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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Government Reveals Total Number of Private Sector Consultants Working for ‘Test and Trace’
There are more private sector consultants working for Baroness Dido Harding’s operation than civil servants working for the Treasury, reveals Sam Bright
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2020 SPOTLIGHT: The Great Procurement Scandal
Sam Bright investigates the trends that underpin the Government’s outpouring of contracts to corporate giants and friends of the regime
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The 12 Contracts of Christmas
Byline Times and The Citizens catalogue the 12 most notorious contracts awarded to private sector firms during the Coronavirus pandemic so far
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Follow the Money: Trump’s Banker Resigns Amid Internal Investigation
Heidi Cuda reports on how many criminal and civil investigations probing the financials of the outgoing US President Donald Trump end up on the doorstep of Deutsche Bank
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Trump’s Derangement Has Fuelled the Mass Radicalisation of America
The President’s distant relationship with the truth is stoking the breakdown of America, contends CJ Werleman
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‘Test and Trace’ Replacing Corporate Giants With £800-a-day In-House Consultants
Sam Bright has the inside track on a new Government hiring blitz and its attempts to oust expensive, controversial consultancy giants
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The Tyranny of the Brexit Minority
Boris Johnson’s ‘no deal’ posturing is a reminder of how Brexit has violated British democracy, argues Sam Bright
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Long Shadows: Biden’s Choice for Attorney General is the New Battleground over Russian Interference
Robert Waldeck reveals how the shadow of the Republican Party’s disinformation campaign darkens the new President’s choice for the Department of Justice
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Hotel Carpeting Company Awarded Contract to Supply COVID-19 Tests
A small carpeting supplier has been contracted again by the Government, having already being awarded deals for personal protective equipment worth £5.3 million
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Firm with Links to Matt Hancock’s Family Awarded £5.5 Million COVID Testing Deal
The chairman of the healthcare firm is the former business partner of Matt Hancock’s mum and step-father
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The Brexiters Who Fled Britain
With more jobs shipped abroad by the very people who supported leaving the EU, the Byline Times Team considers which members of the Brexit battalion have moved their residences or businesses to other shores
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‘I Contacted Cabinet Office and Offered to Buy a Machine in China’ says Marine Firm Owner Given £5 Million Contract for Masks
Sam Bright speaks to the owner of a naval design firm about how he acquired a contract to supply face masks – who also appears to reject the consensus of scientists and officials on the Coronavirus pandemic
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UPDATED: Britain’s Cod Awful Fishing Fiasco
There is currently no legal basis for the UK’s distant-waters vessels to fish cod in Norwegian waters from the end of this year, reports David Hencke
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Government Outsources Responsibility for Outsourcing
The professional services giant Deloitte is being employed to help the Government to interpret and implement its own ‘Outsourcing Playbook’
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The Tax Man Cometh: Robert Mercer, William Barr and Trump’s Chinese Bank Account
Heidi Siegmund Cuda talks to veteran tax investigator Martin Sheil about how much the incoming Biden administration could do by enforcing existing laws
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Frontline Workers Failed By Wasteful, Inefficient £15 Billion PPE Procurement Effort
The majority of protective equipment bought by the Government still hasn’t arrived, the National Audit Office has revealed
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Boris Johnson Politicised the Ministerial Code in 2019 – Now, Anything Goes
Leighton Andrews explains why the lack of action over the Home Secretary’s bullying was set up in advance through the Government’s ideological fixation on Brexit and assault on the rule of law
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Memetic Warfare: How the Targeted Propaganda of QAnon Weaponised COVID-19
Daniel Morrison looks at the Trump campaign origins of the ‘gamified’ global conspiracy theory which has now evolved into active Coronavirus denialism
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Dominic Cummings’ Role in The Great Procurement Scandal Shows He is Not a Mastermind
Dominic Cummings failed to reform the procurement process, and in doing so exposed his hollow intellectual posturing, argues Sam Bright
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Serco Lands Place on £7.5 Billion Government Contract to Provide ‘Employment Services’
After facing criticism for its work during the pandemic, the outsourcing giant is set to be paid millions of pounds more to assist the post-Coronavirus clean-up operation, reports Sam Bright
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Trumpism Still Festers in Boris Johnson’s Britain – But it is Dying
Nafeez Ahmed tracks the export of populist demagoguery from America to Britain, and urges a campaign to snuff out its dying embers
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61 Pork Barrels: Jenrick Funnelled Billions of Public Money to Conservative Target Seats
David Hencke’s analysis of the Government’s Town Fund scheme suggests politically motivated deals that paid off in the 2019 General Election
