Dean Godson, Director of Policy Exchange, was delighted to welcome the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, to the official launch of the final volume of Charles Moore’s authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, Herself Alone.

The event, hosted by Policy Exchange, was the Prime Minister’s first visit to a think tank since he took office. It was attended by some of the surviving dramatis personae from the Thatcher era and other senior figures from the world of politics, journalism and public life.

The Prime Minister praised the biography, saying, it is “not just the greatest recent work of biography but… also, in our lifetimes, the greatest work of modern British history”. Charles Moore, the author of the 20-year project, is a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and was previously Chairman of the Trustees. Watch the video of the speeches on YouTube

Policy Exchange hosted a keynote speech by Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on building beautiful homes and protecting heritage. At the event, co-hosted with Create Streets, the Housing Secretary said the Government is “going to take up the mantle” provided by Policy Exchange to address the housing shortage and NIMBYism by building more beautiful homes. Watch the video of the speech on YouTube. Read coverage in The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Read the full speech transcript on the Government’s website.

Richard Sloggett, former Special Adviser to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has joined Policy Exchange as a Senior Fellow working on Health Policy. Richard will lead on all new health projects, as well as supervising our ongoing research on the future of social care.
 
Juliet Samuel, columnist for The Daily Telegraph, joins us as a Senior Fellow. She will be working on our Prosperity programme, which examines how to renew capitalism. Watch her appearance on Policy Exchange’s Conference platform here.
 
Trevor Phillips, broadcaster and writer, former chairman of the John Lewis Partnership Council and current Chair of Index of Censorship, joins us a Senior Fellow. He will also contribute to the Prosperity programme, focusing on the future of work, as well as the Civility Hub and examining extremism in all its forms.

Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project hosted a panel discussion on the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment featuring some of the leading legal minds in the country. The speakers, who were evenly split on whether the prorogation should have been considered justiciable, were Lord Sumption, former Justice of the Supreme Court; John Larkin QC, Attorney General for Northern Ireland; Helen Mountfield QC, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; and The Lord Trevethin and Oaksey QC, Crossbench Peer and Barrister. It was chaired by Richard Ekins, Head of Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project and Professor of Law at Oxford University. Watch the YouTube video here.

Arlene Foster, Leader of the DUP, and Kate Hoey, the Labour MP and member of the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, appeared at Conservative Party Conference to speak about preserving the Good Friday Agreement during the Brexit process. Watch the debate here and the other major Policy Exchange Brexit discussion, Michael Gove in conversation with the Times columnist Iain Martin.

The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has backed Policy Exchange’s proposals to increase the number of sporting events that must be shown on free-to-air TV, for example women’s national football tournaments and test cricket.

The Committee’s new report, Public service broadcasting: as vital as ever, references Policy Exchange’s recent report Modernising the United Kingdom. Policy Exchange’s report calls for full legal protection for live coverage of sports events of a national interest as part of a wider programme to strengthen the Union by upgrading the UK’s economic and digital infrastructure, boosting access to shared culture and leading efforts to cut carbon emissions to ‘net-zero’.

The 20,000 police recruits promised by the Prime Minister should be used to reverse the “almost total collapse of community policing teams across the country,” according to Rekindling British Policing. The new Policy Exchange report, written by Richard Walton – Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and former Head of Counter Terrorism Command in the Metropolitan Police – with a Foreword by Sir Mark Rowley QPM, former Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, offers a 10-point plan for revival. Read coverage in The Times and The Daily Telegraph.