Prospect Magazine has awarded the prize of ‘Think Tank of the Year’ to Policy Exchange. Nicholas Boles has done a fantastic job in making Policy Exchange one of the leading centre right think tanks. Anyone who has read any of their publications will know that it is a think tank that literally throbs with new ideas and often thinks the unthinkable.Accepting the award, Nick Boles said: “We at Policy Exchange are naturally delighted with this award. The UK, and London in particular, is very fortunate to have a policy community second only to the United States. The award is very much in tune with the spirit of the age. A decade ago, the centre-right was demoralised and perceived to be flagging intellectually. The rise of blogs such as Conservative Home and Iain Dale’s Diary, the renewed interest in what the Opposition is saying, and the award of this title are all confirmation that the centre-right is back with a vengeance.”
Quite.
Declaration of interest: I am a proud trustee of Policy Exchange!
5 comments:
I have great problems with the proliferation of pointless bodies like policy exchange . As far as I can discern there real use it to keep fledgling professional politicians away from the rigours of gainful employment and worse still away from the experience of life that might encourage anyone to listen to any of their self regarding piffle . There is a structural problem of exclusion from the political process of tax payers . This group , overwhelmingly the upper working and lower middle classes of which Nic Boles will know next to nothing , are unable to spend their twenties advertising their mental plumage to the party inner circle . The dire straits we have reached was very clearly shown by the tedious and unrepresentative candidates the Conservative party was able to muster for candidature for the Mayoral elections. Bearing in mind that there is an additional bias caused by the ratio of taxpayers to qualified voters not to say voters who are to varying degrees employed by the state ,subsidised by the state and therefore supporters of the state ,and we have a representative crisis. A further negative effect of this priestly caste is the tendency for them to create a language of political discourse that once again excludes truly representative candidates . Much of the material produced is really only statements of the `bleedin` obvious dressed in such fatuous garb.
Years ago a friend of mine and I used to have tactic for attracting the fair sex. It consisted of appearing to exchange interesting conversation and at intervals busting into peels of laughter .The idea was to give the appearance something `going on` .Curiosity and the in-crowd effect would have the effect of creating a social gravity into which we hoped our prey would fall. Considering the obvious disadvantage of physical hideousness under which we laboured I can report good results . It was vital of course that the fact only noise was produced was not obvious .
At bottom this what Nic Boles and his like are up to and what they wish to avoid is actual contact with an electorate expect under the most favourable conditions.
Seeing such a Think Tanker touted as the best the Conservative Party could do to oppose Ken Livingstone I was sufficiently enraged to complete my own Mayoral application .It included the following reference to exactly the magic circle I describe
……`.all mortgage paying families are excluded because they don`t have the time and especially they don’t have the money. That is why the political class as whole can only communicate with us via focus groups.
I have written my plan for London and I will be sending in my application. `
I wonder if the Conservative Party (of which I am an active member ) will see fit to respond . Would anyone be interested to know ?
Does anyone have an idea as to how the ordinary tax payer can avoid being ruled by a privileged elite who ,as one of them told me think of us this way .
` Yes of course you need the salt of the earth but someone’s got to make the policies` This was a Director of a well known Conservative think tank and a personal friend . He is only saying what they are usually thinking in the land of the `Think Tank`. They see themsleves as anatural elite .How pleasant it must be to wander through life under that misapprehension.
Ian `Proud Trustee?` Proud of what excatly?
LITERALLY WATCH: "a think tank that literally throbs with new ideas"
No wonder you're proud... :-)
Policy Exchange is quite similar to Prospect Magazine in its political stance and intellectual attainments. The most unsurprising puff of the year.
there's room for your ideas too newmania.
policy exchange produced compassionate conservatism, which informed Built To Last. I hope you find some of the ideas within these to be more than 'statements of the bleedin' obvious'. or are you dismissing it all out of hand?
if so, let's see your improved version. any ideas are worth a look. just write em down so we can read them. i have no idea whether policy exchange members have mortagages or not. does it really matter?
Tapestry - There is room for an infinite number of ideas until you know which one is right . Then there is room for only one. (To paraphrase CS Lewis)....
You have missed the point but its always a good idea to know you enemy so I will delve a little .
Does it really matter ?Yes . You see we proceed already
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