Earlier this month, left wing agitator James O’Brien got into a protracted argument with Silkie Carlo, Director of privacy-campaigning NGO Big Brother Watch, ironically over the issue of whether they publish a list of their donors or not. O’Brien would not let Carlo talk (about the issue of facial recognition cameras) because she supports privacy rights across the board. He then let the cat out of the bag…

Carlo: “I used to work at Liberty, Liberty doesn’t publish who funds it. Open Rights Group doesn’t publish who funds it…

O’Brien: “No, but I’m not troubled by their agenda.”

This brazen hypocrisy reveals the fundamental lie at the heart of the unrelenting ‘Who Funds You’ smear campaign. It has never been about a genuine concern about transparency over who funds various charities and NGOs – big state think tanks are never challenged in the same way. It has always been a deliberately partisan exercise in trying to drive groups that the O’Briens of this world disagree with out of public debate…