristol, Tees and Southampton to thrive and it created more than 50,000 new jobs. At the time Iain was quoted as saying: “If I never achieve anything else in my life, I will look back on this as something where I was able to do something really meaningful”. Read more about this here.
In 1990 Iain joined Lloyds List newspaper as a financial journalist, but a year later started a transport consultancy called The Waterfront Partnership, together with a conference organizing company called The Waterfront Conference Company. Five years later he left to start a new bookshop and publishing business, Politico’s. He sold his interest in Politico’s Publishing in 2003 and Politico’s Bookstore in 2006.
In 2006 he became the chief presenter of 18Doughtystreet.com, Britain’s first internet TV station, and two years later formed Biteback Media, which publishes the monthly magazine, Total Politics. Earlier this year he re-entered the world of publishing with the formation of Biteback Publishing, whose first books came off the printing presses in September 2009. Based in Kennington, the companies employ a dozen people.
Voluntary and community work
On behalf of North Norfolk residents Iain secured the free passage to Sri Lanka of a container load of clothing and tents after the 2004 Tsunami, using his contacts in the shipping and ports industry. He was on the Committee for the Macmillan Cancer Relief Parliamentary Tug of War, which raised a six figure sum.
He donated the royalties from two of his books (Memories of Maggie and Memories of the Falklands) to the British Forces Foundation and NSPCC.
In his gap year he worked in a spinal injuries hospital in Germany and was a counsellor on the Nightline Samaritans service at UEA. He is involved with the SURF charity which helps survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. He visited Rwanda with the Conservative action team in 2007.
Iain raised £5,000 for Help for Heroes through a sponsored diet in 2009.
Personal
Iain lives in Tunbridge Wells. He is a 13 handicap golfer, a voracious reader of political and sports biographies and a lover of Audi cars, his iPod and Jack Russells, but not necessarily in that order. His Jack Russell Gio is now eleven years old and was a Battersea rescue puppy. Iain has been a season ticket holder at West Ham United for 17 years (through good times and bad!).
