Demos Staff overview
Paul Joseph
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- paul@demos.com
Laissez fair?
Everyone knows business has a trust problem, and it's been getting worse since the early...
The Two sides of Migration
"We distributed over 400 disposable cameras to undocumented migrants crossing through...
Place hunters
One of the big challenges for the government's neighbourhoods agenda is that people...
The problem with the NHS: too few chiefs
A while back I got into an argument with a doctor friend about the problem with the NHS...
Everday racial equality
Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, has an interesting piece in...
Sponsor Team Demos
On Friday 21st October 2005, Team Demos, also known as Real Politik, are competing in the...
China and Democracy
To some people "Chinese democracy" sounds like an oxymoron. But very quietly a...
Lies, damned lies, and government statistics
Only 1 in 6 Britons believe that official statistics are produced without government interference...
Democracy index
Serial innovators the New Economics Foundation have produced a catchy new idea.The Index...
Feeling Choosy
The debate about choice in public services sends many people to sleep. But given politicians...
Motion sickness?
A left-wing British MP, and a left-wing British writer, go at each other's throats in...
Pesky open source kids
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, i'm writing this entry through...
You couldn't make it up....
�It was so predictable�, says Paul Skidmore, a recent victim of the problem...
It's not A levels that are the problem but universities
The Indy carries a story about Tom Astin, an 18 year old student rejected by Oxford, Manchester...
Must dash
Witness: He had a moustache, about 6ft 3.Drebin: That's an awfully big moustache.- Police...
Sticks and stones
"Poetry and eloquence are both alike expression or utterance of feeling. But if we...
Tank Battle
"Denied the sight of their team in action for more than a year, anticipation poured...
Putting the public back into public policy?
Let me conclude by issuing you with this challenge. If public services were designed to...
Putting the "co" into constitution?
Art Kleiner writes provocatively about the need to adapt constitutional conventions and...
Divided by disciplines
Almost all Demos mission statements (until the most recent) have emphasised that we work...
Thank god for government
Everyone on my television keeps telling me it's early days, and that it's too early...
Roll up, roll up
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation wants to find out about supplying cannabis to young people...
I don't get it
1. A confession. I don't know a lot about file sharing. But I'd really like someone...
My first is in Lagos, but not in London...
I don't know if it's been talked about on the Greenhouse before, but I've only...
Green with Envy
I spent most of Sunday afternoon reading Tristram Hunt's Building Jerusalem: The Rise...
a greenhizouse fo` new ideas, G
At Demos, we're always looking to clarify our core values, and to find new ways of communicating...
Targeting corruption or corrupting targets?
Demos have been flogging the "targets aren't as great an idea as you think"...
Golden Mean
"The means are the ends in the making. That's all there is. Get the means right...
Fight fight make things right
Will Davies writes with news of the latest Google hack designed to allow think tank researchers...
Choose life, choose a job, choose...nah, can't be bothered
Professor Barry Schwartz, who has attracted a lot of good press for his book The Paradox...
Guardian Public Services Summit
A risky but choosy century? David Walker opened the summit and did his best to knit its...
1066 and all that
I'll admit to a personal bias. I did history at A-level and loved it, but one of the...
The past and the spurious
My argument, at each step of which I would argue it is possible to substitute "2005...
P.A.R.T.Why?
openDemocracy carried an interesting interview with Greek opposition leader George Papandreou...
euro elections report published
For the past year or so, a team at Demos has been working alongside The Electoral Commission...
Certainly Am, but Pro? Let's hope not
BoingBoing reports that the Russian magazine Moskovsky Komsomolets has taken our ProAm Revolution...
it's demoicracy, stupid
I often find in such gatherings, which are almost self-selectedly Europhile, that detailed...
Putting a number on public value
Let�s take the moustachioed directory enquirers first. Mainstream economics said...
more personal politics punditry
Some of the logic seems a bit crude: people get spiritual, get busy with the baby-making...
Thunder and lightning, very very frightening
Comrades.I have some bad news. It seems that some amongst us have been less than discreet...
Virgin on the ridiculous?
Teenage pregnancy in the US has fallen to its lowest level since the 1940s, reports the...
Death by Cliche
Tory MP Andrew Lansley just told Sky News the government needed to abandon its "nanny...
why certainty is almost certainly wrong
Am I alone in thinking that the Tories got an unnecessarily hard time for their tax announcement...
Gray matter
Turns out, there are two John Grays.The world can be a spooky place, eh Hannah?
Things I learnt this week
1. Australia has an incredibly complicated PR voting method. Weeks after polling day, seats...
Assessing the damage?
The Working Group on 14-19 Reform chaired by Mike Tomlinson has published its report. I...
Do you expect me to talk?
A very useful website that offers a handy villainy calculator and a simple tool for generating...
Things got better - than Brighton at least
Further to Paul's post, I thought Blair was good today. The performance was uninspiring...
I'm still being Tango'd
Perhaps because:1. England beat the Welsh.2. Putative UKIP leader Robert Kilroy-Silk described...
BBC+
Will Davies pointed us towards this hack of BBC News Online, which links words in articles...
News from the Colonies
Ex-bearded design guru, Demos foreign correspondent and hot favourite for this year'...
Get a room
Bono accidentally just suggested that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the John Lennon and...
Instapunditry
1. The combination of the Ken Bigley situation, and being interrupted twice by protests...
Single Malt Politics
I'd be intrigued to see the cost-benefit analysis that led the Scotch Whisky Association...
Religion, inc
First it was Mecca Cola. Now the BBC reports the launch of the first Islamic law compliant...
