The sky was black with focus groups. Thus will be the refrain of the future historians. People who will come to study the intellectual holocaust in the west. A holocaust maintained and supported by `think tanks`, chief executives, former Marxist `thinkers`, Trade Union cliques, free market fundamentalists, right wing maniacs, iffy accountants and an extended collection of similar malcontents. You know, the one we live in, right now.

The IPPR, the Institute of Public Policy Research, a right wing think tank (it calls itself `centre left` but you’ll see what we mean) unveiled it’s latest thought paper this week. Ironically it was called `Them And Us`. The title, unfortunately, wasn’t ironic.

`Them And Us` is about what the author class call `White Van Man` at their dinner and cocaine parties. Its about what the prison class call `getting stiffed`. The ever revolving set of young men who are in and out of the British criminal justice system. One in three men has a criminal record by the time they are forty years of age points out the survey. It may be news to think tanks and their staff. Not to the majority of the British public of course. You know, the `Thems`. Us lot.

The report purported to be about men and criminality. In fact that was just for the press release. The report in fact highlights the increase in the prison population over the last ten years and more. The UK has around 71,000 inmates. They would like to see a reduction in the population to the EU average which would make it around 49,000. At this point the paper, (drawn up by some state-academic bigwigs Clare Sparks and Sarah Spencer - now both IPPR `research fellows`) detaches itself from what most people would call `reality`.

The IPPR web site is peppered with its desire to conform. Quotes from Tony Blair breach every page “the IPPR has led thinking.” He says so anyway, so it must be true. “The most influential thinktank in the UK,” says the centre left…er…hold on, says the Daily Telegraph. When you move through their list of paymasters you wonder which part of the `left` they believe they inhabit. Surely even sell-out old Communists have some sense of the truth. Instead one sees their funding coming from private institutions like the legendary Cisco Systems, defence component and guidance manufacturers. So committed to the “centre-left” they ran a conference for I-Defence this year. It specialised in Network Centric Warfare. In St Petersburg, as you do.

Alongside Cisco are the accounting firm KPMG. Oh, they are actually 10% owned by…er…Cisco Systems. Just a co-incidence. But throw in stock listed Scottish & Newcastle breweries and ICL (a Fujitsu subsidiary) and there we have a selection of the think tank cash cows. They also claim they are funded by “Trade Unions and the voluntary sector” although no evidence for that was on their site.

So back to their paper, which was portrayed as a study on men and the criminal justice system although it was really about cost-reduction through less inmates. It’s about saving cash for Tony. Tony who think s the IPPR is…you get the picture.


[I] The full piece is at www.yearzero.org in the columns section entitled Men: Banged up bad. [/I]

www.yearzero.org