Anthony Barnett is the founder of openDemocracy, which he edited from 2001 to 2006. An activist and writer, he was the first co-ordinator of Charter 88, the campaign for a democratic British constitution, from 1988-1995, and co-directed the Convention on Modern Liberty in 2009.

After Iron Britannia he wrote Soviet Freedom (1988) and This Time (1997) and he has co-authored Aftermath (with John Pilger), Town and Country (with Roger Scruton), The Athenian Option (with Peter Carty), and edited and introduced Power and the Throne: the Monarchy Debate (1994). In 2011 he wrote a new introduction to the fiftieth anniversary edition of Raymond Williams’ The Long Revolution.

He is a prolific contributor to openDemocracy, especially on UK politics in its British section OurKingdom; writes for the New Statesman, and conceived the television film England’s Henry Moore.