Papers please
The Britain Project will also publish regular policy papers with a specific focus on economic growth and public services.
“We don’t want to try and be all things for all people at this stage,” said another person closely involved with the think tank, granted anonymity because they are not currently authorized to speak publicly. “We really want to focus on what are the really key issues for the country at the moment,” they added, citing the cost of living as a priority.
The think tank wants to show “you need a vibrant economy in order to be able to support social justice,” that person said, adding “liberalism endorses a national confidence” alongside being proudly internationalist.
“What we want is people who are specialists in their area who’ve done a lot of deep thinking,” the person added. “We can support them with research, but [they] will have a lot of experience themselves to draw on.”
Through the scrutiny of the policy process, Leunig says he is optimistic they’ll create ideas that are both acceptable to the public and can be implemented.
“I want us to be publishing things that people say: ‘Hey, that is worth thinking about,’” Leunig said, pointing out that he proposed the furlough scheme to stop mass unemployment when he was economic adviser to then Chancellor Rishi Sunak during the Covid-19 pandemic. “What I don’t want to be doing is just saying exactly what everybody else has said.”