Leaked documents show influence of corporate cash on politics – and it happens in the UK too

Last Updated: September 17, 2016By
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[Image: The Guardian.]

A former MP of This Writer’s acquaintance informs me that “this stuff happens here” in the UK just as much as in the US.

It seems the Conservative electoral fraud scandal (remember that?) may be just the tip of a very large and corrupted iceberg.

Perhaps now the social media are getting their acts together, people can start to reveal some of the dirty deals that have been going on and we can take steps to eliminate any such corruption.

It won’t happen overnight.

The pervasive influence of corporate cash in the democratic process, and the extraordinary lengths to which politicians, lobbyists and even judges go to solicit money, are laid bare in sealed court documents leaked to the Guardian.

The John Doe files amount to 1,500 pages of largely unseen material gathered in evidence by prosecutors investigating alleged irregularities in political fundraising. Last year the Wisconsin supreme court ordered that all the documents should be destroyed, though a set survived that has now been obtained by the news organisation.

The files open a window on a world that is very rarely glimpsed by the public, in which millions of dollars are secretly donated by major corporations and super-wealthy individuals to third-party groups in an attempt to sway elections.

Source: Leaked documents reveal secretive influence of corporate cash on politics | US news | The Guardian

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3 Comments

  1. Brian September 17, 2016 at 10:06 pm - Reply

    One wonders how the events influencing democracy that are unfolding will be reflected in history, could we be on the verge of a new age of enlightenment? or will those same powers step in to quell the revolution of information access!

    • Mike Sivier September 18, 2016 at 12:32 am - Reply

      It’s a very good question but all we can do is live in these times and decide what to do with the choices we are given.

  2. Dez September 17, 2016 at 11:49 pm - Reply

    It’s known as payback time. Hence the slug like pace of trying to get new Corporate tax changes, preventing GM food invading our food chain,loose and weak control of public utilities and services, getting contracts in the NHS and Public Service, chemical pesticide contamination, sugar reductions all causes that are allowed favourable lobby meetings in and outside of Parliament but objectors cannot even get a simple audience to air their objections. It is basic corruption that has been allowed to develope over the years and now become norm in the political landscape

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