Remainers were leaping on an article by Newsnight policy editor Chris Cook earlier this week which claimed that the Institute of Economic Affairs had fluffed their calculations for their alternative Brexit ‘PlanA+’. Cook attempted to replicate Shanker Singham’s models but found himself unable to do so, concluding that the IEA “need to do their homework”.
Today it turned out that it was Cook who needed to do a bit more homework, as he admitted that he had belatedly managed to replicate Singham’s results after finding mistakes in his own coding:
Remainers haven’t been sharing the correction quite as vigorously. Will Cook be apologising to the IEA?
UPDATE: The IEA have issued a searing response to Chris Cook alongside a detailed rebuttal of his points.
UPDATE II: Chris Cook has issued an apology to the IEA and taken his article down off the BBC’s website.
Newsnight’s Chris Cook comparing the IFS, Kings Fund and the Institute for Government accused the Institute of Economic Affairs of being in a category of think tank that was “more likely to employ and publish people with more limited expertise.”
Let’s check out that ‘limited experience’…
- Published 13 Nobel Laureates.
- Research team includes 7 PhDs and 2 Professors.
- Books and briefings that in the past year alone have been translated 23 times.
- Credited with changing the approach to monetary management to defeat inflation.
Can BBC Newsnight boast anything close to that quality?
Cook praised the young Institute for Government, which is an establishment packed, civil service friendly talking shop which may have some interesting output but has no plans to shake up the world. It is the latest political play thing for billionaire centrist Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who previously has funded such outfits as the Social Market Foundation and Progress. Guido has searched in vain for one single nobel prize winning writer on their books…
