Best UK Think Tank vol. 1

have heard of adam smith + henry jackson

no demos ;_; i have a funny story about the director of demos

Douglas Murray is the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Murray is a bestselling author and political commentator who regularly appears in the British and foreign press and media. A columnist for Standpoint magazine, he writes for a variety of other publications, including the Sunday Times, Spectator and Wall Street Journal. He is an Associate Director at the Henry Jackson Society.

As of the 1 April 2011 CSC personnel has joined the Henry Jackson Society. CSC will continue to operate as a non-partisan independent organisation specialising in studying radicalisation and extremism within Britain.

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/economics/were-all-poorer-than-we-need-to-be-because-government

^^^ Illiterate.

Also they're actually using the press photo for Brewdog Nanny State on the site.

We should be voting for the worst.

Good poll, will take some research.

Guessing Demos gets into another round? We're missing some of the worst people in the world - Institute of Ideas, Social Affairs Unit - seeding could be necessary.

I can't shoot a man on my property because government.

"England haven't won the World Cup since 1966 because-government"

Adam Smith Institute - Grind the poor
Bruges Group - Grind the Hun
Centre for Enterprise - Grind the workers
Centre for Social Cohesion - Grind the ethnics
Credos - Save money on XXXXX
Forum for the Future - Free Green credentials for multinationals
Henry Jackson Society - Grind the ethnics home and away
Institute for Strategic Dialogue - Business opportunities in brutal dictatorships 4 U
Legatum Institute - really really grind the poor
Quilliam Foundation - can't we all just get along?

"I haven't gotten laid in two years because-government"

how does one become a think tank?

I just looked that up and found the sentence "think tanks are the public's alternative to political parties". I can't think of many things that impact upon the public consciousness less thank think tanks.

I think the answer is "get loads of money from businessman who wants to legitimise himself". It's like forming a football club really.

was gonna try and come up with insane ideas and sell them to people but the guys in this list have got me way out-classed already

1) get a mark littlewood bnp haircut
2) ????
3) NEWSNIGHT

it's one of those in-the-pub conversations I've had more than once – 'lol let's form a think tank' & I think yeah, you need to rustle up money from a trade organisation or a rich benefactor who wants a legit-looking pressure group to lower taxes/expel brown ppl/fire plebs/lower taxes etc.

But the entry costs don't seem that high.

think tanks were p much irl blogs avant la lettres, now there are blogs

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then again I think you've got to offer some kind of respectability, seeming-importance for it to work? Like a Mayfair/St james/Westminster address, serious looking publications on paper. Because I think the aims might be… a) make $$$ by organising seminars and conferences that serious orgs that make actual money are willing to send people to (I guess they have to be somewhere nice, so senior figures send themselves) and b) get yourself consultancy gigs (or writing Telegraph op ed) for the rest of time because of connections developed thru' the think tank.

if u owned a building in any of those places u would totally create fake sub-addresses for pretentious idiots and fraudsters to pick up their mail

all correspondence to the excelsior penthouse, 206 knightsbridge

that is a thing, but I think it's too easy to google virtual offices + bust the fantasists now.

I think I'm voting for the Institute of Strategic whatever. I like the boring website, I like the serious chatham house 'old FO hands contemplate foreign policy' feeling, I like the secret government air of their board – strong on rich old men who are trustees of quite nice things like the British Museum and are basically decent enough, but who'd have your family killed if it were necessary/they took against you.

otoh every time I look at Credos I am drawn in by their love of LIVELY! contract mag design in the service of 'whoah whoah whoah let's think twice about regulating adverts'.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

My suggestion for a think tank would be

Batman, batman. Batman? Batman. Batman-batman Batman.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

http://www.britishfuture.org/

these might need their own thread when I've got time

that's an odd one… so they're SEOing and headlining like a UKIP think-tank, but their articles seem take a turn for the inclusive-left-liberal once they're underway?

yeah, i can't work out if they're patronising, or concern trolling, or a little of both. the choice of language/subjects is pretty unhelpful imo

might tie in with whatever Trevor Philips is trying to stir up I guess

The Philips stuff strikes me as having more than a bit of the Spiked challops-iness, with all the "old man turns right wing shockah" that implies

Phillips has been on that tip since the early 2000s, at least. British Future is genuinely odd, though less malicious-seeming in comparison.

Odd is overstating it, probably. Plenty of third rate journalists like Katwala have worked out that there is more mileage in providing their opinions4u via think tanks and there is definitely money to be made in the British Values / Integration industry.

british future wolf gang kill them all

A couple that I follow and who do reasonably interesting work and research:

Social Market Foundation
NESTA

Quite often if you walk round the quiet squares and backstreets of Westminster, you'll come across a well-appointed town-house that seems to be used as an office - and there'll be a discrete small brass plaque by the main door with the name of a think tank you've never heard of.

Rather surprised to receive an invite to view Zulu in the company of Lord Ashcroft, from the Policy Exchange.

I had to google to check that it wasn't in fact a hoax:

http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/events/upcoming/item/zulu-presented-by-lord-ashcroft?category_id=37

or rather:

http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/events/upcoming/item/zulu-presented-by-lord-ashcroft

We are delighted to be hosting our latest film screening introduced by a political figure, in conjunction with the Crossbench Film Society.The guest is Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC. His film choice is Zulu (1964), Cy Endfield’s famous depiction of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. Lord Ashcroft will introduce the film, alongside Peter Hoskin from the Crossbench Film Society, before the screening itself. Refreshments will be served before the screening.

i'm sure he'll be using it to underpin a critique of post-colonialism or something

Sunder Katwala from British Future is giving a talk at a conference I am at tomorrow. Please feel free to submit any questions you'd like me to convey.

What film would he choose for the Crossbench Film Society, and why? (Someone else is bound to ask about his views on Jeremy Corbyn so far, and what the Labour Party should do next).