Thread by @docrussjackson

Another #THREAD about the sinister & shadowy network of opaquely funded right-wing free-market think tanks (lobbying groups), funded by US Libertarian billionaires, that have infiltrated & threaten our democracy.

This one concerns Policy Exchange's current attack on our Police.

The Policy Exchange report says the Home Office should use its powers to reform "failing" police forces, replacing chief constables if necessary, as some common offences are "in essence almost entirely decriminalised" because policing has "lost its way".

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-627323…

Using divisive culture war rhetoric imported from the US far-right, the report states that the public feels police officers are "more interested in being woke than solving crimes". While this may be true for a radicalised minority of the public, it is a dangerous & absurd claim.

Before I discuss the wider aims of Policy Exchange, some important context: first, the controversial new MET Commissioner, Mark Rowley; & second, the appointment of controversial ideological extremist Robin Simcox, as head of the "independent" Commission for Countering Extremism.

Mark Peter Rowley is the newly appointed, upcoming Commissioner of the MET Police & is due to begin later this year. He was the Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council Counter-Terrorism Coordination Committee & National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing.

Rowley was Chief Constable of Surrey Police (2009-2011), and also served as Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police between February & April 2017. He retired from the police in March 2018. In July we found out he's replacing former MET Commissioner, Cressida Dick.

In 2018 we found out that Rowley, at the time the UK's top counter-terrorism police officer, had met officials from the right-wing extremist US think tank, the anti-abortion Henry Jackson Society, after agreeing to endorse a report on Islamist terrorism.

linkedin.com/pulse/brendan-…

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley had also been due to speak at the parliamentary launch of the report, but pulled out at the last minute following complaints from Muslim organisations, which accused the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) of "demonising" Muslims.

But it transpired that Mark Rowley had met with Hannah Stuart, an HJS senior research fellow & author of the controversial report, along with Katie Parrett, HJS's chief operating officer who organised the report launch, in Rowley's office at New Scotland Yard in February 2017.

According to Middle Eastern Eye, Rowley withdrew only after police learnt that Alan Mendoza & Douglas Murray, senior HJS officials who have both been accused of stoking Islamophobia & links with far-right organisations in the US, would attend the event.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1387338274738479104?s=20&t=yn_tpSMQ5NQJmoL9nU0agg

The revelations further damaged Rowley's standing in Muslim communities because at the time he had used a speech at the Policy Exchange to accuse two Muslim campaign groups, MEND & Cage, of seeking to “create & exploit grievances & isolation”.

mend.org.uk/mark-rowley/

"Although we applauded Mark Rowley's last-minute decision not to attend the HJS event... the fact that he was listed to attend is worrying. The Henry Jackson Society is an Islamophobic, neo-con think-tank & an integral part of the Islamophobia network in the UK," - MEND.

Which brings me to Britain's head of the "independent" Commission for Countering Extremism, Robin Simcox, who Priti Patel has recently made permanent - a fact strangely under-reported by Britain's entire billionaire-owned right-wing press, & much of the broadcast "news" media.

In November, Priti Patel said it was "an honour" to give a keynote speech on security at the Koch-funded anti-woke, anti-abortion, anti-regulation Heritage Foundation think tank HQ in Washington, which rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1463206547048349710?s=20&t=L99FCl-7OvaDGmcpWpO2Dw

Simcox worked at the UK's neo-con Henry Jackson Society before becoming "Margaret Thatcher Fellow" at the Heritage Foundation.

In the UK, a borderline far-right anti-Net Zero Koch stooge now heads the UK's Commission on Countering Extremism.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1563856829544800256?s=20&t=L99FCl-7OvaDGmcpWpO2Dw

Also worth noting is that since 2018, Europol, the FBI & MI5 have all said that FAR RIGHT TERROR PLOTS ARE MULTIPLYING FASTER THAN ISLAMIST ONES, yet a #PREVENT review was to be led by William Shawcross, who describes gay rights & climate change as "PC".

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Shawcross adores Rupert Murdoch, & has written of a “vast fifth column” of Muslims in Europe who “wish to destroy us”. Shawcross is an Old Etonian, friend of Michael Gove, & a regular at hard-right think tanks Policy Exchange & the Henry Jackson Society.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1366344026916610053?s=20&t=tWIYEZYgXvoqOeG8hj17xA

Back to the Policy Exchange, an ultra-free-market think tank (lobbying group) set up in 2002 by a group including Michael Gove & Francis Maude, it is one of the three least transparent UK think tanks in terms of funding - but we know US Libertarian billionaires are supporters.

