Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics

by Peter Geoghegan

Democracy is in crisis, and unaccountable and untraceable flows of money are helping to destroy it.

Politicians lie gleefully, making wild claims that can be shared instantly with millions of people on social media. Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro and populists in many other countries are the beneficiaries.

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.

He shows how antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, how secretive lobbying bends our politics out of shape, and how Silicon Valley tech giants have colluded in selling out democracy. Geoghegan investigates politicians, fabulously well-funded partisan think tanks, propagandists who know how to game a rigged system, and the campaigners and regulators valiantly trying to stop them.

Democracy for Sale is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy – and a powerful account of what must be done about it.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Current Affairs, History, Audiobook, Crime, Business

374 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2020

About the author

Peter Geoghegan is an Irish writer, broadcaster and investigations editor at the award-winning news website openDemocracy. He led openDemocracy's investigations into dark money in British politics that were nominated for a 2019 British Journalism award and the Paul Foot award. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and many other publications. His book, The People's Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again, was nominated for the Saltire First Book Award.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are living in an uncertain world at the moment, the coronavirus pandemic has changed people’s and governments priorities, then there is the impending climate change crisis that hasn’t gone away and here in the UK, we are almost about to embark on the disaster that is Brexit.

On top of that, we seem to have gained politicians who are even more shady and corrupt than usual, they have always lied, but the current crop seems to be telling massive ones nowsdays that are shouted into the echo chamber that is social media. They seem to be more grubby too, not only is nepotism and cronyism rife in our present government, but the people that back them crave secrecy and avoid the transparency that comes with knowing where the money comes from.

‘Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’ Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947

Peter Geoghegan has been tracing this dark money to its sources and his findings are very worrying. There has been a massive concentration of wealth and power in the past 50 years and those that are donating their cash to political parties expect and demand certain things for their money. Their demands are starting to break our antiquated democratic systems, the fines that are supposed to keep things honest, are paltry compared to the sums sloshing around.

He begins with the LeaveEU organisation and unpicks the way that they used social media and vast sums of money to win the referendum and this theme carries on into the second chapter about the Bad Boys of Brexit and the third on the DUP and how they ended up with nearly half a million pounds to spend on the Brexit campaign from an unknown source.

The next chapter is about the European Research Group (ERG) who are a very right-wing section of the Tory party who sadly now seems to be in charge of things. He explains just how they are using the expenses system in parliament for us to effectively fund them. A lot of the money and influence on British politics at the moment is coming from America. Most of it is coming from hard right-wing individuals including Christian organisations who are funding populist and far-right groups all over Europe.

“Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.” ― Terry Pratchett, Mort

This book makes for grim reading. That is not to take anything away from Geoghegan’s research and writing, which is a diligent, brilliant guide through a shadowy world of dark money and digital disinformation stretching from Westminster to Washington, and far beyond. Follow the money is always the maxim, but in most of these cases, it always disappears into some sort of black hole. The main problem is that those that have benefited from our deeply flawed democracy have a vested interest in ensuring that it is still kept as it is. He does make some suggestions on how to start fixing the democratic system, but you need politicians in place that want to embrace that change; the present government has no desire to change, as it is highly likely that it would mean that they could be a generation out of power. It will either make you furious or despondent but should be counted as essential reading.

[Doctor Action · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some sobering shit. You know that feeling that no election ever goes the way you want, and it makes no sense because you always vote for the reasonable/honest-seeming candidates, and why would you vote for that other guy who's clearly an egotist/nutcase/criminal? This is why.

This book explains the funding and recent electoral methods of British politics. It's what you would expect, depressingly. Money talks very fucking loudly.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Try reading this without wanting to start a revolution.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Geoghegan has written a brutally honest book about the state of 'democracy' in the UK. Though sometimes difficult to digest, extensive referencing to other works aided in deeper understanding. This is such an important topic for people to read about, I would highly recommend that everyone in the UK reads this as it is truly eye-opening.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book by an excellent investigative journalist about the ways in which democracy is being undermined not only in the UK, but in other countries too. It's also depressing in a few ways. The warning signs were there in the UK, but were ignored by governments, probably because the Tories were benefitting from the undermining of democracy...or I should say thought they were because they're probably going to be increasingly irrelevant with the move of politics to the right. It's also upsetting because millennials / Gen Z don't believe in democracy as much as Baby Boomers and Gen X.

There's too much power in the hands of the digital kings of America, who don't want anything to change as they're making money.

This has happened before. At the beginning of the 20th Century, there were the robber barons such as JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H Vanderbilt whose economic power was running out of control. There was growing public agitation for their power to be curbed and in the 1912 US Presidential election the voters elected a candidate who promised to curb corporate power. The incumbent President, William Howard Taft, came third. Of course, according to The 47th President, 1912 was the last year when America was great. You might see the problem. There has to be a desire from the public for things to change.

What is instructive about this book is how influential Victor Orban in Hungary has been. He removed certain judges from the constitutional court in 2011 and placed his own candidates in their place. Sound familiar? Perhaps, Orban will lose the election in Hungary in 2026 and that's the first populist domino to fall. Is that a straw I'm clutching at...

[Ophelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

We certainly live in an age of surveillance capitalism and this book gave excellent examples of how voters are manipulated. Yes, the themes of the book are known but the nitty gritty of how black money is used to control and determine governments and ministers was comprehensive and compelling. However, I did find some elements were written in quite a sensationalist manner and felt that there should have been better editing as this left me doubting the authors credibility as an example, the claim that Lord Lucan was found guilty.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They would rather stay with the broken system we have currently, because they know how to maximise their advantage within it.”

The above quote, in reference to lobbying, seems even more pertinent now. The recent Greensill lobbying scandal is evidence of this broken political system. What's more, as Geoghegan notes, is that David Cameron himself predicted that corporate lobbying would become "the next big scandal" and he consequently vowed to tackle it.

This is an important book on democracy in the UK. The concluding chapter introduces some new concepts which had not been previously discussed in earlier chapters and which deserved a more in-depth analysis. Despite this, it is a very timely read about dark money in our political system and the undermining of democracy.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the evidence of many politicians who I wouldn’t trust with my own business I think I’ve always believed in the inate fairness of British politics. This book drives a double-decker bus through any sense that the political system is free, fair and not rigged in favour of de-regulationist billionaires pumping dark money and dark arts into persuading the British public to accept populist concepts offered by people who clearly will not act in their interests. If I was thinking of politics as a next step before, I’m very much into minds now. Big thanks to @amy for the recommendation

[Kitty Hatchley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fab - soooo interesting but you probably do have to be the sort of person that likes a week by week account of what Steve Baker was up to in 2015 Happily that’s me. Wish I’d read it over a shorter period of time though to hold all the interconnected web in my head but still great.

[Steve Gillway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sad indictment of the current state of democracy in the UK. The thing is if you live in the UK, you know these things are going on. Just think about immigrants on boats and the difference in the reporting between those travelling between Africa and Italy and the ones crossing the channel. Well researched book.

[Paul Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

To understand what the crude populism of the new right is, you need to understand where it came from. This may be the best overview of that subject written so far.

[Bettie]

