New 'left-wing' think tank....

[treelover]

The posts earlier on this thread about Hilary Wainwright made me feel quite nostalgic - I worked for Red Pepper aeons ago in the mid 90s. It was always fun trying to teach her about aspects of life outside of her narrow milieu prior to Question Time appearances. And I certainly don't miss the breathless, excited phone calls at all hours of the night that always ended with me having agreed to do a load of work sweeping up after her. She's personally very likeable, but it seemed to me a bit of a serial abuser of the coterie of young men who she tended to draw into her sphere of influence. I never felt middle class enough to thrive within the Red Pepper set, and in the end a life on benefits being thrown the occasional bone by Hilary lost its glamour. I met her again a number of years later and was quite thrilled to see her, but was disappointed that she just used the occasion to try to get me to do some unpaid work for her again.

I was informed by the special editor at the time, around 2005/6, they would not publish stories about social security and benefits, and they didn't, they later denied it though.

 

[treelover]

Oh that's alright then.

Does she take a wage from Red Pepper?

I think she has put her own money into it over time, Hilary is ok, but in many ways she lives in a bubble.

 

[treelover]

Fiona? Or Dave? And Cohen Judging by our twitter slanging match the other day I don't think he's a hanger on any more - we don't have enough free booze for him anyway.

it was Fiona who denied that they even had a veto on benefit issues, but they did, identity politics was becoming central around then, but they did let me sell lots of copies and keep the money for local projects.

 

[treelover]

Well yes, I thought Cohen would have moved on by now... He was very much a fixture at events etc back then.

I'm being unfair. The Oslers were always pleasant. Just part of a certain sort of monied liberal-left establishment that I found irritating. As a youngster struggling to keep a roof over my head I was living in an utterly different world.

Dave Osler might be doing ok now, financial journalist, but he is from a very ordinary background.