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Oct 15 • 14 tweets • 8 min read
#THREAD

Concern over right-wing 'think-tanks' focusses on their intimate links with members of the Govt, their opaque funding, & the prominence of their spokespeople in the national media, who present them as disinterested researchers as opposed to well-connected lobbyists.
Most are situated in 55 #TuftonStreet, near Parliament, including these eight: the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Civitas, TaxPayers’ Alliance, Business for Britain, Vote Leave, The European Foundation, UK2020 & the lesser known New Culture Forum.

The Adam Smith Institute & the particularly influential & omnipresent Institute for Economic Affairs are located close by in Great Smith Street & Lord North Street, respectively.

Below are a links to news & academic articles concerning these so-called 'think tanks' (lobbyists).
First up, a 2018 article revealing how anonymous US donors had given $5.6m since 2008 to groups linked to four right-wing, pro-Brexit free-market fundamentalist thinktanks: The IEA, the Adam Smith Institute, Policy Exchange and the Legatum Institute.

theguardian.com/politics/2018/…
This article links the UK-based 'think tanks' to the wider ATLAS Network, which has also received multimillion-dollar funding for its worldwide activity from foundations set up by the Koch, Scaife, Bradley, Earhart & Templeton families.

theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
The focus of this 2019 article was the new generation of SPADS in Downing St, brought in by Boris Johnson, including Munira Mirza - part of the cabal of former Revolutionary Communist Party supporters who morphed into #Spiked's libertarian provocateurs.

theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
Another 2019 article concerns the 'swathes of right-wing lobbyists who made their way by stealth from the fringes of Westminster to the heart of government' who use the rhetoric of 'national freedom' & 'liberty'.

bylinetimes.com/2019/08/29/who…
This 2017 article revealed that when @UKLabour was in power in 2009, left & right-leaning think tanks received similar levels of coverage in @BBCNews, but by 2015, right-leaning think tanks outnumbered left-leaning think tanks by around two to one.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
This 2018 article by Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, asks why the @BBCNews uses 'think tanks' that do not declare their funding sources, & also declines to pass this information onto @BBC audiences.

mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-bb…
This 2016 article quotes Bob Ward describing the “small cabal” of #TuftonStreet ideological extremists as “undermining the democratic process, which should be based on robust & open debate, rather than clandestine meetings between ideological bed-fellows”.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
Peter Geoghegan's 2020 book 'Democracy For Sale: Dark Money & Dirty Politics', shows how free-market 'think tanks' have grown considerably in number & power, with the omnipresent IEA in particular now more influential than ever, & rarely off TV & radio.

books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr…
I & many others have written about the dangerous global network of right-wing libertarian free-market fundamentalist lobbying groups & disaster capitalists destroying everything decent about Britain. This one concerns how Liz Truss is linked to them:

Here's @GeorgeMonbiot's excellent video from @DoubleDownNews, highlighting the malign influence of #TuftonStreet, & spelling out the very real dangers posed by our divisive free-market fundamentalist government of irresponsible sociopathic extremists.

Finally, here's an excellent recent article by Julian Petley about how before & after the Tories came to power in 1979, foreign billionaire Murdoch's Times & non-dom billionaire Barclay's Telegraph consistently propagated ideas emanating from the IEA.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

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More from @docrussjackson

GET A GRIP - AUSTERITY KILLS Profile picture
Oct 16
#THREAD

Last year a row broke out about the Churchill Fellowship, a charity which funds study & work placements overseas for poorer people, after it changed its name from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

This thread is about truth, the culture war, & our broken news media. Image
In a typical culture war-fuelling diatribe, Boris Johnson accused the charity, set up in Winston Churchill's name, of "airbrushing" his achievements out of history - despite the wartime leader's grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, dismissing the row as 'ridiculous'. Image
Using typically inflammatory language, Johnson said it was "absurd, misguided & wrong" that the Churchill Fellowship appeared to be distancing itself from the wartime PM.

Then Culture War Minister Oliver Dowden amplified the criticism, & lurid 'anti-woke' headlines followed. Image
Read 27 tweets
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Oct 15
Fuck the non-dom billionaire-owned Telegraph & Spectator - they're a cancer on Britain, as is the non-dom billionaire-owned Mail, as is every media outlet owned by foreign billionaire Rupert Murdoch, as are the #TuftonStreet 'think tanks'. Get all this toxic shit out of Britain. ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
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Oct 15
#THREAD

Within minutes, the #JustStopOil stunt grabbed global media attention.

Many expressed outrage, & concern for the painting’s condition, despite the National Gallery quickly confirming the work was unharmed aside from “minor damage to the frame.”

nytimes.com/2022/10/14/art…
I'm torn on this action: on one hand, I appreciate people saying this will lose support for #JustStopOil & alienate people; on the other, the world's media IS talking about their campaign, & media platforms will offer them the chance to discuss their stunt & the #ClimateCrisis.🌍 Image
Mel Carrington, a spokeswoman for #JustStopOil, said in a telephone interview with the New York Times that the group’s intention had been to 'generate publicity' & to create more debate around the #ClimateCrisis & the actions needed to stop it.

bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
Read 11 tweets
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Oct 14
Jeremy Hunt co-authored a 2005 policy book calling for our #NHS to be replaced by health insurance:

“Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private & public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.”

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
The book was put together by free-market Brextremist UKIPer Douglas Carswell, & in addition to Jeremy Hunt, the book’s other authors also included Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, and, of course, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Carswell moved to the USA, to become President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, a free-market, conservative "think tank" which advocates for lower taxes, fewer government regulations, 'religious liberty', 'educational freedom', & free-market healthcare reforms.
Read 6 tweets
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Oct 14
Ultra-neoliberal Britain has lost more of its biodiversity than almost anywhere else in western Europe.

Changes in land use & the advent of intensive farming have swept away insect-rich wildflower meadows, which are at around 3% of their former extent.

theconversation.com/solar-farms-a-…
A full or partial switch from agricultural land to solar farms in some places would allow the land to recover. A 2016 paper found that solar farms tended to have more species of plant, insect and bird than equivalent farm fields.

helapco.gr/wp-content/upl…
Earlier research from 2013 compared land used for solar to the surrounding farmland, which the solar farm used to be a part of, & found greater numbers of butterflies & bees on the site. Butterflies & bees are worth around £400 million/year to the UK economy as pollinators.
Read 10 tweets
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Oct 13
#THREAD

So Boris Johnson is facing questions over whether he followed rules on paid employment after leaving No 10 after receiving $150,000 (£135,000) for a speech to a group in the US called the 'Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers'... 🤔

theguardian.com/politics/2022/…
The 'Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers', HQ'd in Washington DC, is a global lobbying organization, representing leading insurance agencies & brokerage firms. I'm sure Johnson's chat has got NOTHING to do with the UK's private health insurance boom. 😬

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The Council serves as an advocacy group to represent the interests of insurance companies before US state & federal Govts, as well as international Govts. Its political action committee works to support candidates who agree with its views & lobby Congress & international Govts.
Read 4 tweets

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