[Justin Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

- ‘Democracy for Sale’ looks at the way that dark money and lobbying groups have illegally and through legal means have managed to corrupt people’s minds by telling lies that aren't true, but making people believe to be true. Vested interests and digital manipulation are eroding our trust in democracy. By exploring how current governments in Europe and USA work, we have corrupted society and turned people through misinformation, lies, stoking fear and uncertainty and doubt to be manipulated. This has eroded our trust in these government that are supposed to represent the people they serve and who elect them. Many people feel that democracy isn't working and would rather have an alternative form such as a strong man rule.
- The book begins by looking at the Brexit campaign and how so much advertising through social media sites such as Facebook and other accounts was funded by excessive amounts of money that went way beyond the limits that we should be paid by government. However, if governments were caught and taken to court, the fines they pay for breaking the law are so small that it's become the worthwhile to just lie, and tell untruths and manipulate people to bend or go in the way that they want you to do. It's illegal but to pay a small fine is all the cost they will incur so it's worth doing it.
- In the last 72 hours before the Brexit vote, the leave campaign spent thousands trying to use Facebook posts of which company come says 98% of what they did used Facebook to sow fear about immigration such as Turkey possibly joining the EU and Turkey have been trying to join the since 1987, but even the EU excepted it is becoming more autocratic and there's no way they're going to be joining, but that didn't stop leave campaign selling this message of misinformation and lies.
- The remain campaign did spend thousand sending leaflets to every single person through everybody's post-box. These were clumsy and ineffective, compared to the targeting through social media systems, and Cambridge analytic, knowing who to target, and with what message to slowly manipulate those who believed in things that weren't true to think the best thing for Britain would be to leave the EU. Dominic Cummins wasn’t trying to sell a sunny, better version of Britain out of the EU, but to sell and sow fear, because this was the tool that he knew would be most effective in making people not vote for Brexit and he did this very effectively. However, ‘take back control’ was a brilliant sound bite.
- It's worth noting that there was probably an influence from foreign agencies like Russia, and it is in their best interest to create division and chaos in Europe, because this is how new wars are fought nowadays. Get the people of a country you are at war with to turn on one another, saves losing lives on a battlefield. But then you also have people like Aaron Banks who funded and made sure that he would create as much disruption with Dominic Cummins, in how this county should leave the EU and that we would be better on our own.
- There's an interesting passage about the bad boys of Brexit, and particularly a focus on Aaron Banks. He sounds like a nasty piece of work, although married to a Russian wife, all Aaron was interested having been caught in shares dealings and of tax evasion, who clearly wanted Brexit because he could see this as a tool for getting him off the hook, who benefited from Brexit. That's the problem with Brexit, it's all about certain people making a lot of profit whilst the rest of us became poorer. Treating politics as a method for supporting individuals as a customer rather than for the good of all citizens and as a benefit for the country rather than the individual. Aaron Banks has a Russian wife and was very close to many Russian agents, and yet there we are listening to someone who has managed to dictate what Russia would want Britain to do, which is to be isolated and on its own. Aaron Banks had possibly 11 meetings with the Russian ambassador prior to Brexit.
- The story of how the DUP influenced funding for issues around Brexit is also incredible and they really had an impact on funding so that they couldn't be questioned at the time in regards to dirty money being used to advise and support Brexit lies that actually ended up impacting on even them.
- A small number of donors who gave more money to the Conservative party, during the last election, had a massive influence on how society and governments works, serving their own self vested interests, managed to manipulate others, and made a stack of money funding, something for their own self-interest rather than the good of the country. There has to be something wrong with politics in this current time
The amount of companies that have helped fund and support vested interested government groups to fight for their own self vested interest, such as Tate & Lyle (Company), BP, (companies amongst others include oil companies), and tobacco firms have all helped to fund and support groups who do not have the Public interest at heart, but their own self vested interests. And these have not been good for the country, but good for themselves as a lobby to fight for what they want in their own company, rather than what’s best for the country of the whole. It's interesting to note how such a small group of lobbyist can have such an influence using dark money to promote their own purposes at the behest of the benefit of the country as a whole, and the basic message is that if you want to sell something, sell it through fear and loss, rather than telling people what a good system will create for a country and rubbish and dismay, the opposition. The way that fear and loss work are that these are more powerful motivators to people than hearing good news, and by promoting fear you can play on human nature and manipulate feelings and truths that people believe, so that you can get the message voters to benefit these self-vested people and companies that support and benefit the country they claim to support.
- The book looks at Cambridge Analytica and how they could collect so much data on people from collecting and harvesting information from their Facebook accounts that they could then learn which people just by putting 30 likes for example for different posts, they could work out more about you than your own spouse would know. This then allowed them to target the right people at the right time with the wrong information or mistruths and lies to promote their own agendas.
- The arrival of populist parties and ideologies, such as Bolsonaro, Trump and Brexit have all occurred because of social media. They have been able to send information without any fact checking or oppositional information to promote stories to send to selected people to make sure they vote the way they governments wanted them to be manipulated.
- The brave new world that has been created and described by Alexus Huxley that you can manipulate people just by entertaining them and then selling misinformation whilst they are busy being distracted, you can then manipulate to create a New World Order and that's really the future politics in the digital age and it will only get worse. The future of how people are going to be manipulated in regards to how they vote is sad and scary.
- People used to sit around, campfires and spout stories and mythologies to their small little groups, but now drivel and lies can be spat out at an industrial scale, using the Internet to spout all sorts of stories that will manipulate people into how they will think, behave and vote. It’s interesting to note that the right use these tool better than the parties on the left.
- The stuff on how digital new age has managed to influence and change people’s perceptions and votes is phenomenal, it didn’t take many seats and by small margins to make sure that Boris Johnson won by a landslide and Donald Trump became the president of United States of America and all thanks to the digital new way of which it is so easy to manipulate and respond and get messages out to people more effectively than knocking on the door or holding public meeting to a small numbers who will also encourage proper debate and explanation – all gone.
- It's also important to know that it isn't just governmental agencies and lobbying groups that are doing much of this digital misinformation that is so widespread using social media, but it is also done by Russia. We learned that after two years and before the government or agencies would come clean in just how much interference was carried out by them. And I can't believe that China and other states are also using these tools to create disruption as a great way to disarm and cause chaos in your enemy, even though you're not at war with them, but it is a kind of modern day warfare
