Dear Readers,
Good afternoon, and welcome to Off The Fence, a weekly newsletter that acts as a link-heavy companion to the link-free quarterly magazine. And we’ve got links for you today. Lots of good ones. Some very good ones indeed. Almost too many. But we’ve also got some excellent writing!
Now, thank you to everyone who has been sharing snaps of Issue 14 out and about – Joe Muggs has paired the mag with some Twiglets and a glass of red wine (superb choices), and Hugh Morris has gone up close on that-soon-to-be-iconic Nishant Choksi cover. Please keep sending them through.
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To business. Every so often, we lead with a feature from a guest writer, and today Alys Key takes a look at a tedious organisation funded by American billionaires that’s looking to influence the British body politic. And the bit about ‘Rude Lady’ is just a bit further down…
Beef and Liberty
Last year, a promoted post appeared in my Instagram feed.
‘Calling writers based in EU27 countries,’ it said. ‘Young Voices is launching a paid fellowship in Europe. We want you to write op-eds for us!’
I was intrigued, and a little suspicious. In the lobbying whirlpool of Brussels, where I’m based as a freelance writer, I’ve come across several publications that transpire to be funded by special interest groups of various stripes – and aren’t always upfront about it.
The website said that Young Voices was looking to platform ‘pro-liberty voices’ in Europe. Sample blogposts were already up, with headlines such as ‘Tobacco harm reduction is an under-appreciated benefit of Brexit’ and ‘No, we shouldn’t worry about nuclear waste.’
While those on the fellowship could apparently write about whatever they want, it was obvious they were looking for contributions with a certain ideological bent: free markets, free speech, light regulation. The word ‘libertarian’ was absent, the euphemistic ‘pro-liberty’ in its stead.
I found that Young Voices already had a network of young commentators across the US, UK and other locations. Having taken part in the organisation’s contributor programmes, they were now making frequent appearances in the media.
This is how it works: a young writer either applies to Young Voices; or is spotted and gently encouraged to do so. Once accepted, the organisation becomes copy editor, agent and mentor rolled into one, setting them up with TV and radio appearances, editing their articles and providing training for their new lives as pundits.
All this is provided at no cost to the possessor of the young voice. In some cases, as with the EU fellowship, the organisation even pays them. How, I wondered, is it all funded?
Young Voices was originally part of Students for Liberty, a US organisation promoting the ideals of a ‘free society’ on college campuses. The group has built an international presence through campus chapters and events, with annual LibertyCon gatherings in the US, Europe and Africa.
It has also attracted some high-profile support. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey sits on the board of directors. Advisors include Daniel Hannan and His Serene Highness Prince Michael of Liechtenstein. But the connection for which it is best-known is that with the billionaire Koch brothers, prominent funders of libertarian think-tanks and political movements.
Students on Koch Summer Fellowships at the Institute for Humane Studies set up SfL in 2008, and in the years since, the Charles G. Koch Foundation has given it hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Kochs have made little secret of their efforts to reach young people with their libertarian ideas. Kevin Gentry, vice president of the Charles Koch Foundation, is reported to have told supporters of Koch philanthropic institutions in 2014 about a ‘talent pipeline’ being built by funding university courses. The key was identifying young, libertarian-leaning people, and preparing them for power.
Young Voices was spun out from SfL as a separate nonprofit in 2016. Casey Given, who got his start as an SfL campus coordinator, was tapped to be its executive director.
Tax statements surfaced by the Centre for Media and Democracy show that the Charles G. Koch Foundation has been donating to Young Voices ever since it split off from SfL.
There are other donors, too, and they seem to be growing in number – or at least in generosity. In its most recent annual report, Young Voices revealed it had raised $1.29m in the year to May 2022, more than doubling what it brought in the previous year. In September, Given shared that the organisation is opening an office in New York, as well as expanding its DC headquarters. ‘Exciting times ahead!’
Operating since January 2021, the UK branch of Young Voices finally held a launch party at the IEA in London in November that year. At the centre of a photograph taken at the event is Jason Reed, who leads the UK operation.
Not much older than the talent on either side of him, Reed sets himself apart with an outfit that evokes Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society: a thick brown professorial blazer, a button-down shirt and crumpled chinos.
I asked Reed if I could interview him over the phone. He was too busy (in addition to his UK role, he heads up PR for the whole organisation) but offered to answer questions over email.
One thing I wanted to know was why the word ‘libertarian’ was absent from a lot of Young Voices materials, despite the philosophy clearly aligning with the organisation’s own.
‘We work with writers from a broad church of perspectives, so we try to avoid political signifiers as much as possible,’ Reed told me. He called Young Voices a ‘big-tent organisation’ and described the spread of perspectives as including libertarians, conservatives, and centrists. The organisational values are, however, ‘fundamentally classical liberal.’
Participants skew very young, sometimes still in university. Some are angling for a career in media, with one recently taking up a place on the Daily Mail’s graduate trainee scheme, while others are working at think tanks or in politics. At least one is a local Conservative councillor.
Reed told me that, over the next few years, the UK branch hopes to attract more writers, host more events, and launch new projects to reach ‘a wider pool of young people.’
‘The sky's the limit!’ he said.
You could argue that what Young Voices is doing largely amounts to the formalisation of an existing phenomenon. Well before the organisation launched in the UK, young contrarians – Brexiteers, libertarians, conservatives, anti-woke crusaders – were finding they could get a foothold in the media with their opinions.
Socialist 20-year-olds are dime-a-dozen. But a fresh face willing to go against the prevailing views of their age cohort? They are gold dust for editors and producers who’ve been told they have to present issues in a balanced way, and don’t want to wheel out the same greying pundits again.
