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SubscriptionsCategory: Democracy
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Covering Their Tracks: The Flaws in the Downing Street Parties Inquiry
Sam Bright considers the potential conclusions of Sue Gray’s investigation into the Number 10 lockdown breaches
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‘Another Country – Not the One I Represented as a Diplomat for 30 Years’
Alexandra Hall Hall, who resigned from the Foreign Office over Brexit lies, now thinks the British malaise is much deeper than that or Boris Johnson
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All the Lies Boris Johnson Told About the Downing Street Parties
The Prime Minister and his spokespeople told lie after lie about the gatherings held inside Downing Street during Coronavirus lockdowns, reports Adam Bienkov
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Insurrection at the Capitol – One Year On: How QAnon Went Mainstream
Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda report on how the extremist QAnon conspiracy theory has captured the Republican Party and had devastating human consequences
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Insurrection at the Capitol – One Year On: The Militarisation of Far-Right Resistance
Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda delve into what happened on 6 January 2021, exposing both the militarisation of the insurrectionists and the failures of the security forces to respond to a war-like threat
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Insurrection at the Capitol – One Year On: The Dark Money Funding Trump’s Coup
On 6 January 2021, far-right groups and Donald Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol in an attempted insurrection. One year on, Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda delve into what happened that day and expose how far-right aims expressed by the ‘mob’ have become the policy of the Republican elite
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A New Year of Repression in Hong Kong
Stuart Heaver reports on the arrests of Hong Kong journalists, academics, lawyers and opposition politicians under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law
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Tipping the Scales of Freedom: 2021 – The Year of Living Dangerously
Richard Haviland documents the multiple and manifest threats to rights of citizenship, free assembly and democratic accountability from a Government reliant on propaganda and disinformation
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Jobbik: What Does it Take to Deradicalise a Far-Right Party?
Jobbik was once considered to be the greatest threat to Hungarian democracy – now it is part of an alliance trying to save it
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MPs Raise the Alarm Over Johnson’s Draconian Elections Bill
A parliamentary committee has found that the Government’s proposals lack transparency and consultation, and fail to provide evidence as to why the changes are “necessary and proportionate”
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‘A Populist Demagogue’ – Johnson’s Government ‘Most Extreme I’ve Seen’, says Former Tory Attorney General
Dominic Grieve told Byline TV that the Government’s disregard for the rule of law, its xenophobic rhetoric over migrants and its cronyism show why the Conservative Party’s problems go beyond one leader
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Liars Policing the Truth: How Johnson Has Exploited the System
Ed Brown explains how vague protocols and informal codes of conduct have been ruthlessly manipulated by the Prime Minister
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‘Terrifying’ – Johnson’s Government ‘Following Far-Right Playbook’ on Crushing Dissent
Labour peer and former Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti told Byline Times that new amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill are designed to frame people peacefully demonstrating as terrorists
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Former Conservative Justice Secretary Condemns Johnson’s Plan to Curtail Rule of Law
David Gauke believes that a proposal to retrospectively overrule Supreme Court decisions stems from the Prime Minister’s view that any constraint on his power is “intolerable”
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Lord Goldsmith’s Government Meeting with Conservative Donor who is an Environmental Investor
The unelected minister’s summit with a Conservative backer is another example of a broken system of ministerial meetings, reports Sam Bright
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The Vote Leave Regime Knows Our Election System Can Be Corrupted – So Won’t Do Anything to Change It
Former Labour MP Ian Lucas – author of the forthcoming book Digital Gangsters – says Downing Street knows that British politics is broken but has a stake in preserving this
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Where is the Government’s Anti-Corruption ‘Champion’?
