How corporate dark money is taking power on both sides of the Atlantic

["David Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] How corporate dark money is taking power on both sides of the Atlantic
Date: February 9, 2017 at 9:50:11 AM EST
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com

How corporate dark money is taking power on both sides of the Atlantic
A secretive network of business lobbyists has long held sway in US politics. Now their allies in the UK government are 
planning a Brexit that plays into their hands
By George Monbiot
Feb 2 2017
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/02/corporate-dark-money-power-atlantic-lobbyists-brexit>

It took corporate America a while to warm to Donald Trump. Some of his positions, especially on trade, horrified 
business leaders. Many of them favoured Ted Cruz or Scott Walker. But once Trump had secured the nomination, the big 
money began to recognise an unprecedented opportunity.

Trump was prepared not only to promote the cause of corporations in government, but to turn government into a kind of 
corporation, staffed and run by executives and lobbyists. His incoherence was not a liability, but an opening: his 
agenda could be shaped. And the dark money network already developed by some American corporations was perfectly 
positioned to shape it. Dark money is the term used in the US for the funding of organisations involved in political 
advocacy that are not obliged to disclose where the money comes from. Few people would see a tobacco company as a 
credible source on public health, or a coal company as a neutral commentator on climate change. In order to advance 
their political interests, such companies must pay others to speak on their behalf.

Soon after the second world war, some of America’s richest people began setting up a network of thinktanks to promote 
their interests. These purport to offer dispassionate opinions on public affairs. But they are more like corporate 
lobbyists, working on behalf of those who fund them.

We have no hope of understanding what is coming until we understand how the dark money network operates. The remarkable 
story of a British member of parliament provides a unique insight into this network, on both sides of the Atlantic. His 
name is Liam Fox. Six years ago, his political career seemed to be over when he resigned as defence secretary after 
being caught mixing his private and official interests. But today he is back on the front bench, and with a crucial 
portfolio: secretary of state for international trade.

In 1997, the year the Conservatives lost office to Tony Blair, Fox, who is on the hard right of the Conservative party, 
founded an organisation called The Atlantic Bridge. Its patron was Margaret Thatcher. On its advisory council sat 
future cabinet ministers Michael Gove, George Osborne, William Hague and Chris Grayling. Fox, a leading campaigner for 
Brexit, described the mission of Atlantic Bridge as “to bring people together who have common interests”. It would 
defend these interests from “European integrationists who would like to pull Britain away from its relationship with 
the United States”.

Atlantic Bridge was later registered as a charity. In fact it was part of the UK’s own dark money network: only after 
it collapsed did we discover the full story of who had funded it. Its main sponsor was the immensely rich Michael 
Hintze, who worked at Goldman Sachs before setting up the hedge fund CQS. Hintze is one of the Conservative party’s 
biggest donors. In 2012 he was revealed as a funderof the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which casts doubt on the 
science of climate change. As well as making cash grants and loans to Atlantic Bridge, he lent Fox his private jet to 
fly to and from Washington.

Another funder was the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It paid for a researcher at Atlantic Bridge called Gabby Bertin. 
She went on to become David Cameron’s press secretary, and now sits in the House of Lords: Cameron gave her a life 
peerage in his resignation honours list.

[snip]

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