Tips on basic research into organisations? (UK/Scotland)

[NonnyMouse1337]

My first time starting a thread, and not sure if this particular topic is allowed..... but I have finally finished reading a very lengthy article looking into the backgrounds of various US organisations and campaign groups that have lots of funding to push transgender related agenda in society.

medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

It's very interesting because although it focuses predominantly on the transgender angle, it also looks at the wider democratic issues around the ability of millionaires and billionaires and corporations influencing the public and political domain.

Anyway I was quite impressed with the information unearthed of how a few individuals and groups are the same donors for multiple campaign organisations that try to give the impression they are 'grassroots' movements and there is a groundswell of support. How various professionals affiliate themselves to become leading authorities and spokespersons for financial gain and the pharmaceutical corporations in the background profit from the rise in transgenderism.

While the UK is lucky so far to have the NHS, I'm sure there are equally shady background connections and lots of money pouring into groups from certain sources. That is the only way to explain the exponential rise in transgender activism over the last few years compared to other kinds of civil rights and social movements that are still struggling to get the same amount of public awareness.

It would be worthy of proper and formal investigation by journalists etc but in the meantime, there's just us - the general public.
I have never tried to research publicly available information about organisations and charities. How does one go about looking for links in donors, FOI requests etc? Is there basic info on how to look into such things that some women here might know about?

I think these sort of pragmatic skills would be useful to disseminate online or via local groups so people with little to no activist experience, like myself, can learn how to help and contribute in different ways.

Or maybe someone has already made a start on this and published such info online?

Sorry, I haven't figured out how links work around here ..

medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

This is the lengthy article I was talking about.

Don't know if this is the type of thing you're after but In Scotland you can check the Lobbying Register - I've just looked up Stonewall for eg with some interesting results...

www.lobbying.scot/SPS/LobbyingRegister/SearchLobbyingRegister

There are loads and loads of threads on FWR that cover a lot of this stuff, but we'd need someone such as R0 to provide the links.

This is a great thread to start you off

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3463920-Lets-go-back-to-2007?pg=6

After the scandal of MP's expenses, the then PM David Cameron predicted that the next scandal would be around Lobbyists.

There has always been a 'revolving door' between lobbyists and Whitehall and Westminister. Cameron made it more difficult for Ministers and civil servants to leave office and go directly to work for one of their 'stakeholders' but I'm not aware of any attempts to stop secondments of lobbyists to government departments yet.

Neither am I aware of any way that Governments are held accountable for their choice and funding of 'stakeholders' to the exclusion of others. Why, for instance, would one organisation receive funding and commissions for training, research and lobbying, but not another? Why Mermaids but not Transgender Trend?

For some reason, Cameron was wrong and there has been only mild eyebrows raised at instances of over-close relationships and revolving doors. It's not just a case of 'follow the money' but 'follow they key figures progress through charities, commissions, enquiries, think thanks, businesses and Whitehall'.

Thanks for the links terryleather. I'll give them a go.

Good point, theOtherPamAyres, it's not just the money, but certain key players who move through different organisations and departments.