Sam Bright explores the role of John Penrose MP, and his unwillingness to call out systemic corruption in the UK
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‘Distorted and Wrong’: Senior Cabal of Conservatives with Johnson’s Ear Put Red Wallers at Risk Over Corruption Scandal, Says MP
Conservative MPs say the Prime Minister’s disastrous attempt to save Owen Paterson from corruption allegations has badly backfired, reports Adam Bienkov
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The Johnson Scandal is Far Sleazier than ‘Cash for Questions’
David Hencke, who broke the story of MPs tabling parliamentary questions on behalf of private interests in 1994, reflects on why Boris Johnson’s actions are a threat of a different kind to Britain’s political system
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How Political Corruption Works in the UK
Sam Bright explores the ways in which party donors and corporate interests are warping British democracy
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Western Powers Are Empowering Hindu Nationalist Threats to Democracy
A lack of understanding of the Hindutva movement in the West is empowering the persecution of Muslim and Sikh minorities in India and South Asia
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Majority of Voters Think Johnson’s Government is Corrupt, Poll Finds
Exclusive polling for Byline Times suggests that people are concerned about the corruption of politics by private-sector interests
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Delegitimise and Overturn: The Paterson Affair is the Latest in a Worrying Pattern of Johnson’s Contempt for Democratic Accountability
The Government’s U-turn is reassuring but should be viewed within the wider context of consistent attempts to dodge scrutiny by Boris Johnson’s administration, says Adam Bienkov
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Natural Injustice: The Collapse in Parliamentary Standards
Former House of Commons clerk Eliot Wilson looks at what the Owen Paterson affair means for probity in public life
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At the Crossroads of Freedom
Sian Norris speaks to Professor Lea Ypi and reflects on the threats to freedom and democracy hanging over Europe – and their historical roots
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The Meta Narrative: How Zuckerberg Just Won’t Listen
The Facebook boss’ response to damning revelations about the social media platform has been to go full Orwellian, says Kyle Taylor
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‘Us and Them’ Politics Puts Us All in Danger
The more we are wound up through a divisive politics of polarisation, the less safe we all ultimately are, says Hardeep Matharu
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Facebook’s Big Lie is Finally Being Exposed
Kyle Taylor puts the social media platform’s recent scandals into context and argues that the House of Zuckerberg is slowly crumbling
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Conservative Donors, Turning Point USA and the US Capitol Attack
A man charged with assaulting police officers in Washington D.C. on 6 January arrived at the riot on a bus organised by Turning Point USA. Sian Norris explores the transatlantic background of the youth conservative group
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Who Funds Red Wall Conservative MPs?
From aristocrats to betting companies, Sam Bright inspects the organisations and individuals that have donated to the Red Wall cohort of MPs and wonders if they are representative of the people who live there
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Deception Management: How Mendacity Devoured British Politics
Hadley Coull and Chris Ogden consider why policies and principles have been subsumed to the art of political deceit
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How Would Proportional Representation Change the Balance of Power in Parliament?
Sam Bright explores why the popularity of electoral reform is surging in the Labour Party
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72% of Voters are Against the Award of Peerages and Honours Following Political Donations, Poll Commissioned by Byline Times Finds
Exclusive polling with independent research company Omnisis reveals that the public are generally disapproving of political donors receiving rewards and access after parting with their cash – with Conservative voters more concerned than Labour
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Political Capture: How Donations Made in the Shadows are Putting Democracy in Danger
An investigation by the Byline Intelligence Team and The Citizens, revealing the profiles of Conservative Party backers in the UK, has exposed how a lack of transparency and the culture of political donations is putting British democracy at risk
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Mandatory Voter ID: The Cost to Taxpayers – and Democracy
The Government’s assessment of how much its proposals to make everyone show ID in order to vote at polling stations will cost represents its ‘staggeringly warped priorities’, according to campaigners
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America Faces Its Biggest Abortion Battle Yet – How Did We Get Here?
As Texas bans abortion after six weeks and the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could overturn the law allowing safe, legal abortion, Sian Norris and Heidi Siegmund Cuda trace the right wing, racist and biblical forces in play
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Cummings’ Brexit Confessions Reveal the Hollow Heart of a Hallowed Project
Jonathan Lis explains how the admissions of leading Brexiters five years on expose the continuing corruption of British politics by outright lies
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Poland Passes Media Law That Threatens Press Freedom
hat could further repress press freedom in the country – despite initially planning to suspend the vote after ruling coalition collapsed
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Right-Wing Media’s Manufactured Fears Over ‘Blasphemy’ are Another Arm of the Culture War’s White Jingoist Agenda
Constructed fears around the return of blasphemy laws enable Islamophobia and distract from a reactionary recasting of British values, says Dr Richard McNeil-Willson
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The Death of the Last Good Chap
Why do those in positions of power now evade accountability despite numerous examples of incompetence, dangerous liaisons, lies, and even corruption at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Government? Because the British political system allows them to, says Gavin Esler
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‘Dancing Queen?’: The Fixed Term Parliaments Act and the Return of the Royal Prerogative
Historian Robert Saunders considers the constitutional consequences of a new bill which transfers the power to dissolve Parliament to the Crown and removes checks on the Prime Minister
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‘What is he Doing for his Wage?’: Lord Philip Hammond’s Revolving Door Continues
ust two years after leaving office, the former Chancellor and life peer is now free to lobby the Government on behalf of businesses registered in tax havens and set up by Conservative peers
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‘Deeply Troubling’: Investigative Journalism Finds Itself Heading Towards ‘Authoritarian Police State’
Proposed changes to the Official Secrets Act by the Home Office would see investigative journalists threatened with up to 14 years in prison for ‘unauthorised disclosures’
