Alan Milburn joins Demos as it changes direction

Alan Milburn is to join the thinktank Demos, which now boasts connections throughout the coalition alongside its Labour regulars. Demos started life in 1993 and though it occasionally published work by Tory MPs like Alan Duncan, it was safe to call it a Labour-supporting thinktank. Under director Richard Reeves, that changed. When, at its 16th birthday party last year, its then employee and former Labour cabinet minister James Purnell fondly remembered being at the party to mark its launch he asked the roomful of people whether anyone else had been there. Very few people put their hands up. Under Reeves, Demos tried to redefine the centre ground of British politics and give some emphasis to liberal, as opposed to social democratic, thinking. The thinktank appointed George Osborne and David Willetts to its advisory council, together with Liberal Democrats Danny Alexander, Vince Cable and David Laws - men who Reeves believed were intent on liberal ends to achieve social justice. Reeves retained links with people perceived to be exiles from Brown's government - Blairite adviser Julian le Grand, now involved in advising Michael Gove in helping parents set up their own schools ‑ and Alan Milburn, who came unstuck in Labour circles over his attempted reforms to health policy. Observer columnist Will Hutton, whose ideas on "stakeholder capitalism" were junked by New Labour but who has been asked by the coalition to head a review into public sector pay, also frequents the Demos advisory board. He is joined by Obama adviser Richard Thaler, who brought the world the theory of "nudge": the idea that regulation isn't always the best way to improve human behaviour and there are other, more subtle ways to make people behave in a way that is healthier for them, and for the state. Advisers in high places Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury Vince Cable, business secretary Will Hutton reviewing fair pay for the coalition David Laws, former chief secretary to the Treasury tipped for a return Julian le Grand, Blair adviser now advising Gove's new school network Alan Milburn expected to head social mobility review George Osborne, chancellor Richard Reeves, Clegg adviser Richard Thaler, Obama guru David Willetts, universities minister