JONATHAN AITKEN’S BLOG FOR MARCH 2009

March was one of the most demanding yet most fulfilling months I can remember. In travel, I made gruelling trips to the US (twice), Moscow and Kazakhstan. The Centre for Social Justice’s Prison Reform Report: Locked Up Potential: A Strategy for Reforming Prisons and Rehabilitating Prisoners was completed and launched, the culmination of 18 months of hard work. I finished my biography of the President of Kazakhstan and delivered it to my publisher, Continuum on time.

1. Other highlights in March included giving four major talks or lectures; receiving a generous prize from Sanford University for my biography John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace and being awarded a munificent grant from the John Templeton Foundation for the future work of Trinity Forum Europe. Quite a month!

2. Locked Up Potential the 273 page report which I chaired at the request of Iain Duncan Smith, the Chairman of CSJ had a positive reception from the media and from interested members of the political community and general public. To obtain an electronic copy of the report click here. To obtain a hard copy please contact Christian Guy:

Email:christian.guy@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
Tel:020 7340 9653
Address:Centre for Social Justice
9 Westminster Palace Gardens,
Artillery Row,
London, SW1P 1RL

3. Media coverage of Locked Up Potential was good. I was interviewed about the report on the Andrew Marr show (BBC 1 March 23^rd) and on numerous radio programmes including Radio 4’s Analysis programme which will be broadcast next month. Several newspapers, both national and provincial, covered the story well. The most favourable (and most surprising!) editorial comment on Locked Up Potential came in a Guardian leader on March 24^th In Praise of Jonathan Aitken and in a cover story in the Guardian’s Society section by Erwin James.My belief in miracles has been strengthened by the Guardian’s reports and comment on Locked Up Potential!

4. The next challenge for Locked Up Potential is to get some or all its principal recommendations for reform debated and implemented. Invitations to speak on the reports are flowing in from all sorts of interesting audiences. More on this in future blogs.

5. My next book Nursultan Nazarbayev and The Making of Kazakhstan will be published in June by Continuum. More in later blogs. Enough to say that I found writing this biography equivalent to unearthing a rich treasure trove of new historical and political material. The real story makes Borat boring!

6. In the US I spoke in Naples, Florida and Birmingham Alabama. The latter event was a lecture to receive the John Pollock award for biography from the Beeson School of Divinity at Sanford University for my John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace.

7. The March issue of American Spectator carried my usual monthly column. The subject was Syria

8. The Trinity Forum Europe (TFE) of which I have been Executive Director since 2006 has been given a new impetus by a generous grant for 2009-10 from the John Templeton Foundation.
We will expand our existing educational programs at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and launch a new Westminster Forum. More in future blogs and on our future TFE website.

9. Other speaking engagements in March included a dinner at Westminster organised by Christian Solidarity Worldwide; a men’s fellowship breakfast at Esher Rugby Club; and a Lent lecture at St George, The Martyr, Holborn.

I have rushed across continents and broadcasting studios far too much in the last four weeks but home life, family life and prayer life have remained strong. Next month and Easter will provide a much needed break for rest and reflection on the challengers of the year ahead.

Jonathan Aitken

FUTURE PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS – APRIL 2009

Monday, April 6 – Speak at first night of Holy Week lectures in St Georges, Tron Glasgow
Wednesday, April 22 – Speak at Alpha Course launch, British Transport Police, Camden
Thursday, April 23 – Speak Oak Hill College