Anna Coote

Anna Coote (born 1947) is an English writer, editor, policy analyst and policy advocate who is Principal Fellow at the New Economics Foundation. She has been a lifelong political activist in support of civil rights, women's rights, social justice and sustainable development.

Early life: student editor and activist Anna Mary Coote was born on 1 April 1947 to John Coote and Silvia Syson. Her father, then a captain in the [Royal Navy, was frequently reposted, both around the UK and for two years in Washington, D.C., so Anna and her sisters were educated at several different schools.

From 1965, she read Modern History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh, where she edited the student newspaper, The Student. Coote played an important role in bringing about student reforms and the resignation of Malcolm Muggeridge, the Rector of the university, in 1968. The Students' Representative Council (SRC) had passed a motion calling on the Student Health Service to provide the contraceptive pill to female students on request and to provide free information on contraception. The next issue of The Student called on Muggeridge to support the SRC's demand. Muggeridge attacked the motion for promoting promiscuity and announced his resignation from the pulpit of St Giles' Cathedral in January 1968.

Working and political life

1968–79: journalist and author

Coote left Edinburgh early with an Ordinary degree to work as a journalist at The Observer newspaper from 1968 to 1971. In 1971, she became staff writer on Ink, an alternative weekly newspaper founded by Richard Neville. At Ink, she covered the six-week-long Oz trial, in which Neville and his co-editors of the British underground magazine Oz were prosecuted on three charges, including obscenity. She then became a freelance journalist, contributing to the Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and other newspapers and magazines.

This period saw her involvement in civil rights, the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) and the emerging women's movement. She co-founded Women's Report, a weekly feminist newspaper, and co-authored two Penguin guides, to Civil Liberty in 1972 and Women's Rights in 1974 .

1978–89: editor and campaigner

Coote was appointed Deputy Editor of the New Statesman from 1978 to 1982. In 1982, she published with Beatrix Campbell a history of women's liberation in the 1970s, an account of its achievements and failures and a strategy for the future.

In 1982, Coote and Tess Gill came to prominence in the El Vino case. They were the first to successfully challenge the policy of the El Vino wine bar in Fleet Street, London, of not serving women at the bar and instead requiring them to order by table service in a back room. Their legal action against El Vino was eventually heard in the Court of Appeal and upheld in November 1982. It was described by The Daily Telegraph as "one of the most celebrated and publicised sex discrimination proceedings" under the Sex Discrimination Act. In 2017, Coote and Gill attended a celebration at El Vino, now under new owners, for the 35th anniversary of the case.

Coote then turned to current affairs television as editor and producer of Diverse Productions from 1982 to 1986. Diverse was set up to pioneer programming on politics and current affairs to the new Channel 4 based on tough journalistic standards. Coote was producer and presenter on current affairs programmes The Friday Alternative and Diverse Reports. In 1987, she worked as columnist on the short-lived left-wing tabloid newspaper, News on Sunday.

1989–2008: director, commissioner, researcher

Since 1989, Coote has been prominent as a researcher, policy analyst and campaigner on a wide range of issues, including social policy, sustainable development, public health policy, public involvement and democratic dialogue, gender and equality. From 1989 to 1998, she was Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). From 1998 to 2004, she was Director of Health Policy at the King's Fund; and from 2005 to 2008, she led the Healthcare Commission's work on engaging patients and the public.

Her publications during this period covered a wide spread of topics, including the potential of citizens' juries, the politics of gender, social rights, and inequalities in health.

In 2000, Coote was appointed a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, which role she held until shortly before 2010, when the SDC was abolished by the incoming Coalition government in the "bonfire of quangos". With her brief as Commissioner for Health, she linked health issues with broader sustainable development concerns.

2008–2025: eco-social policy researcher and campaigner

In 2008, Coote joined the New Economics Foundation (NEF) as Head of Social Policy and later Principal Fellow.

In 2012, Coote put forward the target of a 21-hour or three-day work week. The New Economics Foundation stated that this would provide a better work-life balance, would better balance work hours across the population and would help towards a more sustainable and less carbon-dependent economy. It initiated the campaign for universal basic services, as an alternative to Universal Basic Income, a debate that continues across Europe. In 2021, the campaign was renamed The Social Guarantee.

In 2023, she was invited to present this work at the Beyond Growth conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. This gathering of 2,000 people over three full days attracted diverse reactions: "Meet the lefty Europeans who want to shrink the economy" (The Economist) and "a milestone moment on the road to transformation" (Partners for a New Economy).

Honours and citations

Honorary DLitt, University of Bath, 1999 Commissioner for Health, UK Sustainable Development Commission, 2000–2009

Selected publications

1972. Civil Liberty: The NCCL Guide (with Lawrence Grant) 1974. Women's Rights: A Practical Guide (with Tess Gill) 1982. Sweet Freedom: Struggle for Women’s Liberation (with Beatrix Campbell) 1990. Power and Prejudice: Women and Politics (with Polly Pattullo) 1992. The Welfare of Citizens: Developing new social rights (editor) 1997. Citizens' Juries: Theory into Practice (with Jo Lenaghan) 2000. New Gender Agenda (editor) 2013. The Prevention Papers (editor, with Mike Harris) 2013. Time On Our Side: Why We All Need a Shorter Working Week (editor, with Jane Franklin) 2020. The Case for Universal Basic Services (with Andrew Percy) 2020. The Case for a Four Day Week (with Aidan Harper and Alfie Stirling) 2023. The Case for a Social Guarantee: Universal access to life’s essentials