SLictionary

In academia, a paper cannot pass through the pearly gates of peer review without the author confessing who paid for the wine, the dinner, and the indignation. Funding disclosures exist because bias, like cheap perfume, lingers in the air long after the speech has ended. Yet politicians — those wandering salesmen of conviction — are permitted to legislate, regulate, moralise, and bankrupt nations without so much as a sponsor label stitched to their lapel. Every speech should come with a disclosure statement. This taxation bill brought to you by: Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and three gentlemen from Davos who insist they are “philanthropists.” This environmental policy sponsored by: The same corporations flying private jets to climate conferences while lecturing farmers about cows. This war approved with generous support from: Defence contractors who become wealthier every time peace is delayed another quarter. One cannot demand transparency from scientists while allowing politicians to masquerade as virginal thinkers descending from Olympus untouched by money. A politician without disclosed sponsors is merely an advertisement pretending to be philosophy. At the very least, Parliament should resemble Formula One. The jackets would finally be honest.