Pass notes No 2,921: Lord Wei

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Pass notes No 2,921: Lord Wei

Now the Big Society tsar is cutting down his hours he can spend more time on the council estate where he lives

Age: 34.

Full name: Nathanael Ming-Yan Wei, but prefers to be called Nat Wei.

Title: Baron Wei of Shoreditch in the London borough of Hackney.

He's young for a peer. Lord Wei is the youngest person in the Lords.

How did he get there at so tender an age? By being the perfect modern Conservative. He was chosen by David Cameron to spearhead the drive towards the "big society".

Good for him. Indeed, though a small problem has arisen.

Go on. Lord Wei has decided he can't afford to spend three days a week promoting the big society without being paid. All the volunteering is getting in the way of having a life, so he's cutting down to two.

Is that not a trifle embarrassing for the government? Its critics certainly think so. "Big society tsar exposes big society sham," crowed one pro-Labour website.

He sounds an intriguing figure. Where was he born? Watford.

Oh. Went to school in Milton Keynes, studied French and German at Oxford, then became a management consultant with McKinseys before seeing the light.

What light? The light of the big society. "I could have become a partner and been much better off financially, but I wanted to be a social entrepreneur." He was a founding member of the charity Teach First, which trains high-flyers as inner-city teachers.

What inspired the switch? Christianity. His father was a pastor, and his hero is Victorian philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury, after whom his private consultancy the Shaftesbury Partnership and his second son are named.

The poor child is called Shaftesbury? No, Micah Anthony. Micah after the book in the Old Testament; Anthony after the philanthropic earl.

Thank God for that. Indeed, especially as the Weis live on a council estate in Shoreditch, where the name Shaftesbury might seem a little r�cherch�.

A peer on a council estate in Shoreditch? That's his manor.Do say: "Where there's a will there's a Wei."

Don't say: "Sorry, I really haven't got time to do a 'Don't say'. Make one up yourself."

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