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Government’s Rushed, Biased Procurement Process Exposed by Spending Watchdog
A new National Audit Office report – which found that the Government established a ‘high-priority’ lane for PPE suppliers with political links – does little to dispel the notion of cronyism at the heart of the Boris Johnson administration, explains Sam Bright
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A Top Priority for Joe Biden: Stop Information Warfare
Zarina Zabrisky urges the President-elect and his team to counter one of the gravest threats to modern democracy
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Citizens Disunited: The End of the Transatlantic Trumpist Alliance
Peter Jukes looks at the rise and fall of the dark money and online culture war strategies that put Donald Trump in the White House and pushed Britain out of the EU
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Brexit’s Toll On Britain’s Creative Industries: The Sadness and Madness that Awaits
Composer Howard Goodall sets out what performers will need to know in a post-Brexit world and reflects on the sorrow of the Government’s desire to erect barriers, when the job of creatives is to tear them down
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Health Ministers’ COVID-19 Meetings with Conservative & Vote Leave Allies Revealed
MP alleges ‘special treatment’ as two former Vote Leave chiefs were drafted in by Matt Hancock’s department, reports Sam Bright
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What I Learnt About the Great Procurement Scandal: Building ‘My Little Crony’
Sophie Hill explains how she found the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings at the centre of her vast interactive map of Government contracts
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Rage and Grief as Armenia Loses its War With Azerbaijan
After many bloody battles Armenia has lost its war with Azerbaijan, now the country is grappling with where to go from here. Tom Mutch reports from the country’s capital
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Miami Vice: Florida Fashion Designer Awarded New PPE Contracts Worth £197 Million
A Miami-based firm owned by a jewellery entrepreneur has been awarded UK PPE deals worth hundreds of millions, reports Sam Bright
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson Confronted About the Great Procurement Scandal
The Prime Minister was finally forced to answer questions about his Government’s controversial, multi-billion-pound splurge on private sector contracts, reports Sam Bright
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Robert Jenrick: Government Suppress Key Documents from MPs in Constituency Payoff Scandal
David Hencke reports on accusations of ‘political bias’ on how public funds were allocated to constituencies by Conservative ministers
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Putin Forced Armenia to Capitulate to Azerbaijan
As the US remains preoccupied with the presidential elections, Nikola Mikovic reports on how Russia appears to be resolving the conflict over the Armenian enclave
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£119 Million COVID-19 Testing Contract Awarded to Four-Month-Old DNA Analysis Firm
A company incorporated on 18 May was awarded a huge Government contract to ramp-up Coronavirus testing, reports Sam Bright
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The UK’s Not Immune to Trumpian Mail Ballot Antics
Donald Trump is articulating a spurious grievance held by Nigel Farage and other right-wing figures in the UK for years, says Sam Bright
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Government Buys PPE Made by Uyghur Muslims Under Chinese Labour Programme
The conditions of the Uyghurs forced to work in factories “strongly suggest forced labour”, Sam Bright reports
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‘Informal Arrangements’ Used for Government PPE Procurement, Says Health Minister
Lord James Bethell’s comments appear to validate leaked documents revealing an expedited system of the awarding contracts to “high profile contacts” of the Boris Johnson administration
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US Election 2020: UK Trumpocracy Provides Last Vanguard of President’s Defence
Donald Trump’s British acolytes are watching in idle complicity as he tears down the scaffolding of American democracy, argues Sam Bright
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Trumpocracy in the UK: Boris Johnson’s Lobby Group and US ‘Dark Money’
Nafeez Ahmed examines new tax filings in the US which raise more questions about the influence of the Henry Jackson Society on the UK Government
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Minister’s Meetings Fuel the Conservative Procurement Scandal
Records show that a Conservative MP, paid £100,000 a-year to advise a major healthcare firm, attended a ministerial meeting with that company just days after it was awarded a £133 million Government contract
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Michael Gove’s Lobbyists at the Heart of White Nationalist Trumpworld
In the next part of this special Byline Times investigation, Nafeez Ahmed delves into a controversial ‘Alt-Right’ event attended by key figures in a conservative lobbying group with Home Office funding to research Islamist militancy
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Ukraine’s Pivotal Role in the Trump-Putin Deal
Robert Waldeck with a comprehensive, compelling account of how the Ukraine crisis propelled Putin’s information war, the courtship of Donald Trump and the targeting of Joe Biden
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‘High Profile’ Government Contacts Given Priority in PPE Procurement, Leaked Documents Reveal
Questions should be asked about “whether politically connected ‘VIPs’ benefitted from lucrative inside information”, says the director of the Good Law Project, which was handed the documents
