Britain's most influential policy wonks
Posted on 5 February 2006
Over the past two years there has been a huge realignment in terms of who's hot in the UK think tank world. Many of the hip-and-trendy Third Way thinkers from the late 90s have bowed or fizzled out. So who are Britain's most influential wonks at the moment?
I'm told that some officials at Britain's Treasury have started the Matthew Elliott game, consisting of a dart board with Elliott's face on its front. As chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, he's often critical of Gordon Brown's department. In creating a grassroots movement for lower and flatter taxes, he's become a heavyweight political force to be reckoned with and his Bumper Book of Government Waste is a challenging guide for future reform. Newspapers love him.
Nicholas Boles (pcitured) is part of the Notting Hill Set of Conservatives surrounding Tory leader David Cameron. The think tank he founded, Policy Exchange, very much sets the ethos of the Cameron leadership, and publications from Boles's organisation are very likely to be adopted by Cameron as Tory policy. A future Cabinet minister.
Jack Thurston is a Senior Research Associate at the Foreign Policy Centre and a Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He's hot because of his work on the Common Agricultural Policy and he is one of the most listened to figures in Whitehall on agricultural issues. We especially like him because of a rumour that his masters thesis was on Richard Cobden.
Tim Montgomerie (pictured) runs ConservativeHome and is key figure at the Centre for Social Justice. Hundreds of Parliamentarians read ConservativeHome every morning - its articles are avidly discussed over toasted teacakes in the Palace of Westminster.
The bow-tie wearing Madsen Pirie was father of privatisation in the 80s. John Major's official biographer wrote that Pirie was one of only two intellects Major respected. Pirie, the godfather of the think tank world, is still slogging away - the Adam Smith Institute, which he co-directs, has had a couple of significant recent successes: getting nuclear back on the government's agenda and introducing Flat Tax into the British debate. Has a good working relationship with Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne.
Andrew Haldenby is the respectable and polite boss of Reform, the public services campaign group. Haldenby was previously important in the No Euro campaign and at the Centre for Policy Studies. He also, apparently, DJ's at London clubs at the weekend. Reform does the hard grafting for journalists wanting to know exactly what's wrong with Britain's public services.
Open Europe's director Neil O'Brien is the man people turn to about Europe's economic competitiveness (or lack thereof). He talks about Europe in a sensible way, but the Treasury hates him for pointing out the failure of the government's EU presidency. A master at getting media coverage.
Ones to watch for next year: John Butters from Civitas and Corin Taylor from Reform.