You have to laugh at the Independent. That the Tory circle-jerk has been busy creating a web of sock puppets is hardly news. They've been at it for years, all giving themselves and each other fancy titles, and non-jobs as "directors of research" - which in mine and your world is just called plagiarism.
If anything the Independent has done a shockingly half-arsed job in that the whole clan of Tory sycophants has a finger in the pie somewhere. The whole point of the longer standing "think tanks" was to put the IEA clan and the ConHome Toryboys in pole position to own the referendum campaign. That is in part, the basis of my moral objection to Vote Leave (Ltd). The intention has been to deceive the electoral commission that Vote Leave was a coalition of grassroots organisations.
The Indy are not the dogged investigators they believe themselves to be though. They've only got half the story. This goes all the way back to the beginnings of the blogosphere when Iain Dale was patting all the brat-pack on the head in his infernal blog award lists. That's where I would start looking.
On most of these sock puppets you will find Matthew Elliott or IEA fingerprints all over them. How they Indy didn't pick up on more connections beats me since it's one of the worst kept secrets in the Westminster Bubble. I would have a close look at The Freedom Association/ASI too.
It's ironic that the Taxpayer's Alliance complains of a revolving door public sector when this grubby little clan have had cosy sinecures in nearly all these shops, mostly funded by decrepit Tory lords. That's actually why they need Matthew Elliott, who has no real talent of his own beyond an unswerving ability to charm old rich Tory men out of money. Let's not even go there.
They do it because it works. The prestige of "think" tanks is long faded in the public eye but inside the bubble they still hold sway. That's largely because the teenage scribbler hacks in the media, having insufficient background, just don't know they're being conned.
It's an easy scam though. One can set up a think tank as easily as a bedroom DJ starts a record label by uploading house tracks onto Soundcloud. You just need to know the right Tory official to use one of their many prestigious PO box addresses on the paperwork and you're in business. You just then print the business cards and pay too much for a tarted up Wordpress website. Not for nothing does the Daily Mash persistently refer to the "Institute for Studies".
This is also why our media has been so lamentably poor for so long. Nobody on the list of offenders can say they haven't written either for the Speccie or the Telegraph, and it's a rite of passage these days to have penned for the legacy media. Nobody with any expertise gets a look in - especially if you're not in the gang. As far as closed shops go, the right wing media is stitched up tight.
But then this is the nature of SW1 tribal politics; and don't assume for a minute the Labour machine is any different. They have little in the way of grassroots activism. They are both empty shells of parties propped up by their legacy prestige.
They still have the loyalty of the people who are sill labouring under the illusion that the blue tribe is the party of Mrs T, but they are a dying breed. That's why I welcome this referendum because at the very least, it will shine a torch on just how much influence is held by so few people, and just how lacking in legitimacy both the parties and the press are. The game is up.
This last ditch attempt by Vote Leave at securing the lead designation is more than just a meal ticket. It's their last hurrah before we have a serious clean out of the rot infesting the Westminster establishment. On that basis alone, they'd better hope we win the referendum because if not, when people realise just how malevolent this clan have been, I won't be surprised if there are people out for blood.
For a long time people have sensed a death of politics, and in part this is to do with our EU membership and the outsourcing of matter of substance. It is why the thought engines of London have become redundant husks. The remaining swamp is merely a vehicle for pompous narcissists with no talent. That's one of the reasons I think Brexit will be good for democracy. When policy making comes back to London and expertise is back in demand, the pretender Toryboy clan will be out on their ears. And what a glorious day that will be.
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