Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

The Who Funds You? project initially ran from 2012-19. @openDemocracy relaunched the project with a series of new audits.

Organisations are rated on a scale from A to E. A is the most transparent. Organisations given an E grade are the least transparent about funding.

I agree with @openDemocracy that debates about important issues that affect us all should be as transparent as possible.

That means we need to know who is being paid what, and by whom, to influence public policy.

#TuftonStreet

In the UK – and many other countries – there are organisations that describe themselves as ‘think tanks’ & expressly set out to explore ideas & influence public policy. They usually produce research reports & promote them through the media and in policy circles.

Their current and former staff may take formal advisory roles with the government. Meanwhile politicians are often invited to take senior positions within think tanks, in addition to their day jobs. But not all think tanks are the same.

Some are very clear about who funds them and the ideology that underpins their work. Many provide vital independent scrutiny of ideas and expert analysis of public policy. But many are not as open as they could be, & it's hard to know who funds them - or why.
#TuftonStreet

A number of opaque think tanks - that almost universally support neoliberal 'free-market' policies & ideology - do not disclose their funders at all, but nevertheless benefit from charitable status and the tax breaks this brings.

opendemocracy.net/en/institute-o…

Questions have been repeatedly raised about whether some such think tanks operate within the rules of charity law. In some cases they have been found to be in breach of the rules.

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

In some cases, think tanks don't even have a clear corporate structure, which makes it even harder to understand their finances. If we don't know who funds them, we can't know whose interests they are really advancing, & why they are advocating for a particular policy stance.

In 2022, @openDemocracy took over the running of a project called ‘Who Funds You’? Run by volunteers for seven years until 2019, it analysed the transparency disclosures of the UK’s most prominent think tanks & gave them a rating based on how open about their funding they were.

The project founders gave @openDemocracy permission to restart the project. No money changed hands & they provided their branding for free.

People should have a democratic right to know which voices are opaque & which think tanks can be trusted to tell us who funds them.

The 2022 analysis found that nine out of 28 institutions received an ‘E’ rating – the bottom end of our funding transparency scale. This was up by three from the previous audit, which was conducted by Who Funds You? volunteers in 2019.

Most of the ‘E’-rated institutions in 2019, including the Adam Smith Institute, the Centre for Policy Studies, Civitas, the Institute of Economic Affairs, Policy Exchange, & the TaxPayers’ Alliance, all received the same rating of ‘E’ in 2022, showing no improvements since 2019.

The least transparent UK think tanks had an income of at least £14.3 MILLION according to their most recent corporate filings – yet it is not possible to know where the bulk of this money comes from.

This is likely to be an underestimate of the true figure.

Some of the most opaque think tanks, such as the Adam Smith Institute, do not operate under one clear corporate body.

An @openDemocracy investigation looked at how US climate deniers pump millions into think tanks with strong links to the Tory party.

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

The investigation found that the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Institute of Economic Affairs, Policy Exchange, the Adam Smith Institute and the Legatum Institute have all steadily increased their influence in the heart of government in the last decade.

These five organisations have secured hundreds of meetings with ministers since 2012, and some of their staff or directors are lawmakers themselves. Yet all received ‘E’ ratings for transparency this year. We found that four think tanks had become more opaque.

On the other end of the spectrum, think tanks rated ‘A’ are highly transparent, naming all funders who gave £5,000 or more in the last year, and declaring the exact amount given by each funder.

With these, @openDemocracy found that ten out of 28 think tanks had earned an ‘A’ rating, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the New Economics Foundation. Demos and the Institute of Public Policy Research both improved their transparency rating from a ‘B’ to an ‘A’.

Why this matters can be illustrated by the example of Liz Truss, who became PM in September 2022. She had earlier helped to launch #FREER, described as the parliamentary wing of an influential #TuftonStreet think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs.

theguardian.com/environment/20…

Truss’s political secretary was head of Govt affairs at another think tank, the Adam Smith Institute. Neither organisation reveals its donors – & both score an ‘E’, the lowest grade possible, in our ratings – yet they are very influential in the UK Govt.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1562410418253041664?s=20

Many other politicians have links to opaque think tanks. Their current and former staff are often invited into policy-making bodies and given advisory roles where they have access to civil servants and politicians.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1585707837312770049?s=20

Think tank representatives are often invited to comment on government policy in the media, & are regularly platformed on @SkyNews, GB "News", & especially the @BBC, including on @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics shows such as #bbcqt, & #PolitcsLive.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1641046806019670018?s=20

Shell has just announced record first-quarter profits of £7.6 BILLION. As we face a #ClimateEmergency & a #CostOfLivingCrisis driven by energy bills, we need to know if voices influencing the public & Govt are being funded by eg the oil & gas industry.

bylinetimes.com/2023/01/06/how…

@openDemocracy has previously uncovered evidence of exactly this type of relationship.

For example, they have shown how the think tank Policy Exchange received money from oil giant ExxonMobil before proposing a policy that would benefit the oil industry.

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

The proposal was then turned into legislation by the Conservative government. Revealing which organisations are not transparent about who’s giving them money is a vital first step in encouraging greater openness in British political life.

These transparency ratings can also provide important context for those who might listen to them, be it broadcasters, journalists, politicians or other influential bodies, or who want to know more about significant figures in UK cultural & political life:

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1636664509677928452?s=20

"When we know which think tanks are not transparent about their funding, we can put pressure on them to be less secretive."

This #THREAD quotes extensively from @openDemocracy's 2022 'Who Funds You?' report, which you can download for free, from here:

opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds-y…