Think-tank Roundup 18 - 18th July 2008

From the desk of cassilis ·July 18, 2008 at 12:35 pm · Filed under All WW, Blog Roundups, Media, Politics, Review

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

This week’s ‘must read’ item is the Theos report on the role of Christianity in Britain today, more details below. Other than that enjoy and as ever please flag anything I may have missed. Also if anyone would like to be included in the email version please let me know…

Reports & Publications…

• Liberal think-tank CentreForum published a report on Academies and the future or state education – ‘Featuring a foreword from Schools Minister Andrew Adonis, this collection brings together the leaders of some of the most successful academies to explain how they have made these previously failing schools so popular with parents’.
• The Foreign Policy Centre published ‘Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews’ - a ‘series of conversations about the dilemmas of progressive foreign policy after 9/11’ edited by Alan Johnson.
• The Hansard Society have published a report called “Law in the Making: Influence and Change in the Legislative Process”. The report “analyses the influences and elements that come together in making an act of Parliament. It looks at the role of external actors such as, the media, voluntary organisations, governmental bodies, professional associations and businesses, as well as Parliament and government departments in the process of making the law”. Note: this report isn’t available for free download but can be ordered here.
• The Institute of Economic Affairs published “The Economics of Fair Trade: A Christian Perspective” – arguing that the promotion of fair trade in schools ‘has often degenerated into crude anti-capitalist propaganda’.
• The New Local Government Network weigh in on the topic of the moment with a report entitled ‘Gangs at the Grassroots: Community solutions to street violence’. Author Anthony Brand warns the Government to “avoid using centralised policies to tackle gang violence and knife crime” and allow local areas “to introduce interventions based on local factors”
• Theos, the ‘public theology think tank’ published “Neither Private nor Privileged: The Role of Christianity in Britain Today”. The report “rejects calls to privatise religious faith but insists that the nature of the church’s involvement with government should differ according to the ‘moral orientations’ of the state at any given time”
• Reform launched a report called “A New Reality: Government and the IPOD generation”. Reform have dubbed 18 to 34 year olds the ‘IPODs’ because they are ‘Insecure, Pressurised, Over-taxed and Debt-ridden’ and this report aims to ‘understand what kind of government IPODs want to see and the relationship they want to have with government’.

Articles & Briefings…

• Shadow Chancellor George Osborne delivered the Centre for Policy Studies’ 2008 Annual Lecture. Speaking on the long-term economic goals of a future Conservative administration he set out the now familiar themes of our ‘broken society’ and achieving progressive ends via conservative means.
• With an extract from the next review Fabian Society director Tom Hampson ignited a row around the use of the word ‘chav’ and whether or not it’s discriminatory and insulting. Also from the Fabian Society a speech by Pensions Minister Mike O’Brien of the five big issues presented by an ageing society and how the government might address them.
• An IPPR press release suggested the ‘public are more receptive to Personal Carbon Trading than policy makers believe’. Senior Research Fellow Matthew Lockwood says ‘our research show that the public may be more receptive to PCT than other proposals and suggests politicians should give serious consideration to this option’.
• On CiF on Saturday IPPR visiting Fellow Michael Kenny took issue with iPod Democracy and Hazel Blears community white paper.
• Niall Dickson at the Kings Fund looks at ‘Making Darzi’s vision a reality’ – “The history of NHS reform is littered with good intentions – there have been countless attempts to make the service more efficient, more responsive and providing higher standards of care. The stumbling block has often been in translating high ambitions into tangible results.”
• At Compass Jonathan Rutherford looks at how the debate on fatherhood is taking centre stage in politics again.

Events & Meetings…

• The Bow Group are hosting a discussion on the Value of War Reporting with guest speaker Professor Jake Lynch, ex-BBC reporter and presenter, on Monday 21st July 2008 at 6:30pm. Contact SHORTHOUSER@parliament.uk for details.
• The RSA & the Encyclopaedia Britannica are hosting a debate called “Do schoolchildren and students know how to research?” – “In the age of user-generated content and the instant search result, how can we encourage critical analysis of the ‘wisdom of crowds’? How can we help young people in the education system towards the platform of intellectual confidence that is a characteristic of growing up and underpins all contributory citizenship?” The debate is on Monday 22nd July @ 18.00 and you can book here.

