Tory front

[alaimacerc]

The Guardian recently had a piece on how it was "socially acceptable" for celebs to be "openly" Conservative, citing the usual mix of the arriviste and the hyphenated. It occurs to me that pressure groups and think tanks have headed the same way: increasing numbers seem to be trotted out to argue a version of Tory policy, "trading as" assorted

Comments

[mr_malk]

I'm going to hazard a guess that the Taxpayer's Alliance is an alliance of the sort of people who like to point out (with great indignation) that they are taxpayers, as a prelude to whatever bilious opinion they are about to vent forth.

As in: "I'm a bloody taxpayer mate! I pay your wages! And I think they should... [hang em'/flog 'em!/shoot 'em!/Send 'em all back where they came from!/have a policeman on every street corne! Etc...]"

[alaimacerc]

I think that's exactly the metaphor they're appealing to, yes. But I don't think they're an "alliance" in having an actual membership of any significance; as far as I know their "business model" is entirely "pocket several large Tory/UKIP donors' money, hire spokespeople to sound off on TV anytime the government spends any money on anything".

[mr_malk]

Well no... except in so far as being in alliance with right-wing MPs with deep pockets... but then there's a long tradition of that sort of misnomer. Mary Whitehouse's "Moral Majority", which I think had an active membership of something risible also comes to mind.

I share your irk about Think Tanks in general though, they do seem to get a lot of press releases into the top half of the evening news, and being billed as an "(Influential) Think Tank" or whatever does sound a bit weightier than "Lobby Group" or "Bunch of Loud-Mouthed, Self-Interested Bastards".

On a pertinent but unrelated gripe, I no longer seem to be getting emails from LJ when I get replies to posts, and so am having to actively spend time trawling through old posts - yours more than many - in order to see if I need to reply! I hope it's appreciated!

[denorst]

I play SimHospital. Added me, plz.