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Hello Richard.
What is the process by which ‘think tanks’, or individuals, get selected to speak to Parliamentary committees?
Is it by invitation of the MP’s on the select committee, or any MP for that matter?
Is there a way for the public to force Parliamentary committees to listen to certain ‘think-tanks’ or individuals, thus hopefully giving a broader representation?
By invitation of the committee
I would like like to be called
I have submitted evidence
Today I bought some PPE for my kids as they go back to school.
I have had to pay £6 in tax (VAT) for six masks.
I mean what is going on………….why are we having top pay tax on PPE? I mean my family can cope with it but what about poorer families for Godssake?
Nothing to me sums up this Government more than that.
Even the Government wants to profit from its failure to do track and trace and manage Covid effectively.
Boris and Co are utterly beyond redemption.
I’d suggest given what the people in these organisations have said we need to use the antonym of “think” with respect to the numpties that they work for:
antonyms of think :
disorganise insanity contraindication
& /or
dissociate skew blur obscurity unclearness
Personally I favour: Insanity Tanks
It is quite clear that the people interviewed by the Parliamentary committee are insane – from the clinical point of view. & if you think this is a bit humourless, well the last 9 months have worn my humour a bit thin. 🙂
I think that may be a little over the top
But I am baffled as to why they do not realise they are simply not qualified to answer the questions.
“But I am baffled as to why they do not realise they are simply not qualified to answer the questions.”
I believe it’s called the Dunning—Kruger effect.
Or, as Pope put it: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.“
Think Tanks such as those you mention are often wheeled out to bolster orthodoxy and further its ongoing aims.
But it’s the intellectual laziness and the consequences of it that angers me most of all.
And as for our reporters and presenters on TV – do they read?
“bolster orthodoxy” – that’s it exactly. They simply repeated the tropes of the past few decades and the same orthodox solutions to the same orthodox issues: debt too high, needs to come down eventually, increase tax on basic rate, increase VAT and the usual tinkering around the edges and one obvious truth – economic policy is set by political dogma.
“Do they read?” Yes, the usual orthodoxy. The intellectual laziness of most journalists and “influencers” and their reluctance to explore new and not so new ideas is a major blockage on the road to change.
Agreed
George Monbiot reveals how much power think tanks have over our democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/01/no-10-lobby-groups-democracy-policy-exchange