- Manipulating Brexit voters which really came to the form in the new age of digital manipulation and selling, spent billions on sending out to 9,000,000,000 wavering voters that had all been targeted with the right message to make them hopefully change or move towards a leave campaign and this is when the new age of governmental manipulation and changing the public viewpoint began to work.
- The digital age is having more of an influence on how the public vote than almost anything else. The general strategy is to group people into fragments so that you can target them with specific messages dependent on their viewpoint, to help sway and win political notes, especially when it's in their own invested interest, by manipulating the public through these stories and having harvested information and data on the right people to target.
- Small companies with vested interests are flooding Facebook and other social media sites with false narratives, but trying to find out who funds this when these companies are often subcontracted and giving information that is false, but unable to be fact checked and then the information is taken away or taken down from Facebook pages so that there's no way of finding which sources paid for these messages using dark money. These posts often paint a dystopian future, and that fear changes people’s minds. Another strategy used is to post viewpoints from independent sources, rather than labour or conservative. An example of this is that people were shown three Facebook posts, all of which were the same, one with the labour logo, a second with a Tory logo and a third by an independent source. Labour supporters would click on a labour post, Tory’s supporters would click on a conservative post, but people from both sides would click on a source from an independent source.
- RUSSIA: It's so fascinating to listen to amount of Russian interference, played part in the negativity of Hillary Clinton, and possibly influenced the Brexit vote. I'm not saying it was something that changed the course of how people voted, but the influence of creating disruption is a powerful influence and importance to agencies like Russia. The Russia report that the conservatives may even covered up and refused to release. Brexit is not in their interest, but these dark forces and dark money are playing in how people are changing their way of voting and corroding our trust in democracy, which is what these people want.
- The other thing is that if enough people think democracy is broken, this then paves the way for a new form of government, which will become more populist and more fascist and controlling with strong arm tactics. These are the very ideas that Russia wishes to sow in people as everybody else seems to think that everybody is lying. Do people really want authoritarian government like China, Russia, and North Korea – some people are certainly being swayed, just look at Trump and America as well as Brexit.
- It's interesting to know how many of these parties put in messages from opposition parties that are designed to stoke fear about others rather than sell a more positive message. Tory’s might send out posts about how Labour are going to support banning Christmas because that's what Muslims want, all of which is untrue. The Tories set up a fact checking site on Facebook which they themselves created about their own policies and looking as if this fact checking showed independent supporting for their policies. Highly dishonest. Yet these things which are immoral and illegal, but in the state that we live in have become accepted, even though lots of people do know that they are lying.
- Human psychology and social media and Facebook show that you can send out stories that focus on religion, race and other areas of interest such as immigration that people feel are not able to talk about as it's to PC so that by targeting these people and coming up with local stories that focus on outliers of things have happened, promotes fear and anxiety around certain issues. If you can draw and tap into that particular area, you can then sell misinformation and sway people in their voting intentions. Most people nowadays seem to not vote for a party in what it will bring, but in voting against a party they disprove of. Once you send out a message and target your specific audience and locality, particularly if it's around the UK, you can then have messages passed on and resent around the world. You don't even have to pay postage on such information and a small organisation can target and generate thousands of misinformation to the public
- A main reason why the ride is more successful at these kinds of campaigns, rather than the left is that they are so much better at generating fear and concern amongst the electorate. These sites also support confirmation bias where people will only look for information that supports their viewpoint and reject anything that it goes against it and this is human nature. This information will also reconfirm your cognitive biases
- It's also important to know which buttons to press, and the most powerful button is to incite and get anger going, and also people will want to share these pieces of information, because then that means that they can become the public centre of attention which is what many of us crave in sending out this information?
- Another tool for distorting democracy has been the right wing press with papers, like the Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Express which constantly promote misinformation that attract many readers. There is an interesting study that suggested that because the Liverpool people have boycotted the Sun. It was one of the reasons that it chose to remain rather than leave when the Brexit election occurred. Another interesting factor around the press, and the depiction of selling misinformation and supporting causes that are in more in the in the interest of big companies, rather than the public, as the those who own these papers aren't even owned by people who pay taxes in the UK or actually live here, such as Murdoch and yet they influence and manipulate and control how the people will vote what they will hear and behave through their editorials. One of the most blatant ones with Boris Johnson constantly as both a member of Parliament and a journalist.
- Another tool that is used by the conservative government is the dead cat, so when a story looks bad for the government and Boris Johnson, that what you do is you come up with the dead cat, a story so large that it removes any embarrassing story about the Tory party or Johnson and becomes the new story itself. One example was that there was a report sent out the Matt Hancock that was particularly embarrassing. Boris Johnson then said that he had been hit by some journalist and this story then spread and became the new story thus taking away any embarrassing stories around Boris Johnson himself. The dead cat was put on the table.
- The book also said how the same influences have been occurring throughout Europe, and often using religion, all those kinds of tribal roots to influence how people should vote. When you think about religion, it is often being led by a set of rules by an imaginary person who around some thousands of years ago and everyone follows that influence how people should behave. Religion and government or politicians are tapping into that same source to influence people who might be religious and who follow rules believe in the world to believe we are in some mystical pain.
- However, America and the UK have influenced and been involved in in some estimates up to 60 times in dealing or trying to manage other people or countries political ideologies and the same is true and Russia and China.
- Another tool that is used by many of these populist organisations is to have a boogie man. So when you think of the war fighting against the Nazis, it was Hitler and the same has been true of countries such as Hungary and America who have used George Soros as their bogeyman. It’s a tactic that many government use nowadays, because again, it is still fear and that's what drives anger which then makes people want to vote for those parties or ideologies such as Brexit.
- Older people believe that democracy is important, but only one in three of younger people believe that it is important, but the problem is they don't know the alternatives which could then result in a fascist or communist rule and one role parties. They are also weak on knowledge around the past – I often ask young people about the ‘cold war’ and for many, their knowledge about this stop’s after they mention ‘Russia’. Many people have no idea of what is going to happen or might happen, and you only have to look at China to see how it manipulates its people. Sadly, It seems to be something that people want and that is scary, but people certainly have lost trust and faith in democracy, particularly in UK through with people like Boris Johnson who are just lying which supports these ideas.
- A brilliant political read about the world we are living in and the governments that are promoting propaganda over truth.

