So, various unions are stumping up the money for a not think tank called CLASS. The National Advisory Board consists of:
- Dr Ha-Joon Chang
- Jack Dromey MP
- Daniel Elton
- Mark Ferguson
- Sunny Hundal
- Will Hutton
- Joy Johnson
- Paul Kenny
- Stewart Lansley
- Professor Costas Lapavitsas
- Professor Ruth Lister
- Kevin Maguire
- Angela Mason
- Professor Marjorie Mayo
- Len McCluskey
- Professor Jonathan Michie
- Seumas Milne
- Richard Murphy
- Frances O’Grady
- Ann Pettifor
- Professor Kate Pickett
- Professor Allyson Pollock
- Professor Roger Seifert
- Polly Toynbee
- Hilary Wainwright
- Professor Richard Wilkinson
- Zoe Williams
We\’re not likely to get all that much coherent from them, are we?
I mean seriously: Murphmeister, Will Hutton, Sunny, Polly, Seumas and Anne Pettifor? The entire range from those who believe in the magic money tree to the woman who claims to have found it.
Is this the editorial panel for the Illustrated Koran due out next year?
Just hoping………
Over to Obi-Wan Kenobi for a comment:
“You will not find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”
All in the same room?
What a marvellous wa*k-fest.
I wannabe a fly on the wall, please!
I was surprised to see Kevin Maguire’s name on the list, isn’t he alright? Maybe he’s the token representative of sense.
We should nuke the entire site from orbit – it’s the only way to be sure….
That should keep the BBC in helpful reports for the foreseeable…
Well, they are all utterly lacking in class…
Wonder what the net worth of this little lot is? Compared to a random selection of the population.
They will have:
More money.
Bigger/more houses.
More/better cars.
Take more holidays.
Fly more.
Have a larger carbon footprint.
Have more savings/investments/pensions.
Have more ‘status’ i.e. “Oooh! You’re Polly Toynbee aren’t you? I love your columns sticking it to fat cats.”
@bilbaoboy
It’s not a fly on the wall we need there, it’s a large nail bomb under the table.
Only sensible thing they will ever achieve is to have left Eoin out…
It could only be improved if they appointed Dr Clarke as minutes secretary.
That’s not a not-think-tank. that’s an Emote Tank, full of people with the minds of a Dove and the hearts of a Serpent.
Think tank somewhat implies thinking.
If we all start using hot air for energy purposes, they could generate quite a lot and make themselves useful for once.
Well isn’t that a lovely little lefty circle-jerk? Shouldn’t be too hard to demolish all of their intellectually-bankrupt nonsense….
Yes, you’re going to have your work cut out Tim when they get started.
Can you imagine the load on the NHS from all the backslapping?
Aah, the “everyone who doesn’t agree with our right-wing wankery must be thick” mantra then? The very thing Murphy is often lambasted for on this very site.
You must all be very worried, though of course I don’t expect any of you to admit it.
Seth
There is nothing you have to agree with here. Even Tim admits (generally, eh, Tim?) when he is:
wrong
out-thought
out-argued
The problem is many of these people have demonstrated serious form as intellectual lightweights, data ignorers, line pushers and/or economic hypocrites.
But hey, no problem, we shall read and discuss their output. I suspect nobody is holding their breathe for true depth of analysis.
Is this a joke>? What a Very Special think tank.
This site regularly applauds thinking lefties such as Chris Dillow. And he’s a self-proclaimed Marxist. It is even (normally) polite about Paul Krugman. Unity generally gets listened to when he pops up and even agreed with. PaulB pops up more often and gets popped at more but, hey, ’tis the intertubes.
It’s not that it is because it is a list of lefties that we’re agin it. It is because it is a list of lightweights, idiots and ignorami. Some are all three. A new right-wing think tank populated with the likes of the appalling Dorries, the algific Goldsmith, the statist Wollaston and Peter Oborne (his latest? Yuck!) would get equally short shrift from most here.
The usual suspects. They will be referred to by the BBC as “an influential independent think-tank”, while of course being nothing of the kind.
Seth,
Aah, the “everyone who doesn’t agree with our right-wing wankery must be thick” mantra then? The very thing Murphy is often lambasted for on this very site.
Apart from the fact that “right-wing” and “left-wing” have no clear definition, Murphy gets lambasted for having stupid ideas, none of which he is prepared to defend when challenged.
Hahaha!
List looks like less of a think tank and more like participants in a Groaner open day. Seumas frigging Milne? You sure this isn’t a piss take?
“While reducing the deficit is considered ‘very important’ or ‘fairly important’ by 85 per cent of those polled, 95 per cent consider creating jobs and reducing unemployment, and encouraging economic growth as ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ important.”
Apparently this is evidence for abandoning the former
Also worth reading RM’s ‘why I support class’…
By and large, and from left and right, not even within that hallowed shelter of “Guardian columnists”.
And, having read the blurb, it should be either CLSS or CfLaSS.
“Cif Las(s)” – makes sense.
What does a “think-tank” need money for? (This is a serious question; does it have to have employees, or premises, or something not available to the public at large?)
Relax folks, it’s just a misprint. Should be “CLASP”, as in vipers (the rest of them) and Polly, as in bosom.
Alan Douglas
Clasping an asp to Polly’s bosom would be an act of animal cruelty.
pedant2007: Marketing, coordination, stipends, commissions, publishing costs – it’s like a PR agency in a lot of ways except it outsources the actual content.
After MatthewL’s sensible comment, how about “Because the evil banksters have loads’o’money and will be oppressing us. So we need money too!”
Where is Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg now that we need him.
Odd not to see David Blanchflower on the list.
After all he is a professional labour market economist and constant critic of “austerity” economics.
Robin Hood tax: backed by the rich AND the rest, says new poll
by Owen Tudor
There’s lots of interesting material in the opinion poll released to mark the launch of the new CLASS think-tank today, and there will no doubt be a lot of further analysis of the resuts.
HAHAHAH there first works! Im in stitches!
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/05/26/robin-hood-tax-backed-by-the-rich-and-the-rest-says-new-poll/
At least in 1948 the daily hate only went on for two minutes.
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