Democracy for Sale by Peter Geoghegan

Author:Peter Geoghegan [Geoghegan, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789546026
Publisher: Head of Zeus

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In early August 2019, a week after Boris Johnson became prime minister, the IEA returned to the Villiers Hotel in Buckingham for the start of a two-day staff retreat. The atmosphere could scarcely have been more different than a year earlier when the Greenpeace video had been aired. Where the mood had been sullen and anxious as Shanker Singham prepared for the Newsnight cameras, now the IEA was letting its hair down. Boisterous staff stayed up drinking late into the night.

There was plenty to celebrate. Johnson had just appointed some of the institute’s closest political allies to senior roles: Dominic Raab became foreign secretary, Priti Patel took over at the home office, Liz Truss replaced Liam Fox as international trade secretary. In a congratulatory email to its supporters, the IEA declared that 14 of those around the Downing Street table were “alumni” of its initiatives.101

During the leadership campaign, Johnson drew on many prominent Tufton Street talking points: a sugar tax was bad; free ports were good; no-deal was nothing to fear. In office, his new administration looked to the libertarian think tank world for key personnel. More than a dozen former staff from the Institute of Economic Affairs, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute and the Centre for Policy Studies were given influential special advisor roles (colloquially known as ‘spads’).

Right-wing news website Guido Fawkes hailed the think tank influx as “good news for free marketeers and lovers of liberty”. A few days later a Guido reporter, and former Vote Leave staffer, was unveiled as special advisor to the new House of Commons leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg.102 The revolving door seldom stops spinning.

As the new spads started life in Westminster, more than two dozen IEA staff trooped through the faux-ionic columns of the Vinson Centre at Buckingham University. Buckingham has long been close to the IEA. Its vice-chancellor, biographer Sir Anthony Seldon, is the son of early IEA adopter Arthur. The Vinson Centre is named after its primary funder, entrepreneur and IEA trustee Lord Nigel Vinson, who said it was designed to “cement” the relationship between the think tank and the university.103

One of the first speakers at the IEA retreat was Linda Whetstone, daughter of founder Antony Fisher. Whetstone, chairwoman of the Atlas Network and an IEA board member, has been steeped in transatlantic libertarianism for decades. When she addressed the 1978 Tory party conference, Whetstone demanded that the next Conservative government slash regulation. “Don’t let’s go out of our way to help small businesses, agriculture, the unions, coloured people, women,” Whetstone declared before being drowned out by a band playing ‘God Save the Queen’.104

A libertarian streak runs through the Whetstone family. Linda’s daughter, Rachel, worked for Tory central office before becoming a senior executive at some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies. Rachel’s husband, Steve Hilton, was director of strategy for David Cameron before joining the think tank Policy Exchange. He later became a vocal Trump supporter, hosting a weekly show on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Network.

In Buckingham, Linda Whetstone delivered a

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