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Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
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28 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Have starting to listen to loads of different morning radio shows to get a better handle on what's happening across the UK/int'l. Today @bbcradioulster. Plus: get great local coverage. Minus: have to listen to Sammy Wilson spread Covid misinfo, then blame rise on the GAA.
Sammy is like the comment pages of the Telegraph made flesh (and given a seat in Parliament)
He's now kicking at the BBC for not reading out figures of cancer deaths every day. I'd love to know what Facebook closed groups Sammy is a member of
It's increasingly a rant against the media, pockmarked with Covid disinfo talking points. Sammy Wilson suggests Covid deaths are flu deaths. Just because someone is an MP doesn't mean they should be allowed to spread Covid misinfo.

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More from @PeterKGeoghegan

Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
28 Oct
The IEA is supremely well-connected in Westminster. Its director general is a trade advisor to Liz Truss. It doesn't declare its donors.

Now an IEA advisor says it's 'hiding' behind charity laws to act as a lobbying outfit.

New @openDemocracy exclusive

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
Anthony J Evans says the IEA prioritises “trolling” critics on social media while 'hiding' behind its charitable status to lobby.

Evans is listed as a member of the IEA’s shadow monetary policy committee – he says he stopped participating but “no one appeared to even notice”
“There's been a strategic choice to move away from being a serious, well respected representation of the best free market thinkers, towards being a provocative attention seeker," Evans says of IEA.

That's same IEA with ear of government and access to ministers.
Read 11 tweets
Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
17 Oct
This really is remarkable. A credit rating agency, Moody's, citing "weakening" of British democracy as factor in yesterday's UK downgrade
ft.com/content/117349…

And what does UK government intend to do about this? Well, Tories floated idea of abolishing Electoral Commission...
You'd think having written a book called 'Democracy for Sale' all about how British democracy has been degraded and undermined, I'd be inured to this sort of thing. But I'm still shocked to see a rating's agency say this and barely anyone bat an eyelid.
Like how do you dismiss this. "There is nothing wrong with British democracy. Of course those pinkos at, eh, Moody's would say this"?
Read 5 tweets
Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
24 Sep
Remember Lubov Chernukhin, top Tory donor whose husband was secretly given $8m by a Kremlin-friendly oligarch before Brexit ref in 2016? Well, turns out Electoral Commission has had concerns about her and other Tory Russian donors for a while (thread)

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
In internal emails, UK elections watchdog alerted staff to 'interesting donations' from Lubov Chernukhin, flagged Chernukhin in discussions around 'foreign interference' in Britain and queried other Tory donations from Russian-linked businesses. Ultimately, no action was taken
As well as Chernukhin, the Electoral Commission was concerned about a £10k donation from a company owned by ex-Tory MP James Wharton, who worked for Tory donor Alexander Temerko (and was recently made Lord Wharton by Boris Johnson) and donations from Temerko's firm Aquind
Read 7 tweets
Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
21 Sep
Sitting down to watch @BBCPanorama 's documentary about how Russian money has flooded into British public life, and the City has facilitated industrial level money laundering. Should be interesting.... 😬
Remarkable line in this Panorama. When journalists went to UK government with their findings, government declined to comment but on Friday, a few days before broadcast, announced new plans for company rules to combat fraud....
Some gold right of replies in this doc too. 'Arab Bank said very few of the accounts involved were linked to known terrorists at the time'. That's grand so 😬
Read 4 tweets
Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
17 Sep
Shanker Singham’s consultancy spent $20,000 on Washington lobbyists pushing for a US-UK free trade deal.

MPs raise concerns about conflicts of interest w/Singham is in line for slice of £200m govt contract.

Latest @openDemocracy scoop w/ @marcusleroux

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
Int'l trade secretary Liz Truss appointed Singham to a key UK government commission on trade and agriculture - while he was continuing to work for undisclosed private clients.

"These relationships should be known and not hidden" says @AngusMacNeilSNP
Transparency docs show that Competere - Singham's private firm - paid $20k to Transnational Strategy Group, a Washington DC-based lobbying firm who helped broker a series of meetings in Washington for Singham and former Northern Irish first minister David Trimble.
Read 8 tweets
Peter Geoghegan Profile picture
15 Sep
A *very* curious tale. March 16, Boris Johnson told Britons to avoid ‘non-essential contact’. Three days later PM met Evgeny Lebedev's holding company-but No 10 says meeting was 'personal' so refuses to release any details.

New from @RussellScott1 and me
opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
72 hours after warning British public to cease all unnecessary contact Johnson meets Lebedev Holdings at the PM's private residence. So that's a company, must be a business/political meeting and fully declared as such? Nope, No 10 says it's 'personal' so all details private
So PM had a 'social/personal' meeting with a holding company (as you do) but after telling everyone to cut social contact. There is an alternative explanation: it was a business meeting. Then why not disclosed? A few months later Johnson nominated his old friend Lebedev to Lords
Read 4 tweets

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