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Introduction
| Aims | In the news
The New Statesman, May 2002 “ …The chancellor, whose entrance turned heads, made a particular beeline for Ruth Lister, the social policy guru behind much of Catalyst’s thinking. Others who arrived to press flesh included Peter Hain and Michael Meacher… ” Financial Times, May 2002 “ …Ministers have been accused of inflating evidence of benefit fraud … Catalyst, a left-wing think tank, said the official annual estimate of £7bn was reached by a politically driven process of exaggeration and double-counting… ” The Independent, August 2002 “ …Last week the underclass rose to prominence with the publication of a pamphlet by Catalyst … the aim of the pamphlet is to argue for a more generous welfare state… ” The Sunday Times, September 2002 “ …The relaunch of Catalyst may help to bring some of the ideas animating new trade union leaders to a broader public… ” The Observer, September 2002 “ …Peter Hain, the minister for Europe and a supporter of state funding, will tell a fringe meeting at the TUC conference in Blackpool today that he would oppose it if it were ‘a device to cut the unions out of the party’… ” The Independent, September 2002 “‘We need’, said the prime minister at his party conference, ‘to move to the post-comprehensive era’. But the comprehensive school is fighting back. The first salvo comes in the form of a pamphlet from the leftwing think-tank Catalyst… ” Francis Beckett, The Guardian, October 2002 “Calls for state funding of political parties could damage Labour’s links with trade unions, a left-wing think tank has warned… ” ePolitix, October 2002 “ …for the past 12 months, Catalyst and the IPPR have been engaged in an intellectual form of hand-to-hand fighting over the PFI… ” Public Finance, October 2002 “A think-tank has bucked the political trend by publishing a pamphlet ‘in praise of centralism’. Catalyst argues that centralised mechanisms of standards monitoring and resource allocation still have a part to play in achieving fairness and equality… ” Public Finance, November 2003 “ …a new report from the Catalyst Forum shows that it should be possible to increase the numbers at work by the 2 million needed to keep this ratio constant. This would depend partly on a general willingness to employ older people and partly on measures to stimulate job creation in the older industrial areas… ” The Independent, November 2002 “ …Last week at the House of Commons, the Catalyst Forum, a democratic socialist think-tank, launched a report … that cautions against the use of population ageing as a pretext for cutting back provision for old age… ” The Times, December 2002 “ …Alarm bells are ringing among a number of quite sober backbenchers about Labour’s education policy … At a seminal meeting in parliament organised by the left thinktank Catalyst this week, the evidence was laid out starkly… ” Polly Toynbee, The Guardian, December 2002 “… Catalyst comes good on new left thinking … ” Chartist, January 2003 “ …Foundation trust hospitals will push the National Health Service back to a pre-nationalised era, according to Catalyst… ” Tribune, March 2003 “ …Martin McIvor of Catalyst is sure that the Iraq debate has re-energised Labour’s left, changing the balance of forces within the party… ” The Guardian, April 2003 “ …A vigorous pamphlet, Citizen-consumers, by Catherine Needham (for Catalyst), published this week, points to an alarming dichotomy in Mr Blair’s concept of a user of a public service. By treating users as consumers and customers (a crib from Thatcherism) he forestalls ‘a robust and active participatory citizenship’… ” Simon Jenkins, The Times, April 2003 “ …As Catherine Needham argues … the real split is not over foundation hospitals as such, but over the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the providers of public services… ” Bagehot, The Economist, May 2003 “Government attempts to consumerise public services with controversial new policies such as foundation hospitals may create high public expectations that can never be satisfied, policy specialists warn today… ” The Guardian, May 2003 “ …As the GMB Congress continues in Blackpool, the union’s general secretary, Kevin Curran, and Labour MP Frank Doran take part in a Catalyst fringe event looking at the links between Labour and the unions…” ePolitix, June 2003 “ …Michael Meacher was appointed vice-chairman of a left-wing think-tank that has been critical of the Government … Mr Meacher said yesterday: ‘An independent voice of radicalism within the labour movement is very much needed at the present time’.” The Independent, June 2003 “ …The cabinet is being hammered … with a Catalyst thinktank pamphlet warning MPs yesterday that foundation status may allow hospitals to sell off NHS property, introduce charges and chase profits …” The Guardian, July 2003 “ …A study by the left-wing think-tank Catalyst … said that the freedom foundation hospitals would have to earn surpluses would allow joint ventures with corporations, and could