Democracy For Sale
Peter Geoghegan on the enduring power of 'dark money'.
Peter Geoghegan tells Adrian Goldberg about the development of his Democracy For Sale substack - and why ‘dark money’ is still finding a way to influence UK politics.
His ‘lightbulb’ moment came just before the EU referendum, when he was working for the Irish News alongside Adam Ramsey of Open Democracy.
They spotted a pro-Brexit advert in a newspaper in the north-east of England which was funded by the Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP spent almost £500,000 pounds in total on the referendum, but thanks to a loophole in electoral law, the source of political donations in Northern Ireland could be kept secret.
“We have still never found out where the money came from”, Geoghegan says.
“That opened the Pandora's Box for me. How is it possible, 48 hours before such an incredibly important thing like the Brexit referendum, to funnel half a million pounds anonymously, into a political party in Northern Ireland, then buy adverts in Sunderland and all around the country.”
“If that's happening there, where else is it happening?
“So that was the start of it.”
Geoghegan is now investigating the source of Reform UK’s funding from the United States and the Reform leader’s appeal for donations in cryptocurrency.
“He made [the request] in Las Vegas. There's not many British politicians who make important political statements in. Las Vegas. So it says a lot about the audience he's talking to.
“He's not trying to get the people in a church hall in Whitstable to give him donations in crypto, he's looking for people in that world to put their hand in a pocket to him.”
Geoghegan notes that, “In theory, cryptocurrency should be totally transparent. It's on the blockchain. You should be able to see where it all comes from.
“Having said that, there's a reason why drug dealers and money launderers like cryptocurrency. So which would suggest it's not quite as transparent as all that.”
The forthcoming Elections Bill by the Labour government offers a chance to restore a more even balance between the wealthy and the rest of the electorate, but Geoghegan is only cautiously optimistic.
“What’s crazy is that you don't need to reinvent the wheel on this. If you look at the various reports have been done by these worthy institutions - the Commission On Standards In Public Life, various parliamentary commissions, the Electoral Commission - they've all pretty much said what needs to be done.
“But my worry at the moment is we've seen this before. It's happened with Labour that political donors have weighed in to water down regulations that might limit their access, and their ability to give money.
“It's quite clear. What we need to do is start to take the money out of the system. We need to close the loopholes around things like unincorporated associations, which sounds a bit weird and worthy, but basically they're dark money funnels.”
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