Board member of the London-based think-tank Centre for European Reform; published the monograph After Social Democracy through the think-tank Demos three years ago and now writing another on the future of work; regular contributor to the New Statesman, The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Prospect, The New York Times and The Times; recently took part in seminar sponsored by the Cabinet Office on long-term strategic challenges for Britain; took part in third-way wonkathon at No 10 in 1998, attended by Tony Blair and other key MPs; wrote Is Conservatism Dead? with shadow social security secretary David Willetts; will publish his next book Two Faces of Liberalism through Polity Press in May.