The Resolution Foundation

I don't normally do this but Craig (ex Beeb Bias Craig) has posted some fascinating points  in the comments of a Biased BBC article and I think that they are a fine example of how the BBC/Labour coalition manufacture 'news' and set the agenda from a firm left of centre position.So here is his analysis, with all due thanks to Biased-BBC. and Craig.

'So 'Newsnight' mentions a report from the Resolution Foundation think tank about the plight of 'The Squeezed Middle', the Ed Miliband phrase used by reporter David Grossman.

The guy who appeared from the Resolution Foundation was Gavin Kelly. What Grossman didn't mention is that he was Gordon Brown's Deputy Chief of Staff as prime minister, having previously worked in Tony Blair's Policy Unit.

That Resolution Foundation is the sort of think tank the BBC likes to call "independent". How 'independent' is it?

Digging a bit more into that Resolution Foundation think tank, which 'Newsnight' was touting last night without letting on that their expert 'talking head' was a former advisor to Gordon Brown and that the BBC News website repeatedly presents as 'independent', reveals that they receive a fair amount of coverage from the BBC.

Looking back, when Miliband began his 'squeezed middle' campaign in November 2010, the BBC quoted a report by "the Resolution Foundation think-tank", as if it were co-incidental.

When Miliband made a speech attacking Tory cuts in February 2011 he was reported by the BBC as addressing "the Resolution Foundation, a think tank". By a remarkable co-incidence, Today interviewed someone from "The Resolution Foundation" on that very day on the very subject of Miliband's speech, and so did 5 Live .

Cameron's cuts threaten welfare reform, warned the Resolution Foundation, "a think tank", back in May 2011. Labour's Stephen Timms was on hand to agree with them. 

"The Resolution Foundation says wage inequality is getting worse" on 5Live in October 2011.

Cuts in tax credits are under attack from "an organisation" called The Resolution Foundation last November. 

In December 2011, Radio 5 Live has on someone from the "research group, the Resolution Foundation" to talk about living standards. 6 days later the same guy was back on 5 Live calling for regulation of letting agents, this time representing a "group, which represents people on low to middle incomes". The same theme was brought up on the same day's You and Yours, where the organisation was just given its name.

They've had lots of coverage this year, first in an article on inequality which calls them "a new independent think tank", then getting publicity for their latest report on personal spending where they are called a "think tank" and "the independent think tank, the Resolution Foundation".

The only programme that comes a little bit clean is The Week in Westminster, back in April 2011, where "Gavin Kelly of the think tank the Resolution Foundation" is described as "formerly an adviser to Gordon Brown".

How 'independent' are they? Who are 'the team' behind the independent Resolution Foundation think tank?

Well, there's chief executive Gavin Kelly, former advisor to prime minister Gordon Brown, for starters. 

Then there's Vidhya Alakeson, research and strategy director, who has worked for several left-leaning think tanks (some with links to Labour, such as Policy Network and the Social Market Foundation) and, like Mr Kelly. also worked in the prime minister's policy unit under Labour. 

There's also James Plunkett, Secretary to the Commission on Living Standards, who has written for the Guardian attacking Michael Gove's education policies as "tired old Tory ideology" and elsewhere attacking the "malevolence" of "the Nasty Party". He worked in Gordon Brown's strategy unit from 2008-09.

Then there's senior economist Matthew Whittaker, who also serves as a "wise man" on the Labour-aligned IPPR's New Era Economics panel.

Also Felicity Dennistoun, external affair assistant, who was a parliamentary assistant to Labour's Emily Thornberry, andJoe Coward, research and communications assistant, who came from the centre-left Demos think tank.

Guido got the main piece of the jigsaw quite some time back. The man who founded the Resolution Foundation, insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery, is a Labour Party donor.

The Resolution Foundation looks set to join the IPPR and Demos as a favoured think tank of the BBC. Given the links so many of its key figures have to the last Labour government and their ties to other left-of-centre think tanks, would it be too much to ask BBC presenters/reporters to say things like, "A report today from the left-leaning think tank, the Resolution Foundation, found that...." or "Former advisor to Gordon Brown, Gavin Kelly/James Plunkett of the Resolution Foundation, said...."?'

Can you think of any excuse for the above deceit by the BBC; I cannot.