Ryan Wain
Biography
One of my earliest memories is my mum telling me: “we want the red haired man to win.”
The red haired man was Neil Kinnock. The year 1992. I think this reveals a resounding truth about me: I am, and have always been political.
That’s not necesarilly a big ‘P’ politics (although I’ve chalked up one failed attempt to become a Labour MP in Merseyside.) Rather it’s the small p politics that surrounds us all.
And if you don’t do politics, it’ll do you.
That’s why I joined the board of Alder Hey Children’s Charity. Because leaving Liverpool for London to study law two decades ago shone a huge spotlight on the inequality between places and deep within our country. An inequality that means there can be a life expectancy gap of 30 years and that children are being treated for preventable diseases.
My journey down the M6 all that time ago made me reflect on my own upbringing – and how grateful I was for this hospital, the jewel in Liverpool’s crown, and the support a guy called Dr Davidson gave me and my family as kid.
My small p politics is a compass that’s taken me on some journey so far. I’m Exeuctive Director of the Tony Blair Institute where we advise 42 leaders aroudn the world and produce policy ideas in Britain.
It’s also what sits behind something you might not know about me: I’ve been on the frontpage of one national newspaper in my life – the Gibraltar Chronicle.
I won’t tell you what for.