Mapped: The Tory Network of Climate Denial and Fossil Fuel Funding

Speaking outside Downing Street on 23 May, announcing a general election for 4 July, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took a swipe at what he dubbed “environmental dogma”. It was a sign of how much has changed since 2021, when the UK hosted the flagship COP26 UN climate summit with a promise “irrefutably to turn the […]

Mapped: Reform UK’s Anti-Green Network

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK describes itself as a people’s movement taking on the British establishment.  The anti-immigration party, which won five seats in July’s general election and is holding its annual conference this week in Birmingham, attacks climate action as a costly imposition by “elites” on ordinary people.  But a DeSmog analysis reveals that Reform […]

Mapped: Donald Trump’s Transatlantic Anti-Green Network

As Donald Trump takes his oath of office to become the 47th president of the United States, his second term comes at an ever-more critical time for climate change. Climate scientists have warned that 2024 was the hottest year on record, and without dramatic action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, global pledges to limit warming […]

Access Denied

Trump Reignites UK Feud—Says It Should Drill For Oil In North Sea

Trump has long criticized the UK's energy policy and pushed Britain to drill more oil.

Mapped: The Reform-Orbán Network

“Viktor Orbán is the strongest leader in Europe and the EU’s biggest nightmare.” These were the words posted on Twitter by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage about the prime minister of Hungary in April 2018. Since returning to power in 2010, Orbán has used a network of state-backed think tanks, media outlets, and conferences to […]

Mapped: Pro-Trump Heartland Institute’s European Network

A year ago, as the world convulsed from Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, his allies were already identifying their next frontier. In December, the Heartland Institute hosted a private event in Mayfair, one of London’s wealthiest areas, to announce the launch of its new UK-Europe branch. The launch was attended by former […]

Political donations are poison to our democracy – but there’s an easy antidote to that | George Monbiot

As revelations about Reform UK’s donors emerge, it’s clear that increasingly complex forms of patronage can’t be regulated effectively. We need a clean sweep, says columnist George Monbiot

I have a cure for our ailing democracy: ban all donors, British and foreign. Run politics on membership fees | George Monbiot

Our system is full of loopholes and vulnerable to millionaires’ and plutocrats’ demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

What price British democracy when a rich elite has the government’s ear? | George Monbiot

The influence of ultra-rich Tory donors is more extreme than at any time in living memory, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Taming corporate power: the key political issue of our age | George Monbiot

George Monbiot: Taming corporate power: Big business and its lobbyists have taken control of our politics. But there is an alternative: here’s how we can take on the fat cats

The Underground Economy of Politics

Secret funding, offshore donors, control by the ultra-rich. Sorry, but this is not democracy.

No 10 and the secretly funded lobby groups intent on undermining democracy | George Monbiot

Thinktanks such as Policy Exchange are working to shift power away from state institutions – into the prime minister’s office, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Billionaires bought Brexit – they are controlling our venal political system | George Monbiot

We may be told donors do not influence policy, but anywhere else our setup would be seen as corruption

Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature | George Monbiot

Economic inequality breeds resentment and a desire to get even. That’s what fuels support for even incompetent regimes, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot