Our office is alive this morning with discussion of an article in the Sunday Times which, to my mind, amply illustrated quite how much attitudes towards the interrelationship between parties, politicians, think-tanks and the public and private sectors still need to evolve.

A brief rejoinder to the ST article: Think-tanks are, by and large, politically aligned bodies. We all knew that. They also thrive on corporate sponsorship - we knew that too. And their primary USP - their convening power - is hardly a surprise either. So whilst some of the braggadocio implicit in the IPPR’s sales pitch, as retold in the article, was perhaps a little unwise, it’s hardly as if the IPPR - or any other think tank - is engaging in anything underhand.

Let’s credit our Ministers and senior officials with a little more intellect than the ST does, and give them the benefit of the doubt - attending a think tank seminar doth not a cash-for-access scandal make.

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