Comments on: Another day, another ‘independent’ thinktank

By: Political Penguin

Political Penguin — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 12:23:43 +0000

I think you miss the point of the article. A bit old news now but at the time various Tory bloggers were jumping up and down about how the Smith Institute was a Labour front operation while completely ignoring the Policy Exchange and indeed this other so-called independent think tank.
The Point of the article is simply to highlight the hypocrisy of those Tory bloggers and to run through the presumption that there can be such a thing as an independent think tank which of course there aren’t.
Can you please point me in the direction of a senior military person who is an ardent leftie? I’ll admit the possibility there might be the odd one but perhaps but I think you’ll find them by far in the minority.

By: Richard Dudley Pandocious

Richard Dudley Pandocious — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 10:14:59 +0000

1. Vernon Bogdanor has been quite public in his support of the Liberal Democratic Party.
2. Prof. Bew (now Lord Bew) was indeed an unofficial advisor to David Trimble for a time, but that was one (of the admittedly many) things the DUP disliked about Trimble. Bew is well-known in N. Ireland for being left-wing and a critic of organisd Unionism, despite coming from a Protestant background.
3. The assumption that just because people have a military background means they are “right wing” is facile.
So the list of supporters is rather more non-partisan than the post is prepared to admit.

By: Scrybe

Scrybe — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:59:12 +0000

Interesting post, but I will pick you up on your description of Bogdanor. He was, as you say, Cameron’s tutor, once saying Cameron was ‘ one of the most able students [he] ever taught’ (see wikipedia on cameron) but later appearing to changing his mind, particularly criticising cameron’s support for english-vtes-on-english-matters.

now, for the bit I’m trying to recall so don’t qant to be quoted officially on just yet….

he was a conservative cllr in the 1970s/1980s for a bit but left the conservatives for the libdems (I don’t know how officially).
his views are more traditional liberal than they are conservative, and the traditional liberal party is something upon which his work focusses. he is currently writing a book on that period, in fact.

that said, from what I have heard, he is rather willing to, ahem, help out his former students wherever possible and is well-connected in that regard. that said, some of those students went on to be researchers for labour MPs. with a little help from Bogdanor.

hope that fills your description of him out a bit. beep me if you want anything more.