Just a heads up on today’s post. This is an important piece about a different type of ‘special relationship’ that has existed between far-right political actors on both sides of the Atlantic since around 2013. It is too long and complex to deal with in one piece, but it still feeds into my broader theme of ‘The anatomy of a hostile takeover’. I know my writing these days can hardly be described as populist, as evidenced by the lack of new paid subscribers, but someone has to focus on the underlying factors that have led us to where we are today. Only by understanding it can we fix it.
It seems tragically, truth pays much less than lies, but that’s the world we now appear to inhabit. While that may irk me somewhat, I don’t write for profit, so it’s business as usual here at Truth Matters. I don’t care what it costs to get access to research; my work will never be forced behind a paywall. That’s a promise I made at the outset: nobody should be forced to pay to gain access to the truth, and that will NEVER change.
We’re submerged daily in a cesspit of lies, misdirection, and deceit from one of the vilest men I have ever had the displeasure of attempting to cope with in my lifetime. I ask myself, when will this political waterboarding ever stop? When will we get a moment to just breathe and look ahead to a world not dominated by the encouragement to hate those of us who might have the audacity to support a different point of view?
My disdain for Trump is not born out of political disagreement; it’s born out of my inability to accept the subjugation of a population for the sole purpose of self-enrichment. It’s morally reprehensible. I’m happy to debate any traditional Republican who believes in small government, fiscal responsibility, and deregulation. While I might fundamentally disagree with their broad premise, I fervently believe that healthy political debate is essential to fostering a healthy representative democracy.
What I will never accept is the premeditated cruelty involved in the targeting of the poor and the vulnerable and ‘otherism’, all in the service of delivering tax cuts to the obscenely rich. The poor and the immigrants are not breaking America, nor are the bottom 80% of the population, who work hard to feed their families, and believe in the hope of a family holiday, or the help to support a disabled child or elderly relative. Those who have managed to rise above the poverty line are not the people bankrupting America; they are the engine of an economy that generates the wealth that the rich seem intent on benefiting from, but NEVER sharing.
These are challenging times, but amidst the darkness, anxiety and despair, there IS hope, and I firmly believe that from the ashes of political moral decay, a better tomorrow WILL emerge, if we just stay the course and keep telling the truth. I have been in this war against what is an existential threat to our way of life since 2019. I know it’s far less time than so many have been forced to endure. Since then, I have written almost every day in some shape or form about the injustices I see from an ocean away.
In the UK, we had LOCAL ELECTIONS last week. Elections in which Trump's mini-me, Nigel Farage and his limited company masquerading as a political party, won bigly. To be clear, these were free and fair elections conducted in accordance with the rules of the UK Electoral Commission, so I am not suggesting they were fixed in any way. Voters were told a pack of lies by Farage, and MAGA has now officially arrived in Britain. The far-right agenda has landed with a huge thud that has shocked the political establishment, though for the life of me, I can’t understand why. It was textbook Trump.
This has long been a fear of mine, and will likely force the British Prime Minister to resign this week. Thankfully, in the UK Parliamentary system, voters elect a party to lead the country. As a result, there will NOT be a General Election, only a change of leader in the governing Labour Party.
It’s no secret that Keir Starmer would not have been my choice as a Prime Minister. I said from the outset that the last thing Britain needed was a sterile lawyer to dig us out of the economic wasteland left behind by fourteen years of right-wing conservative rule, which led to the UK leaving the EU.
In a piece for Econofact by Nicholas Bloom, Paul Mizen and Gregory Thwaites in February of this year, they note:
Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw from the European Union, is a rare contemporary example of a major developed economy raising trade barriers and more generally pulling back from international economic integration. When the Brexit referendum took place in 2016, academic and professional economists generally forecast that the policy about-face would result in a negative hit to the United Kingdom’s economy of about 4% of GDP over the long-term.
Brexit was Trumpism in all but name, and was described as the petri dish for the Trump 2016 election campaign by Andy Wigmore, spokesman for Leave EU. A highly respected investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, a fellow Substack resident who worked at the Guardian at the time, carried out an in-depth investigation into the connection between Brexit, Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 Trump campaign. I could write a whole post just on this ‘special relationship’ between Farage, Trump, Steve Bannon and the MAGA movement in the US.
The documentary below examines in detail the connections and the involvement of both Cambridge Analytica and the Russian troll farm, The Internet Research Agency (IRA), based in St. Petersburg, as identified by US intelligence. This was the same agency that appeared in the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Note that Cambridge Analytica and IRA are NOT connected. I’m merely highlighting the extent of election interference going on at the time.
For context, Nigel Farage was a key member of two pro-Brexit organisations, Leave.EU and Grassroots Out. The latter was funded by Arron Banks, who was a major donor to Farage’s political party at the time, the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Each of these actors were no stranger to Trump and the MAGA movement.
