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SubscriptionsColumn / Investigation: Democracy in Danger
The newspaper’s extensive reporting and analysis of the various threats to democracy from populism, oligarchy, dark money and online disinformation.
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Boris Johnson Blocks Investigation into His Attendance at Downing Street Lockdown Parties
The Prime Minister’s promised investigation into parties in Downing Street already looks to be a whitewash, reports Adam Bienkov
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Boris Johnson Invited Editors and BBC Executives into Downing Street On Day of Lockdown Party
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said they were ‘working meetings’ and did not breach Covid guidelines, Adam Bienkov reports
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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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When it Comes to Undermining Judicial Independence, are the Conservatives Looking East?
Proposals to allow Government to overrule judicial review findings reflect a growing authoritarian tendency in the Conservatives – just look at Poland and Hungary
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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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Johnson’s Refusal to Answer Questions About Downing Street Lockdown Parties Shows his Contempt for the Public
The Prime Minister’s behaviour is increasingly coming under public scrutiny and he is struggling to answer questions about his conduct, reports Adam Bienkov
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New Clauses in the Policing Bill Expose Johnson’s Faux Libertarianism
Johnson is sold to voters as a libertarian full of bonhomie – but his Government is suppressing freedom of speech and movement
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Kyle Rittenhouse Fundraiser Organised by Far-Right Defenders Connected to UK
A website that aimed to raise money for Kyle Rittenhouse’s defence was hosted in the UK and suggests an increasing transatlantic trade in right wing activism
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Authoritarian Influence? 75% of Russell Group Universities Hold Agreements with State-Linked Chinese Tech Firms
Are partnerships between the UK’s leading higher education institutions and Chinese companies suggestive of a new intellectual ‘Belt and Road’ strategy from Beijing? Max Colbert and The Citizens report
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‘A Shocking Disregard for Human Life’: The UK Contributes to the Polish-Belarus Crisis
As British troops fly out to aid their Polish allies, the thousands of hungry, cold and frightened people amassed on the Polish-Belarusian border are increasingly pawns in a populist political game
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The Radical Right Interests Behind the School Boards Race Row
A series of seemingly grassroots, parents group turned the USA’s school boards election into a vicious row over race – but who are the radical right interests behind the ‘concerned moms’?
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Modi Criminalises Coverage of his Party’s Rising Communal Violence
CJ Werleman responds to the criminal charges against him and other journalists under India’s draconian British colonial-era laws
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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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Conservative Sleaze Allegations are Finally Starting to Stick to Boris Johnson
The Prime Minister is right at the centre of the Owen Paterson scandal which appears to be turning the tide like other misdemeanours have not, reports Adam Bienkov
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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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Fake News: Greece’s Proposed Law Threatens Press Freedom
Increasingly, right-wing and authoritarian governments are taking action to stop the spread of disinformation – while using fake news themselves to sow distrust and entrench power
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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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Meta Access: The Media and Mr Zuckerberg
With his probing eye for conflicts of interest in the British press, Mic Wright turns his scrutiny to tech journalists and their coverage of Facebook
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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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The Far-Right’s Corruption Paradox
Sian Norris explores why populist and far-right leaders win on anti-corruption platforms only to be accused of exploiting their positions for personal gain
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Murdoch and Morgan: The Reunion From Hell
Mic Wright unpicks the announcement of a new right-wing, Rupert Murdoch television station in the UK – and how it may have spotted a gap in the market following events at a certain beleaguered anti-woke news channel
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Polish Foreign Minister with History of Homophobic Remarks Addresses Polish-British Forum
The Belvedere Forum invited Zbigniew Rau to speak alongside UK politicians, despite him referring to LGBTIQ rights as creating a “civilisation of death”
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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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‘A Party Within A Party’: Calls for Investigation into European Research Group, Paid Quarter of a Million in Taxpayer Cash Since Brexit
Byline Times reveals the membership and ministerial backing of the powerful group of ‘hard Brexit’ Conservative MPs
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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
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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
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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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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
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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
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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
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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
