Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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The epidemic of Tory hand in glove
The elite's class solidarity is as impressive as it is depressingly corrupt and amoral, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Dido Harding
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
According to a 2007 Times profile, Dido Harding was “known as an accomplished networker”. Since then Harding’s big breakthroughs, culminating in her key government Coronavirus role, came from people close to David Cameron. Harding went to Oxford with Cameron. In 1995 Harding married John Penrose, who became a Tory MP in 2005 and a junior Minister under Cameron in 2010.
Harding worked at management consultants McKinsey (where she met Penrose) and then at retail firms like Tesco. Her big leap came in 2010 when Harding was the “surprise” choice as Chief Executive of mobile and broadband firm Talk Talk.
Charles Dunstone was the billionaire behind Talk Talk backing Harding’s appointment: he was a former “New Labour”-supporting businessman, but switched allegiance to Cameron (who attended his 2009 wedding). Dunstone became a key member of Cameron’s “Chipping Norton Set.”
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