If media coverage is the way to judge a think-tank s success then there are two winners of this summer s prize for top tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Demos.
The IPPR leaked details of its forthcoming review of political party funding to coincide with the debate on party donations and the union link. The Guardian claimed the IPPR wanted to ban big donations including union affiliations and replace them with individual union branch affiliations. The unions went bonkers at the suggestion and IPPR chief Matthew Taylor was soon penning explanations to concerned union general secretaries. The unions don t just partly fund the Labour Party of course. They also partly fund the IPPR.
Watch out for the IPPR at Labour Party conference this autumn. They ve hired a whole Blackpool hotel for fringe meetings, socialising, and late-night wonkery by the sea.
Demos never lets the silly season go by without a silly story with which to hit the headlines. This year they chose the idea for a fat tax a government tax on fatty food to make us all eat more healthily. The idea is flagged up in a new Demos book Inconvenience Food: The Struggle To Eat Well On A Low Income.
The media proved, once again, that it has the collective memory of a goldfish. The same story hit the headlines in January 2000 after researchers at the university of Birmingham claimed that a fat tax would save 1,000 lives a year.
However the best way to judge a think-tank s success should not be column inches but impact on public policy. And behind the headlines there have been some serious contributions to policy. The King s Fund called for greater support for terminally ill people in a discussion paper called Psychosocial Support For Dying People: What Can Primary Trusts Do?
The Social Market Foundation produced All Aboard: Improving Public Service Accountability by David Leam. This argues that organisations engaged in public service delivery should establish advisory boards of stakeholders if they are to maintain taxpayers confidence. IPPR published Devolution in Practice: Public Policy Differences Within The UK, which argues that politicians should stop complaining about the postcode lottery in services because the logic of devolution is that services will vary in different parts of the UK.
The Fabian Society launched a new website (or should that be Webb site?) at www.fabianglobalforum.net. Fabian Global Forum is a virtual conference where you can read articles on globalisation by leading thinkers, politicians and activists. The Fabians have also begun work on a new commission to examine the role of the monarchy. The commission will make recommendations on ways in which the office of Head of State can better meet the social and political needs of today and the foreseeable future .
Progress wishes all the best to Forethought the Labour Party s brand-new centre for research , drawing on a network of sympathetic researchers and academics. Although not a think-tank in the traditional sense, Forethought will have an important role in shaping the government s agenda.
Those awaiting the re-emergence of the intellectual right might have to wait a little longer. The best the Adam Smith Institute could manage this summer was Chris Woodhead complaining that exams are getting easier (and policemen are looking younger and modern music hasn t any tunes you can whistle, presumably) and a lame diatribe against David Blunkett by that rising star, Peter Lilley.