You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
The conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton has been reappointed to his job as chair of the government’s design commission following his sacking.
Sir Roger lost his position at the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission in April, with a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government citing his “unacceptable comments”.
He will now serve as co-chair alongside his initial replacement, Nicholas Boys Smith.
Sir Roger’s departure from the commission followed an interview he gave the New Statesman where he made a number of comments - including some about Chinese people and the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
The New Statesman has since issued a clarification for the way some of the comments were presented, and apologised for the way they were tweeted.
Former housing secretary James Brokenshire wrote to Sir Roger this week regarding his reappointment, saying: “I would be pleased to see you re-appointed back to the commission.”
This came just over a week after he apologised to Sir Roger, writing in a separate letter: “I regret that the decision to remove you from your leadership role within the commission was taken in the way that it was. I am sorry – especially as it was based on a clearly partial report of your thoughts.”