Reform name game

It was inevitable, I suppose, that the think tank Reform would have to rebrand, and yesterday it was announced that it will henceforth be known as Re:State.

A few years ago I noted that:

Reform (the think tank, not the more recent political party) was launched in 2002 by Nick Herbert and Andrew Haldenby to ‘challenge the idea that increasing public spending, and taxation, was the only way to improve public services’.

A few months after the launch I was contacted by Herbert (who subsequently became a Conservative MP and is now a peer) who commissioned me to produce a magazine, also called Reform.

They seemed happy with the first issue but my services were quietly dispensed with the following year for reasons I described here. (I’m still on their mailing list though, and I hold no grudge!)

It was obvious, though, that the rise of Reform UK was going to put pressure on the think tank to change its name because I can’t imagine the trustees would have wanted to share the name with any political party, let alone a party as potentially divisive as its namesake.

An email set to subscribers yesterday confirmed this:

Our new name reflects our legacy, builds on our momentum, and looks ahead to our vision of the State remade.

It also reinforces our strictly independent, cross-party charitable status, ending the confusion created by the Brexit Party renaming as Reform UK.

It must be annoying, though, to be forced to give up the name it adopted almost two decades before the Brexit Party rebranded as Reform UK.

Ironically, though, before she became an MP in 2010 former Conservative PM Liz Truss was deputy director of Reform, hence this blogpost, My brush with Reform (and Liz Truss).

PS. Now there is no longer a think tank called Reform, perhaps Reform UK can drop ‘UK’ from its name? Just a thought.