In some ways, Young Voices is following through on the exact kind of values that Charles Koch and his fellow libertarians are such fans of. It has spotted a gap in the market – and filled it.
You can follow Alys on Twitter here
The Pembridge Road Ice Queen
A few months ago, a friend of the publication sent us this screenshot, which shows an internal memo from Retro Woman, a Notting Hill vintage boutique, warning staff about ‘Rude Lady’, a ginger-haired customer who, true to their name, is ‘extremely rude’, and ‘always asking for discounts’, and who told a Retro Woman staffer that ‘they would never get married as any potential customer would commit suicide.’
We asked our readers if anyone knew the identity of ‘Rude Lady’, and multiple sources said that it was Harris Reed, which is exactly what we were told by our friend in the first place, so we reached out to Harris Reed’s representatives for comment, and they did not reply to our email.
If you’re not in the fashion world, then you might not know who Harris Reed is. A fashion designer who’s just been appointed creative director of Nina Ricci, Reed lives in Notting Hill (!), where he shares a home with his boyfriend, Eitan Senerman. In a recent interview, he relays that ‘he is obsessed with Retro Woman’.
Unlike many fashion designers, Harris Reed has had some help along the way. At the age of 22, he set up a studio in The Standard, a five-star hotel. His father is Nicholas Reed, a big shot in Hollywood. But you wouldn’t know that from the glowing profiles he receives from the glossies. Anyway, next time a journalist gets to interview Harris in his atelier, they might like to ask him some real questions.
Jolly Hockeysticks And Blurred Nudes
One of our star features from Issue 14 is Sarah Haque’s piece on her time at Challney High, an all-girls school in Watford – it’s a fantastic piece of writing on the ‘feral warmth’ that comes when girls only have other girls for company. It has scored rave reviews on Twitter, and even featured in the Guardian’s newsletter today. Do give it a read here, if you haven’t done so already.
If you went to an all-girls school (none of us did), then Sarah would like to invite you to share your funniest memories from those times – reply to this email and we’ll publish the best ones next week.
Put Money in Our Purse
There are over 6,000 of you signed up to this newsletter, and around 3,700 of you enjoy it every week – so there are about 1,500 or so regular readers who are yet to subscribe to the print magazine. We even bumped into a journalist who has been reading us since our first edition, who told one of our staff members that he’s not going to subscribe as it ‘would be too embarrassing’ at this point. Now we are not going to embarrass this hack by identifying them – but we do find this all slightly exhausting.
If you are a regular reader of this mail-out, and you haven’t subbed up, it really is time to put your hands in your pocket and sign up for £30 for the year, so we can keep bringing you these packed newsletters and bountiful magazines at a very agreeable price. Get it over with and relish our offerings with a guiltless conscience.
Panic! At the Garrick
Most people know about London’s famous private members’ clubs: 5 Hertford Street, White’s, Bucks, Boodles, Pratt’s, The Groucho, etc. The sort of places that are always in the Evening Standard’s gossip columns. The sort of places that hacks should stay clear of – in case they bump into the proprietor when he’s three negronis down.
But few of you will have heard of The Union – we certainly hadn’t, until last week. It’s one of these private member clubs for people who don’t want to wear suits, because that’s what bankers do and these guys work in the media, which, as everyone knows, is different.
Spread over four floors, The Union has recently played host to Lena Dunham’s wedding (attended by Taylor Swift) and also to drinks for Terry Eagleton, the famous Marxist literary critic, and his son, Oliver, who has recently written a book that is critical of Keir Starmer, and has been widely praised by Novara Media.
The Union does have a keenly priced wine list – perhaps the Eagleton boys were unloading some Unherd danegeld on a bottle of Léoville Barton? Certainly a lot more civilised than going to the pub.
Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution
Alec Baldwin, the actor who seems to have been 57 years old for around about the last 20 years, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter – but the case has allowed his wife, Hilaria, mother of their seven (7!) children, to take centre stage again.
Hilaria, who was born in Boston and attended the Cambridge School of Weston, is not ethnically Spanish (in any way) – has in the past got herself in hot water for speaking with a Spanish accent, and pretending not to know what a ‘cucumber’ is in English.
Her husband’s looming court date has seen the return of her comfort accent – as you can see in this clip here. It’s good stuff, really. In an age where celebrities are so carefully managed, it’s good to see some truly unfiltered insanity. It’s what being famous is all about.
In Case You Missed It
Some real journalism here, as another batch of undercover nepo babies are bagged and tagged by the Daily Mail.
Bookstagram is yesterday’s news: Malin Hay looks at the world of BookTok.
Nesrine Malik with a searing take on the UK inequality.
Josiah Gogarty offers a defence of the maligned but omnipresent music streaming service Spotify.
Mercedes Peñalba-Sotorrío goes Nazi hunting in Spain.
And Finally
Last week, we bought you Jim Broadbent’s masterful portrayal of the 23rd Earl of Leete, a homicidal landowner, and now we’re going to the other end of the social scale; for, as everyone knows, British society is comprised entirely of cockneys and aristocrats.
Dave Courtney, a debt collector from Plumstead in south-east London, is no fictional character – but his blazing claims to being one of the most feared gangsters in London shows that he possesses a novelist’s imagination. An inveterate self-promoter, there are reams of clips of Courtney on the internet, but to our minds, the finest one is one produced by Courtney himself, as he takes a trip to the dog track, accompanied by his ‘head of security’, Bev, who has dressed up for the occasion in a bodice – and with a personalised knuckle duster. It’s one of those clips that puts the parodists out of business. Enjoy.
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That’s it for this week, and we’ll be back at a similar time next week. If you’d like to chat to a member of the editorial team, you can do so by replying to this email, and we’ll come back to you promptly. Stay warm, stay cheery and we look forward to joining you again soon.
All the best,
TF
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