Latest thinking

Time for a bit of Gove and take

Blog

12 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

This morning, as I walked down St James Street reflecting on an excellent breakfast belatedly to mark the launch of the Times science supplement ‘Eureka’, who should I bump into but Michael Gove. Although he was engrossed in a phone conversation he put his interlocutor on hold, ‘Ah, Matthew’ said the chief intellectual architect of Cameron Conservativism ‘you are most definitely number two in my priority list’.

Superfreakonomics - what is the evidence for human altruism?

Blog

11 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

We held two great events here yesterday. In the evening RSA Chairman, Luke Johnson, hosted a speech by Sir John Rose, CEO of Rolls-Royce, on the topic of creating a high value economy. The Great Room was also full to bursting at lunchtime for a conversation with Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner about their book ‘Superfreakonomics'.

A question of character?

Blog

10 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

The long awaited Demos pamphlet on character is causing much debate. The think tank’s argument is that parenting, through the way it shapes character, is the most important determinant of a child’s life chances. The parenting style which Demos characterises as ‘tough love’ is the one most associated with good life outcomes, while both ‘authoritarian’ and ‘disengaged’ styles are much less successful. 

Emma Ridgway on Gustav Metzger

Blog

06 Nov 2009

Gustav Metzger with Jeremy Deller: June 5 2009, UN World Environment Day, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Dave's wise words

Blog

05 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

Fresh from putting the icing on the cake of the final report of IPPR North’s Commission on the Future of Public Services (I’ll leave it to others to say whether cake or topping provided more nutrition), I am on the road again.

Five Reasons why you should care about social networks.

Blog

04 Nov 2009

Jonathan Rowson

Sometimes you need to back up a little. I have spent most of the last few days trying to get my head round the intracacies of social network analysis, and I fear I am losing sight of the bigger picture.

Two futures for the North East?

Blog

04 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

In my posts I like only to be complimentary about other people's writing and research. 'If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all', my Grandma used to opine. (Although she didn't always stick to her own injunction - blaming attacks on her lime trees on butterflies released in Hyde Park as a tribute to Brian Jones by the remaining Rolling Stones she never stopped referring to Sir Mick as 'that hideous Jagger creature'.)

The real problem of politics

Blog

03 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

There are two articles worth reading together in today’s Times: Rachel Sylvester says that politicians have no choice but to accept in full the recommendations on their allowances due to be made this week by Sir Christopher Kelly. Her column concludes:

I do exist, but not for long

Blog

02 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

Years ago I was mountain walking in Wales. After about six exhausting hours we climbed to the second highest peak in Snowdonia. Just as we arrived, a middle-aged man carrying what looked like a very heavy rucksack dashed past us having clearly run the whole way. He didn’t burst our bubble of self satisfaction but he certainly deflated it.