Friday 21 June 2019

The IEA is closer to power than it has been for decades

The Institute of Economic Affairs is 'closer to power than it has been for decades' and 'may now hold the key to No 10'.

So said a peer-reviewed article in the British Medical Journal recently, so it must be true.

As you can imagine, those of us who work for the IEA were delighted to see our awesome power and influence being recognised by a top journal. Unfortunately, the article was written by gutter freelancer Jonathan Gornall so we can't pretend that it's an entirely accurate representation.

I've written a response for the benefit of the peculiar subset of people who think that 'who funds you?' is an argument.

When the BBC reported last month that Arron Banks had given £450,000 to Nigel Farage, I tweeted ironically: “So now we know why Mr Farage keeps banging on about leaving the EU. He’s been funded by a notorious Eurosceptic”. As should be obvious, the joke here is that everybody knows that Nigel Farage has been campaigning to leave the EU for 25 years. He attracts funding from people who share their ambition. The idea that the relationship works the other way round, with Farage’s opinion of the EU being dictated by the views of his financial backers, is laughable and yet that is how the British Medical Journal seems to view the relationship between the IEA and our donors.

Do read the rest.

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