SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Crypto Politics
Dark money, lobbying, regulatory capture, state institutions hollowed by donor factions, foreign interference, and the financialisation of political power.
-
‘Deception and Possible Fraud’: Ministers Accused of Misleading Parliament Over HS2
Lord Tony Berkeley, the deputy chair of Boris Johnson’s review into the high speed rail link, claims the public is being kept in the dark over spiralling costs
-
Afghanistan: The Terrible End of the War on Terror
In the collapse of its $2 trillion 20-year war in Afghanistan, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives, Hasan Sari sees the last disastrous epitaph for US foreign policy
-
The Corporate Takeover of the NHS: What Does ‘Privatisation’ of Health Services Really Mean?
In the first of a series of investigations into the corporate takeover of the NHS, Sian Norris considers what NHS privatisation looks like now, and what could change with the new Health and Social Care Bill
-
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
-
Light and Shadows: Law-Makers and Populist Attacks – A Transatlantic Comparison
Amid the multiple similarities between the populism of Donald Trump and Brexit, Peter Jukes and Heidi Siegmund Cuda look at the stark differences between the way in which the UK Parliament and the US Congress deal with threats to democracy
-
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
-
Touring in Europe: The Broken Instruments of Brexit
Philippe Auclair discusses the cultural isolation and loss which will result from British musical artists being deterred from performing in Europe
-
While Britain Obsesses Over Europe, Europe Turns Away
Though Brexit no longer dominates the headlines in Europe, Europeans view it with a mixture of pity and concern, and look forward to the UK returning to its senses soon – if not to the EU
-
Government Procurement and the Lack of Trust
After the scandal of crony contracts, Stephen Colegrave digs into the Government’s Green Paper setting out a new regime to regulate nearly £300 billion in public spending
-
GB News Presenter Nigel Farage Emerges in Unredacted FBI Files
Zamaan Qureshi explores new revelations from the Mueller probe into the leaking of emails hacked by Russian intelligence services to Wikileaks during the 2016 US Presidential election
-
Tucker Carlson’s Visit to Hungary: Lobbying, Free Speech and Far-Right Conspiracy
Fox News’ bombastic Conservative commentator, Tucker Carlson, meets Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, two years after a firm where his father is a director received thousands from the Hungarian Government to help with media and PR, Sian Norris reports
-
Subverting the ‘Will of the People’: How Brexit Sowed the Wind
Chris Grey explores the forces unleashed by Brexit and how they reveal the weaknesses of Britain’s unwritten Constitution – vulnerable in its reliance on norms and conventions to deliver representative democracy
-
Revealed: The Involvement of Palantir and Faculty in the UK Public Sector
Peter Thiel’s Palantir and an AI-company linked to Dominic Cummings combined have won public sector contracts worth over £100 million – including contracts connected to NHS data. Max Colbert reports with The Citizens
-
Highwire Act: Why the Northern Ireland Protocol is the Ultimate Brexit Test
As the UK struggles with the reality that it is the only country in the world to create its own internal trade barrier, Mike Buckley looks at the dangerous pitfalls for Boris Johnson
-
Prominent Conservative Donor Wins Large Contract with Ministry of Justice
Company behind £450,000 donations to the Conservative party awarded a series of emergency Covid-19 work, alongside contract for new prison build, Max Colbert reports
-
The Cost of COVID Loans and PPE: An Augury of More Austerity?
Richard Murphy looks at the Government’s poor decision making around Coronavirus costs, and how their poor accounting could be used as another excuse to cut public spending
-
US Foreign Policy For Sale: Thomas Barrack, Jared Kushner and the UAE
After the indictment of the former president‘s ‘best friend’, Zamaan Qureshi ties together the web of links between the Trump Campaign and agents of foreign governments
-
‘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
-
‘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’
-
‘Good Chaps’ Left the Building a While Ago, Britain – It’s Time to Wake Up
Hardeep Matharu argues that Labour MP Dawn Butler’s removal from the House of Commons after calling Boris Johnson a ‘liar’ finally exposed the structural failings at the heart of the British state
-
‘A Convenient Scapegoat’: Empty Shelves are due to Brexit Not the Pingdemic – Here’s the Evidence
With supply chain problems being blamed on workers self-isolating, Caolan Robertson reports on what business owners, managers and labourers have been telling him across the country about the consequences of Brexit
-
The Prime Monger: Johnson’s ‘Culture War’ is a Core Part of his Strategic Racism
Martin Shaw explains how Boris Johnson’s racist remarks are far from casual, and that fighting ‘woke’ anti-racism is an essential part of his ethno-nationalist electoral strategy
-
Trump, Vampires and Animals on the Moon: The Fake News about Fake News
Looking back over the history of printed lies, Ivor Gaber debunks the myth that social media is alone responsible for the rise of disinformation
-
A Man’s World: 91% of Top COVID Contract Winners Are Run by Men
The Government’s outsourcing effort reveals a huge diversity imbalance in private sector suppliers, report the Byline Intelligence Team and The Citizens
-
Mandatory Vote ID: Government Makes Astonishing Admission 3.5 Million Will Be Disenfranchised
Josiah Mortimer of the Electoral Reform Society reveals the contradictions in the Government’s plan to introduce Voter ID
-
Merkel’s Party at a Crossroads: Stay Middle of the Road or Turn Hard Right?
