The David Martin Jones Memorial Prize

David Martin Jones (1950-2024) was a founding editor of Cieo and one of the most original and independent-minded thinkers of his generation. Not only was he a fine political theorist with a vast array of publications to his name, but he was one of the few intellectuals who, at the end of the Cold War, saw where the pre-woke impulses in academia and public discourse were heading.

From the 1990s until his untimely death in April 2024, David’s work relentlessly exposed the dangers and pretensions of the cult of radical progressivism that he discerned was corroding Western thought. He perceived the damaging impact this ‘new political religion’ – as he termed it – was having upon politics and public life, and how it was manifesting in national and cultural nihilism, the misidentification of threats at home, disastrous military adventurism abroad, the failures of multiculturalism, as well as elite arrogance and incompetence. Saying these things in the current era is not necessarily controversial, when they are clearly observable all around us; saying these things in the 1990s and early 2000s, decidedly was.

Writing in The Spectator Australia, D.L. Dusenbury states that David’s thinking often ‘put him several disastrous decades ahead of most political commentators – and politicians – in the West’. Yet his prescience was not rewarded with honours, public notoriety or chairs in political philosophy at prestigious universities but more often with silence and exclusion. David was a truth-seeker who kept the flame of sceptical dissent alive between the 1990s and 2020s, often when to be such a sceptic was deeply unfashionable even in more conservative circles.

For David, describing the world as it is, rather than how it ought to be, was far more important than the shallow careerism or cheap moral posturing that advances many academic careers. He was prepared to travel the lonely path of truth-telling. In doing so, he provides the intellectual bridge between thinkers like Roger Scruton in the 1970s and 1980s, and the more prominent anti-authoritarian voices in the present. This is where his intellectual legacy resides and it is work in this space which Cieo is now looking to celebrate.

We are grateful to Kelvin Bryon for generously supporting the David Martin Jones Memorial Prize both intellectually and financially. As fellow Welshmen, Kelvin and David shared not just a love of their birthplace and frustration with their nation’s antics on the rugby field but a deep desire to see political reform and prosperity in Wales. Repeatedly challenging conventional thinking can take a heavy toll but Kelvin’s unwavering encouragement makes the task far easier for all of us at Cieo.

We are looking to reward essays that carry forward David’s legacy of truth-telling, shrewd analysis and sceptical dissent. There are no questions to answer or titles to work round: we want entrants to explore topics they think are most in need of rigorous critique. Finalists will present bold, original arguments that are intellectually substantial and stylistically creative. 

The winner will receive a prize of £1000 and have their work published at Cieo. At the judges’ discretion, a small number of runners-up may be awarded £250 and the opportunity to have their work published.

• This competition is open to current students, recent graduates or people under the age of 25. Entries will be accepted from people in any country but must be written in English.

• Essays must be between 2000 and 3000 words in length including title, footnotes and references. Essays must be the original work of the author and only one entry per person is allowed. Please ensure that pages are numbered and that references are provided in a standard format.

• Entrants must provide a cover sheet indicating their name, contact details and essay title, along with a brief biography. Personal details must not appear on any other page of the essay. This cover sheet is not included in the essay’s word length.

• The deadline for entries is 11.59pm UTC on 30/11/24. No late entries will be accepted. Winners will be announced by 15/01/25. The judges’ decision is final.

• Essays must be submitted to info@cieo.org.uk with the subject line: DMJ Essay Competition. The essay should be attached to the email as a Word (or similar) document and not as a pdf.

• For further information please email joanna.williams@cieo.org.uk.