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'John Douglas Wilson Carswell' (born 1971) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Harwich.

Contents

Biography

Member of Parliament

Publications

External links

Biography

Carswell is the son of two doctors and spent much of his early childhood in Africa where his parents worked amongst some extremely poor communities . His father, Wilson Carswell, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, diagnosed the first confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS in Uganda in the early 1980s and was instrumental in drawing the world's attention to the unfolding pandemic.
Douglas went to St Andrew's School, Turi, in Kenya and then Charterhouse School. He read history at the University of East Anglia and King's College London. He worked in television and in investment management before entering politics. At the 2001 General Election he was the Conservative candidate at Sedgefield, the constituency of the Prime Minister Tony Blair. Carswell reduced Blair's majority by approximately 7,500 votes. In the months before the 2005 General Election, Douglas worked in the Conservative Party's Policy Unit, reporting to David Cameron MP.

Member of Parliament

Carswell was elected to Parliament at the 2005 General Election for the constituency of Harwich defeating the sitting Labour MP Ivan Henderson by 920 votes. Carswell made his maiden speech on 28 June 2005 in the debate on the Identity Cards Bill. [1]. He is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel. Carswell serves on the House of Commons Education Select Committee.
Shortly after entering Parliament, Douglas wrote a publication "Direct Democracy; an agenda for a new model party". This publication has been described by the Spectator Magazine (June 2, 2007) as "one of the founding texts of the new, revitalised Toryism". It sets out much of the thinking that has now become central to the Conservatives under David Cameron MP.
Carswell has also founded a group of like-minded modernisers within the party committed to making localism the core of the Conservative Party's platform.. The Direct Democracy group has been described by The First Post as one of the most influential Tory think tanks.
Dod's political biography describes Douglas as being "Tall and Eurosceptic ... one of his party’s radical thinkers".

Publications

★ ''Direct Democracy – Agenda for a New Model Party'', 13 June 2005. ISBN 1-84275-057-7
The Spectator magazine on 2 June 2007 had this to say about Carswell’s publication Direct Democracy: ''“One of the founding texts of the new, revived Toryism was the 2005 pamphlet Direct Democracy, written by some of the brightest young Conservative thinkers, which argued compellingly that the party should embrace radical localism”.''

★ "Paying for Localism," published by the Adam Smith Institute.

★ Chief author of "The Localist Papers" published by the Centre for Policy Studies, serialised in the Daily Telegraph May - June 2007. [2]

External links

★ Douglas Carswell official site

★ ClactonTV.com local constituency TV site

★ Direct Democracy Douglas Carswell's think tank