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| Lewis on the Road to Nowhere? |
Yesterday's Newsnight featured a report from policy editor Lewis Goodall.
One of his three 'talking heads' was Raphael Hogarth of the Institute for Government.
One of his three 'talking heads' was Raphael Hogarth of the Institute for Government.
Thursday night's Newsnight also featured a Lewis Goodall report.
One of this 'talking heads' was Jill Rutter of the Institute for Government. The other 'talking head' was Giles Wilkes of the Institute for Government.
There were only two 'talking heads' on Thursday night's report, so that was a clean sweep for the Institute for Government.
Is there a pattern emerging here?
Well, it's probably too early to tell. I've used TV Eyes to locate all of Lewis Goodall's Newsnight reports over the last month - all 10 of them. Two dealt with the Irish election, one with climate change, three with the Labour leadership race and - the ones I was interested in - four with general UK politics/Government, including the two editions referred to above.
What of the other two? Well, Lewis's 16 January report featured Catherine Haddon from, yes, the Institute for Government.
The 27 January one, however, replaced someone from the Institute for Government with someone from the left-leaning IPPR.
One of this 'talking heads' was Jill Rutter of the Institute for Government. The other 'talking head' was Giles Wilkes of the Institute for Government.
There were only two 'talking heads' on Thursday night's report, so that was a clean sweep for the Institute for Government.
Is there a pattern emerging here?
Well, it's probably too early to tell. I've used TV Eyes to locate all of Lewis Goodall's Newsnight reports over the last month - all 10 of them. Two dealt with the Irish election, one with climate change, three with the Labour leadership race and - the ones I was interested in - four with general UK politics/Government, including the two editions referred to above.
What of the other two? Well, Lewis's 16 January report featured Catherine Haddon from, yes, the Institute for Government.
The 27 January one, however, replaced someone from the Institute for Government with someone from the left-leaning IPPR.
So that's 3 out of 4 of Lewis's Newsnight reports on the UK government/UK general politics over the last month that have featured 'talking heads' from the Institute for Government - and one had two of them.
This is one to watch, perhaps. Maybe they're just absolutely fantastic and fabulously independent-minded, but the Institute for Government is one of those 'respected', 'independent' think tanks that came across as anti-Brexit over the past few years.
It was founded by strongly pro-EU Labour peer Lord Sainsbury, and its board is striking in its centre-left-leaning, Europhile composition with four parliamentarians past and present belonging to Blairite Labour, one to the Lib Dems, and one to the Conservative Party (David Lidington, who resigned in anticipation of Boris Johnson becoming PM).
It sounds a very BBC outfit, doesn't it?
It was founded by strongly pro-EU Labour peer Lord Sainsbury, and its board is striking in its centre-left-leaning, Europhile composition with four parliamentarians past and present belonging to Blairite Labour, one to the Lib Dems, and one to the Conservative Party (David Lidington, who resigned in anticipation of Boris Johnson becoming PM).
It sounds a very BBC outfit, doesn't it?
I'm intrigued to see if Lewis Goodall keeps up this heavy involvement with the Institute for Government over time. What will it mean if he does?