[Sean Goh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into why electoral finance controls are important, and why they desperately need to keep up with the times where digital guerilla campaigns are so easy to set up / fund. Also an insight into how shaping the narrative is done with "independent" think-tanks happy to accept large anonymous donations.
_________
In the new world of (digital) political campaigning, small sums of money can go a long way, while multi-million dollar government public relations exercises can prove practically worthless.

As politics becomes increasingly voracious of time and occupies more and more space on digital media, the scope for hidden influence through spending outside of the narrow regulated window in the period before a vote is all too obvious.

When truth and falsehood become hard to disaggregate, many voters will decide to believe nothing. Overwhelmed by information and misinformation, voters are unsure what is real and what is not (e.g. Conservatives setting up a fake website for Labour's manifesto)

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.
UK's election commission concluded that British electoral law "is silent on whether or not money obtained from crime would make a political contribution unlawful".

The European Research Group's red line was trade. Often cited as the most compelling reason for Brexit, UK had to be free to strike trade deals around the world (despite the massive irony of leawving the world's largest free trade block of near neighbours in the name of free trade with countries thousands of miles away)

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".

If you wanted to influence politics, the key is not to own individual politicians, but own the political conversation and its dominant agenda.

The willingness to accept anonymous funding makes think tanks the ideal vehicle for companies and business interests to quietly influence government policy.

Where corporate-funded think tanks once provided the ideas for a conservative revolution, now they often appears as one side in a ful-scale assault on an increasingly hyperbolic culture war.

British politics has a revolving door between government and the lobbying industry. A fifth of newly elected Tory MPs were lobbyists, and many prominent politicians have gone on to highly paid lobbyist positions.

Among the lessons Farage gleaned from Five Star was the electoral benefit of being seen as coming from outside traditional politics altogether.

Digital political parties take a populist message, mix it with a strong leader and the organisational techniques of the Internet age. There are few structures and everyone can participate. Or at least it looks as if they can. The Silicon Valley rhetoric of engagement and empowerment often masks the concentration of power at the top of digital party.

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.

Boris Johnson's version of "framing the narrative" - the dead cat strategy. Chuck a lifeless feline on the table, and it will immediately dominate the conversation. (e.g. Matt Hancock's aide 'getting punched outside a hospital by protesters")

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bang up to date, and with references and examples throughout, this book makes the case that British democracy has been deeply undermined by dark money, people playing fast and loose with the rules, and vested interests taking control of the political agenda. If course, much of that has been endemic for a long time, and one could say that it is only the actors that have changed (a little), but the book makes the case that changes in the social and technological landscape have also allowed a much deeper undermining of democracy. Targeted deceitful ads on Facebook are known to have affected the outcome of the EU referendum - and it is this ability to use much smaller amounts of dark money to influence political decisions that this book uncovers.

Well, except maybe it does not uncover all that much - because reading it I found I already knew much of what it was telling me. The information is already out there about dodgy donations, about how the Brexit party avoided scrutiny in the way it solicited donations, how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook to mobilise people on false premises etc. etc. It was, in fact, a depressing litany of the constituent parts that create the new British democratic deficit.

So in that sense I learned little that I had not already discovered. All the same it is important to place all this information in one place in an easily accessible format, and so this book does that nicely.

The author's politics may colour his choice of examples a little, but the message comes over loud and clear. If you disagree with the author's politics, please just concentrate on the message: dark money and circumvention of rules, as well as the lack of fitness of such rules in the first place, are damaging the British political process. That is something that needs fixing, and even if you happen to like the way that the agenda has been subverted, if you love the idea of democracy, you should worry about what is happening and has happened. If you prefer plutocracy - well that is what you are getting.

[Monika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I urge anyone who lives in the UK to read this book.

Geoghegan explains how dirty money influences UK politics, especially most recently in the Brexit vote and the election in 2019. Geoghegan also explains the dirty tactics used to persuade voters to vote for Brexit as well. For that reason I think it's necessary for everyone to read this book and understand the problems in UK politics now.

The only downside of this book is the New Afterword on Cronyism in the Time of Covid that was included in my edition of the book as the last chapter of the book has a sombre but hopeful ending and then the afterword just railed in on cronyism, which wasn't relevant to the topic (albeit related to it).

[Daniel Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book for those interested in dark money, particularly as it pertains to the UK in the past five or so years. The European material introduced in the second last chapter felt like an afterthought and the concluding chapter introduces some big concepts which are never truly explored in depth throughout the book. Despite these misgivings, it is still a very good read that makes its core arguments well and represents an important contribution to public debate about where we want Democracies to head.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a slightly demoralising read about how a few rich people influence our political discourse and policy making decisions politicians take by bending, and often breaking, the law with no comeuppance.

But it is an important book, light has to be shone into the shadows to reveal the monsters lurking there.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book makes you really think about modern democracy and how outdated election laws just confuse the matters too and the move towards online notice boards and misinformation (fake news) determines or helps discord of the electorate

[Ishtiaq Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very timely and appropriate read given the current political climate. Geoghegan highlights the impact of cronyism and dark money on our electoral processes and the undermining of democracy.