People…

• ·Richard Reeves replaces Catherine Fieschi as Director at Demos. Richard is a former director of futures at The Work Foundation and has worked as an economics and social affairs journalist for both The Guardian and The Observer. He’s also the author of ‘John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand’, an intellectual biography of the liberal philosopher.

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Cassilis’ Think Tank Roundup … Friday 4th July 2008

From the desk of cassilis ·July 4, 2008 at 1:10 pm · Filed under All WW, Blog Roundups, Media, Politics, Review

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

Even although I’m now having to leave out as much as I’m putting in (see below) I’m conscious this is still quite a lengthy read (certainly by the standard of most blog posts). So each week I’ll flag a ‘must read’ item for those who don’t have the time to read the full post let alone the content it highlights - an entirely subjective choice on my part of course but I’ll endeavour to be as fair and non-partisan about that choice as I can. This week it has to be the Joseph Rowntree paper “A minimum income standard for Britain: What people think”, touching as it does on issues of relative v’s absolute poverty and making judgements about income levels needed to ‘participate in society’…

Reports & Publications…

• The Centre for Policy Studies published a paper in defence of Faith schools by Cristina Odone entitled “Bad Faith” - “Today’s class warriors are bent on portraying faith schools as boutique education, the exclusive preserves of pushy middleclass parents. Yet for low-income parents, these schools represent the only way their children can be taught the faith that their own family holds dear. Would a government that prides itself on its egalitarian instincts block opportunities for the poor while securing them exclusively for the rich?”·
• The Centre for European Reform published essay by Daniel Keohane and Tomas Valasek called “Willing and able? EU defence in 2020” - Tomas & Daniel ask if with Europeans increasingly turning to the EU when in need of troops for peacekeeping or for delivering humanitarian aid will the EU be able to keep up with the demand?
• Matthew Lockwood at the IPPR published a paper called “After the Coal Rush: Assessing policy options for coal-fired electricity generation”.
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation published “A minimum income standard for Britain: What people think” - Julia Unwin, Director of the JRF said “This research is designed to encourage debate, and to start building a public consensus about what level of income no-one should have to live below. Of course, everyone has their own views about what items in a family budget are ‘essential’. But this is the best effort to date to enable ordinary people to discuss and agree what all households should be able to afford”
• The Social Market Foundation has an interesting paper from Jessica Prendergrast entitled “Disconnected Citizens: Is Community Empowerment the Solution?”
• Professor Kenneth Minogue has published a paper for The Bruges Group called “Are the British a Servile People? Idealism and the EU” – “At the heart of the matter, Professor Minogue argues, is the curious form of idealism that disdains pride in Britain and British culture, preferring to give allegiance to a far more vaguely defined ideology of internationalism. This rejection of national sovereignty, and the subsequent embracing of unaccountable transnational institutions, as advocated by our political establishment, has led to the British people submitting to more and more authority which comes dressed as virtue”
• The Work Foundation published a paper by Rebecca Fauth and Alana McVerry entitled “Can ‘good work’ keep employees healthy? Evidence from across the EU”

Articles & Briefings…

• The Fawcett Society, in an article to appear in the New Statesman, mark the 80th anniversary of The Equal Franchise Act with an article condemning the impact of the ‘supersexualise me’ culture on women’s citizenship.
• Sophie Moullin, Reseach Fellow at the IPPR published an article in Progress called “Tackling social care presents progressives with an opportunity to carve out new territory”
• At Compass Adam Lent, Head of Economic and Social Affairs at the TUC, argues that it’s ‘Time to Defend Tax’ -“genuine progressives need to be very wary that with the electoral balance shifting rightwards, the possibility of the current erosion of fair taxation turning into a full-scale assault may not be far off… Without a concerted and well-backed campaign to defend progressive taxation, the consequences for social justice will be severe.”

