National President:- Professor David Marsland

Professor Marsland receives the 1991 Margaret Thatcher Prize

from former British Prime Minister, Mrs (now Baroness) Thatcher. 

ICUT  announces the appointment of a National President,  Professor David Marsland, Emeritus Scholar of Sociology and Health Sciences, Brunel University, London and  Professorial Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Buckingham.Other Accolades- Fellow of the Royal Society of Health, Fellow of the Institute of Supervisory Management, Member of UNESCO Social Sciences Board, Advisor to the British Parliamentary Social Security Committee, Hon. General Secretary of the British Sociological Association; Recipient of the 1991 Margaret Thatcher Award for his writings on freedom and enterprise. Professor Marsland is a distinguished writer, broadcaster and academic commentator, and well known to the worlds of Sociology and Politics where he has made many unique contributions. His litany of books and scholarly papers assumed an increasingly strident challenge to the leftist consensus previously characterising Sociology and Health Studies. The two most recent publications, Seeds of Bankruptcy (1988, Claridge Press) and Welfare or Welfare State? (1996, Macmillans) both questioned excessive reliance on state welfare as well as challenging the worth of traditional and socialist elites. They plot a new direction based on personal initiative, reassertion of the work ethic and transformation of dependency culture to meritocracy, self help and growth. Professor Marsland continues his contributions to debates on welfare, youth and related issues. Originally a man of the British centre-left, he became a key figure in the 1980/90s Radical Society where he joined like-minded academics, politicians and social commentators in embracing the new culture of enterprise, individuality and meritocracy ushered in by Mrs Thatcher's premiership. Professor Marsland holds a healthy distaste for state and private monopolies, and advocates his beliefs with a style that is independent, articulate, even iconoclastic, but always respectful of other viewpoints.ICUT welcomes the arrival of such a distinguished scholar to our ranks. We salute his achievements, we love his style, and we share his distaste for elites and monopolies, especially the current generation of pompous academics and smug bureaucrats running so many of our U.K. universities. Most importantly, we look forward to a fruitful association with this most prodigious and independent-minded of British social thinkers.                    

Welcome aboard, David!