[Craig Morland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and illuminating but buys in to the “Russia is interfering in everyone’s election” nonsense waaaaay too much

[Dianne Rozendal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last few days I had a personal goal to finish the book before Liz truss would be out of office but she beat me with 30 pages to go

Very interesting book, had to Google about 50 words I never heard of before

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

utterly terrifying, thanks Peter

[LaochRione · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is written by the far-left, for the far-left, to ensure the far-left can now justify usurping the power from the people and "fixing" all that they see as being "wrong" with "democracy". This book will appeal to the far-left, liberal loons who hate everything and everyone.

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).
His hatred of Christians and love of Soros permeates throughout the book (p.257-288). The Soros-funded Irishman (p.167) was clearly unimpressed when he arrived in Budapest, to give a "journalism workshop" in the Soros-funded Central European University, and spotted anti-Soros posters in the city. He is unhappy that Soros-funded institutions "have effectively been forced out of the country" (pps.277-278). It would seem that Geoghegan believes that Soros is entitled to illegally pump dark money into universities (CEU for example), campaigns (Ireland's abortion campaign), think tanks, etc. and is entitled to manipulate universities and organisations like Geoghegan's own employer, openDemocracy (oh the irony!) - and that he shouldn't be sanctioned for it.
The fact is, Geoghegan highlights Orban's connections to Soros (p.278) without acknowledging that it might be that Orban knows exactly what Soros is up to, hence the reason he has Hungary fighting against the tyrant.

This Irishman (I am an Irish woman - so I can call him out) fails to discuss the shadow campaign run by the proabortion campaign in Ireland in 2018. He blithely ignores the dark money pumped into Ireland by Soros, via Amnesty International for the purposes of skewing the referendum. He also fails to discuss the illegal media bias shown the national broadcaster, RTE, and the illegal actions for he Gardaí who, nationwide, refused to allow election monitoring, or the independent witnessing of the sealing of the ballot boxes. Instead he decides to bash the British and Americans - but that's not racist, because he's on the left! And yes, he is very much a biased pro-abort (pps.205, 257-265, 287). According to Geoghegan, prolifers in Italy who financially support pregnant women and offer counselling to them are the bad guys (p.262). It appears he thinks the 'wham-bam let's quickly kill that baby Ma'am' approach of Planned Parenthood is much more preferable.

The Soros-backed propagandist tries to white-wash the media bias shown by the BBC by declaring that "[a]cademics who analysed BBC News and current affairs output found that in 2009, when Labour was in power, left- and right- wing think tanks appeared on the national broadcaster in almost equal measure. By 2015, the conservative institutes were twice as likely to be called upon". However, other studies disagree completely and highlight the massive bias shown against BREXIT and all things British.
(For more details see:https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5428081...) But hey, Geoghegan is a lefty and they have never let the truth stand in the way of a good story!

Geoghegan blatantly lies when he states that centrist and left-wing think tanks "are generally more transparent" about their funding - as they "rely more heavily on public funding and donations from trusts". Yet he fails to address the dark money pumped in the Irish abortion referendum (and how many others in the past?) by private donations from Soros. He also fails to find out just who funds the "trusts" which fund the centrist and left-wing think tanks.

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).
He very briefly (p.167) discusses the fact that his employer openDemocracy is a Soros-funded, pro-EU organisation. But he tries to state that Soros, unlike all the mean baddies on the "right", has not editorial control. BUT WAIT - how do WE know that? He has no evidence to support this. We are supposed to just believe Geoghegan. This very book highlights the blatant lies he is willing to tell - but we should trust him...
Remember folks, it's only "Dark Money" if the 'wrong' people got it!

Geoghegan even tries to blame the sacking of Kim Darroch on the a BREXITeer (pps.69-70). Darroch was sacked for his lack of diplomacy and completely unprofessional behaviour - but hey, the lefty loony Geoghegan thinks he should have kept his job. Darn pesky "right"!

The never-trumped lies blatantly again (pps.195, 215-217, 260, 274-275, 279) when he regurgitates the left's lie of Russian interference in the 2016 US election. The FBI, themselves vehemently anti-Trump, found no evidence of Russian interference even after 4 years of desperately searching for it. But there again we must remember, the truth does not matter to the left.
By the time he gets to his out-and-out Trump-bashing (pps.323-332) the reader knows to expect the usual leftist prattle. Geoghegan lets it be known that he believes the US was all above-aboard and wonderfully legal (no dark money to see here! Unless it's, umm, on the "right" of course!) I wonder if he read the Times article where they admit they interfered in the due process, using dirty politics and dark money so they could "fortify" the election.
(See: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-...)

The Soros-funded Remoaner represents all that is wrong with the Fake News MSM. The book is astoundingly partisan and very badly referenced. The author quotes news media outlets as "sources" even when he highlights that the accused "right" (because it's only the "right" he condemns! EVERYONE is far-right!!) called this same source "Fake news". His approach is 'X says this is fake "fake news" but [Fake News source] said this ...' I'm not sure how quoting the fake news as the source is meant to prove the fake news is the truth. Geoghegan doesn't seem to understand primary and secondary sources (rookie mistake!) This book highlights that he is part of the problem of disinformation.

