Talk:Demos (UK think tank)

What's an ex-veteran?
A veteran who has become a soldier again? 91.51.223.123 (talk) 12:47, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Connected with US think-tank of same name?
I wonder if the UK organisation is connected with its US namesake in any way? --CharlesC 21:17, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
 * no connection - I used to work at the UK organisation. -- Paulmiller 16:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Marxist?
How did it get from Marxist-Communist in 1993 to "close to the Labour Party" in 1997? &mdash;Ashley Y 02:09, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

"Common Purpose"
http://www. commonpurpose.org.uk (UK based) http://www. commonpurpose.org (international) Julia Middleton is a trustee of Demos, now CEO of the influential Common Purpose, an organization who "discover new leaders", especially in the UK "public sector", including education, local authorities, police "Common Purpose is an international leadership organisation that runs programmes for leaders of all ages, sectors and backgrounds." http://business.guardian.co.uk/smes/story/0,,2045427,00.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.207.152 (talk) 05:30, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * No EU - Common Purpose Government Infiltrators at Google Videos is a presentation given by former British naval officer and submarine warfare expert Brian Gerrish. The presentation was given on September 15, 2007 in Leicester and was hosted by MEP Roger Helmer of the Freedom Association. The meeting was organized by the Campaign for an Independent Britain. This is pretty chilling stuff and should give grounds for a subsequent article on Common Purpose and probably more. __meco 08:13, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Funding
The article states that Demos is a registered charity, but who are the main doners. These organizations require considerable money. I don't see people rattling tins, nor can I believe people bequest money. Connections with Common Purpose would suggest dubious funding practices. Who really funds these guys? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.54.244 (talk) 10:36, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Out of date information
Hello, I work at Demos and was reading through the wikipedia page as a lot of other organisations or events copy and paste info from our wikipedia to use when describing or writing about Demos. There is a lot of good stuff here, but several sections are lacking in information, or are out of date and therefore factually inaccurate.

I would propose:


 * adding a few sentences to the introduction that briefly explains the key areas that Demos has done work in and the key senior staff
 * updating the history section, which stops around 2012, so it includes our current chief executive and any significant developments that have happened in the last couple years
 * Rewrite the 'current projects' section - which was true about three years ago but does not accurately reflect our current work.

I know I am close to the source material, so did not want to dive in and start editing the page without starting a discussion on here first with the wiki community. I'm of course happy to give a go of drafting an objective edit - if anyone wants to help or would rather do it then please reply to this message. If I don't hear from anyone by this time next week I'll have a go myself.

