Thread by @josiahmortimer

Two right-wing think tanks in a row on #r4today this morning - the Institute of Economic Affairs followed by the Adam Smith Institute. No left-wing balance.

It's time the BBC stopped treating these ideologues as 'neutral' experts

Can you imagine the @CLASSthinktank going on followed by @NEF with no corresponding right-wing balance?

Yesterday a new 'student group' linked to the US far right was invited on the BBC to promote their cause, despite totally lacking a base (other than some rich donors). BBC called them a 'grassroots group' without evidence

This comes in the same week that the IEA were sanctioned by the Charity Commission for promoting a hard Brexit agenda

Matthew Lesh from the IEA said that if we reduce import tariffs to zero: “We’ll stop making things that can be made cheaper elsewhere”

I.e. Almost everything. A lot can be made cheaper in states that have, you know, zero workers' rights and sweat-shop wages

I love the BBC and the last thing we need are witch hunts. This stuff is just really depressing and needs challenging

Story now up: "BBC invites two right-wing think tanks on in a row to air industry-crushing Brexit policy" leftfootforward.org/2019/02/bbc-in…

Since no one could put forward this point, I will: Tariffs exist to help level the playing field between countries with almost no workers’ rights or a minimum wage (who can make goods very cheaply) and our own

.@unitetheunion's Steve Turner said if the deregulators get their way “whole swathes of British industry could be taken out as cheaper inferior products flood the UK, while at the same time British manufacturers face crippling tariffs” #r4today

UPDATE: @GMB_union's Neil Foster tells @LeftFootFwd: "The hard right ideologues like [right wing economist] Patrick Minford and the shady Institute of Economic Affairs have an agenda which will wipe out most of UK manufacturing as we know it."

Rosa Crawford, TUC policy officer: “Ending all tariffs would be a further hammer blow to our manufacturing industries and the communities they support. It would result in the dumping of goods such as steel, ceramics, tyres and glass [and] put thousands of jobs at risk."