generate all kinds of novel tensions … The talk of bringing local democracy to the NHS would sound distinctly hollow when it was businesses, not local representatives, which decided how to meet the needs of the sick… ” Nick Cohen, The Observer, July 2003 “ …A leftwing thinktank today added its voice to the growing dissent over the decline of the state pension, warning that the current shift towards private pension provision will increase the numbers of people spending their retirement in poverty… ” The Guardian, July 2003 “ …Catalyst’s director, Martin McIvor, says its job is not primarily to write an alternative manifesto ‘though we may have a go when it comes to the next election’. There are alternatives to New Labour, he argues, emphasising the plural. ‘The key is understanding equality as fundamental to many of the other values the Left is aiming to advance’… ” Public Finance, July 2003 “ …Bold decisions to relocate entire government departments … are needed if the government is to succeed in its policy of stopping the growing north-south divide, says a report published last night… “ The Guardian, September 2003 “ …At present, a significant element of ‘national’ policymaking effectively functions as an unacknowledged regional policy for the south-east, said the Catalyst paper … setting of macroeconomic policy in the south-east benefited finance at the expense of manufacturing… ” The Financial Times, September 2003 “ …Robert Taylor … suggests in a new Catalyst pamphlet that unions should place quality-of-working-life issues at the heart of their interests and make themselves uncompromising allies of business-building. The government should back this progressive agenda … A growing trade union movement that looks forward rather than back would be a gain for the economy, country and progressive politics alike… ” Will Hutton, The Observer, September 2003
“ …foundation hospitals and private treatment centres would spell the end of the NHS, former Labour Health Secretary Frank Dobson told a fringe meeting at the TUC… ” The Mirror, September 2003 “ …backed by the trade-union-funded think-tank Catalyst, Real Labour has steadily advanced policies arguing for modernisation rather than a rejection of the achievements of former Labour administrations … Catalyst links academic endeavour with a sympathetic understanding of the frustrations and ambitions of the Labour movement. With an eclectic national council … it has kept alive the Keynesian flame… ” Anne Perkins, The New Statesman, September 2003 “ …Brown read this pamphlet [In Praise of Centralism] with some interest when the row within government over foundation hospitals was reaching its peak… ” Steve Richards, Prospect, October 2003 “ …the ‘one to watch’ prize went to Catalyst – the embodiment of intelligent Old Labour … The shortlist of five for the pamphlet prize included contributions from Catalyst, Policy Exchange, the Hansard Society and the International Futures Forum… ” Prospect, November 2003 “ …Labour MPs concerned about the direction of Tony Blair’s second term today launched a new organisation to steer No 10’s consultation exercise in a leftward direction … Angela Eagle is authoring the group’s first publication, a pamphlet jointly published with the Catalyst thinktank… “ The Guardian, November 2003 “Top-up fees will dramatically reduce the number of poor students pursuing elite courses, academics cautioned yesterday. Catalyst, a left-leaning think-tank, said that the introduction of variable fees would scare working-class students away from high-cost, prestige courses… ” The Times, December 2003 “ … The report by influential thinktank Catalyst warned: ‘Clearly the Government proposals do not offer sufficient support for poorer students and may have the effect of raising new funds for the sector by pricing them out of the market’… ” The Express, December 2003 “New Wave Labour’s first pamphlet opposing the government’s obsessive reliance on markets and privatisation is another indication of the rising discontent among Labour backbenchers… ” The Morning Star, December 2004 “The Labour Party is over-centralised, undemocratic and closed to new ideas, a cabinet minister says today. The warning by Peter Hain, the leader of the Commons … coincides with the release of a pamphlet published by the Catalyst think-tank… ” The Guardian, March 2004 “Mr Hain, the Leader of the House, caused ill-disguised fury in Downing Street with an attack on the party’s ‘censored’ policymaking and efforts to manipulate internal elections… ” The Independent on Sunday, March 2004 “Trade unions will meet next week to co-ordinate demands for policies they want in Labour’s election manifesto… ” The Times, May 2004 “The union leaders are being brought to Westminster for a seminar entitled ‘Working Together for a Radical Third Term – trade unions and the Labour Government’, under the auspices of Catalyst, a left-of-centre think tank… ” The Independent, May 2004 “New Wave Labour’s first pamphlet opposing the government’s obsessive reliance on markets and privatisation is