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If you'd been listening to the Today programme at around 6.07 this morning, would you have had a similar train of thought to the one I endured listening to James Naughtie? I can't effectively recreate the moment in writing, but I'll try!
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Here's how Jim began: "The government's efforts to tackle fuel poverty aren't working, according to a think tank..."
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Immediately I thought 'I bet it's a left-wing think tank'.
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Jim continued, "...that proposes different ways of helping people who suffer, and whose lives may be threatened, because of the difficulty of keeping warm in winter. ..."
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By which stage I was trying to guess which left-wing think tank it would be, straightaway thinking that, this being the BBC and the Today programme in particular, it would probably be the IPPR.
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Naughtie went on, "Our reporter Sarah Campbell has been reading the report from..."
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I waited with bated breath (god help me!)
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"...the IPPR."
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I sniggered.
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Of course, it's not always the case that Today bases its report-based reports on the findings of left-wing think tanks to the exclusion of right-wing think tanks, but it is quite often the case nonetheless. This needs tracking systematically from now on.
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(In passing I note that an alumnus of the IPPR was on The Daily Politics today, Dr Wendy Piatt of the Russell Group (a former Downing street advisor). I'm not merely mentioning that so that I can place a picture of her to the right!)
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