19 Articles by:
Solomon Hughes has been writing about corporate influence in politics for twenty years, mostly for Private Eye. He also has a weekly column in the Morning Star.
Beyond the platform speeches and right-wing provocations, the real story of Conservative Party conference is the lobbying – with corporations paying for access to the country’s most powerful politicians.
GB News, which launches next week, portrays itself as an insurgent force in British media – but its funding reveals it to be just another attempt by right-wing millionaires to control public discourse.
Peter Mandelson’s return as an advisor to the Starmer leadership doesn’t just drag the party to the right – it also puts a major corporate lobbyist, who represents union-busting Centrica, at the heart of Labour politics.
Tory peer James Bethell once helped Deloitte get government contracts as a private lobbyist. Now, as a health minister, he has overseen a test and trace system which employs 1,127 of their consultants.
England’s privatised test and trace system is failing by all international standards, but two corporations – Serco and Sitel – stand to make three quarters of a billion anyway. It should be a national scandal.
Right-wing lobby group the New Schools Network receives 83% of its funding from the public despite being an ‘independent charity’ – and now it is devoting its resources to attacking teachers’ unions.
Boris Johnson’s government is dominated by landlords, many of whom own multiple properties and make a fortune from rent. It isn’t a fluke that they support policies which harm tenants – it’s class politics.
During their time in government, Jo Swinson and her Lib Dem colleagues set about pricing thousands of workers who were unfairly sacked out of access to justice.
In pledging to freeze corporation tax cuts, Boris Johnson has exposed a decade of Tory arguments that cutting taxes would increase revenue to be little more than a propaganda exercise for the super-rich.
The Tories have despised the public ethos of the NHS since it was founded. In power, they have privatised its services any chance they could – often making handsome profits in the process.
Best for Britain, the anti-Brexit pressure group which received criticism over skewed tactical voting guides, is linked to an explosive spyware scandal targeting journalists and activists resisting dictatorships.
Gig economy profiteers, Tory privatisers and corporate union busters: meet the Royal Mail bosses leading the attack on the company’s workers.
This week’s Tory Party conference featured a perp walk of corporate ghouls – from public service privatisers to gig economy scammers and arms industry lobbyists – rubbing shoulders with government ministers.
Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-immigrant – the Liberal Democrats’ new recruits are anything but liberal.
Commentators have hailed Priti Patel as part of Boris Johnson’s ‘modern cabinet.’ But her politics are driven by nostalgia for the very worst of the Thatcher era.
The Liberal Democrats are posing as a ‘progressive’ alternative to Labour. But their leading lights are as pro-austerity as ever.
Favours for wealthy donors, white elephant vanity projects and a carousel of controversies. Welcome to Boris Johnson, PM.
Whether they’re Cameroons or Brexiteers, every single Tory leadership candidate is implicated in a decade of policies that tore Britain’s social fabric apart. None of them deserve to be Prime Minister.
No policies, no ideas, no substance: Chuka Umunna’s Independent Group is a tantrum thrown by careerists who found their avenues of progression closed off.