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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/04/in-praise-of-bona-fide-thinktanks

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In praise of … bona fide thinktanks In praise of … bona fide thinktanks
(7 months later)
A "tank" can be a water container, or a combat vehicle. Fortunately, most people can tell them apart. That's less easy with "thinktank", a term which came into widespread use here when Edward Heath brought in outside experts for open-minded advice. Last week an organisation called Migration Matters complained that the BBC had been introducing speakers from Migrationwatch as if they came from a thinktank, rather than being lobbyists. Migrationwatch responded by saying they were independent of any political party. Yet they differ from the old perception of "thinktank" in that they crusade for an advertised cause: cutting immigration. The same problem arises with groups such as Reform – habitually described as a thinktank, though the conclusions it reaches are always predictable: peg back the public sector. An organisation that walks and talks like a pressure group is a pressure group, and that is what it ought to be called.A "tank" can be a water container, or a combat vehicle. Fortunately, most people can tell them apart. That's less easy with "thinktank", a term which came into widespread use here when Edward Heath brought in outside experts for open-minded advice. Last week an organisation called Migration Matters complained that the BBC had been introducing speakers from Migrationwatch as if they came from a thinktank, rather than being lobbyists. Migrationwatch responded by saying they were independent of any political party. Yet they differ from the old perception of "thinktank" in that they crusade for an advertised cause: cutting immigration. The same problem arises with groups such as Reform – habitually described as a thinktank, though the conclusions it reaches are always predictable: peg back the public sector. An organisation that walks and talks like a pressure group is a pressure group, and that is what it ought to be called.
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