Ages ago I went to a talk in Cambridge hosted by one of Tony Blair’s top advisers, Geoff Mulgan. One of the biggest things the latter has done in recent times is to launch a successor/alternative to Oxford’s Politics, Philosophy, and Economics degree course (which many a creature in the Westminster Jungle can be found carrying) – a course that provides a scientific grounding to public policy – and vice-versa. One of the things that struck me during Dr Julian Huppert’s term of office as MP for Cambridge 2010-15 was how big scientific institutions put too much of a burden on him to be the interface between ‘science’ and the House of Commons in an intake where he was the only research scientist in that parliament.
“This term I’ve also started teaching a new MPA course on intelligence and algorithmic governance – how to use AI in everything from welfare and education to tax and policing, policy design to innovation, covering the potential, the risks and the governance issues.”
Which is all well and good – but if you want to educate a society in a short period of time…exactly.
“…we don’t have the networks of adult education and lifelong learning centres that towns and cities used to have. So what is the process of learning and for social adaptation to new technologies? “
CTO Jan 2025 – me moaning about the lack of lifelong learning opportunities to learn about such things in the community
“If you want to influence public policy in the UK, you can do one of three things:
- Make a speech
- Publish a book/pamphlet
- Found an institution”
…was my main takeaway from Sir Geoff’s public talk in Cambridge. And it stuck with me. So much so that when I saw a tweet about the Labour candidate who tried unsuccessfully to defeat Jeremy Corbyn in Islington last year establishing a new think tank on UK/EU policy it seemed that some explaining needed to be done.
“With Labour now in government, [Praful] Nargund has turned his sights to a different political venture. His new think tank, the Good Growth Foundation (GGF), officially launched this month with the aim to campaign for policies to boost economic growth and reduce inequalities across the UK. The launch event was attended by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray and numerous Labour backbench MPs. “
Zoe Crowther (09 Feb 2025) Politics Home
I expect we’ll be seeing GGF appearing in the transparency tables when they public their first set of accounts.
“As the director of a venture capital firm and previously the director of a family-owned IVF fertility service Nargund is funding the GGF for the next two years through his own businesses. However, he told PoliticsHome that in the long run, he expected the think tank to raise money “in the normal way” through grants and donations.”
You can see the list of people involved here, noting that the Chair of the Foundation’s advisory board spent several years working with Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell. Which also reflects on the senior politicians who were at the launch event, including staunch Tony Blair supporter and protege (and Cambridge University Alumnus) Wes Streeting.
“If a new think tank / public policy institute is the answer, what is the question?”
Good question!
“We want growth that makes people’s lives better. Jobs, housing and public services no longer create the security and living standards that people need. We are here to provide answers on how to deliver the changes necessary and how to talk about the economy in a way that makes sense to the public.
“Our people are what make the Good Growth Foundation a dynamic, campaigning organisation. Growth is a means, not an end. We campaign for growth to raise living standards and make a tangible impact on day-to-day life across the UK. That’s why we focus on what the public wants to see from growth, connecting policy with people.”
Had I been in decent health and someone had said to me: “This is us, this is what we are about, would you like to join?” chances are I would have been interested. In a strange way it would have appealed to my moral and character weaknesses of wanting to be seen to be on the side of good, while living a glamorous and socially-connected life up in the big smoke, a vision of what success was, that was sold to my generation of late 1990s teenagers! (I wrote in my teenage diaries in the mid-1990s that I was tempted by an environmental science degree because of what I’d read about climate change, but that having to do A-level chemistry and biology were too big a barrier!)
I’m also trying to locate the article I read recently that noted how many more social and networking events those in more affluent occupations get to go to compared to the rest of us – mindful of the depressing scene I saw in Cambridge on the last Saturday night before Christmas. So many places that had once been buzzing places in my late teens now closed or empty.
Yet if you are establishing an institution and want to influence the course of public policy, organising events is part and parcel. Have a look at the various events-related vacancies in w4MP, Westminster’s political jobs site (that should have a much higher public profile than it does). Also, books about lobbying, public affairs, and political communications have their own stories and anecdotes to tell. At the same time this also reflects on how and why such an environment can become utterly toxic – especially for women as we have seen in the revelations of recent years. Which is why I hope the massive new intake of MPs that swept out much of the old guard is having a real, positive impact on the culture in the corridors of power.
Back to the Good Growth Foundation – UK and EU
“Former Islington Labour Candidate Wants To Test Public’s “Red Lines” Of Closeness With Europe”
Headline, Politics Home 09 Feb 2025
Expect a growing media public profile for the institution and for Mr Nargund in the ongoing debates on what the UK-EU relationship should become. In one sense the institution enables the official Labour Party to distance itself from what the institution publishes, while at the same time taking note of the reactions to its work – although I expect the reactions will largely be from the political bubble in London more than anywhere else, unless the GGF makes a decision to undertake higher profile activities outside of London – including events that directly engage with the public. In which case I can see activists within the European Movement as well as EU-interested individuals in parties such as the SNP, Liberal Democrats, and The Green Party also possibly interested. The big risk – and a sort of ‘worst of both worlds’ situation is where the GGF becomes labelled as a sort of pro-EU front organisation controlled by the Labour Party’s senior officers behind the scenes. As with any new policy institution that has cabinet ministers of the day (irrespective of who is in power) turning up to their events as friendly supporters, one big test will be the extent to which it is willing to criticise the government of the day on its policy choices vs the founding aims of the institution.
It will be interesting to see over the next few years which think tanks become the most prominent – noting several of the ones in the TuftonStreetMassiv have gone all quiet ever since the returning US President started talking lots about tariffs. Surprisingly little opposition from free trade quarters? Or are broadcast media outlets trying to rebalance who they seek for comment? To be honest I barely watch TV current affairs because all too often it feels like the same people asking how to solve the same problems in a few soundbites – the same ones they have been doing it for in previous episodes dating back a quarter of a century. Can they change the record?
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Below – I heard from The Cambridge Room that they will be opening in the next month or so. See https://www.cambridgeroom.org/about-us
The Cambridge Town Owl 