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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‘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’
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‘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
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‘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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Death Of Convention
Stephen Colegrave considers how Boris Johnson has used the vagueness and vulnerability of Britain’s unwritten constitution to erode democracy
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‘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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Government By WhatsApp: Departments’ Secrecy Around Advisors’ Messages Exposes Johnson Administration’s Unaccountable Power
Iain Overton’s investigation into one simple question revealed fundamental truths about where accountability lies in British politics today
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The Batley Battleground: A Microcosm of England’s Fractured Political Climate
The divisive, hostile forces that have plagued politics in recent years are now running wild in the West Yorkshire constituency, says Sam Bright
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Putin’s Hybrid War on Truth in Ukraine is a Threat to Us All
From digital attacks to physical assaults on journalists, Iain Overton’s investigation into the Russian disinformation playbook of chaos in Ukraine is a chilling portent of future wars
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Selective Sleaze: The Crescendo of the Cronyism Crisis
With a tabloid feeding frenzy over a minister’s alleged affair, Sam Bright, Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu explore the wider public issues concealed by personal scandal
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‘Public Threat’ Rudy Giuliani’s Law License Suspended
Heidi Siegmund Cuda reports on the unprecedented suspension of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer for misconduct and deception over the 2020 Presidential Elections
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Brexit Vote Five Years On
Five years after the EU Referendum, the country is stuck because no one will lead an honest conversation about the future, says Mike Buckley
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How the US Christian Right Lends Support to Europe’s Anti-LGBTIQ Movement
American activist Brian Brown gave a speech about his ‘hope and optimism’ that US conservatives will join him in supporting Levan Vasadze’s anti-rights agenda in Georgia, reports Sian Norris
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The Money Men Behind CitizenGO’s Anti-Rights Agenda
In the second of her series on the anti-abortion, anti-LGBTIQ campaigning platform CitizenGO, Sian Norris examines its funding model and the financial scandal haunting one of its board members
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The Pursuit of Truth – Or Not: Boris Johnson, COVID and the Media
Broadcast journalists’ refusal to call-out the lies of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet members and the Government as a whole during the Coronavirus pandemic reveals the extent of the crisis engulfing the very fabric of truth in our society, observes Dorothy Byrne
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How Much Did We Pay For PPE? Data the Government Doesn’t Want to Reveal
John Lubbock inspects data that has been leaked and accidentally released about the amount the UK actually paid for PPE during the Coronavirus crisis
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The Transparency Gap: Government Publishes £4.2 Billion in PPE Contracts a Year Late
The Prime Minister previously claimed that ‘all the details are on the record’, reports Sam Bright
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Is President Biden Just an Interregnum Before a Bigger Storm?
With the Republican Party now wedded firmly to the ‘Big Lie’ about the last election, CJ Werleman fears the worst is yet to come with a Trump 2.0
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Capitol Indictment Reveals Radical Right Conservative Donors Simultaneously Bankrolling Extremism and Anti-Lockdown Protests
Caroline Orr reports on the evidence linking the Three Percenters militia with right-wing megadonors including the billionaire Mercer family
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Measuring the Cost: Brexit Six Months On
The end of the transition period was merely a staging post within a process that will be long with us, says Chris Grey
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The Christofascism of QAnon
Steven Monacelli, who attended the ‘Qonference’ of the paranoid conspiracy theory in Dallas earlier this month, fears the quasi-religious movement might not die out without a fight
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Fast Food Giants Latest Sector to Report Brexit-related Staffing Concerns
McDonalds joins restaurants, farmers and the meat processing industry with concerns that ‘reduced access to overseas labour would present a challenge to our business,’ reports Sian Norris
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Court Criticises Cabinet Office for ‘Profound Lack of Transparency’ Over ‘Orwellian’ Clearing House Unit
In a case brought against Michael Gove’s department by openDemocracy, a judge has found that it provided misleading information about a unit coordinating Freedom of Information requests
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The Cloak of Respectability and the Face of Extremism: The Campaign to Stop Millions from German Taxpayers Funding the Far-Right
Craig Stennett reports on the campaign by the Anne Frank Centre to prevent massive payouts to the AfD
