SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Crypto Politics
Dark money, lobbying, regulatory capture, state institutions hollowed by donor factions, foreign interference, and the financialisation of political power.
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Tax Cuts For The Rich, Benefit Cuts For The Poor?
Following news that benefits may rise with earnings, not inflation, Sian Norris and the Byline Intelligence Team asks: who will be hardest hit? And is this an inequality economy?
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‘Great British Democracy’: Who Voted for This?
The UK’s political system currently resembles an unelected autocracy rather than a truly representative democracy, writes former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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How Russia Feeds the Factory of Unthinking
From Ukrainians being mainly Jewish to allegations of black magic, hypnotism and colonising Africa, Oleksiy Pluzhnyk explores the Kremlin’s exploitation of the conspiratorial mindset
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‘The Iceberg Heading Straight Towards the Government is Housing Market Crash’
Experts explain how ‘the wheels could come off’ the British economy as a result of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s reckless approach, reports Sam Bright
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‘There is a Connection Between their Roots in Fascism and their Embrace of these Ideas’: Italy’s Drift to the Far-Right
Adrian Goldberg spoke to David Broder – author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism In Contemporary Italy – for the Byline Times Podcast about the historical roots of the country’s new far-right leadership
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The Tufton Street Elite Takes Back Control of the Brexit Project
The libertarian ideologues in Downing Street are taking a hammer to Boris Johnson’s Brexit coalition, says Sam Bright
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Contract-Winning Firm Owned by Tory Donor Sees Major Financial Boost
Max Colbert reports on the millions gained by one of the Government’s PPE suppliers
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Kwarteng Rewards Wealthy Men While Punishing Poorer Women
The mini-budget is another worrying sign that the new Government is downgrading the importance of women’s rights, reports Sascha Lavin
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Liz Truss’ Economic Shock Doctrine Will Only Help the Richest
The Chancellor has announced a series of massive tax cuts for high earners and corporations, which have seen the pound slump and the value of Government bonds fall. Why is the Prime Minister risking turning an economic crisis into a disaster?
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An Alternative Budget: How Much Could be Raised Through Wealth and Profit Taxes?
Sam Bright considers the benefits of taxing the richest people and corporations
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Fracking Minister Funded by Fossil Fuel Investor
Nafeez Ahmed investigates Jacob Rees-Mogg’s relationship with his former hedge-fund mentor and political donor Robin Crispin Odey
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Three Years On from ‘No Deal’ Emergency: Operation Yellowhammer is Our Reality
We are now living through the bleak predictions made in the Brexit contingency report in 2019, says TJ Coles
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Daily Mail Group Allowing Sanctioned Russian Data Collection Company to Access Sites
Sites including the Daily Mail and Metro maintain the presence of RU Target, a data specialist advertising company owned by sanctioned Russian state-controlled bank, Sberbank
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Winds of Stagnation: What a Far-Right Victory in Italy Would Mean for Women and LGBTIQ Rights
Francesca Visser speaks to activists about the forthcoming elections and how a far-right coalition could lead to stalling progress on human rights
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The Class Ceiling: Liz Truss’ Cabinet Offers the Illusion of Equality
Despite the racial and ethnic diversity of the Prime Minister’s top team, this counts for little if ordinary people of colour continue to suffer, says Taj Ali
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What Does the New Prime Minister Mean For Britain’s Oligarchy Problem?
Oliver Bullough considers how a changing of the guard in Downing Street may influence attempts to crack down on kleptocrats
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Do Tax Cuts for the Rich Boost Growth? This New Study Says Not
Liz Truss’ proposal to end the cap on bankers’ bonuses is unlikely to spur economic growth, reports Sam Bright
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Sweden Democrats Latest Far-Right Party to go Mainstream in Europe
The electoral success of a formerly neo-Nazi party in Sweden – which has ties to the UK Conservatives – is part of a Europe-wide pattern where the extreme has become mainstream politics
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American Dark Money, the Mercers and the Conservative Party: A Network of Influence
A special investigation by Nafeez Ahmed exposes the transatlantic connections between an extremist US pro-Trump lobby and organisations influencing Liz Truss’ Conservative Cabinet
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‘My Allegiance is to These Islands, Not the King’
Adrian Goldberg speaks to Paul Powlesland, who was threatened with arrest for suggesting that he may write ‘not my King’ on a sign
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Seven Decades of Social Progress – But is the UK Heading Backwards?
