Go-to people

 

Nine long months ago, before the days of lockdown, we looked at Lewis Goodall's intriguing propensity for using the Institute for Government in his Newsnight reports on UK politics/government. 

Over four such Newsnight reports in a row Lewis had included four 'talking heads' from the Institute for Government, and that seemed a lot. 

I wrote:

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? 

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?

As our eye then went ,massively off the ball, I didn't follow through on our intention of seeing if this was significant or not, and - for a long while - tried to completely ignore Lewis Goodall. 

Re-entering the fray, I saw my first Lewis Goodall report in a while last week. It was on UK politics/government and featured Georgina Wright from the Institute for Government. I rolled my eyes.

Last night's Newsnight also featured a report on UK politics/government and featured Catherine Haddon from, yes, the Institute for Government. I rolled my eyes again.

If Lewis goes on like this, my eyes could roll so much that they'd fall out of their sockets.

The issue remains: Is this significant? Does it matter if Lewis relies on the Institute for Government so much?

Who to ask, Lewis?

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. 

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.

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? 

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?

How independent is "independent"?

I was driving to work on Thursday morning listening to Radio 3 and the 7 o'clock news bulletin began:

A study carried out for the BBC says the Government hasn't made enough preparations in case the UK leaves the European Union without a deal. The independent think tank the Institute for Government said there was a significant risk that ministers working to replace EU legislation covering areas such as trade, immigration and agriculture wouldn't have new laws ready in two months time.

As was discussed on the Open Thread, on Thursday the BBC made the views of the "independent" Institute for Government one of their lead stories over the range of their outlets, and Radio 4's Today programme called the IFG "independent" and "non-partisan".

So a negative report about Britain's Brexit preparations, commissioned by the BBC from the IFG, was given the full 'take-this-as-authoritative' treatment by the BBC. 

But just how "independent" is the Institute for Government, the brainchild of major Remain donor Lord Sainsbury?

Well, as Robin Horbury noted:

Also on the IFG board are Baroness Amos and Liam Byrne (former Labour ministers), and Richard Lambert, former editor of the FT. Its director is Bronwen Maddox, also a strong Remainer and currently visiting professor at the Policy Institute at King's College which is engaged in so-called research aimed at showing how ignorant leavers are about the EU. A further point is that IFG reports for the BBC are being commissioned by Chris Morris's 'reality check' unit - in other words, it is spending vast sums of licence fee money on reinforcing its own biased echo chamber. You could not make it up.

Indeed, a full analysis of the list of board members reveals the following:

Lord Sainsbury of Turville (Labour, Remain donor)

Baroness Amos (Labour, Remain supporter)

Liam Byrne (Labour, Remain supporter) 

Sir Andrew Cahn (also on the board of a pro-EU pressure group)

Sir Ian Cheshire (Remain supporter)

Miranda Curtis 

George Freeman MP (Conservative, Remain supporter)

Philip Rutnam

Lord Simon of Highbury (former vice-chair of Britain in Europe)

Sir Richard Lambert (Remain supporter)

The fact that the board is evidently of one-mind about Brexit (i.e. not keen!) doesn't necessarily mean that the Institute's work will be biased in the direction of its board members' shared point of view (or its director Bronwen Maddox's identical point of view) but the "independent" label really ought to make BBC editors queasy when the organisation they are so describing turns out to have a board that's so heavily Remain, especially if - as Robin says - they are using it to bolster their own 'reality checks'.