He abuses the death of MP Jo Cox and refuses to acknowledge the murderers previous mental health, nor does he discuss the lack of contact between the murderer and ANYONE else (pp.s 63, 247). The author fudges the murder as if to blame Arron Banks and Leave.EU directly for the murder of Jo Cox.

When he has something to say, and no source to back it, he merely claims that the 'person' wished to remain anonymous (pps.65, 156, 158, 177). Handy that!
And when police or other investigators find no crime, Geoghegan quite simply deduces that this is a sign they have been bribed - without any evidence to support the claims (pps. 61, 71).

To paraphrase the author himself (p.184), there are clear parallels between Geoghegan in this book and the dark money that has undermined all Soros-funded left-wing ideologies for decades: propaganda backed by Soros donations and aided by sympathetic journalists and media outriders, like Geoghegan himself.

[John Hayward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Democracy For Sale: Dark Money & Dirty Politics by Peter Geoghegan would have been a better book if it had adopted a bipartisan critique, rather than simply railing constantly against Brexit, Trump, the Conservatives, Republicans and European far-right. Given some of the quotes, I expected the "new afterword on cronyism in the time of covid" to include something about "the use of fear as a tool of political management" that Lord Sumption has identified as "a major challenge to democracy". But, no; for that balancing narrative, we'll have to look elsewhere—namely, my next book: A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Laura Dodsworth.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure if Democracy for sale is the correct title for this book. After reading it I feel as if Democracy has already been sold!

Do you want to know why Boris Johnson and Donald Trump won their elections or why Brexit was pushed through, well it wasn’t just down to you deciding where to put your cross in a box on a ballot paper.

This is a very sobering read. Well sourced and researched it lifts the lid on the murky world of politics, not just in the UK but in Europe and the US. I think we are all aware of allegations of Russian interference in UK and US elections but as this book clearly shows the interference goes far beyond that.

We are being fed mountains of misinformation through platforms like Facebook and brain washed in how to vote, for example 90% of a sample of Conservative Facebook adverts posted before the election contained misleading information (or lies to the layman). I find that staggering.

Then there is the shed loads of illegal Dark Money being pumped into various causes, be it Johnson, Trump or Brexit.

This is a book everyone should read, it will open your eyes. The sad thing is that ‘The biggest source of disinformation “is the governing party, and they are the ones charged with changing the law” to protect our democracy.

Frightening.

[Eoin Holohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know that rich people influence politics. The media's role in this is clear but it is not that clear how businesses with a particular agenda for eg low corporate taxes actually mobilise and influence government policy. This is alot clearer to me after reading this book.

This book lifts the lid how the internet combined with undisclosed financing is being used in UK political campaigning. It exposes current campaign finance rules as being open to abuse as they fall behind technological advances and changes in the voters consume information. Most disturbingly, it lays bare how think tanks funnel undisclosed money into research and campaigns aimed at influencing governments position.

The book starts with Brexit and gives a great background to the characters who convinced the country to vote to leave the EU. It discusses the tactics they used, how it was not clear who funded them but how they were able to skirt around campaign finance rules by funding other campaign groups. The DUP were central to whole thing as political donations to Northern Irish parties did not have to disclosed (a hangover from the Troubles). It is remarkable how many of the current right commentators on social media made their names as part of the Brexit campaign and are still around the today - the gift that keeps on giving.

The Vote Leave Campaign used social media much in the same way as the Trump campaign, Stephen Bannon being one person responsible for knowledge sharing. A couple of characteristics that make the internet an open goal for unscrupulous campaigners include, 1. People can be profiled vastly improving targeting. 2. Campaign materials can be negative attacks on political oppositions, these don't necessarily need to come from the actual campaign meaning they can be financed by 3rd parties. Whereas previously campaign materials were printed and stamped what is to stop anyone posting content about a politician. The other advantage of using 3rd parties is that they are not bound by rules around accuracy.

Brexit provided a perfect opportunity for disseminating false material online. It brought together new groups who have since dispersed after being fined for breaches but the election is won and there is no going back so really who cares!! Interestingly, factions of Vote Leave spent practically all of their budget online in the days leading up to the Vote.

I used to wonder about how individuals who want to influence politics. Thanks Peter for explaining one of these ways is to set up or at least fund a think tank. Think Tanks were an American invention (Koch brothers who funded Trump are among the most influential contributors) which have been exported to Britain. The IEA is one of the most famous and influential with the UK government.

Think tanks are collections of people who want to influence government policy whether it's anti climate change policy, lower corporate taxes or Brexit. They have sophisticated media operations and established lobbying channels. The best thing about them is that they don't even need to disclose who funds them.

This book is an illuminating read for anyone interested in politics and wondering how money is funnelled through the system by those trying to but influence and how affiliates of political campaigns are using the internet to spread false information in the run up to votes. These are the issues facing democracy today and the issues that the government should be looking to address with it's recent elections bill. Are these the issues that they are addressing? Absolutely not, as they benefit from the status quo.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

One wonders if the author delved into the games Vote Remain might have played, but decided to ‘leave’ well alone. The Nicholas Soames comment on page 21 is worth note. Whose brother is it that has his arms wrapped around Serco and how much profit do they make from closer ties with the EU? Hidden Agenda? Lobbyist? How much private time with the PM are they allowed? Dirty money and corrupt politics is not a right-wing aberration it is firmly rooted in every corner of the political field. I am convinced, and have been for many a year, that all in politics, from all persuasions, are at the same game.

