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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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‘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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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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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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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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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The Cabinet Manual is 10 years out of date, yet the Prime Minister has shelved plans to refresh it, reports David Hencke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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
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The Republican Party’s Strings Are Still Being Pulled By Trump
As a commission to investigate the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January is blocked by Republican Senators, CJ Werleman explores the effects of the lasting influence of the controversial former President
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Why Johnson’s Meeting with Viktor Orbán Is Provoking Controversy
Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister will meet Johnson at Downing Street – but what will the pair find to talk about? Sian Norris sums up the controversies surrounding Viktor Orbán
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A State No Longer Fit For Purpose
Professor Chris Painter argues that the British state, long creaking, has been put under intolerable pressure by Boris Johnson’s Premiership
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Every MP Who Cares About Democracy Must Unite to Stop the Government’s Attacks on its Foundations
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock and Kyle Taylor set out the case for cross-party co-operation to protect the electoral integrity of our political system
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Concerns About Voter Suppression Will be Dismissed as ‘Conspiracy Theories’ – But It Is a Real Threat to Our Democracy
Mike Buckley digs into the motivations behind Boris Johnson’s proposal that a form of ID should be shown by people voting in future elections
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The Facebook Oversight Board is itself an Information Operation
Caroline Orr shows how the political havoc caused by Mark Zuckerberg – the most powerful non-state actor in the world – is baked into his business model
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Voter Fraud is a Fallacy: These Are the Real Dangers to British Democracy
Sam Bright explains that there are more investigations into the Prime Minister’s conduct than annual voter fraud convictions, and lists the genuine threats to democracy in the UK
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Who is Behind Spain’s Anti-Rights Movement?
In the first of a series, Sian Norris reports on the global network behind Spanish-founded anti-rights platform CitizenGO – friends with the far-right Vox Party
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UNESCO Names Brexiter Arron Banks as ‘Prime Instigator’ of Online Harassment Against Female Journalist
A report into online violence against women journalists finds political actors and right-wing media play a significant role in spreading disinformation and inciting harassment, Sian Norris reports
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Could Its COVID Catastrophe Save Indian Democracy from Fascism?
CJ Werleman explores how the gross mismanagement of the Coronavirus’ second wave in India may have created serious problems for Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-populist Government
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David Cameron: Johnson’s Convenient Scapegoat
With his dual tactics of projection and deflection, the current Prime Minister has pulled off a masterstroke by launching an inquiry into the former Prime Minister’s conflicts of interest, says Hardeep Matharu
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‘We’re Living in a Bizarre Fantasy World’: Alastair Campbell on Boris Johnson, Brexit and Labour
The former Downing Street communications chief is incensed about the state of politics and the media
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Mainstream Conservatism and Far-Right Extremism – An Increasingly ‘Blurred Distinction’
The Council of Europe’s European Conservatives and Democratic Alliance brings together UK Conservative MPs with neo-fascist politicians, Sian Norris reports
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We Don’t Just Need a COVID Inquiry – We Need a Proper, Independent COVID Inquiry
The Johnson Government will go to extreme lengths to avoid scrutiny of its record, says Brian Cathcart. We must not settle for a sham
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A Dry Run for Brexit: The 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum Ten Years On
Richard Robinson revisits the propaganda and personnel which heavily prefigured the Vote Leave campaign and all that has followed
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The Storming of the Capitol – Part Three: From 9/11 to Insurrection
In the third part of his analysis of the forces leading up to the violence on the 6 January, Anthony Barnett traces the dual revolutions on the right, and now on the left
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The Slippery Slope Towards an Unfree Press – Lessons from Hungary and Poland
In Hungary and Poland, journalists and commentators are losing their jobs for criticising the Government – while in the UK Boris Johnson wants the BBC to ‘move into line’ When Boris Johnson spoke to the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs on the one year anniversary of lockdown, it may have come as a surprise that…
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A Selection of Misleading Statements Made by Boris Johnson and Ministers on the Floor of the House of Commons: July 2019 – December 2020
A selected list of misleading statements that Peter Oborne has sent to the Speaker of the House of Commons
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IWD 2021: Internet Now ‘Most Dangerous Place’ to be a Woman Journalist
A new study by Reporters Without Borders exposes the dangers faced by women journalists online and off
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‘Our Worst Fears Coming True’: Hungary’s Assault on Free Press Continues
The suspension of Klubrádió’s broadcasting license means one fewer independent voice in a media landscape fuelling prejudice and discrimination against marginalised communities, reports Stephen Delahunty
