David Craig (author)

{{short description|British author|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

David Craig (real name Neil Glass){{cite web |url=http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,1065,double-identity-of-david-davis-challenger,31506 |title=Double identity of David Davis challenger |date=2008-06-16 |work=The First Post: the online daily magazine |accessdate=2008-06-17 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519214949/http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,1065,double-identity-of-david-davis-challenger,31506 |archivedate=2011-05-19 |url-status=dead }} is a British author. He has been a management consultant and in his 2005 book Rip-Off!: the scandalous inside story of the management consulting money machine he criticised the greed and sharp practice of consultants.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2005/jun/19/comment.publicservices |title=Natural born billers |last=Cohen |first=Nick |date=2005-06-19 |work=The Guardian |accessdate=2008-06-17 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227215609/http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/jun/19/comment.publicservices |archivedate=2010-02-27 |url-status=live }} His next book Plundering the Public Sector: how New Labour are letting consultants run off with £70 billion of our money was co-authored by Richard Brooks and addressed consultancy in the public sector.{{cite web |url=http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/333/7561/266?rss |title=Plundering the Public Sector: How New Labour are Letting Consultants Run Off with £70 Billion of our Money |last=Paton |first=Alex |date=2006-07-29 |work=British Medical Journal |accessdate=2008-06-17 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20240525034142/https://www.webcitation.org/5vIB1AseY?url=http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/333/7561/266%3Frss |archivedate=2024-05-25 |url-status=live }} In April 2008 he published Squandered: how Gordon Brown is wasting over one trillion pounds of our money.{{cite web|url=http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10439 |title=Squandered: book review |last=Clark |first=Nick |date=June 2008 |work=Socialist Review |accessdate=2008-06-17 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012054555/http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10439 |archivedate=2009-10-12 |url-status=live }}

He adopted a pseudonym, and created the publishing house "The Original Book Company", to publish Rip-off! after it was turned down by conventional publishers "for fear, he says, that it might upset the wrong people". After it sold 10,000 copies his next two books were published by commercial publisher Constable, but he kept the pseudonym to benefit from the first book's success.

In June 2008 Craig announced that he would stand as a candidate in the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election,{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2141350/A-challenger-for-David-Davis.html |title=A challenger for David Davis |last=Walker |first=Tim |date=2008-06-16 |work=The Telegraph |accessdate=2008-06-17 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205182936/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2141350/A-challenger-for-David-Davis.html |archivedate=2012-02-05 |url-status=live }} but came tenth out of 26 candidates, with 0.6% of the vote; the Conservative party's David Davis won with 71.6%.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7501046.stm|title=Haltemprice and Howden: Result in full |date=11 July 2008|work=BBC News|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=27 July 2023}}