Fox populi
I really enjoyed Simon Jenkins' piece on the hunting debate in The Times. I thought...
Urbane urbanism
The government can't claim to be a worthy successor to earlier Labour administrations...
Sporty spice
First we have pretzel-eating gold medallist Dubya Bush enrolling (as it turns out unwillingly...
Imperial lather
I can appreciate the hostility to something with such explicit colonial connotations, but...
Fruit Mobbing
I came across an interesting spin on the idea of smart mobs while I was in New Zealand...
From Middle Earth to Model Earth
I'm in New Zealand, where I've been speaking at a forum to mark the launch of the...
Blog Standard?
First off, Tom posted a story about Access2Democracy, a new e-democracy NGO launched by...
Tax Cheats and Tuition Fees
The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) was introduced in Australia in 1989. It...
League division
Before they start pinching themselves or popping champagne corks, teachers in England should...
Looking in, looking out
Today is Anzac Day. Anzac, for those whose history is a little shaky, stands for Australia...
Emotionally Intelligent Government
"We need a political narrative that connects with modern lives as they are really lived...
Wizards of Oz
I’ve been in Sydney for a conference called Our Shared Future, bringing together 200...
A geek joke
"the number of transistors on a semi-conductor chip has doubled every 18 to 24 months...
Creative counterattack
[via IWire]Richard Florida, the American academic who's hugely popular The Rise of the...
How an April Fool's day scam taught Aussies a lesson
Who says regulation can't be fun? Heard a great story about the Australian Securities...
The benefits of foresight?
Brave Michael Wilmott, co-director of the Future Foundation, has posted on their website...
Reich on the button
As the optimism and excitement surrounding the Howard Dean campaign begins to dissipate...
Auntie's Bloopers
But one can't help feeling a little sorry for the Beeb, not least because of the continuing...
From outboard brain to filing cabinet
As Demos continues to wrestle with how best to organise its knowledge and content, what...
Neo Con-fusion
Interesting piece in the NY Times disputing the supposed influence of Washington "neo...
Reverting to Type
Apologies if this is old news but found this great site trying to create a new typeface...
Friday feeling
Five to five on a Friday afternoon and what better possible way to while away those last...
How to run a cool company 101
In one of those late-night trances that forces you to keep channel-hopping even when there...
To Trust or Not to Trust
From Enron to the dodgy dossier, trust and its apparent decline have been high on the agenda...
Red-tape revolution
Okay so regulation isn't the sexiest of subjects, but after reading the gripping page...
Calling young Euro-philes
The EU Policy Network has been set up to provide young academics and practitioners with...
co-production
Co-production is the idea that public goods and services are best understood not as being...
"I'll be back" - but will he?
Anyone who believes in politics must be sorely disappointed to hear that Arnold Schwarzeneggar...
Peace of the action
Interesting article in the NY Times calling for the Peace Corps to be given a much more...
Bonding with Tony
Whatever his troubles at home, the Yanks can't get enough of Tony Blair. Here are Ray...
Europe's still a wimp
Giscard's draft constitution has failed to give the EU the platform it needs to flex...
Food: when does an idea's time come?
I am struck by how rapidly food has become a major domestic political issue. When Demos...
Introducing "Always On" People
Ever find yourself surfing the net on your WiFi-enabled laptop, watching digital TV, checking...
Strom, but not forgotten
As the UK government publishes plans to tackle age discrimination and encourage work beyond...
Money can buy you love
Here's a puzzle: how much money would you need to raise to elect a US president who...
Leadership is alive and well and living in Alabama
"I said in the campaign we'd never transform the culture in Alabama until we had...
The Third Way to Nowhere
Check out Professor Paul Cammack's scathing attack on 'Tony Blair's favourite...
Cigarette paper or grand canyon?
How big is the rift between the State Department and the Pentagon? And is there anything...
15 years is a long time in politics - or is it?
Clearing out the attic we stumbled on the New Statesman and Society from 22nd July 1988...
Trust me, I'm a general
Our friends across the pond have a new found faith in their military.Somewhat disturbing...
Feminism takes a step fore-word
The traditional male bastion of professional golf was breached yesterday when Annika Sorenstam...
Standard Response
With UK education ministers braving the controversy that has surrounded their decision to...
Cyberpunk makes fun of the Brits
Thanks to Jack Dalton for pointing us in the direction of William Gibson's site. Gibson...
A Taxing Question
As President Bush tries to give billions of dollars back to some very rich people through...
All I know is, I know kung fu
In breathless anticipation of The Matrix: Reloaded, the NY Times has a great article on...
Journalism: untruth or dare?
Very interesting story from the New York Times. It seems a hot shot young reporter, who...
In the blue corner...
Wi-Fi versus 3G - will there be a winner?According to Silicon.com, "The rise of Wi...
The question we're all asking ourselves about Iraq
What would Jed Bartlet do?Paul Hirst speculates on openDemocracy:"With brains, principles...
New vision for Ground Zero chosen
The NY Times has quite a neat interactive feature called Envisioning Downtown. You can view...
Regulation and accountability
Policy Defeat Puts F.C.C. Chief in Awkward SpotMaking regulators more democratically accountable...
Regulation according to Bush
This NY Times article provides some interesting insights into an American (and especially...
Complexity, Governance and Regulation
Julia Black, an academic in LSE's Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation, wrote...
The most disturbing story I've read in a while
The federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled yesterday that officials in Arkansas can force...
Risk and the space shuttle
Following our interesting discussion in the inaugural Thursday seminar about the costs and...
Slow food
The improbably named Corby Kummer and our friend Signor Carlo Petrini feature in this article...