…RUSI. (That’s the Royal United Services Institute).
At the awards ceremony held at King’s College London last night, David Walker heaped praise on RUSI, saying: “there are other strong performers in the field of security and international affairs but this think tank combines strong focus with global reputation, deploying expertise, research and a new rigour in an impressive set of publications and policy interventions.â€
They are also, as Shadow Chancellor George Osborne noted, the only think tank who genuinely “think about tanks.”
Osborne, who presented the awards, emphasised that lively think tanks are invaluable to politicians, and said that they have never been more needed than now. He recalled the depressing lack of good think tanks during the final years of the last Tory government, but noted that today, by contrast, the British could give the Americans a “good run for their money.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, led by Robert Chote, was the runner up; David Walker said the research institute had become a “byword for impartial, authoritative commentary, building bridges between academic and practical knowledge.”
And winner of the think tank publication of the year was “Breakthrough Britain—ending the costs of social breakdown†published by the Centre for Social Justice. The award was accepted by Iain Duncan Smith, who established the think tank in 2004. George Osborne praised his former colleague for the CSJ’s “outstanding work in seeking effective solutions to poverty in the UK.” Osborne was also quick to assure the audience that the award was not a fix.
This year’s judging panel was chaired by David Walker, former editor of Guardian Public, and included Baroness Falkner, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Communities and Local Government in the House of Lords; Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, King’s College London; David Goodhart, Editor of Prospect; David Halpern, Director of Nexus and lecturer at Cambridge and Rohan Silva, Economic Advisor to the Shadow Chancellor.
Read David Walker’s speech in full here.
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Very well done The Ian Duncan-Smiths – very well done The Prospect.
It is refreshing to read that the ‘ centre left ‘ are beginning to fiddle less while Rome burns, and focus instead on the cancerous tumours that they and their ship’s surgeon Howard Shipmanesque
greedy , self-serving management consultants ( set leading questions to focus group simpletons – massage answers to gain credible percentages – flog fake goods / politics accordingly – leggit with the swag ) have given Britain since inventing the fault line that is New Labour
This volt face encouraged, perhaps, by the chilling return of former management consultant Mr Mandleson ( did Sarkozy make his leaving Brussels a condition of entertaining Mr Brown last week ? ) to the bosom of his Labour family ( the phrase ” you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family ” springs to mind ) the ultimate grandparent wolf in sheep’s clothing ..
If it is rumoured that Mr Campbell will also be back ( if he can
paddle away from the man con infested waters of the give-that-man-
a-job BBC ) all that will be be needed is for Mr Blair to help Mr Brown ( suggest Madame Tussuad’s remove some of the wax from his face ?) confident that his ‘leadership’ will bring the evolution
not revolution Tory cavalry back before what is left of this island sinks without trace beneath the Paul Schmidt sack cloth and ashes
for non-subscribers, this week’s Speccy continues the theme :
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/2189196/clinton-democrats-are-to-blame-for-the-credit-crunch.thtml
Last night , assistant Financial Times editor, Gillian Tett ,
pleaded on BBC Newsnight : ” One of the reasons the public are so angry is because the banks are being shamefully slow at expressing any remorse – we’ve yet to hear a senior banking executive stand up and say sorry ”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dwdz0
Ms Tett might already know the right senior banking executive – reported in the Guardian ‘ As chairman of both Financial Times
parent Pearson and the HBOS banking group..lifelong friend of
Peter Mandelson ‘,former management consultant Dennis Stevenson
(aka Lord) should be cordially invited to step up to the plate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/jul/12/mediatop100200432
Last night , assistant Financial Times editor, Gillian Tett, pleaded on BBC Newsnight : ” One of the reasons the public are so angry is because the banks are being shamefully slow at expressing any remorse – we’ve yet to hear a senior banking executive stand up and say sorry ”
Ms Tett might already know the perfect senior banking executive – reported in the Guardian ‘As chairman of both Financial Times
parent Pearson and the HBOS banking group .. lifelong friend of Peter Mandelson’ former management consultant Dennis Stevenson
( aka Lord )should be cordially invited to step up to the plate
David Hanger chairs a think tank. How did it fare?