Events & Meetings…

• On Wed 16th July Centre Forum are holding an invitation only event on ‘Academies and future of state education’. Speakers will include Lord Adonis, David Laws MP and Michael Gove MP. Please telephone 020 7340 1160 for more information.
• Demos are hosting an open discussion at the Southwark Lido entitled “Changing the settings, changing politics” on Tuesday, 8th July 2008 at the Southwark Lido. The panel will be addressing the need for politicians to seek new platforms for engaging with citizens and more details are available via email from seminars@demos.co.uk.
• Demos will also host a debate at IslamExpo this year about the threat of Islamist extremism. “The Islamist Threat: Myth or reality?” will take place on Saturday, 12th July 2008 at 5:30pm – more details here.
• Lib Dem Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable MP will be giving the Annual Institute for Fiscal Studies Lecture – “Economic policy lessons from the disappearing decade of stability” – on Monday 7th July at Bloomberg LP.
• Policy Exchange have a launch event on Monday 7th July for “Out of sight, Out of mind: The state of mental healthcare in prison” - speakers include Lord Ramsbotham (Former Chief Inspector of Prisons) and Edward Garnier QC MP (Shadow Prisons Minister). Contact events@policyexchange.org.uk for more details.

As always please flag anything worthy I might have missed. As hinted above I’m now getting regular contact from some of the major think tanks keen to both flag content they want me to highlight and asking for copies of the roundup. To that end I’m going to start issuing an email version among key players (God, I’ve been reading too much of this stuff) in the think tanks and public research bodies. If anyone would like to be included in the email version please let me know over at my blog…

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Restaurant 2.0: Wiki Wiki Teriyaki (and a Tatsuso story)

From the desk of admin ·July 2, 2008 at 5:00 pm · Filed under All WW, Miscellaneous, Relaxation, Review

I picked up this link to Andy Carvin via Jeff Jarvis. Jeff has been reflecting on what will a restaurant look like in the Google age.

Andy reported on the Wiki Wiki restaurant in Austin, Texas.

User generated restaurant 2.0

This is the coolest restaurant. It’s called Wiki Wiki Teriyaki, and it’s in Austin, a few blocks from the convention center.

Rather than having a set menu, they just have a bunch of ingredients and invite you to bring your own. The diners, who call themselves “recipedians,” get to put together their own recipes and have them cooked. Other diners can then build on each other’s recipes and discuss them, creating a seemingly limitless array of recipes. Soon they’ll add ratings and tags to make it easier for diners to parse their options.

Unfortunately it is just an imaginative speculation - but who knows what might happen?

Read the rest of this entry »

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Reflections on Creating Community Online

From the desk of admin ·July 1, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under All WW, Comment, Media, Political Blogging, Review, Thinking

There’s an interesting conversation about the difficulty of creating community online at adam Tinworth’s blog, and what the word means. The article is about “Why Media Gets Community Wrong”. Adam is in a good position to comment, since he is responsible for a number of blogs on behalf of Reed Business Information.

This bears on the continuing conversation about campaigning coalitions of bloggers at Liberal Conspiracy, here and also elsewhere.

Adam comments about one of the possible reasons why some people in the media don’t “get” blogging:

Most media people don’t realise that blogging is a community strategy. They think of it as a publishing process and, perhaps, as articles published with a particular tone of voice. They certainly don’t think of it as a conversation.

What is online community?

In a discussion about the use of online forums, Adam concludes:

Here’s what I believe:

Community is not a place. Community is an approach to publishing.

I disagree on this point. The phrase “Approach to Publishing” makes me think of systems, procedures and philosophies; these are all too mechanistic. Community is none of these things - it is a set of relationships between people who have something in common. It gets interesting when communities decide to do things together - all sorts of things happen, and each group develops it’s own “natural” dynamics that affect or even control where the founders or leaders can take it.

I do agree with him on the need to interact continually with blog readers, though:

To really, genuinely engage with your readers you have to embed it in everything you publish to some degree.

I think that blogging is a network strategy, not a community one. The difference is that networks are more ephemeral than communities. The latter become settled relationships. For all the interaction around blogs, it takes more than a couple of comments to create a relationship.