The Leave EU campaign spokesman, Andrew Wigmore, admitted that
“Cambridge Analytica did do work for us, but we didn’t pay them; they were happy to do it for free”
It’s clear to anyone in their right mind that for Cambridge Analytica, this was a dummy run for what was later to be the work Cambridge Analytica did for the Trump campaign in 2016. For context, Andy Wigmore took the photo below of Farage and Trump in front of the golden lift
In these types of situations, it’s impossible to say what happened for sure, but it seems pretty clear to me that large amounts of dark money were deliberately obscured from scrutiny to circumvent UK funding limits set by the Electoral Commission. The critical point is that this was the moment when social media was officially weaponised to help Trump get elected.
Facebook alleged that it had been the unwitting victim of a breach that exposed the posts of millions of its users. A breach that would later cost the company $5 billion from an FTC fine in 2019. It was just one of a number of penalties it has faced in Europe for similar breaches. Posts from this breach were directly used by Cambridge Analytica to politically profile US voters. Political micro-targeting was born, and it will come as no surprise that Palantir also had a hand in helping Cambridge Analytica analyse the data, a claim later denied and dismissed as a ‘rogue employee’ going off reservation.
What I need Americans to understand is that Brexit and the subsequent mini-budget by a short-lived, lunatic right-wing Prime Minister, Liz Truss, represent the real-life economic impact of Trump economics. Here in the UK, we have lived it each and every day for a DECADE; it’s very real. At the outset, it was estimated that Brexit would result in a long-term negative hit to the United Kingdom’s economy of around 4% of GDP. The results are now in, and Econofact noted:
We estimate that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time.
It’s very hard to put an actual number on the cost to the UK economy, especially given the silly figures being thrown around. But take a look at the graph below, which clearly shows the lag before the impact hit; this was the negotiation phase of the transition between the EU and UK negotiators. Then you see the impact of COVID, followed by the recovery curve, which clearly shows that, following the pandemic, Britain recovered more slowly and then flatlined. The Leave movement campaigned on ‘Taking back control’; all that happened was we took control of a castrated economy.
If you are interested in the macro impact, I’d encourage you to take a look at bestforbritain.org, a site that drills down into the numbers in a meaningful way to understand what Britain inherited from 14 years of right-wing conservative rule. Britain is now living with the impact of Trumpian economic influence; we are living in the future of stupididity politics, and I fear that, despite the big differences in our two economies, the result will ultimately be the same because Trump’s economic model is structurally flawed, as evidenced by his need to extort trading partners and allies with tariffs.
People often ask why do I care so much about American politics.? This is why, because the poison that is US far-right politics is being exported across the Atlantic using the same Trump playbook and the same dark money as part of an attempted global coup.
This now leaves me fighting a war on two fronts, but if that’s what it takes, so be it. There’s no way Farage can be allowed to become UK Prime Minister in 2029. The truth is, we are bound by a common bond to defeat fascism again today as we did together in 1945. I’m hoping to enter 2029 with a spring in my step, having helped defeat fascism in America in 2028.
I’ve always believed in the indomitable spirit of the American people to do what’s right. Propaganda can be a powerful opiate of the masses, but I believe in the determination of good people to overcome adversity and find an oasis in a desert of adversity and anxiety.
I’m often criticised for being the one delivering bad news. My aim is never to induce anxiety, but rather to tell people what they need to know rather than what they want to hear. This can at times be a lonely path to tread. Whether it’s criticising establishment Democrats or speaking out against the genocidal behaviour of the Israeli army, mine can often be a message that stirs controversy. However, as someone with a voice, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to speak truth to power regardless of the consequences.
Followers and Substack subscribers might be mission critical to gaining the reach required to have one’s voice heard on critical issues, but the most important job of any responsible activist is to be true to their core beliefs and sacrifice NOTHING at the altar of popular appeal.
We live in far too dangerous times to rely on compliance in advance. People who read what I write read my unvarnished thoughts, which come from the heart. For good or bad, they’re all I’ve got, and they will continue to be the central tenet of what I do.
As I approach the autumn of my life, I am blessed to have people who listen and engage with my thinking, so thank you for your ear today.
When I watched the acceptance speech below from Jacob Colier of his honorary doctorate from Berklee, it made me realise, as a musician and retired sound engineer myself, the joy and sense of belonging music can deliver, but much more than that, it’s a magical bond that can unite us for the betterment of society. Jacob is the very definition of the world we should all want to inhabit. He has no script; he represents the good in each of us, because life is not about living to a script or, more importantly, a script someone else is trying to impose upon us. It’s about being true to who you are and what you believe. That way, we all get to live in a better world.
Tomorrow, I want to expand my thinking about the relationship between what’s happening in our respective countries and the lessons from Brexit that remain fully transferable to the US today.
Excellent piece. Echoes my thoughts exactly. I too am obsessed with US politics as they impact on us here in the UK more than most realise. Try not to be disheartened by your lack of new paid subscribers, you identified the reason yourself: many of those who follow you just don't have the wherewithal to pay. Keep on fighting the good fight. This too will pass
I appreciate you, and thank you 💙