Samuel Brittan

Sir Samuel Brittan (born 29 December 1933) has been a columnist with the Financial Times since 1966.‘BRITTAN, Sir Samuel’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008 [Accessed 9 October 2009] He is a committed neoliberal and was tutored by the free market fundamentalist Milton Friedman during the year he spent at Cambridge. Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (University of Chicago Press, 1999) p.475
The media scholar Tom O'Malley notes that Brittan was one of several journalists involved in promoting neoliberal ideas during the 1960s and 1970s who would 'later play an active part in debates over broadcasting and the BBC in the 1980s'. Tom O'Malley, Closedown?: The BBC and Government Broadcasting Policy 1979-92 (London: Pluto Press, 1994) p.17 Brittan was appointed to the Committee on Financing the BBC, better known as the Peacock Committee, by his brother, the Home Secretary Leon Brittan.Tom O'Malley, Closedown?: The BBC and Government Broadcasting Policy 1979-92 (London: Pluto Press, 1994) p.18 Chris Horrie and Steve Clarke note that whilst the committee was conducting its inquiry, Samuel Brittan was close contact with the fellow financial journalist and neoliberal ideologue Peter Jay:
Brittan had developed his theories with Peter Jay, the former economics editor of The Times and presenter of LWT’s Weekend World. Jay was not on the committee, but had strong thought of his own on the future of television. He and Brittan were to spend long sessions together at Jay’s Ealing home, effectively forming their own private committee, and wildly exceeding Peacock’s original brief. Chris Horrie and Steve Clarke, Fuzzy Monsters – Fear and Loathing at the BBC (London: William Heinemann, 1994) p.37
Brittan wrote that he and Alan Peacock 'were inclined towards market provision of goods and services and... had been stimulated by Peter Jay's writings.' quoted in Tom O'Malley, Closedown?: The BBC and Government Broadcasting Policy 1979-92 (London: Pluto Press, 1994) p.92 The BBC Director-General Alasdair Milne wrote in his memoires that when Jay gave his testimony to the Committee, 'Sam Brittan smiled like a Cheshire cat.' Alisdair Milne, DG: The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster (Hodder and Stoughton, 1989) p.224
After the Committee delivered its report in 1986, Brittan even suggested Jay as one of two possible future chairman of the BBC. Peter Fiddick, 'The case for strong governors', Guardian, 9 September 1986. Brittan's other suggestion was the ITV presenter Alastair Burnet
Brittan wrote a chapter entitled 'The case for the consumer market' in the Institute of Economic Affairs's 1989 publication Freedom in Broadcasting. Samuel Brittan, 'The case for the consumer market', in Cento Veljanovski (ed.), Freedom in Broadcasting (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1989) The collection was edited by Cento Veljanovski (who had advised the Peacock Committee) and also included two chapters by Alan Peacock. Cento Veljanovski (ed.), Freedom in Broadcasting (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1989)
Brittan was knighted in 1993 for 'services to economic journalism'. Samuel Brittan's website, Profile [Accessed 9 October 2009]
==Affiliations==
*Advisory Committee member of the Global Warming Policy Foundation
==Notes==
Brittan, Samuel