www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/adam-ramsay-peter-geoghegan/key-poll-which-boosted-leadsom-s-leadership-bid-funded-by-d
A key poll in the run up to last year’s Tory leadership election was funded by the same secretive group which funnelled a mystery £435,000 to the DUP’s Brexit campaign.
The funding of the carefully timed survey is one of only three known occasions that the mysterious Constitutional Research Council has been used to channel money into British politics – as well as the DUP donation, £6,500 was given to the MP and now Brexit minister Steve Baker, to pay for a meeting of the pro-Brexit MPs’ European Research Group, which he chaired. Baker was a key member of Andrea Leadsom’s campaign team, and sat on the board of directors of “Leadsom4Leader”...
...Andrea Leadsom was the favoured candidate for prime minister among a number of prominent Leave campaigners. Days before the poll was released, Leave.EU chair Arron Banks told the Daily Mail that:
'Andrea was the breakout star of the Leave campaign during the referendum: calm, assured and, in contrast to May and Gove, honest; putting the case for Brexit eloquently and passionately. Leave.EU will therefore be throwing its full weight behind Andrea.'
It is pretty clear that Leadsom does not have the brains to find her way out of a brown paper bag, and also, that she is the sort of individual likely to climb into a brown paper bag. She makes the ideal front for people who are a lot brighter than her.
Leadsom was hosted by the Koch Brothers at some right wing symposium in the US a couple of years ago iirc.
www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/adam-ramsay-peter-geoghegan/new-brexit-minister-arms-industry-american-hard-right-and-e
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas...
Some of the known individuals and groups Steve Baker is indebted to:
Baker’s register of interests also shows that he has been funded by controversial right wing groups in the USA to attend a number of conferences around the world. In 2015, he went to a conference called “the Jackson Hole Summit on monetary policy and global finance”, organised by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. While the event itself included people with a range of views, and had speakers such as Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, Mr Baker’s ‘hotel and means’ at the event were paid for by the group “American Principles in Action”.
American Principles in Action is a radical right group in the USA who, support a return to the gold standard (an idea that Baker often discusses), but who are better known for their hard conservative viewpoints and rhetoric. This week, their executive director, Terry Schilling, asked: “will Christian schools, charities, businesses, and families be forced to acquiesce to the hyper-sexual LGBT agenda or face government persecution?”.
The year Baker received money from the organisation, they in turn were paid $250,000 by the American billionaire Robert Mercer, according to research by the website DeSmog. Mercer is at the centre of investigations by Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr into Brexit and the election of Donald Trump and, among other things, is the owner of the company Cambridge Analytica, which was at the heart of both campaigns.
In 2012 (twice), and 2016, Baker attended conferences with his costs paid for by the American Liberty Fund, a group described by former US Vice President Al Gore as “radical right wing”. Describing the conferences they organise for US judges, Gore wrote that those who attend: "are generally responsible for writing the most radical pro-corporate, anti-environmental, and activist decisions". The Liberty Fund has a history of close collaboration with the Charles Koch Institute, co-publishing pamphlets, organising ‘coloquia’ and hosting seminars together. Charles Koch, and his brother David are fossil fuel industry billionaires who spend a lot of their money fighting against action on climate change and healthcare in the USA
I include the following because of the undeveloped mention of Andrei Ilarionov that seems to imply that Ilarionov is still an economic advisor to Putin, and therefore Putin is the puppet master behind the Antigua event and/or the dark money flowing to the UK.
Andrei Illarionov left Russia in 2005 and is now a 'policy scholar' with the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, in Washington, DC.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Illarionov
Illarionov is one of the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go", published on 10 March 2010.
As a well known opponent to Vladimir Putin and his policies, he criticized former Czech president Václav Klaus' view that the EU and the USA did more to escalate conflict in the Ukraine than did Vladimir Putin. Illarionov was able to end the cooperation between Klaus and the Cato Institute
What is the Cato Institute, you may ask...
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch,[6] chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries.[nb 1] In July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute.[6][7] Cato was established to have a focus on public advocacy, media exposure and societal influence
Well, well, well.
Charles Koch, quelle surprise.
The following is lifted straight out of the Cato Institute Wiki entry:
Cato scholars have consistently called for the privatization of many government services and institutions, including NASA, Social Security, the United States Postal Service, the Transportation Security Administration, public schooling, public transportation systems, and public broadcasting.[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] The institute opposes minimum wage laws, saying that they violate the freedom of contract and thus private property rights, and increase unemployment.[57][58] It is opposed to expanding overtime regulations, arguing that it will benefit some employees in the short term, while costing jobs or lowering wages of others, and have no meaningful long-term impact.[59][60] It opposes child labor prohibitions.[61][62][63] It opposes public sector unions and supports right-to-work laws.[64][65] It opposes universal health care, arguing that it is harmful to patients and an intrusion onto individual liberty.[66][67] It is against affirmative action.[68] It has also called for total abolition of the welfare state, and has argued that it should be replaced with reduced business regulations to create more jobs, and argues that private charities are fully capable of replacing it.[69][70] Cato has also opposed antitrust laws.[71][72]
Cato is an opponent of campaign finance reform, arguing that government is the ultimate form of potential corruption and that such laws undermine democracy by undermining competitive elections. Cato also supports the repeal of the Federal Election Campaign Act.[73][74]
Cato has published strong criticisms of the 1998 settlement which many U.S. states signed with the tobacco industry.[75] In 2004, Cato scholar Daniel Griswold wrote in support of President George W. Bush's failed proposal to grant temporary work visas to otherwise undocumented laborers which would have granted limited residency for the purpose of employment in the U.S.[76]
The Cato Institute published a study proposing a Balanced Budget Veto Amendment to the United States Constitution.[77]
In 2003, Cato filed an amicus brief in support of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the remaining state laws that made private, non-commercial homosexual relations between consenting adults illegal. Cato cited the 14th Amendment, among other things, as the source of their support for the ruling. The amicus brief was cited in Justice Kennedy's majority opinion for the Court.[78]
In 2006, Cato published a Policy Analysis criticising the Federal Marriage Amendment as unnecessary, anti-federalist, and anti-democratic.[79] The amendment would have changed the United States Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage; the amendment failed in both houses of Congress.
Cato scholars have been sharp critics of current U.S. drug policy and the perceived growing militarization of U.S. law enforcement.[80] Additionally, the Cato Institute opposes smoking bans[81] and mandatory use of safety belts.[82]
The list of Adjunct Scholars is interesting for the number of individuals who teach at George Mason University. This university is heavily represented in other links I have seen here or posted here on libertarianism/Brexit/Cobden Centre.