Think-Tank of the Year (J)
WINNER Green Alliance
Green Alliance is not a typical think-tank. Like many others, its work is consistently innovative, well argued, and compelling. But unlike many others, Green Alliance works closely with allies in the private and voluntary sectors, and thus generates ideas that are widely supported and influential on both sides of the political spectrum.
Green Alliance understands what drives political decisions, and has been on the inside track in bringing climate change and environmental issues into the political mainstream. It has earned a formidable reputation in the political and business communities, and of the voluntary sector. Few (if any) organisations have relationships of trust with such a diverse group of interested parties.
The diversity of Green Alliance’s funding demonstrates this clearly, with more than 30 companies, ten NGOs and several government departments among its funders in 2008.
Its events are now firmly established as key moments in the politics of the environment. The two most significant speeches by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2008 were made by George Osborne and Nick Clegg to Green Alliance audiences, following Gordon Brown and David Cameron in 2007.
Its primary achievements in 2008 fall into two categories. First, it has had a major impact in UK and European policy. Its pamphlet on the EU budget and climate change has been influential in London, Brussels and elsewhere and helped to shape the Commission’s statement in autumn 2008. Its work on carbon capture and storage has been crucial in building broad support for the public investment needed to bring it to market. The new government strategy on heat is in large part due the broad coalition it established and led in 2007-2008.
Second, Green Alliance has had a big impact on the politics of climate change. The Green Standard report in September 2008 assessed the performance of the three main parties in 2008 and helped persuade Nick Clegg to give this agenda more prominence. Finally, The New Politics of Climate Change: Why We are Failing and How We Will Succeed, by Green Alliance director Stephen Hale, outlined a new approach and has been highly influential in politics and the voluntary sector.
Demos
From keynote speeches by Cabinet members and party-leaders, to high-profile impact on Opposition policy, Demos captures the progressive ground beyond party divides. This versatility makes Demos indispensable to the public affairs community.
The recent launch of its Progressive Conservatism Project demonstrates that Demos is again ahead of the curve in Westminster. Both policy developments – seen in the progress of the ‘Post Office bank’ idea and Phillip Blond’s evidence to a select committee – and intense debate in the media and commentariat have demonstrated the relevance and success of this intervention in defining the battleground of the next general election.
Demos’ policy impact in 2008-2009 has seen pioneering ideas over the past five years bearing fruit in areas as varied as security, public services, education and new technology. Its work on ‘personalisation’ paved the way for today’s drive towards personalised public services and individual budgets, while Demos’s research into radicalisation has influenced current Westminster thinking.
Its reports on privacy and personal information gained national attention, setting the stage for the current Digital Britain commission whose findings are expected in July. Meanwhile, changes to primary curricula have embraced Demos’s call to develop children’s skills in video-making and other social media.
Demos’s impact reaches far beyond the UK. Almost one million publications have been downloaded from its website from across the globe. As the think-tank prepares to celebrate its 16th anniversary, Demos looks back on a decade and a half of innovation in policy, and ahead to a growing influence as a beacon for new ideas.
The TaxPayers' Alliance
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has played a pivotal role in political debate over the past year with its research, response and campaigning across a large number of taxation and spending issues.
TPA research papers have become an essential read for large numbers of people in public affairs, politics, the media and the taxpaying public thanks to the innovative techniques used to produce the research and the accessible and media-friendly way in which the work is presented.
In the last year the TPA has featured in regional and national media more than 400 times a month, including 130 national press hits every month. TPA reports are provided free of charge online and have a growing readership that has now exceeded 40,000 a month.
Underlying the research and lobbying work of the organisation is a grassroots network of 20,000 supporters nationally, each promoting and campaigning with the TPA’s work. In March 2009, the TPA became international in profile, launching a pan-European alliance of taxpayer groups to campaign for better and more transparent public spending in the EU.
But the TPA’s influence extends beyond a high media profile into bringing about policy change. For example, using Freedom of Information laws, the TPA revealed the full remuneration details, names and job titles of executives in local government and the wider public-sector, resulting in: a parliamentary committee investigating senior public-sector salaries; pledges from all three main political parties to publish senior salaries as standard; and a commitment by the Conservatives to only pay a select few public-sector workers more than the Prime Minister.
Also, the TPA’s campaign for transparency in public spending resulted in Windsor and Maidenhead Council becoming the first local authority to publish all expenditure over £500, and contributed to the Conservative Party’s commitment to ‘Google your money’ transparency nationally.
Finally, on MPs’ expenses the TPA combined media pressure and direct lobbying to demand fully transparent MPs’ expenses in the aftermath of the Derek Conway scandal. The House of Commons in February rejected a final government attempt to keep expenses secret - and the details reached the media, with spectacular effect, this spring.
