An absolute pleasure to talk to @privateeyenews.bsky.social about Democracy for Sale's investigation into Labour Together hiring a PR firm to target journalists who were reporting on the undeclared political funding that powered Starmer's rise to power
The Paul Foot awards really are the best
Peter Geoghegan
The Democracy for Sale newsletter uncovered how campaign group Labour Together had hired a PR firm to build dossiers on reputable journalists with the intent to discredit them.
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Private Eye Magazine
SpaceX IPO shows Musk’s genius is in mythmaking ft.trib.al/zQuitF7
🔴 Keir Starmer promised to crackdown on "Slapps" - abusive libel cases to silence journalists and critics
Then Labour quietly dropped it
We can reveal why: a three-year lobbying blitz by libel lawyers who've acted for Russian oligarchs, Epstein + more
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-lawyer...
the water wars are picking up.
One to bookmark.
Exclusive: A discreet lobbying campaign by lawyers who have acted for oligarchs and the super-rich told government that reforming England's libel laws was too difficult.democracyforsale.substack.com
ft.trib.al
How exactly the company plans to support its gargantuan valuation is not obvious
The (data) plot thickens.
“NHS England has granted external staff from companies including Palantir “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data while working on a part of its flagship data platform.”
www.ft.com/content/8ce1...
5 (!) years ago the FT cracked open funky invoices and dodgy lobbying. Today Greensill was banned from UK directorships.
But where is the Serious Fraud Office with its probe into Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG and its financing arrangements with Greensill??
@bondhack.ft.com
as.ft.com/r/59893149-7...
This case should surely add to calls for companies themselves to face some responsibility and accountability where those they employ break post-employment rules about lobbying. @ethicsandintegrity.bsky.social @appgonacrt.bsky.social @cynthiao.bsky.social @direthoughts.com
3. ⏰ The Greensill scandal is a reminder of what happens when political access, weak oversight and private interests become too closely intertwined. It is alarming that so few of the recommendations made after the lobbying scandal it exposed have been implemented five years on.