another indication of the rising discontent among Labour backbenchers… ” The Morning Star, December 2004 “The Labour Party is over-centralised, undemocratic and closed to new ideas, a cabinet minister says today. The warning by Peter Hain, the leader of the Commons … coincides with the release of a pamphlet published by the Catalyst think-tank… ” The Guardian, March 2004 “Mr Hain, the Leader of the House, caused ill-disguised fury in Downing Street with an attack on the party’s ‘censored’ policymaking and efforts to manipulate internal elections… ” The Independent on Sunday, March 2004 “Trade unions will meet next week to co-ordinate demands for policies they want in Labour’s election manifesto… ” The Times, May 2004 “The union leaders are being brought to Westminster for a seminar entitled ‘Working Together for a Radical Third Term – trade unions and the Labour Government’, under the auspices of Catalyst, a left-of-centre think tank… ” The Independent, May 2004 “The belief that private sector companies are inherently more efficient at delivering public services has been attacked as a myth. Research shows savings are only achieved by cutting pay and conditions… ” The Guardian, June 2004 “Ministers insist that savings from private finance initiatives and public private partnerships are not achieved at the expense of employee terms and conditions. Not so, says the left-wing think-tank Catalyst… ” The Times, June 2004 “Unions are stepping up their efforts, ahead of next week’s National Policy Forum meeting, in their bid to persuade Labour to adopt a radical manifest for the next general election … In May, under the auspices of the Catalyst think-tank, most unions affiliated to Labour agreed a joint statement which set out their demands…” Tribune, July 2004 “Catalyst argues that all rail history is a history of private-sector failure … Labour’s well-meant injection of investment in the railways has left the industry awash with cash. But it is still being inefficiently spent. So why not call time on the entire privatisation disaster?” The Guardian, July 2004 “Catalyst's paper unashamedly revives old debates. First, that equal opportunity cannot be used (as New Labour has been wont to do) as a substitute for equality. Second, Catalyst's paper challenges the legitimacy of a meritocracy: why should the banker be vastly richer than the nurse or street-cleaner? These were the big debates of Labour's 20th century, and the child poverty targets are going to reopen all of them." Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, October 2004 “Tony Blair's vision of a radical reform of the welfare state during a third-term of Labour government, revealed this week, has been attacked by an influential think-tank. Catalyst said the prime minister's plan to move from a welfare system offering basic public services and poverty relief to one providing high-quality services would prove 'ineffective' because Labour had failed to reverse structural inequalities.” Public Finance, October 2004 “During most of the 20th century, Sweden has pursued, in the words of a recent pamphlet published by the Catalyst Forum, ‘policies designed to narrow the inequality of condition between social classes’ … These policies in fact appear to have enhanced the country’s economic competitiveness, while ensuring that the poor obtain a higher proportion of total national income.” The Guardian, January 2005 “ …a report published by the left-of-centre Catalyst think-tank called for ‘radical’ changes to lock in the gains made by the poorest pensioners under Tony Blair's administration and to ensure that the less well-off do not suffer as Britain's population gets older. Among its key recommendations are: increases in the basic state pension, changes to the system to make it fairer to women, and compulsory saving for old age through the tax system.” The Guardian, March 2005 “Renationalising the railways would save the taxpayer more than £500 million a year, according to a study published today. Most franchises could be renationalised without penalty by 2013, the left-wing think-tank Catalyst said. It calculated that £800m a year is taken out of the rail industry in profits.” The Times, March 2005 “ …a report published by the left-of-centre Catalyst think-tank called for ‘radical’ changes to lock in the gains made by the poorest pensioners under Tony Blair's administration and to ensure that the less well-off do not suffer as Britain's population gets older. Among its key recommendations are: increases in the basic state pension, changes to the system to make it fairer to women, and compulsory saving for old age through the tax system.” The Guardian, March 2005 “Renationalising the railways would save the taxpayer more than £500 million a year, according to a study published today. Most franchises could be renationalised without penalty by 2013, the left-wing think-tank Catalyst said. It calculated that £800m a year is taken out of the rail industry in profits." The Times, March 2005
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