Comments on: Diving into the wanktank

By: Spit and Polish: Combining anti-immigration and anti-woman hatred « I'm On The Blog

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:31:02 +0000

[...] up, it’s wanktank favourite Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, who can always be relied on for a boringly [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:48:20 +0000

This usage was actually coined by a commenter on my blog. By wanktank, I specifically mean the sort that has no actual membership or employees, and that exists purely to furnish quotes to the press.

Contrast, say, the Adam Smith Institute, the IPPR, or the TUC policy division – these organisations actually employ significant numbers of researchers and carry out substantial serious work. You may not agree with their ideas, but at least they are worth criticising on their content.

Then think of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which consists of one sociologist who has published precisely one peer-reviewed paper in his career without any relevance to the subject whatsoever, ResPublica, which consists of Philip Blond and a lot of guff about “Red Tories”, or the TaxPayers’ Alliance Against Correct Punctuation, which consists of one twat, or this “Big Brother Watch” thing, which consists of a lend of the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

By: Paul Lloyd

Paul Lloyd — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:43:40 +0000

I came across the term “wank tank” in Christopher Brookmyre’s novel “Quite Ugly One Morning” (1996).
Wank tank – Any large 4×4 car.

By: the_voice_of_reason

the_voice_of_reason — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:07:34 +0000

Hmmm…..let’s break the figures down, and see where we end up. Let’s assume that, every week for the past three years as specified , every one of the 70,000 prisoners not in the 10,000 earning the £4.00 a week in prison workshops has not worked, and received their £2.50. That works out at £2.50 x 52 x 3 = £390.00 per prisoner per year, or a total of £27.3 million.

That’s before we take into account those working for external companies (at a rate that appears ever so slightly below the minimum wage). On the face of it, the amount paid in benefits is likely to be well under a fifth, and probably less than a tenth, of the figure quoted for “BENEFITS” in the headline.

Well, well, well – who would ever have expected that?

By: George Allwell

George Allwell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:40:09 +0000

CATCAPC… with a silent c.

Ill join.

I want a card, a website for glorified respectability, a bunker in the hills, the red phone is must. A token asylum seeker as president , living in a palace in London, with 74 kids, claiming £1.2 trillion in benefits. Obviously with links to some anti-troop-Muslim-march-in-Booton-Wassett.

I want some funding from the greening liberals. I want to legalise murder and set up a charter for ‘criminal rights’. I want to make it illegal to even think of using labels. I want a campaign to be started, a campaign that means anyone who has not got 40,000 years of generational genetic Britishness inside them, should not pay tax. Tax-free immigrants.

Correctness in politics is the future. A CATCAPC future.

By: Anton Vowl

Anton Vowl — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:48:25 +0000

I did once consider setting up a “Campaign Against The Campaign Against Political Correctness” for a bit of mischief.

By: Winegums

Winegums — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:40:05 +0000

I don’t suppose the TPA have bothered to state how much profit this generates for the prisons? I imagine it’s not much, but if the prisoners are working for private companies, presumaby there’s a little extra left over for overhead.

And do they pay tax? I think that’d be the ultimate kicker, if the TPA can count hardened criminals amongst its de facto membership.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:20:16 +0000

I can’t help feeling depressed over the coverage of justice over the weekend. After reading a blog/article/excretion on the mirror site over the weekend which tried to claim that the Bulger killers were Evil and somehow therefore beyond justice (hard to tell it wasn’t very coherent) and some of the commentary on the web – I can’t help feeling that at a minimum people feel that criminals should just loose all their human rights and that possibly given half a chance parts of the population would be out burning witches.

Back to the article you are commenting about then: Do people really think that prisoners are really going to find it easier to reform when they leave if they have absolutely nothing?

I read “Risk” by Dan Gardner over the weekend and he was suggesting that the rabid fear mongering of the papers is just an outlet and perhaps should be taken as an extreme – I would like that to be right but I’m not so sure.

and on another point entirely:

Perhaps there would be some scope to set up a satirical wanktank and see what outrageous comments you could get in the paper before exposing it all some months hence…..