Guido’s think – tank feature Propeller-Head Wonk Watch is one of the most popular services of this blog, it gets more attention in wonk-land than anything else. So today Guido is excited to announce a new and hopefully no less interesting occasional feature: “Wonk for Sale“. Guido hopes to highlight research and policy proposals which coincidentally reflect the interests of donors. Out in wonk-land an increasing number of think-tanks actually seem to act merely as PR operations rather than intellectual and high minded policy advocates.

This story was told to me by a former Demos intern. Asked at his interview what do you think about Demos? “I think you are very modern, because you have a lot of Ikea furniture.” “Ahh” replied the interviewer, “we wrote a pro-Ikea report and they paid us in furniture.” Guido wonders what report they could mean, surely not this by Charles Leadbeater?

Any more gossip about wonk-sluts? Send to the usual place Guido.

Davis is unlikely to thrill on the hustings, he can’t withdraw again because Fox would probably whinge and it would look like a fix. Cameron is clearly the overwhelming favourite. So why not have a phoney war, keep the Tories in the headlines, discuss ideas, have a gentlemanly clean fight and crown Cameron at the end of it.

The evidence :- the party establishment does not want this drawn out fight, Davis doesn’t look like his heart is in it and his team certainly don’t want to waste their time on a futile campaign. Davis has laid down the law about drugs, the Cameron “I haven’t done drugs since I became an MP” line should bring closure, so its a non-issue and the hustings are to be about policy alone. Basher told Today this morning that he will not be answering any questions about drugs. So its to be a clean fight and a chance to showcase the Tory renewal.

The Davids certainly seem to be developing a chummy double act. This could be boring…

Dr Fox’s courting of the Christian right was a source of amusement to some people I met last night at the Open Europe launch. They knew him from his Federation of Conservative Students days, the descriptions of his antics in those days would suggest that he very definitely qualified as a lapsed Catholic.

Anyway, lets all look forward to his impending marriage to Dr Jesme Beard.

The government’s education task force has told Guido’s co-religionist and Education minister, the Blessed Ruth Kelly, that teachers must be given explicit legal rights to punish pupils and to restrain unruly children by “reasonable force”. The Opus Dei numerary may want to suggest flagellation as an option, or even throwing grit in the corner and making errant pupils kneel on it to say the rosary. The pain in your knee caps is pointed, was always a favourite with my maths master.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!