Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

The #PREVENT Review was announced in 2019. Like the controversial Race Report, the Social Mobility Commission, & so much else, it's an ideological stitch up, headed by ex-director of the hard-right anti-Muslim Henry Jackson Society, William Shawcross.

And now this:

A draft of the "independent" #PREVENT review, led by William Shawcross, made the dangerously irresponsible claim that 'The Govt’s counter-terrorism programme has been too focused on right-wing extremism & should now crack down on Islamist extremism'.

In 1992, Old Etonian William Shawcross wrote an "admiring" biography of Rupert Murdoch, & in 2011 was appointed a member of the board of directors of the grotesque trans-Atlantic UK-based neoliberal/free-market 'think tank', the Henry Jackson Society.

In 2003, Shawcross published 'Allies: The United States, Britain, Europe & the War in Iraq', a defence of the war that praised Tony Blair's 'consistent courage' in pushing for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as the 'right thing to do'.

There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction.

By 2010, Shawcross had become a critic of New Labour & a fan of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory: 'Labour boasts that 3 million new jobs have been created, but most went to immigrants.. leaked Labour documents suggest this was a deliberate policy "to dilute Britishness".'

Using dangerously divisive extremist rhetoric reminiscent of the far-right, Shawcross continued by saying that 'Labour's bullying "multicultural" ideology has been a catastrophe' & concluded by claiming only the @Conservatives could rescue us from such humiliations!

When the @Conservatives entered government the following month, Shawcross' daughter, Eleanor Shawcross acquired a key liaison role between the Treasury & the City of London. Later she donated £20K to Sunak's leadership campaign, & is now head of Rishi Sunak's No10’s policy unit.

Several years earlier, in an opinion piece for The Jerusalem Post, Shawcross had claimed that the West is 'threatened by a vast fifth column - that there are thousands of European-born people, in Britain... who wish to destroy us, & whom he referred to as Islamo-fascists.

The Cabinet Office announced on 29 August 2012 that Shawcross was the government's controversial & preferred candidate for chair of the Charity Commission, a post he held until 2018.

Then in September 2021, Shawcross became the Government's commissioner for public appointments.

Shawcross led an investigation into the process that saw Boris Johnson's friend Martin Thomas appointed as chair of the Charity Commission, who withdrew from his appointment after allegations he had behaved inappropriately while running Women for Women International.

Questioned by MPs about his investigation, Shawcross said the government is “not to blame” for the failed attempt to appoint Thomas.

He later apologised for the statement, after being accused of prejudicing his own ongoing inquiry into how the appointment was conducted!

And now we find William Shawcross - the father of Rishi Sunak's policy chief - has just been appointed to investigate Boris Johnson’s “loan” link with Rishi Sunak's old boss (who "gave" the @Conservatives £400,000) Richard Sharp, the man Boris Johnson appointed to Chair the @BBC!

George Osborne attended Ellie's 25th birthday party, & increasingly far-right shit-stirrer Douglas Murray is an old friend.

While working as a management consultant, she was seconded to work for Boris Johnson during his 2008 mayoral election campaign.

Later in 2008, Ellie Shawcross was appointed as an advisor to then Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

Shawcross married Brextremist Simon Wolfson in June 2012, who she met while he was working on Conservative economic policies with George Osborne.

Brextremist Simon Wolfson - Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise - is currently chief executive of the clothing retailer Next plc, as well as a Conservative life peer who donated to David Cameron's Tory leadership campaign in the 2005.

Wolfson was named by the billionaire-owned Telegraph as the 37th-most important Tory in 2007, & signed an open letter calling on then Chancellor, George Osborne, to press ahead with the coalition government's #austerity plan to reduce the public finance deficit in one term!

In December 2016, Wolfson was appointed to the Chair of the #TuftonStreet's Eurosceptic Open Europe think-tank, which was widely accused of stoking anti-EU sentiment in the UK media, & which later merged with the dodgy Policy Exchange.