Taxpayer-funded think tank bemoans the "populist Right" and compares Trump to a "cartoon villain"
Why are we being charged for this nonsense?!
Taxpayers were charged £285,500 for the Institute for Public Policy research between 2020-24…
… so I wonder if they’ll mind it attacking the “populist Right” in a recent video, which argues the Left needs “to offer belonging through… reciprocism” - a made-up word IPPR staff are pretty chuffed with (apparently “reciprocism is the future of the Left”).
“The left is struggling, struggling to keep up in a world where the populist Right is filling our feeds with noise, pushing a powerful and dangerous politics of nostalgia and exclusion”, begins the first speaker in the video.
“Meanwhile, the Left isn’t offering a clear alternative. Progressive arguments aren’t coming through. It’s time for a new way”, adds another.
I’ve pasted the rest of the script below - so you can learn about the exciting new world of reciprocism:
Speaker 3:
Reciprocism: the idea that the state should do more for people whilst asking more of them in return. A sense of working as a collective, a team where people have more power and a genuine stake in society.
Speaker 4:
It’s clear as day that the status quo is not working. We’re treated as a country of individual consumers.
Speaker 2:
Yet there’s a hunger for a sense of belonging. This idea brings people together, pulls the focus onto what we share, so we work towards a common purpose.
Speaker 1:
That’s the politics we had when we created the NHS and bought in the minimum wage. Some of this country’s greatest achievements.
Speaker 2:
Reciprocism is built on four pillars. First, power, expanding the rights and responsibilities of citizens and public life. Second, place, rebuilding the spaces and institutions that bring people together.
Speaker 4:
Then, third, participation, giving people a real stake in our economy and our successes.
Speaker 2:
And fourth, protection, tackling the power and influence of the ultra wealthy. Altogether, these four offer the people a cause.
Speaker 5:
It’s time we remind ourselves of what we can accomplish. Reciprocism is the way forward. Reciprocism is the future of the left.
The video is the prelude to the IPPR’s new report, What is the left for? The case for a politics of reciprocism, authored by seven associates - either employees or fellows - of the IPPR. It has tens of staff constantly churning out reports that most of the population never read thanks to its very healthy funds (more on that later).
The IPPR’s latest report makes claims such as that:
