This week’s think-tank roundup


by Liam Murray    
August 23, 2008 at 5:48 pm

A weekly roundup of publications, reports, events & articles from the leading UK think tanks.

Welcome to this week’s Think-tank Roundup. This week we have calls to scrap the next census, ‘Policy Exchange do Blade Runner’ and even the suggestion that all this web stuff is slowly throttling the very idea of think-tanks – your correspondent, of course, perishes the thought but that’s this weeks must read so see below. Also this week a series of links for all the main conference and fringe events from the major think-tanks.

As ever please use the comments for anything I’ve missed…

Reports & Publications…

Articles, Speeches & Briefings…

  • The Centre for European Reform has a briefing note by Tomas Valasek entitled “What does the war in Georgia mean for EU foreign policy?”“The war in Georgia divided the European Union instead of uniting it. Some member-states condemned Russia and gave (non-military) aid to the Georgian government; others accused Tbilisi of provoking the war. Their reactions suggest that EU capitals make different assumptions about Moscow’s goals and intentions towards countries on Russia’s borders, and about Europe’s interests in these countries”.
  • Plenty of coverage in the media of course but in case you missed it Shadow Chancellor George Osborne gave a speech to Demos this week “on Fairness”. The speech was to promote a Conservative paper entitled “An Unfair Britain: why Labour have failed on fairness”.
  • The European Council on Foreign Relations released a couple of good commentary pieces on events in Georgia – check out Daniel Korski on why Russia has ultimately strengthened NATO’s hand and Nicu Popescu & Andrew Wilson on why the EU is finally getting to grips with acting like a global player.
  • Scottish Labour leadership candidate Cathy Jamieson argues at the Fabian Society that “Westminster can work for Scotland’s benefit”“I will have no hesitation in raising issues with Westminster, when that is the right thing to do. But I will do so with the intention of finding solutions to problems. Scotland is a forward looking nation, which of course seeks to do the best for its people. Scots should be confident enough in themselves to know that we can still work within the United Kingdom while expressing our own distinctiveness”. (The other candidates will soon contribute online essays too).
  • Also from the Fabian Society a critical look at the LibDems take on addressing social inequality – Stuart White asks “If the LibDems are so committed to challenging social inequality why are they talking about abolishing childtrust funds?”.
  • In an article for IPPR North Michael Johnson takes issue with the controversial Policy Exchange report last week on regeneration in northern cities and likens it to “Blade Runner… had Ridley Scott had a background in town planning”.
  • New Demos director Richard Reeves wrote an article for the Guardian asking if the internet is killing think-tanks“Some are now wondering whether the whole thinktank model is bust. The Labour minister Jim Knight suggests on his Facebook page that thinktanks, “ultimately very elitist top-down institutions populated with very bright people who politicians sometimes seem to sub-contract their thinking to”, are out of date in an era of online networking, blogs and wikipedia. “Network-enabled policymaking” may replace boring old thinktank reports”.

Events & Meetings…

                Post to del.icio.us

· About the author: Liam Murray is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He blogs at Cassilis.

· Other posts by Liam Murray

· Filed under: Blog , Think-tanks , Westminster

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

 
Liberal Conspiracy is the UK's most popular left-of-centre politics blog. Our aim is to re-vitalise the liberal-left through discussion and action. More about us here.

You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
Recent articles across Liberal Conspiracy
LibCon news

8 Comments 18 Comments 15 Comments 20 Comments 9 Comments 26 Comments 57 Comments 67 Comments 2 Comments 48 Comments

click here!



LATEST COMMENTS
» Charlieman posted on Data abuse

» crusade posted on Against multiculturalism

» Dan | thesamovar posted on What brain scans can't teach us

» Lee Griffin posted on Against multiculturalism

» Lee Griffin posted on Vote Pirate Party

» crusade posted on Against multiculturalism

» the a&e charge nurse posted on What brain scans can't teach us

» Charlieman posted on Vote Pirate Party

» the a&e charge nurse posted on What brain scans can't teach us

» 5cc posted on Against multiculturalism

» oldandrew posted on What brain scans can't teach us

» House Democrats poised to enact sweeping health care overhaul posted on Vote Pirate Party

» Shatterface posted on What brain scans can't teach us

» Liberal Conspiracy>> Tory MP attacks Unite after receiving thousands from British Airways « I hate David Cameron posted on Tory MP attacks Unite after receiving thousands from British Airways

» the a&e charge nurse posted on What brain scans can't teach us

  Last 50 // Comments feed