blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/no-the-kremlin-is-not-behind-legatum-or-brexit/
Article by Fraser Nelson, editor of Spectator Mag.
I agree with his assessment of Anne Applebaum and the influence she most likely had, and his general contention that Legatum is not in the pocket of Moscow.
I think in light of the funding from 'American Friends of the IEA' it is pretty clear that Brexit is Christmas in July for the likes of Robert Mercer and the Koch Bros. Christopher Chandler is a disaster capitalist who may well have made his own disaster here, aided by his friends across the pond. Who will gain when Brexit kicks in and state services get privatised and monetised, agriculture collapses, and farmers are pushed off the land?
www.desmogblog.com/institute-economic-affairs
Some info on the 'American Friends of the IEA' in this blog, which focuses on climate change and its deniers:
Snippets:
Exxon Mobil donated $50,000,
Patrick Minford is a trustee of the IEA,
Richard D. North is a Media Fellow (as of 2015),
British American Tobacco is also a donor...
Same blogger posted this article:
www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/new-lobby-group-tied-brexit-climate-science-deniers-and-koch-industries-pushes-deregulation-europe
"New Lobby Group Tied to Brexit Climate Science Deniers and Koch Industries Pushes for Deregulation in Europe"
As DeSmog UK previously revealed, the IEA has close ties to a UK network of climate science denial organisations that pushed for Brexit. Former IEA chairman, Neil Record, now sits on the board of climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Forum.
The think tank was awarded zero stars for transparency by watchdog Transparify as it refuses to disclose its funders.
A spokesperson for the IEA told DeSmog UK that it “has no formal relationship with the CCC.”
“Both organisations work on similar areas and staff have spoken at each other’s events, but there is no official affiliation.”
The CCC has four full time lobbyists and spent up to €199,999 on lobbying between May 2015 and April 2016, according to lobbyfacts.eu.
Its original funding came from US group Students for Liberty (SFL), its managing director told Corporate Europe Observatory.
According to SFL’s annual accounts, the group is funded by Charles Koch, of the Koch Industries — a group famous for funding the spread of climate science denial.
SFL also receives money from the Atlas Network and the Cato Institute, which are also funded by the Koch Brothers, and are at the centre of a US network that pushes for deregulation and helps spread climate science denial.
The CCC is part of a “network of corporate-funded organisations aggressively pushing for deregulation in the EU”, the Corporate Europe Observatory investigation said.
“In practice, CCC’s activities apparently boil down to insisting that consumer choice always equates to less regulation, whenever any regulatory or lobbying-related discussion at EU level provides a hook.”
Corporate Europe Observatory campaigner Margarida Silva told DeSmog UK it expected this agenda to extend to environmental regulation and energy policy.
“Considering that their biggest donor, Students For Liberty, is backed by US hardliners Koch Industries, and CCC themselves say they receive further funding from an undisclosed energy company, it is not unreasonable to expect this partisan funding base to translate into a targeting of energy regulation as well.”
It is also notable that both the IEA and Koch groups are based outside of Europe.
The IEA was instrumental in arguing for Brexit, and could use the CCC to continue to push for weaker regulations before they are translated into UK law as part of the repeal bill.
Likewise, the CCC gives the Koch brothers an avenue to influence European policy, potentially exporting their highly influential lobbying model across the Atlantic. DeSmog UK previously revealed that Koch Industries spent between €200,000 and €299,999 ($223,634–$335,449 or £142,464–£213,695) on its European lobby efforts in a single year.
“It is interesting to note that Brexit and Trump may have conjured a climate conducive to deregulation, which has emboldened groups that are pushing a strong pro-corporate agenda”, Silva said.
“IEA’s activities have focused on the EU for a while now. They have, for example, published the Nanny State Index, and are a founding member of radical free-market think tank EPICENTER. And yet, IEA has still not joined the EU lobby register. The same is the case with Students For Liberty.”
There is a lot of cross linking to other articles within this article, well worth a look...
(Incidentally, another Legatum deserter is Cristina Odone, long a fixture in British journalism. I came across this execrable article by her while looking at the topic of girls and STEM subjects: www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11978621/My-daughter-shouldnt-have-tostudy-science-says-Cristina-Odone.html
But salary is only the beginning, as Dr Victoria Bateman, the Cambridge economics historian, explained to me: if Izzy went into a male-dominated subject such as economics, she “would be able to make a real difference. Economics needs women as much as women need economics.”
Fair enough. But what about fulfilment? J K Rowling, say, strikes me as a lot happier and more successful than Alan Turing, the tortured mathematics genius who took his own life.
Sometimes I feel like slapping people.)