Claire Fox

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Claire Fox (born 1960), also known as Claire Foster, is the director and founder of the British think tank, the Institute of Ideas, and a prominent former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

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[edit] Early life and education

Claire was born into an Irish Catholic family in North Wales, the older sister of Fiona Fox. After attending St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, Flint, she went to study at the University of Warwick leaving with a lower second class degree (2:2) in literature. During this period Fox joined the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). For the next twenty years she became one of the RCP's core activists and organisers, becoming co-publisher of its magazine Living Marxism (later abbreviated simply to LM Magazine).

Fox stayed with her ex-RCP members when the group transformed itself in the late 1990s into a network around the web magazine Spiked Online and the Institute of Ideas, both based in the former RCP offices. The group now takes the position that the terms 'left-' and 'right-wing' no longer carry any meaning.

[edit] Moral Maze

Fox rose to prominence when she appeared as a witness on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze, arguing for the importance of the right to free speech for all - including a reggae singer called Beenie Man who had written music 'inciting' the murder of gay men. This 'controversial' style led to an invitation to become a regular panelist on the show.

As well as her regular Moral Maze slot she has also appeared as a panellist on BBC One's Question Time. She also writes a monthly column in the Municipal Journal and presented her own show on a web tv station 18 Doughty Street called Claire Fox News.

[edit] Criticism

Fox has been widely criticised for her libertarian belief in the desirability of minimal governmental control and support of free speech in all contexts. In particular, she has been accused of "supporting Gary Glitter’s right to download child porn",[1] (a claim she denies [2]), without a source for the statement. She has also been criticised for rejecting multiculturalism as divisive[3], questioning the negative publicity surrounding genetically modified crops[4] claiming global warming is not caused by greenhouse gas emissions[citation needed], and denying that there are any natural limits to human activity on the planet - suggesting that everyone could be as rich as "Zac Goldsmith". [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stuart Jeffries, "Infamy's child", Guardian; The Andrew Billen Interview, Times; Time Out list of London's movers and shakers (no.64)
  2. ^ "{{{title}}}" . The Richmond Magazine. 
  3. ^ Stuart Jeffries, "Infamy's child", Guardian
  4. ^ "The Alliance of Science", Guardian
  5. ^ At the Turn up the Heat event organised by the World Development Movement, May 8, 2008. See: [1]

[edit] External links

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