With Bundestag elections in September, Carlo Moll asks how Germany’s Christian Democratic Union will respond to the split between its centrist establishment and right-wing base
-
No Meetings Held by ‘Powerful’ Committees Set Up to Iron-Out Brexit Problems
One of the bodies – established to deal with post-Brexit chaos in the fishing industry – hasn’t met for three months, Sam Bright reveals
-
Vladimir Putin’s ‘Piece’ Plan for Ukraine Exposes Seven Years of Deceit
From his experience of the propaganda wars around the Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, Paul Niland dissects the document released by Donald Trump’s former lawyer
-
From Turning Point to Tufton Street: International Aid Cuts and Radical Right Influence
As MPs voted to cut international aid, Sian Norris examines the Conservative Party donors and right-wing think-tanks who have long had foreign aid spending in their sights
-
Conservative Links to 30% of Top 20 COVID Contract Firms
The Byline Intelligence Team and The Citizens report on yet more conflict of interest questions surrounding the Government’s procurement during the pandemic
-
Boris Johnson Halts Update to Government Conduct ‘Bible’
The Cabinet Manual is 10 years out of date, yet the Prime Minister has shelved plans to refresh it, reports David Hencke
-
The UK is Now Governed by an Actively Anti-Democratic Party
Kyle Taylor and Nico Docherty of Fair Vote UK evaluate the new reforms to democracy set to be introduced by Boris Johnson’s Government
-
Health Department Extends Conservative Donor’s Government Role
An individual who has donated more than £630,000 to the Conservatives in recent years has seen his role in Government extended for another year, reports Sam Bright
-
The Death Of Convention
Stephen Colegrave considers how Boris Johnson has used the vagueness and vulnerability of Britain’s unwritten constitution to erode democracy
-
‘United by a Common Enemy: An Open, Pluralist Society’: Far-Right Parties Sign Declaration on Europe’s Future
Led by Poland’s Prime Minister, far-right parties from across the region declare that the European Union is threatening nations, families and tradition
-
Business Department Advisors Lobbied Government Bank Over Greensill Loans, Report Reveals
David Hencke reports on a new twist in the Greensill Capital lobbying saga uncovered by the independent public spending watchdog
-
Firm Chaired By Government Health Procurement Advisor Wins New £20.6 Million Contract
The company has now been awarded deals worth close to £60 million during the pandemic, reports Sam Bright
-
The Moral Vacuum of English Politics is a Replica of Trump’s America
Truth and decency have little currency in Boris Johnson’s rump Trumpocracy, says Sam Bright
-
The Revolving Door Created by the Conservative Party Has a Long History
The same, well-connected insiders are allowed to sit at the side of power, especially in the field of education policy, reports Karam Bales
-
End Game: Why the Council for National Policy’s Machine is a Threat to US Democracy in 2022
Heidi Siegmund Cuda explains how a consortium of far-right religious extremists and fossil fuel magnates are not only a threat to democracy, but to the earth itself
-
Undeclared Health Minister Meetings With Firm Owned by Conservative Donor
One of the companies involved secured a £16 million grant from the Government, reports Sam Bright
-
India’s War on Muslims Is Escalating in Plain Sight
CJ Werleman reports on how laws, conspiracy theories, and a corrupted criminal justice system are all facilitating the increasing marginalisation of minorities in the world’s largest democracy
-
Health Department Failed to Declare Minister’s 27 Meetings Held at Outset of Pandemic
The companies involved went on to win £1.14 billion in Government contracts, reports Sam Bright
