October 21st, 2005

NEW FEATURE : Wonks for Sale

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.




Balls Calls for Deeper Cuts | Speccie
Lessons from the Thirties | CPS
PMQs Idiots | Harry Cole
Jon Cruddas is Not the Messier | Dan Hodges
We Should Honour Victims | Bob Blackman
Bad Al Campbell Spinning for Portland | PR Week
HuffPo’s House Jihadi | Washington Free Beacon
Osborne Gets His Soundbite | Nick Robinson
Moonbat versus Chomsky | Charles Crawford
Beecroft is “S**t” | LibDem MP
News of the World Trailed Watson’s Mistaken Mistress | Indy
Shabana Mahmood MP Saves Brum Market | ITV News
Plan a Velvet Divorce for the €uro | Gideon Rachman
Truth About Romney’s Bain “Vampire Capitalism” | Wall Street Journal
Clegg’s Revenge | Nick Wood
Cleaning Out Stables | Biased BBC

Previously Seen


Peter Botting



Lord Lamont told ITV News…

“I think the PM is just human and Ed Balls is a pretty irritating person”



The last Quango in Paris says:

Mr Bryant and Mr Watson managing to make the whole hacking affair look like a farce – the more they moan the less I care about the whole subject! So partisan it beggars belief at all costs. They cannot rise above it ! If I was to call the PM a ‘liar’ I would want to be VERY sure.



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