Less well known is that Policy Exchange is the lobby group that Boris Johnson’s government uses most.

Policy Exchange has played an important role in shifting power away from rival institutions and into the prime minister’s office.

As @GeorgeMonbiot revealed back in 2020, for several years Policy Exchange has been building a case for curtailing the judiciary, providing ammunition for the Govt’s attack on judicial review, which enables citizens to sue the government to uphold the law. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Policy Exchange has called for the PM's office to have even greater powers “to develop & direct policy change” through the civil service, & to appoint leaders of public bodies whose “culture & values” align with government’s aims - hence all the partisan appointments.

In Britain, supposedly independent Commissions are too often headed by partisan Govt stooges, often with extreme ideological views: we saw this with the Race Commission, the Social Mobility Commission, & now with the 'Commission on Countering Extremism'.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1534864233866854400?s=20&t=tWIYEZYgXvoqOeG8hj17xA

In 2020, Policy Exchange published a polemic claiming Extinction Rebellion is led by dangerous extremists. As usual, it was widely covered by the media. It's how it works: opaquely funded free-market organisations dominate the UK news media, & rarely are voters given any context.

Less discussed was Policy Exchange receiving funding from the power company Drax, the trade association Energy UK, & the gas companies EON & Cadent, whose fossil-fuel investments are threatened by environmental activism. A pattern often repeated in the UK

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1547594809233117185?s=20&t=86yR-PLmqaLrpI2Yul4Ehw

David Frost of Irish border fiasco fame was a member of the Advisory Council of the Eurosceptic think tank Open Europe, which merged with Policy Exchange in 2020. But the public remain largely oblivious to these networks. British democracy is broken.

https://twitter.com/DavidGHFrost/status/1501094579453534210?s=20&t=plgFMealNR5vyARXD4wTtQ

This thread started with the Policy Exchange's report attacking the police, who imho will be put in a very difficult position when mass demonstrations & possible civil unrest arise due to the economic catastrophe which is about to bankrupt millions of UK citizens & businesses.

One more thing: Gisella Stuart, a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society "principles", is the First Civil Service Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission, desi signed to ensure appointments to the Civil Service in the UK are made openly and on merit.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1468988428712910852?s=20&t=CWI4hHpHPjzd7PWnsuFcVA

Implanting US Libertarian billionaire stooge, dimwit Liz Truss, as the UK's PM, is the culmination of decades of propaganda, lobbying, campaigning & networking by the most powerful antidemocratic, anti-regulation & anti-Left individuals & groups on earth.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1562410418253041664?s=20&t=86yR-PLmqaLrpI2Yul4Ehw

Basically, the UK Government been using the far-right template, road-tested by fascist Nazis, updated in the US & imported to the UK: appoint sympathetic ideological extremists to every Commission, every public body & every civil service post that requires an "independent" voice.

Studying the rise of interwar #fascism, Karl Polanyi claimed that the political empowerment of fascism was an attempt by elites to protect the myth of the "self-regulating market", which just happened to protect elites & the worst excesses of the capitalist system from democracy.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1564561192395456513?s=20&t=tWIYEZYgXvoqOeG8hj17xA

In 2018, Truss met with representatives of five of these divisive US 'Libertarian' billionaire-funded groups, including the anti-abortion & anti-regulation Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, & ALEC - which all aim to scrap environmental protections.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1472738708583550977?s=20&t=tWIYEZYgXvoqOeG8hj17xA

And on the same day as the Policy Exchange Police report came out, the PM appoints a right-wing commentator & activist who has a record of accusing arts & heritage organisations of “wokeness”, to a role at the V&A Museum. She's worked for Policy Exchange.

theguardian.com/culture/2022/a…

Is the anti-abortion, anti-regulation, anti-tax, anti-welfare, anti-Net Zero, anti-public services, anti-Union, antidemocracy Koch & other US 'Libertarian' billionaire-funded Heritage Foundation actually running Britain now?

Certainly feels like it.

#EnoughIsEnough

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1565619077367881728?s=20&t=MbNfqkPZJGYhdJdBKPAQ8A