Talk:Reform Scotland

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Please appreciate that i am pretty new to wikipedia - http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_do_not_bite_the_newcomers and am trying to keep within the guidelines. I have posted suggested major changes to the Reform Scotland entry on wikipedia for discussion. I am not trying to hide any involvement that members of staff have previously had with the conservative party - that is there for all the world to see on the biographies on Reform Scotland's website. However Reform Scotland is not a conservative organisation and has no such ties to the Conservative party, indeed our last publication was welcomed by the SNP and rejected by the Conservative party. What is more we have high profile representatives of all major parties in Scotland sitting on our Advisory Board. Therefore, to try and claim that Reform Scotland is a Conservative organisation, as the current post does, is blatently untrue and biased. As a result i would propose the following changes. Ultimatly I would like to put up a lot more information about Reform Scotland, including our logo and list of publications etc. However, to ensure I am doing things properly I would like to initally siggest these changes:

Reform Scotland, established in 2008, is an Edinburgh-based think tank, a sister organisation to the London-based right-wing, free market think tank Reform.[1][2][3] However both organisations have their own seperate governance and funding structures as well as different emphasis on policy.

Reform Scotland is the successor to the think tank Policy Institute (1999–2008).[4]

The think tank is independent and non party political with a former senior politician from each of Scotland's main political parties sitting on its Advisory Board. Although two members of staff have been Scottish Conservative Party candidates, as acknowledged by their biographies on Reform Scotland's website; The director, Geoff Mawdsley (Stirling candidate, 2001) was the party's chief political adviser for 8 years,[5] and the research director Alison Payne (née Miller; City of Edinburgh Council candidate, Portobello/Craigmillar ward 2007[6]) is a former political adviser to Annabel Goldie, the party leader. Reform Scotland's Chairman, Ben Thomson, has links to the SNP.

Reform Scotland is a company limited by guarantee (No SC336414) and a Scottish charity (No SC039624) funded by individuals, charitable trusts, companies and organisations that share its aims.

[edit] Advisory boardWendy Alexander, the former Scottish Labour leader; Jim Mather (SNP), former Scottish Government Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism; Derek Brownlee, former Scottish Conservative finance spokesman; and Jeremy Purvis, former Scottish Lib Dem economy and finance spokesman all sit on Reform Scotland's Advisory Board.[7] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alisonpayne (talk • contribs) 11:59, 28 September 2011 (UTC)  sorry forgot to sign - still new to this Alisonpayne (talk) 12:11, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

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I think these suggested changes give a more accurate picture about Reform Scotland than what is currently the case on the live Article. KJT --KirkJTorrance (talk) 13:07, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

Proposal to tidy this up a bit and hopefully settle these edit wars:
I'm happy to agree that the article is a bit attacking towards the organisation and a bit poorly written, and also I dislike the format a bit so I'll put forward this now as a proposal:

Reform Scotland, established in 2008, is an Edinburgh-based think tank, a sister organisation to the London-based centre-right, free market think tank Reform. However both organisations have their own separate governance and funding structures as well as different emphasis on policy.

Reform Scotland is the successor to the think tank Policy Institute (1999–2008). The think tank is independent and non-party political, with former MSPs from each of Scotland's main political parties sitting on its Advisory Board.

Reform Scotland is a company limited by guarantee (No SC336414) and a Scottish charity (No SC039624) funded by individuals, charitable trusts, companies and organisations that share its aims.

Key Members of Staff

 * Geoff Mawdsley, Director (Scottish Conservative candidate for Stirling in the 2001 General election and was the party's chief political adviser for 8 years).
 * Alison Payne (née Miller), research director (Scottish Conservative candidate for the 2007 City Council election in Edinburgh, former political adviser to Annabel Goldie).
 * Helen Robertson, External Relations Consultant

Advisory Board

 * Ben Thomson, Chairman (Former member of the SNP…(may not be too important...?))
 * Wendy Alexander, the former leader of the Scottish Labour Party
 * Jim Mather, former SNP MSP and Scottish Government Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism;
 * Derek Brownlee, former Scottish Conservative finance spokesman;
 * Jeremy Purvis, former Scottish Liberal Democrats economy and finance spokesman
 * Dan Macdonald
 * Martin Gilbert
 * Alex Hammond-Chambers
 * Lesley Knox
 * Professor Sir Donald MacKay
 * David Milne OBE, FRAE, FRSE
 * Keith Skeoch
 * Audrey Baxter
 * Martin Sime

I wrote this hoping attempting to streamline the article and make it as neutral as possible removing anything that read a bit like an accusation ("they claim...however"), but mostly the way it was formatted irritated me. Note that all the references you added above haven't appeared, so if you provide write them out below, they can be put in place and as for other members of staff, feel free to add/expand. MoreofaGlorifiedPond,Really... (talk) 15:55, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks for your suggested amendments, which I am entirely happy with - i too would like a neutral article on wikipedia. sorry about the references which i can add in if you and others are happy for me to make this change to the actual article. Alisonpayne (talk) 12:02, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

This is a much better format - glad to see things becoming more encyclopedic. The idea about adding Reform Scotland's logo etc is good too. It's important that people understand and get to know more about Scottish think tanks and what they do, what they suggest, etc... KJT --KirkJTorrance (talk) 12:12, 5 October 2011 (UTC)