The Byline Intelligence Team digs into the story of the past 70 years in data
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Russia Rattled by a Cartoon Dog: Ukrainian Civilians and their Counter-Offensive
Chris York explains how the NAFO phenomenon is just one example of the decentralised ingenuity of Ukraine’s civil society against the centralised troll farms and bots of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare
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From Tufton Street to Downing Street: The Opaque Charities at the Heart of Power
Rachel Morris tracks the burgeoning influence of ‘free market’ think tanks on Conservative politics
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‘I Contracted a Parasitic Disease After Swimming in My Local River’
Alan Pretsell explains the human cost of privatisation and deregulation
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Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Appointment Shows Truss’ Government Is Captured by the Hard Right
The UK’s new Prime Minister is surrounding herself with hardline figures who were previously on the fringe of the Conservative movement, reports Adam Bienkov
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Lisa Nandy: Conservative ‘Levelling Up’ Promises have been ‘Outright Lie’
Boris Johnson’s flagship regional redistribution project has stalled and Liz Truss is likely to send it into reverse, writes Sam Bright
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‘Johnsonism Gone Sour: Liz Truss as Prime Minister Will Drag Us to Disaster’
The UK’s incoming Prime Minister has accepted the worst parts of Boris Johnson’s politics, while abandoning anything that made his agenda palatable, reports Adam Bienkov
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‘The Myth of a Benign Brexit Immigration Policy’
Martin Shaw replies to economist Jonathan Portes’ recent Byline Times article, which argued that the Government’s post-Brexit immigration system is a ‘rare success’
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‘Dysfunction in Poverty, House Insulation and Energy Pricing Existed Long Before Current Crisis’
The acclaimed public health academic spoke to Adrian Goldberg for the Byline Times Podcast
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Crisis and Myth: Why Politicians Must Stop Comparing the UK Economy to ‘Running a Household’
Jack Mosse unpicks the flawed understanding of national debt that has pervaded the Conservative leadership contest and Tory economic policy for a number of years
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Alone and Ignored: How the Cost of Living Crisis is Impacting Students
Orla McAndrew speaks to students about their fears for the future as the Government once again turns a blind eye to young people
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Can We Trust Truss? All the False Claims During her Campaign to Become Prime Minister
The Conservative leadership frontrunner claims she is “honest” and “straightforward” but has repeatedly misled the public during her bid to succeed Boris Johnson
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‘The Chances of Coordinated Industrial Action are Real’
As Liz Truss vows to crackdown further on union action and the cost of living crisis escalates, Josiah Mortimer reports on the prospects of a general strike
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‘The Government’s Post-Brexit Immigration Policy is a Rare Success’
Jonathan Portes answers the criticisms of those who claim that what the Brexit campaign was really promising was lower levels of immigration
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Boris Johnson is Trying to ‘Silence’ Questions About Evgeny Lebedev
A Labour MP says the Prime Minister and his friend tried to stop him from asking questions about lavish parties held at the newspaper proprietor’s Italian villa, reports Adam Bienkov
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The Rich are Getting Richer – and They Spend Their Money on Power
Sascha Lavin examines how, even in this cost of living crisis, the rich keep getting richer – and they use their cash for political leverage
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On the Frontline of Exposing the Truth About Russia and Brexit
Four years ago, Tom Mutch thought he had the ‘scoop of the century’ blowing open Russia’s involvement in Brexit. Now, after the UK has left the European Union and Putin wages genocidal war in Ukraine, he wonders whether we are any closer to knowing the truth
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Online Propaganda: A Gateway into the ‘Pro Russian Ecosystem’
Matt Bernardini investigates the influential academic website Swiss Policy Research which claims to expose ‘geopolitical propaganda’ but seems more intent on spreading it
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Starmer’s Labour Must be Radical to Save us from a Thatcher Reboot
The Labour leader needs to convince a weary public that he has the bold ideas to divert the UK from its damaging path under the Conservatives, argues Chris Painter
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Missing in Action: The British Public is Being Asked to Bail Out its Own Government
From climate change to the cost of living, ordinary people are being forced to compensate for an administration in paralysis, says Lisa Young
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‘Global Britain’, and its New Blue Passport, is Falling Behind
In terms of its access to the world, the UK is struggling to keep up with its peers, observes Professor Christopher Phillips
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How the Energy Crisis Became a Crisis of the High Street
While the Conservative leadership election drags on, local newspaper coverage reveals widespread closures of cafes and restaurants, threatening the recovery of the high street, reports Sian Norris