Thanks, Rob Robertjmac (talk) 14:37, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi Rob. Firstly, can I thank you for coming to the "Discussion" page and leaving a message. It really is the best idea :) All of your suggestions sound reasonable. However, as you identify, these are also areas about which it is difficult to write neutrally. Because edits to "mainspace" (by which we mean the article itself) go live immediately, it does engender a sort of panic among editors to either rewrite non-neutral prose, or simply undo it wholesale. As things do not seem time sensitive, I suggest you leave some suggested prose here, and I (or others) can have a good at working it in. I've created a box ("div") specially to make things a bit clearer. You can add a little message underneath it, if you want. Regards, Harry. - Jarry1250 [Vacation needed] 22:46, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Demos is a think tank based in the United Kingdom with a cross-party political viewpoint. It was founded in 1993 and specialises in social policy, developing evidence-based solutions in a range of areas, from education and skills to health and housing. The current Chief Executive is Claudia Wood, who joined the think tank from in 2009 and previously worked for Tony Blair’s strategy unit. David Goodhart is Chair of the Demos Advisory Board, which includes Attorney General Lord Falconer, Baroness O’Neill and Sir Peter Bazalgette. Demos publishes a quarterly journal, titled Demos Quarterly LINK, which features articles from politicians, academics and Demos researchers. The organisation is an independently registered charity. History Demos was founded in 1993 by former Marxism Today editor Martin Jacques, and Geoff Mulgan, who became its first director. It was formed in response to what Mulgan, Jacques and others saw as a crisis in politics in Britain, with voter engagement in decline and political institutions unable in their view to adapt to major social changes. Demos was conceived as a network of networks which could draw together different sources of ideas and expertise to improve public policy.[1] In the run up to the 1997 general election it was seen as being close to the Labour Party, in particular its then leader Tony Blair. It defines itself, however, as independent of any political party.[2] Geoff Mulgan went on to work inside Downing Street in 1997. At that time Demos was seen as central to New Labour's vision for Britain.[3] Between 1998 and 2006, under Director Tom Bentley, it moved away from being just a think tank and an increasing part of its workload was described as 'public interest consultancy'.[citation needed] It also did an increasing amount of work internationally. Demos works with a number of partners including government departments, public sector agencies and charities.[3] A brief spell by Madeleine Bunting as Director was succeeded by Catherine Fieschi.[5] Catherine Fieschi stepped down in July 2008 and was succeeded by Richard Reeves,[6] a former economic journalist, Director of Research at the Work Foundation and biographer of John Stuart Mill. Reeves also co-presented the 2005 BBC programme "Making Slough Happy", a social experiment to improve the well-being of residents of a British town.[7] On August 9, 2006, British Home Secretary Dr John Reid gave a speech at a Demos conference stating that Britons "may have to modify their notion of freedom", as a result of his plans, claiming that freedom is "misused and abused by terrorists."[8] Over the summer of 2008 Demos cut back its workforce (from 23 full-time staff in January 2008[9] to 17 by September 2008[10]) and did not attend any political party conferences, leading to speculation that it was in financial difficulty.[11][12] In 2010 David Cameron, then leader of the opposition Conservative Party, launched Demos’s Character Inquiry, giving a speech on the importance of parenting and early years support. LINK Later that year, Demos started the Commission on Assisted Dying, which looked into the "legal and ethical status of assisted dying".[16][17] Following his appointment in 2010 as Special Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, Richard Reeves stepped down as Demos' Director and was replaced by former Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Kitty Ussher. She then left Demos in 2012, with David Goodhart taking over as Director.[13] In January 2012 Demos set up the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) researching trends in social media, and the role online conservations can play in political engagement social policy research. In early 2014 Goodhart became chair of the newly launched Demos Advisory Board, with members including Attorney General Lord Falconer, Baroness O’Neill, Sir Peter Bazalgette, Baroness Falkner and Demos co-founder Geoff Mulgan. LINK. The current Chief Executive is Claudia Wood. She joined Demos in 2009 after stints at other think tanks and in Tony Blair’s strategy unit. LINK Current projects As of 2014, Demos has several core research programmes: Welfare & public services, Good business, Citizenship and Integration. LINK Noteworthy recent projects include Demos’s year-long Commission on Residential Care LINK, Poverty in Perspective LINK – which contained an in depth analysis of the everyday experience of different forms of poverty across the UK, the housing report Top of the Ladder LINK, and an analysis of the harmful impact of different forms of debt LINK. Demos has an open access policy, which means that all its publications are available to freely download under a Creative Commons licence. Demos is unrelated either to the US think tank of the same name or to Demos Helsinki, the Nordic research and development organisation.

Hi Harry - thanks for your helpful response. Sorry I didn't get back for a while. I have attached a proposed draft of our wikipedia page in the div section. The major changes are to the intro and the current projects and the last few paragraphs of the history (as they are the most out of date) but I posted the whole draft so you can see. Anywhere that says LINK I have a URL hyperlink to provide as a reference, but could not include the links in the div format. I have tried my best to combine accuracy, with wikipedia's neutral informative tone, if you or someone else in the wiki community could look over it and let me know if you are happy for this to be used as the main page, or suggest any changes, then I'm happy to follow your guidance. Best. Rob Robertjmac (talk) 09:13, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

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