Comments can create acquaintances, or even allies; but to create community requires much more to be held in common - which may develop over a longer term, through common aims, or through shared membership of a political party or other body.

Further, communities can develop around a blog, but that is not because of the act of reading - rather it is because a consistent group of readers have got to know each other over a period of time.

You can read Adam’s article in full here, with a good comment thread.

It is their community, not yours

The single most important point about an online community is that it belongs to the members of the community, not to the owner of the website. This is counterintuitive for some, but the members - as a whole - invest many times the amount of time in the group than does the host.

I’ll wrap-up with part of a comment I made on the article linked above:

You can provide a meeting place and be the host; you can be affable and friendly and make people feel at home; you can attempt to guide the agenda by providing expertise, advice and services; you can attempt to identify the values and focus of the group of people; you can be the “warden” and the “janitor”.

Community is a set of human relationships between a set of people. Community will happen when a number of people come to your “hearth” (to borrow a Viking concept) and begin to build relationships with each other. The most important point is that it belongs to “them” not to you - even on your server.

And two web references for further reading:

• A thread from Daily Blog Tips about implementing an online forum.
• And what happens when you forget that it is their community, not yours.

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Britblog Roundup #175 Audio Podcast by The Chameleon

From the desk of admin ·June 30, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Audio, Blog Roundups, Britblog Roundup Podcast, Media, Review

I forgot to post the audio of Britblog Roundup No. 175 last week (23-Jun-2008), it is hosted at Redemption Blues , so here’s a bonus to have with your morning coffee.

5 minute spot on Radio 5 Live 24 June 208:

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For the full Pods and Blogs Roundup to download, visit Chris Vallance’s site.

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This weeks Think Tank Roundup…

From the desk of cassilis ·June 27, 2008 at 2:45 pm · Filed under All WW, Blog Roundups, Media, Politics, Review

As promised last week I’ve ditched the classification into left & right and decided to break things down slightly differently into three sections - I’ll highlight any formal reports and publications issued, articles / briefings or blogposts from their own sites or in the MSM and finally public events or debates that might be of interest. If there are any significant personnel changes among the major players I’ll highlight those as well.

Reports & Publications…

• The Centre for Policy Studies published a paper by Tony Lodge, ‘Wind Chill’, on the limits of wind power in terms of plugging the UK’ energy gap.
• The Institute of Economic Affairs published ‘Sixty Years On - Who Cares for the NHS’, a fascinating paper on the risks politicians face proposing anything remotely radical about the NHS - “Elite opinion does not, as yet, warm to a free market in healthcare. Although aspects of a market-based system are accepted, ideas of ‘market failure’ loom large - especially amongst the political class. Nevertheless, the author shows how some groups of opinion formers are prepared to be more radical. These groups, she believes, may in time be effective in promoting a vision of a market in healthcare that is free from government interference and from the stifling power of government-granted professional monopolies”
• The IPPR published a paper by Jane Midgley on ‘How the UK should respond to food policy challenges’
• Two publications from the New Local Government Network worth highlighting. The first - “Healthy Places: Bonds that bind local government and primary care trusts” looks at the options for further devolution within the health service and how it could improve service delivery. The second - “Directly Elected, Direct Results” - calls for an expansion in the directly elected mayoral model with powers over local police, transport and health services. (joint venture with the IPPR)

Articles, briefings and blogs…

• A couple of worthwhile things from the Adam Smith Institute - Dr Eamonn Butler reports on the last ASI power lunch with Jeremy Hunt, the Conservatives Culture spokesman where the theme was ‘Policy for the Google Generation’ - “Technology, in other words, can enable us to decentralize public services and empower private or voluntary groups to deliver things better, quicker, and more locally. It enables millions of people to get involved in service delivery, where before it was run by an elite few”
• Senior Fellow at the ASI Dr Terence Kealey had an article in Wednesday’s Telegraph responding to criticisms of British universities made by Peter Williams, chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).
• On the Civitas Blog James Gubb profiles Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent’s book ‘Licensed to Hug’ - “The dramatic escalation of child protection measures has succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations and creating an atmosphere of suspicion that actually increases the risks to children”
• Director General of the IEA John Blundell had a piece in the Scotsman on ‘The simple way to attract more taxpayers and raise more tax revenue’
• Progress carried an unusually upbeat assessment of Labour’s electoral prospects.

