Cheap at half the price
Good news, UK taxpayers! You've just bought twenty grand's worth of analysis of antisemitic discourse from Stephen Pollard!
Thoughts:
a) I am not going to make the cheap jibe about this being a waste of money. At the end of the day, the government needs research in order to make policy, research is commissioned from research institutes in the same way in which buns are bought from bakers, and although I regard the purchase of twenty grand's worth of analysis from Pollard[1] as highly unlikely to result in a wortwhile deliverable, I am not going to get into the game of second-guessing the overall process, and "the prevalance of antisemitic stereotypes in the media" does seem to me to be the sort of thing that it's legitimate for the DCLG to be looking into. It would be rather sweet, though, if any readers could dig up examples of Pollard doing his normal chucklehead act at government-funded media studies when it was someone else's nose in the trough (Update: here's what two minutes google turned up, not great but a start)[2]. I will particularly be looking out for any instances of Pollard having a go at any of the other workstreams within the wider government initiative that's putting bread on his table[3].
b) Fair do's to the EISCA, I had marked it down as a brass-plate thinktank but if it is actually producing a measurable quantity of think then that was unfair of me and to that extent I apologise.
c) David Hirsh ought to be fucking fuming, because this would have been £20k that any sane man would have said was a racing certainty for his sky rocket[5] until the well-connected Pollard showed up with his johnny-come-lately Institute. Hirsh is on the EISCA advisory board though, so maybe he will see a few crumbs.
[1] As a taxpayer I am obviously hoping that the actual work gets done by Abe Sweiry, the "Research Fellow", who at least appears to be someone doing genuine research in the field.
[2] Pollard has something of a track record in finding anti-Semitic implications in utterly pedestrian and commonplace metaphors, but I think that one is so hackneyed that it's unlikely.
[3] A small book token prize[4] for any reader who can find an anti-Semitic implication, trope, topos or connotation in the metaphor "putting bread on his table". Go on, I'm sure it can be done.
[4] Employees and directors of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism, their spouses and families, are not eligible.
[5] Or possibly the institutional sky rocket of Goldsmiths College; I am not particularly familiar with how these funding arrangements work.
[anti-Semitic implication, trope, topos or connotation in the metaphor "putting bread on his table"]
ReplyDeletePerhaps a reference to the well-known jewish practice of mixing the blood of innocents with their bread during passover? Metaphorically, you're suggesting that in `putting bread on his table', Pollard is sucking our blood (ie our DCLG research grant funds). That makes him a leech, another common anti-semitic insult.
...oh ok, that's pretty rubbish. This antisemitism crap is harder than it looks.
No, you are wrong. It's a waste of taxpayers' money.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Daniel here. Research is a good thing (though I don't think Pollard is disinterested enough to be a good researcher). I nearly cited this Cosmic Variance post on Aaro Watch as a veritable political hit (as opposed to the innuendoes aimed at Clinton or Obama). Since I'm the sort of left-liberal who believes in research, I have to defend even Stephen Pollard's efforts in that direction.
ReplyDeleteIf you buy your research three hours after it's come out, it hasn't got harder.
ReplyDeleteUm, isn't this akin to Sartre's point about if you ask a given priest about whether to join the resistance or look after your dear old mum you've already decided what the answer will be?
ReplyDeleteIt's challah, not bread, you anti-semitic bastard.
ReplyDeleteDo I get a book token?
"Putting bread on his table" is an anagram of "a Rabbi enthused plotting".
ReplyDeleteIt's enough to make you weep, as Melanie Phillips might say.
You can see why I had to ban EISCA employees from this contest, they're just too good at it.
ReplyDeleteAfter following that link, I'm concerned that the EISCA have set themselves far too large a task. They'd make better use of their limited resources if they confined themselves to cataloguing statements by public figures which aren't anti-semitic.
ReplyDeleteI stand by my cheap jibe. There's ample evidence that this is not going to be a useful study. After all research is a good thing, but it doesn't mean the Taxpayer's Alliance serves a useful purpose.
ReplyDeleteHow dare you question Mr Pollard's faith ?!?!? I have no idea whether or not he is observant, but just asserting that he puts bread -- leavened bread -- forbidden bread -- on his table this passover season* is really hitting below the belt.
ReplyDelete* I actually don't have the faintest idea if it is anywhere near passover. It is currently Easter, and they tend to be roughly at the same time of the year. However, I find the Christian or solar calender completely confusing (ask anyone).