IEA Chief Search Down to Last Ten
The search for a new £100,000-a-year Director-General of the Institute for Economic Affairs has whittled down the sixty or so applicants to a short-list of ten. The final decision will be made by the trustees before the end of next month. Word is the Trustees are looking for someone who can take the fight for free markets to the media more aggressively. The IEA has failed to have much of a media profile since the 80s…
Meanwhile elsewhere in wonkland Guido asked Madsen Pirie, the Adam Smith Institute’s doyen of Westminster wonks, if his new book 101 Great Philosophers: Makers of Modern Thought was aimed at politicians. “No”, he said. It was aimed at aspirational people seeking self-improvement. “Most politicians are not like that,” he told Guido, “They think they are already perfect.”
Quite.















wonder if gordons on the shortlist?
He’s on the Shitlist
No, he’s on a hitlist.
no, he’s on the quit list.
he’s on my Eid Mubarak card list
and he is probably on a couple of assassination lists.
he’s on my one anyway.
Quick call the bomb disposal
He’s on the twit list, the stupid tit list, the unfit list, and he’s witless.
If it means he’ll quit his current job then let’s hope so!
He’s on the ‘Sandwich short of a picnic’ list.
He’s on my git list.
bet Beckham is
He’s on all the lists. Who was the last prime minister to be assassinated – wasn’t it Spencer Percival in 1812?
Who finances the institute of Economic Affairs?
the KKK.
Didn’t know you were a member.
how did you recognise me?
That large black curly moustache and those baggy trousers.
naughty naughty barefootcontessa!
Anyone know what a £100,000 wonk actually does for that money?
Are you sure that you spelled that correctly?
It probably takes them all their time working out how to spend their ill-gotten gains.
noffin’
members of the labour party are worried about lookin like hesltine , what bollocks hesiltine had morals
Ill take the job…..I’m as corrupt as fuck….would sell my Grandmother for a pair of nice shoes with laces and a bucket of water from Glasgow.
You sound like the perfect candidate, but have you thought of running for high political office instead?
I would gladly take the position but I feel I am over qualified after turning my children out onto the street to fend for themselves soon after they were born. My generosity may have been a little over the top by giving them such an advantage in life but I wish they would stop crying outside my living room window every Christmas as I play with my new child and pour love and affection over her whilst unwrapping her 100th birthday present.
Sounds like Wuthering Heights. Let the poor woman in she’s waited long enough.
@ barefootcontessa
Only when she can provide proof that she is my offspring by giving me £1m pounds cash….then she may come in to help us open the presents for her new and more loved siblings before she is rejected once again with the cruelty of a steak being dropped on a starving vegan’s plate….
You are Peter Handlesmen and I claim my £ 5
Damn it I knew the mask would fall off….
Ah’m full o’ bullshit and cant.
An’ nuth’ns ma fult ye un’stan!
IEA should not be mocked. With the right leadership they could play a useful role in the `ideas` game – and the Tories certainly need ideas!
What are the ten names anyway? Any known worthies or are they all nonentities?
Baroness Scotland?
Lord, Lady, and Baronesss Nonentity? An excellent family with impeccable credentials.
Yes, what else of any value can we sell to our foreign ‘friends’ so that they can then sell back to us at an extortionate price or merely hold us to ransom with.
Too many people think Business = Mike Baldwin
who he ?
Think Alan Sugar.Without the charm.
All gone a bit quite with the old sugar lump since ennoblement!
I’m struggling to see much beyond the universal truth that the only good philosopher is a dead philosopher.
…..and how much has this lack of profile since the 80′s cost us?……..and why have government now decided to bring it back into the fore?
I will wait to see who gets the job.
is wonk £2m house middle class talk for wank?
who’s gonna clean up after all this wonking?
Just get dem baps working az mops innit, westside!
I’m a wanker And I believe that unrestrained market economics is a good thing – after all that’s what the bankers like – light touch regulation.
The last thing bankers want is a free market. They want a nice, cosy market with massive barriers to entry, so that they can keep their oligopoly and pay themselves over-the-market rates of pay.
Paradoxically, a free market requires close regulation to ensure that the rich and powerful cannot fix things in their own favour. It’s not the same thing at all as ‘laissez-faire’.
so there is no such thing as a free market economy.
thanks for clearing that up for us sir william.
Sorry O/T – Interesting bit on Iain Dale’s Blog.
The Czechs are proposing a legal challenge against the Lisbon Treaty that could delay ratification by 3-6 months. The French have apparently gone ballistic and are trying their hand at a bit of bullying to bring the Czechs back into line.
As Iain says maybe we’ll get our referendum after all.
thanks for the good news nell.
God Bless the Czechs.
We weren’t very kind to the Czechs in 1938. Don’t let us have a repeat.
On thae ballot paper will be the chioices:
1. I want to vote for ratification.
2. I don’t want to vote against ratification.
Exactly the problem.
wording should be – `do you want it, yes or no`.
Those won’t be the choices. That’s too ambiguous.
It will be
A: I want to ratify the European Constitution
B: I want you to come around to my house and nail my cock to the table.
Let`s hope so, but I am very sceptical about the Tories keeping to their word.
A simple and definitive statement fro Cameron and Hague at conference would help.
Maybe this is what Dan Hannan was talking about the other week, when he said that we might get the referendum in the UK no matter now the Irish vote.
Let’s hope so, are the wheels finally coming off the EU machine?
PS Sarco can fuck off, the only difference between the constitution and the treaty is that the French public were not given the opportunity to vote against the treaty…
It’s time that Britain stopped paying £30m a day to belong to the EU and let the other member countries get their wallets out. A very easy first spending cut.
A far-off country of which we know little. Don’t expect any support from our politicians!
Ouch! Just got the reference and had a horrible image of bloody Neville ;o)
Yes, but only for 3 to 6 months.
The Czechs helped us in the last war too.
The Czecha and Poles are alright. it is the fascist french, germans, italians greeks and spanish who are the problem.
bloody olive pickers!
fucking Global Warming deniers. Anti-thermitic bastards!
I’m with the deniers!
Yes and pigs might fly,the czechs will be hounded into ratifying and so will the poles.
Everything is so simply simply wonderful.
OK so we can guess Polly Toynbee and Jackie Ashley. Who are the other eight?
I wouldn’t fuck Toynbee if she was the only woman on the planet. Nasty vinegar-faced bitch.
Jesus, that salary is not bad but I’ve got the edge, 4 day week and I don’t actually do anything otherwise I would apply!
I just found this bit of comedy:
http://www.parliament.uk/about_commons/pcfs.cfm
I particularly like the lie:
“The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is wholly funded by the House of Commons.”
Like the troughers dip in their own pockets, I think not!