John Hoskyns (policy advisor)

[1] Prior to this he acted as a policy adviser to her and the Shadow Cabinet from 1975 to 1979, during which time he produced, together with Norman Strauss, a business executive from Unilever, the important "Stepping Stones" report of November 1977.

In 1964 he left to found the Hoskyns Group, an information technology services company in which he was Chairman and Managing Director until 1975.

This work formed a large part of the "Stepping Stones Report", published together with Norman S. Strauss, a business executive from Unilever, in November 1977, created for the Conservative Party, then in opposition.

[citation needed] Thatcher was an admirer of Hoskyns, writing in her autobiography that "John's background was in business and computers; but over and above that experience, he had strong powers of analysis and had helped formulate our economic strategy in Opposition.

[2] Hoskyns was interviewed about Stepping Stones and the rise of Thatcherism in Episode 2 of the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory!

[2] In 2006, Hoskyns attacked the European Union's "out-of-touch politicians, undemocratic institutions, dubious electoral systems and legal processes, financial corruption, creative accounting, secrecy, administrative incompetence, mercantilist instincts, foreign-policy confusion, institutionalised animosity towards the United States and Charlemagne-flavoured delusions of empire.

"[10] At the end of 2011, the release of confidential documents under the UK Government's 30-year rule revealed Hoskyns' thoughts regarding the Liverpool Riots.