Regulators err on the side of institutions, not the public they are supposed to protect. "In all the windows of government, the curtains have been closed". We hear much from the author about think tanks, small groups, with hidden funding, hoping to sway opinion. Is this book from that same space and trying to do exactly that. Come the second referendum, this might be offered to the nation for free. He highlights media bias from Fox News and other "right-wing" news outlets, but fails to mention the corrupt and bias of CNN, RTE, BBC or other far-left, Democrat-aligned media outlets (pps. 237-252). In fact, according to Geoghegan, the mighty BBC is a victim of Farage and Johnson who "cowed the BBC" (p.252).

Now, that being said, what’s happened as a result is a company like Cambridge can practice tactics in a place like Trinidad, that’s very unregulated in terms of what they can and can’t do, learn from that know-how and then, you know, use it — parlay it into activities in the United States. What they did in Trinidad, and why it was important for us to show it in the film, is they led something called the “Do So” campaign, where they admit to making it cool and popular among youth to get out and not vote. And they knew — As politics becomes increasingly voracious of time and occupies more and more space on digital media, the scope for hidden influence through spending outside The absence of a truly representative electoral system or a codified constitution has only added to Britain’s democratic malaise. Regardless of what the country’s post-Brexit future looks like, its broken system needs radical surgery. This forensic and highly readable book shows how so many of our democratic processes have moved into the murky, unregulated spaces of globalisation and digital innovation' Peter Pomerantsev So, Steve made the introductions to make sure that we would still get a commercial contract out of this political campaign, and both to Vote Leave and Leave.EU. Cambridge Analytica took Leave.EU, and AIQ, which was Cambridge Analytica’s essentially digital partner, before Cambridge Analytica could run our own digital campaigns, they were running the Vote Leave side, both funded by the Mercers, both with the same access to this giant database on American voters.The communications revolution has changed our politics in ways we are still struggling to understand. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party may have ceded most of its power to Boris Johnson in the December 2019 general election, but the remarkable story of its short-lived success tells us a lot. In May of the same year, Britain’s first ‘digital party’ topped the polls in European parliament elections in the UK, less than four months after it was first registered. Inspired by Italy’s Five Star Movement, the Brexit Party ran a sophisticated online campaign that tapped into widespread anger that Britain was still in the EU, nearly three years after the country had voted to
leave. Northern Ireland political donations are anonymous as a result of the times when announcing your political beliefs could get you assassinated during the Troubles. However during the 2016 referendum the whole UK was a single constituency. Donations to Northern Irish parties could fund campaigns throughout the UK. The book does go some way to exposing the dirty tactics in politics, that HAVE BEEN THERE FOR MANY A YEAR, and didn’t arrive just prior to the referendum. One does of course have to ask (which the author DOES NOT), “How much ‘dirty money’ from the EU is fed into the media circus in Britain and to what aim? The author might know, he is after all a journalist having worked for the Guardian, and others. The new research paper from the American Economic Liberties--entitled Project Democracy for Sale: Examining the Effects of Concentration on Lobbying in the United States (pdf)--was authored by Reed Showalter, an attorney and a fellow at the anti-monopoly group.

You don’t need to be sensitive to have detected a whiff coming off politics in certain countries in recent years. Brexit is the thing that brought the odour to immediate attention in this part of western Europe, but it didn’t begin with the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, and after reading Peter Geoghegan’s unsparing account of shady money in politics, you would be naive to believe it will end there.But Steve was very influential in the development of Cambridge Analytica and who we were going to go see, who we were going to support with our technology. And he made a lot of the introductions, which in the beginning seemed a little less nefarious than they did later on, when he got very confident and started introducing us to white right-wing political parties across Europe and in other countries and tried to get meetings with the main political parties, or leftist or green parties instead, to make sure that those far-right-wing parties that do not have the world’s best interests at heart could not get access to these technologies. heart could not get access to these technologies. Then there is the shed loads of illegal Dark Money being pumped into various causes, be it Johnson, Trump or Brexit.

This is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy. Antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, secretive lobbying is bending our politics out of shape and Silicon Valley tech giants collude in selling out democracy. Politicians lie gleefully, making wild claims that can be shared instantly with millions on social media. Peter Geoghegan is a diligent, brilliant guide through a shadowy world of dark money and digital disinformation stretching from Westminster to Washington, and far beyond.

You can also listen to Changed My Mind on

The Internet calls for a very different set of political and personal talents: confrontation, wit, defiance, spontaneity and rule breaking. Where Clinton and Blair tried desparately to appera normal for the TV camera, digital politicians intentionally court the lulz. I am not a leaver or a remoaner. I was living abroad from 1994 to 2018, in a far-flung outpost, many thousands of miles from the EU. (in a galaxy far, far away – holed up within an evil Empire and I played no part in the rebellion). I often thought of Star Wars as a conflict brewing much closer to home. Geoghegan clearly despises anyone with any religious association. This bigotry can be seen in his description of the DUP presbyterians (p.77) and of Steve Baker, a born-again Christian (p.110). Even though not relevant to the story at hand, he insists on negatively abusing a person's religious affiliation (Catholic) in an attempt to taint the reader's view (pps. 155, 159, 225).