Events & Meetings…

• The Adam Smith Institute are hosting a Westminster power lunch with Andrew Mitchell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, on 8th July. For more information or an invitation, contact Steve at steve@adamsmith.org or on 020 7222 4995
• Demos have a couple of interesting events coming up. On Mon 30th June at Demos they have a panel discussion on ‘Democracy: Crisis & Renewal’ - “In Europe and worldwide, political systems are facing a crisis of disaffection and disengagement. How we deal with this crisis will determine the fate of liberal democratic systems everywhere, and of the European Union in particular”. To attend e-mail seminars@demos.co.uk, with the title ‘Democracy’ and places are limited.
• Also from Demos at Church House in Westminster next Wednesday ‘Is it Time for Tax Justice?’ - an open discussion on justice in the tax system with Polly Toynbee, Peter Hain & Brendan Barber among others. As always space is limited but to attend email mailto:taxjustice@tuc.org.uk or call 020 7467 1204. I wonder how many bloggers who enjoy attacking Polly T from the safety of their keyboards will have the courage to go along to liven things up…?
• The Fabian Society have a round table policy seminar focusing on the big picture health policy themes for the next 30 years - attendees include Geoff Mulgan, Julian LeGrand and Mary Creagh MP. The event will take place at 8.30am on Monday 30th June in the Bazalgette Room at 1 Great George Street - contact Ed.Wallis@fabian-society.org.uk
• The IEA are having a Founders Day Party on Thursday 3rd July - celebrating the lives and accomplishments of the four men who founded and built the IEA: F A Hayek, Sir Antony Fisher, Lord Harris of High Cross and Dr Arthur Seldon CBE. Contact iea@iea.org.uk or 020 7799 8900 for details.
• The IPPR are hosting a seminar entitled “English Questions: Towards a new policy agenda for England.” next Wednesday exploring the key political and constitutional challenges facing England. For more information contact Holly Andrew at h.andrew@ippr.org or phone 020 7470 6129.
• The Policy Exchange is hosting a discussion on the rising cost of living and what the Government can do to address associated problems. It’s on 9th July next door to Clutha house and is chaired by the Times’ Danny Finkelstein, the main speaker is Oliver Letwin - contact events@policyexchange.org.uk for details.

As always please flag anything worthy I might have missed….

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Britblog Roundup #174 Audio Podcast by Mr Eugenides

From the desk of admin ·June 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm · Filed under All WW, Audio, Blog Roundups, Britblog Roundup Podcast, Media, News - Current Affairs, Review

I missed the audio podcast last week, and since a third of it was about me I thought I would post it regardless.

The Britblog Roundup No. 174 (15-June-08) from last week is hosted at Mr Eugenides Drinking Den.

5 minute spot on Radio 5 Live 16-June-08:

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Three articles are discussed:

1 - My article about monitoring Mr Mugabe using internet services.

2 - The “spat” between the Bishop of Buckingham (”The Buckinghamshire Boxer”) and David Aaronovitch (”The Proletarian Pugilist”). The Bishop wrote about the Moral but No Compass report. The Pugilist argued in his newspaper that Bishops from Great Missenden shouldn’t be espressing an opinion, and the Bishop bit back. Then they reviewed the Bishop’s blog.

3 - The effort by Associated Press to try and prevent bloggers from quoting AP articles, and the mud-spattering that followed.

For the full Pods and Blogs information, visit Chris Vallance’s site.

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Health and Safety Gone Mad: Crossing Your Drive Safely

From the desk of admin ·June 24, 2008 at 7:22 pm · Filed under All WW, Humour, Review, Video

A very well made Health and SafetySpoof.

I think somebody should get him to make some real videos. If I were him, I’d also rapidly slap a “charge to show at Health and Safety” seminars on it.

The amusement is in the detail.

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