Dr James Noyes

Dr James Noyes is a British writer and policy advisor specialising in the relationship between the state, society and the market. He grew up in Norfolk, attended Norwich School, and studied at the University of Cambridge (Christ’s College) as both an undergraduate and doctoral student. He taught for several years at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in France. He has held senior positions in London think tanks and worked as a speechwriter in the UK Parliament.

He is the author of several influential think-tank reports on soft power, tech regulation and online gambling reform. For this work he was called to give expert evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee. His written output includes the essay The Nanny and Night Watchman (2023, with a foreword by Dominic Lawson) and the book The Politics of Iconoclasm (2016), described by the Times Literary Supplement as a “fearless narrative” and “landmark publication”. In 2016 he was the keynote speaker at the Global Mayors Conference in Florence, Italy. He has written for the New Statesman and the Guardian.

Currently, as Senior Fellow at the Social Market Foundation, Dr Noyes focuses on gambling policy reform, technology regulation, and the relationship between state and market. He is a prominent advocate for a new Gambling Act and has given keynote speeches and parliamentary evidence on the subject. He is currently writing his second book.