I read today with interest that Australian website The Conversation has started up a UK edition (see here), with funding provided by, among others, the higher education funding councils for England, Scotland and Wales.
We know the general theme of Conversation editorial - unadulterated left-wing activism - and the UK edition looks as though it's going to be just the same. For a start, look at the editorial team:
And if we look at the content it's the same story. The leads today are:
Reasonable people will conclude that, once again, we are seeing the academic establishment misusing public funds to promote their own left-wing politics.
Even in the best of times this kind of thing would be hard to explain away. In times of hardship, it is impossible to summon up the words to describe it. I imagine many people voted Conservative believing that such abuses of public trust would be at least reined in. When you see it continuing unabated, the suggestion that the Tories are just the same as Labour is becomes very hard to contradict.
I asked Hefce for a comment and got a response as follows.
'The government has asked us to encourage a greater contribution to society from universities. We are working with universities to do that and consider that 'unlocking universities' knowledge for use by the wider public' (one of the Conversation's aims) is a reasonable way of addressing that government request. The government has also asked us to stimulate collaboration between universities and we are doing that in supporting those universities who are collaborating as founding partners of The Conversation. Our support of £195k is to match fund the contribution of thirteen universities to The Conversation during the pilot period (although £45k of this sum comes from the funding bodies in Scotland and Wales).'
We note The Conversation say:'The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.
Access to independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy. Our aim is to allow for better understanding of current affairs and complex issues. And hopefully allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversations'
Is it just me or did they just fail to deny that it's a left-wing campaigning outfit?
In related news, The Commentator notes the taxpayer's ongoing support of another left-wing campaigning machine, the British Academy.