Key people
The team includes Mark Littlewood, the Director General who started on the 1st December 2009.
Also Professor Philip Booth (Editorial & Programme Director) and Professor D R Myddelton (Chairman).
Basic philosophy
The IEA is the UK's original free-market think-tank, founded in 1955. It dominated debate in the 1970s and 1980s but has not been a major player in UK public policy for more than a decade. Under its new Director General the Trustees hope that that might change.
Some are concerned
that Mark Littlewood's appointment will represent a change of direction for
an institution associated with the Thatcherite revolution of the 1980s.
This is because Littlewood was a Liberal Democrat (he tore up his Party
card for his new job) and was once Head of Media for that party. More
than that he is a supporter of the European Union project at a time
when most of Britain's centre right is avowedly Eurosceptic. Littlewood's belief in the free market is nonetheless staunch and he wrote an article attacking the minimum wage shortly after he had been appointed. Plenty of Lib Dems were indignant at his classical liberalism and were pleased to see him go.
The IEA's goal is to explain free-market ideas to the public, including politicians, students, journalists, businessmen, academics and others interested in public policy. To some extent they are above the immediate fray. They "seek to change the climate of opinion in which politicians debate policy – it is not our main role to try to change day-to-day thinking of party politicians."
Recent achievements
IEA papers are arranged in a series of titles, each with its own 'brand image'. The main series of publications is complemented by the Institute's quarterly journal Economic Affairs.
The Institute's research activities are aided by an international Academic Advisory Council and an eminent panel of Honorary Fellows.
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