To cite Bojo as a compulsive liar is hilarious. Let’s talk about Tony. Let’s chat about Dave. Let’s forget to mention the husbands of well-known liberal-minded journalists that gad about the big city. Many say, it’s what all politicians do: lie, lie and lie some more. I can’t believe there is any right-minded person in Britain that does not think that.

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.

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.

The Russian and Chinese ‘dirty money’ being thrown like confetti onto the streets around Whitehall and Westminster is the real and future threat to our democracy and any investigative journalist within the hubbub of London life would know that. And those two powers are not right-wing activists/extremists from foreign shores; they are authoritarian regimes (the dark forces) and Putin is who? The Dark Vader?

Nigel Farage, Arron Banks, the ERG: are little kittens, and not a threat to our democracy. In summary, far too one-sided an appreciation of the problems British politics faces just now.

[Robert Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way we choose our leaders and national direction is in trouble; anyone paying close attention to online politics can see that. For the past five years, the democratic landscape has changed dramatically. Misinformation problems in internet forums are enormous, voter data is harvested and interrogated for unethical ends and huge amounts of dark money flow in and out of political discourse. Over this timeframe, investigative journalists have worked to reveal these dark secrets; one of the most thorough researchers, Peter Geoghegan of OpenDemocracy lays all of it bare in Democracy For Sale.

Covering a full decade of events, individuals and political shifts, the book creates a complex web of intrigue with numerous links and connections. The author argues that the likes of Brexit and Donald Trump didn’t come suddenly, but were instead a product of discontent and the growing exploitation of social media networks. Each chapter flows into the next as Peter covers the major events and where we could be heading. The range of sources used is incredibly comprehensive and a great picture of the current situation starts to take shape. By the end, you’ll understand why the modern deception tactics of politicians have proven so effective. Yet big tech companies are shown to be equally culpable as they refuse to address major problems on their platforms.

The book relies heavily on anecdotes to set the scene, perhaps a bit too much. While breaking down numerous meetings and events succeeds at setting the scene, it does become a bit samey over time. Outside of this though, Democracy For Sale is very effective at laying out modern issues. It concludes with several solution proposals and a further discussion on cronyism in the COVID-19 crisis. This is a brilliant addition to the base book that pushes Geoghegan’s research into recent topics.

Recommended?

YES: Although it makes for very sombre reading, Democracy For Sale is filled to the brim with extensive and detailed research. It’s one of the best accounts of why western democracy is currently in crisis with a broad spectrum of coverage and analysis. Above all else, Geoghegan emphasises the serious danger that plagues our modern democratic systems. Are the UK, US and European nations condemned to have their votes endlessly manipulated by nefarious online actors? Based on this book, we’re heading in that direction already and it’s a publication you should check out

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Propaganda is back, and the main argument of this book is that western democracies - and notably the UK's - are failing to do enough to counter the lies. Maximum fines for campaigning malfescence in the UK of £20,000 are no more than rounding errors for the dark money that funds misinformation on social media. Here and elsewhere the detailing was precise on the lobbying, cronyism and international machinations (Bannon et al). The consequences often shocking; the low cost and impact of dishonest social media campaigns is like a honey trap without the sting, and presumably now the norm with unscrupluous campaigners.

Brexit and the 2016 Presidential election have become cause celebres in the anglophone world, but Orban's Hungary, Salvini's Italy, and back closer to home the Blackadder-like rotten-borough cynicism of Johnson's 2019 election all appear as further exemplars where outright and calculated untruths were tatgeted to distract, mislead and promote ever more extreme perspectives. More than once we hear that 'the horse has already bolted', and the electoral regulators too often seem to leave the barn door swinging in the wind.

This is not a cheery read, but the audiobook I had made compelling reading in mood-regulating small doses. The micro-marketing now possibly on social media can be calibrated to precisely influence a highly specific audience of swing voters. Moreover, behavioural economics (not touched on as such, but alluded to in the book) allows the timing of emotive misinformation to have maximum effect. It was not described as such by Geoghegan, but it put me in mind of a targeted pain relief advert. In hitting the political bullseye, however, all too it feels more like the implantation of a cancer than its removal.

History repeats, or at least loops and echoes, and Geoghegan makes some timely reminders of anti-Zionism's dark history in Europe (shadowed today in the campaign against Zoros); the failure in countries like Spain to come to terms with the fascist era; and the antecedents of populism more broadly. The prescriptions for better regulation in the last chapter are relatively brief, but make sense after the main onus of the book on making the case. I won't be deleting Facebook yet, but even knowing a reasonable amount about tracking and fata sharing before, after reading 'Democracy for Sale' I feel better informed about the dangers we have continue to now face in the 21stC Wild West of internet-led media.