(Oscar Wilde)
“Oliver, in a bid to confirm my view that libertarians are just as predictable as unreconstructed Marxists, added his bob’s worth: The euro will collapse because all currency unions go that way; drawing the parallel with the 19th Century’s Latin Union. Of course he is wrong, though Europe is currently conspiring to prove him right.”
Professor Yanis Varoufakis, 19 September 2011
“Hartwich demonstrates his passion for the polemic; he sows the seed of doubt among the populace to ensure the flows of riches to his already wealthy supporters’ remain uninterrupted … Hartwich and his cronies would have us maximise their annual profits at the expense of our grandchildren and then our granchildren’s grandchildren. … Hartwich, the Centre for Independent Studies and other right-wing thoughtless-tanks are working hard to guarantee your children and grandchildren will suffer. We cannot let these (insanely wealthy) people dictate our future.”
Corey J.A. Bradshaw and Paul R. Ehrlich, 12 November 2010
“Oliver Marc Hartwich … arguably sets a new benchmark in fact-free opinion journalism.”
Ken Parish, Club Troppo, 8 November 2010
“One has to assume that Dr. Hartwich is not stupid, which forces one to accept that he is being intentionally deceitful and misleading.”
Reader comment on BusinessSpectator.com.au, 7 October 2010
“Hartwich is just a shill for the old and now totally discredited Neo-Liberal economic theology. Everything he says … needs to be seen through the distorted and now cracked prism of that ideology.”
“Oliver Hartwich – well known Randian paper shuffler, formerly adviser to a Tory Lord, snout in the trough of a right-wing big-business-funded “think-tank” (read propoganda outlet)”
Reader comments on the National Times website, 23 June 2010
“Oliver Marc Hartwich’s article (“Let internet replace journals”, HES November 25) would not pass peer review.”
Ross Williams, editor, Australian Economic Review (letter to The Australian, 2 December 2009)
“I get tired of listening to Oliver. How much can someone misrepresent Europe?” … “Oliver … raised my blood pressure considerably with his highly tendentious view of Germany … Republican-style economic opinions … Right-wing think-tank stuff.”
Listener comments from the ABC Radio National Counterpoint guestbook
“The Oz op-ed section has published some dumb stuff in its time, but for sheer mouth-breathing stupidity you couldn’t go past Oliver Marc Harwich’s article today.”
Guy Rundle, Crikey.com.au, 21 May 2009
“Good luck to Oliver Hartwich in Australia. He didn’t dare come north, and he has now also had a go at London. I for one greatly hope that he appreciates the very different approach of Australians.”
David Lindsay, 18 August 2008
“I gather he is off to Australia. The sooner he gets on the ship the better.”
Rt. Hon. David Cameron MP, 13 August 2008
“What planet are they on?”
The Campaign to Protect Rural England, June 2006
“Oliver Hartwich is also a German and surprise, surprise, continually banging on about how much more efficient BMW, Audi/VW and Mercedes are, he’s done it in the past and will continue to do so. To see him do it again here astonishes me not at all. … Personally, I take anything he spouts as Goebbelesque at very best.”
Commentator on FordForums.com.au, 18 March 2009
“The sort of analysis presented in this CIS article is a cynical perspective, a misguided perspective based on a particular ideological paradigm which has little or no basis in reality.”
Andrew McKellar, Chief Executive, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, 17 March 2009
“Oliver Hartwich comes across as a clown, dragging out the tricks of bogus logic to bolster a position that is under attack only in his own imagination.”
Richard Chirgwin (letter to the Sydney Morning Herald), 17 November 2008
“This council rejects proposals by the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange … which states northern towns and cities, including Scunthorpe, should cease to receive funding for regeneration and should be allowed to ‘shrink naturally.”
Motion accepted by North Lincolnshire Council, 24 September 2008
“This City Council supports the mass condemnation of the recent report entitled “Cities Unlimited: Making Urban Regeneration Work,” which was published by Policy Exchange a right wing think tank. We believe this report to be an affront to the hard working people of the City of Sunderland whose spirit and determination has resurrected and reinvented our City and our economy after the demise of our traditional industries.”
Sunderland City Council (unanimous decision), 24 September 2008
“Dr. iur Dipl.-Ök. Hartwich paart seinen Dünkel gegen Beck als gelerntem Handwerker mit Reklame für den schlanken Staat, eine Roßkur Milton Friedmans, die als erster 1973 der Strauß-Freund, Putschgeneral und Massenmörder Augusto Pinochet seinem Land Chile verordnete.”
Steinbergrecherche.com, 14 November 2007
“I have never heard such offensive poppycock in all of my life.”
George Galloway MP, 21 August 2008
“Wenn der Beitrag von Herrn Hartwich als Bereicherung im Kultur-Ressort konzipiert war, ist er einfach nur misslungen; aber vielleicht ist ja ein Nachdruck in der Bildzeitung möglich. Als Propagandaartikel zur Festigung des Weltbildes derjenigen Zeitgenossen, denen Soziales und die sogenannte Gesellschaft (sofern es nicht die “Society” ist) sowieso zuwider ist, ist Oliver Marc Hartwichs Artikel allerdings allerbestens geeignet.”
R. Mester, Nachdenkseiten.de, 15 November 2007
“Which is why this week’s report [Cities Unlimited] from the Policy Exchange thinktank – suggesting that many northern towns and cities have no future – was so misplaced. In fact it was worse than that – but I’m not allowed to say what I really think of it on a family website.”
Chris Grayling MP, 13 August 2008
“As a 64-year-old lifelong Guardian reader I was driven to protest for the first time about the astoundingly arrogant article by Oliver Marc Hartwich. Margaret Thatcher would be thrilled to see her policies recommended in the Society section of the Guardian with no editorial warning or retraction.”
Dr W P Jones-Key (letter to the Guardian), 31 January 2007