The Think-Tank Conspiracy

Wee Georgie Monbiot is desperate to find a Koch-sized “conspiracy” in Britain. Apparently:

[F]ree-market thinktanks are nothing of the kind. They are public relations agencies, secretly lobbying for the corporations and multimillionaires who finance them. If they wish to refute this claim, they should disclose their funding. Until then, whenever you hear the term free-market thinktank, think of a tank, crushing democracy, driven by big business.

So, no hyperbole there. As it happens, I think it’s a good idea for think tanks to disclose their funding. At the same time it’s perfectly reasonable for private entities to ask that their donations be a private matter and that you have to be a Class A loon* to think that sending the Adam Smith Institute (fine people!) a cheque is tantamount to “crushing democracy”.

Typically, Monbiot buries the lede in his own piece:

The progressives were more accountable.