Andrew Green, Baron Green of Deddington
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2009) |
Sir Andrew Green, KCMG (born 6 August 1941) is a former British diplomat and is the founding chairman of the organization MigrationWatch UK, an organisation concerned with what they view as unacceptably high levels of immigration to the United Kingdom.
Background and education
Green was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and at Magdalene, Cambridge where he read natural sciences and economics.[1] Green then served with the Royal Green Jackets. He learnt Arabic at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Middle East Centre for Arab Studies in the Lebanon.[2]
Diplomatic career
Green joined HM Diplomatic Service in 1965, where he worked for 35 years, spending half his career in the Arab World, where he served in six posts. The remainder of his service was divided between London, Paris, and Washington DC. He was Ambassador to Syria (1991-94) and then Director for the Middle East in the Foreign Office, before finally serving for four and a half years as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He retired in June 2000.
Other work
Since retiring, Green has devoted his time to voluntary work. He is a former Chairman of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British charity seeking to improve health care for Palestinians both in Palestine and the diaspora in refugee camps; a member of the Advisory Board of Concordis, a charity specialising in conflict resolution; a member of the Advisory Board of the Sudan Peace Building Programme, working to rebuild relationships in that war-torn country and is on the board of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organisation which speaks for Christians and others around the world who are suffering persecution for their religious beliefs. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Concordis, a charity specialising in conflict resolution.[3]
MigrationWatch UK
Green is regularly interviewed on British television and radio as a voice opposed to high levels of immigration, in his role as the founding chairman of MigrationWatch UK. Green has said that he first became aware of the issue of immigration when he was the Foreign Secretary's principal adviser on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. At that time he spent two years trying, on the Prime Minister's instructions, to remove from Britain Islamic extremist Mohammad al-Massari but was frustrated by the British courts despite having support from the Prime Minister.[4] In December 2001, having approached David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University, "after reading some of his anti-immigration letters in The Times", Green set up MigrationWatch UK.[5]
Some of Green's former colleagues have stated that they see his views on migration as at odds with some of his other beliefs. William Morris, who works with Green at the Next Century Foundation, has stated:
He has been and always will be one of the great ambassadors, an awesome figure on the Arab stage. The first time we heard him speak for MigrationWatch, soon after his retirement, it was quite a shock. Although I have great respect for him, I have great concern about the consequences of what he is saying.[6]
Similarly, Chris Doyle, head of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, has stated that Green has had "many fans in the Arab world and a distinguished career in the Middle East", and that: "He believes in a just peace for Palestinians but obviously many Palestinians and Arabs will disagree with the views that MigrationWatch expresses".[6]
By contrast, an article by Dean Godson of the centre-right think tank[7] Policy Exchange published in The Times in June 2006 states: "The dramatic change in the terms of the immigration debate over recent months is largely down to the determination and courage of a single individual – Sir Andrew Green, the founder and chairman of MigrationWatch UK. Almost single-handedly, he has rescued the national discourse from the twin inanities of saloon-bar bigotry on the Right and politically correct McCarthyism on the Left".[2]
References
- ^ "Sir Andrew Green". MigrationWatch UK. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ a b Godson, Dean (10 June 2006). "How the immigration barrier rose". The Times. London. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ "Who's who". Concordis International. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- ^ Rayner, Jay (7 January 2007). "Master of the numbers game". The Observer. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
- ^ Orr, Deborah (26 July 2003). "Andrew Green: A very English way of stirring up fear of foreigners". The Independent. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
- ^ a b MacAskill, Ewen (4 November 2005). "Profile: Sir Andrew Green". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
- ^ "The right's 100 most influential: 50-26". Daily Telegraph. London. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2010.