Robert Oulds

Early life

Oulds was educated at the London Guildhall University, where in 2001 he gained the post-graduate degree of MA in Communications Management. In his final years as a student, from 1998 to 2001, he also worked for London Network Radio, producing sports programmes and commentating live on football matches.

Politics

Since 2002 Oulds has served as a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow, and from 2006 to 2009 was Chairman of its Planning Committee, then for 2009–2010 was the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Education and Children's Services.

He was adopted as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Slough, but was deselected after allegations had appeared in The Sun and The Financial Times regarding firearms offences. The newspapers later had to apologise to Oulds and paid him damages and legal costs. He was then Chairman of the Slough Conservative Association, serving from 2006 to 2008. From 2013 to 2016 he returned to the same role as Chairman of the Brentford and Isleworth Conservative Association, covering the constituency where he is a borough councillor.

Oulds is the Director of the Bruges Group, a think tank which concentrates on the debate about the British relationship with the European Union and the wider world. Set up in February 1989, its inspiration was Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech in September 1988, in which she remarked that, "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level". The Bruges Group's research now aims to promote less centralised European structures than those of the EU and explores a complete restructuring of Britain's relationship with other European countries.

He is the author of Everything you wanted to know about the EU – But were afraid to ask, which discusses key issues to do with Britain and its European Union membership. It explains the costs, the benefits, why the EU is supported, how it works, and why it has the policies it does. The choices for Britain are also looked at as are the issues of how Britain can leave the EU, the way out, the implications of withdrawal, and alternatives to the EU.

Oulds has taken part in many radio and television programmes on European Union issues and the euro crisis.

Military historian

Oulds is the author of Montgomery and the First War on Terror (2012). Bernard Law Montgomery faced guerrilla forces in Ireland in the early 1920s and again in Mandatory Palestine on the eve of the Second World War. The book deals with these parts of his career and also explores the lessons of his successes in those conflicts and how they should be applied in the present-day "War on Terror" in Afghanistan.

In his further book Knife Edge: Montgomery and the Battle of the Bulge, Oulds attempts to puncture myths about the battle, examining controversy surrounding Montgomery's role.

In November 2013 he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Royal British Legion

He is a Standard Bearer and Treasurer for the Chiswick branch of The Royal British Legion (RBL). This is an organisation established to help the welfare of ex-Servicemen and campaign on issues relating to the armed forces. The RBL are also the custodians of the nation's Remembrance services; and they also organise and run the annual Poppy Appeal which raises funds for the aid of Britain's soldiers, sailors and airmen and women as well as their dependents.