I am a journalist, author and fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies, an independent Think Tank. I have written three books. The first was on South Africa under apartheid, where I lived for a year in the 1980s. I then wrote a history of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s and a memoir of Japan, where I lived for seven years. All three books are largely based on interviews.
Recently, I have written five reports for the Centre for Policy Studies. These have been on Immigration, Management in the NHS, Health Tourism, Children in the Care System and Education – why black Caribbean and white working class boys are failing in school and the workplace. I have also written a report for Civitas on the public and the police. The report focussed on the public perception of the police and the effect of targets and government initiatives on the force. Again, these reports are a combination of research and interviews.
I do my own research and spend about ten months on each report. This has meant interviewing a wide range of people from illegal immigrants, social workers, gang members, foster parents, young people in care, prostitutes, ex members of Special Branch, police sergeants and constables, hospital porters, NHS chief executives, former armed robbers, teachers, drug dealers and many, many more.
Nor is it just interviews – I spend time in the place that I write about. I have hung around hospitals, children’s homes and police stations, been roller disco dancing with a criminal on the run and have befriended two Brixton gang members. I talk to the people who use these services – patients, victims of crime, illegal immigrants, children in the care system and parents and children in inner city schools.
My reports have been serialized in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph and received extensive press coverage. Five have received front page headlines in the Daily Mail. I write Comments for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times and review for the Spectator. I am a regular contributor to TV and radio and have appeared on The Moral Maze, the World Tonight, the Today Programme, Any Questions, the Big Question, News 24 and Sky News amongst others.
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I am a journalist, author and fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies, an independent Think Tank. I have written three books. The first was on South Africa under apartheid, where I lived for a year in the 1980s. I then wrote a history of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s and a memoir of Japan, where I lived for seven years. All three books are largely based on interviews.
Recently, I have written five reports for the Centre for Policy Studies. These have been on Immigration, Management in the NHS, Health Tourism, Children in the Care System and Education – why black Caribbean and white working class boys are failing in school and the workplace. I have also written a report for Civitas on the public and the police. The report focussed on the public perception of the police and the effect of targets and government initiatives on the force. Again, these reports are a combination of research and interviews.
I do my own research and spend about ten months on each report. This has meant interviewing a wide range of people from illegal immigrants, social workers, gang members, foster parents, young people in care, prostitutes, ex members of Special Branch, police sergeants and constables, hospital porters, NHS chief executives, former armed robbers, teachers, drug dealers and many, many more.
Nor is it just interviews – I spend time in the place that I write about. I have hung around hospitals, children’s homes and police stations, been roller disco dancing with a criminal on the run and have befriended two Brixton gang members. I talk to the people who use these services – patients, victims of crime, illegal immigrants, children in the care system and parents and children in inner city schools.
My reports have been serialized in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph and received extensive press coverage. Five have received front page headlines in the Daily Mail. I write Comments for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Times and review for the Spectator. I am a regular contributor to TV and radio and have appeared on The Moral Maze, the World Tonight, the Today Programme, Any Questions, the Big Question, News 24 and Sky News amongst others.