Pulling on the threads of foreign influence in the UK
A network mapping exercise on Reform and the Free Speech Union, with Epstein, Thiel and Bannon.
The latest tranche of the Epstein files revealed details of the billionaire paedophile's close working relationship with tech oligarch Peter Thiel and MAGA strategist Steve Bannon. Epstien and Thiel had two clear objectives, the development of cryptocurrencies as an alternative to central banks, and the forging of a radical right movement encompassing the Western world.
Peter Jukes and his publication the Byline Times has done incredible work recently assembling a sequence of events that shows how UK politics is besieged by foreign interests (see links at the end of this piece), and Trump's recent National Strategy Review has made continuing Epstein's foreign influence operation government policy.
The international radical right is a coalition of interlinked networks, and the level of foreign influence from the US, Russia and Hungary on the political narrative in European countries is often underestimated.
As a demonstration here is a simple network mapping exercise starting with some of the newer additions to Nigel Farages Reform. Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Matt Goodwin, senior policy advisor, senior policy advisor James Orr, and Conservative defectors Suella Braverman and Danny Kruger.
What links all four is their involvement with National Conservatism (NatCon), James Orr is on NatCon's organising board so I have also started with the Free Speech Union (FSU) that Orr founded with Toby Young who was made a peer by Kemi Badenoch.
Orr went to Thiel for support in setting up the FSU, so Thiel, Epstein and Bannon are added.
JD Vance is Thiel's minion and is a close friend of Orr, the pair had dinner with Danny Kruger last summer prior to his defection.
Time to examine funding, starting with GB News which operates as Reform’s broadcasting arm while employing a number of their MPs. This is of course a simplified representation, GB News' owners have considerable business interests, Paul Marshall has built up a media empire that also includes Unherd and the Critic, and the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship is operating as a think tank with substantial Christian Nationalist overtones. Christopher Chandler's think tank Legatum now known as the Prosperity Institute was one of the most influential think tanks involved in shaping Brexit. Chandler’s wealth was accumulated through shareholdings with Russian fossil fuel giant Gazprom.
Mark Elliott, a stalwart of the opaquely funded Tufton Street network, formerly of IEA, Legatum and Vote Leave, now is at the Injustice Foundation which funds the FSU.
Another of the FSU's funders is the Rodger Scruton Legacy Foundation (RSLF), Orr and Biggar are on the board. Others include Douglas Murray, whose associations include the Free Speech Union and the Henry Jackson Society, and Conservative MP John Hayes who leads the Common Sense Group of MPs.
But who funds the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation?
Its recently been revealed by the Good Law Project that the RSLF is almost entirely funded by MCC, the think tank/ culture war outfit bankrolled by Viktor Orbán.
MCC's Brussels outpost is led by Frank Ferudi, a close associate of Claire Fox through Living Marxism/the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Institute of Ideas, he is also part of the Free Speech Union, and has previously been described in the media as “Orban's attack dog”.
As a Fellow of MCC, Reform's Matt Goodwin was being paid £10,000 a month from Orban's coffers, and recently refused to answer if he was still in receipt of Hungarian funding.
MCC recieves much of its funding from the MOL Group. A Hungarian fossil fuels company, MOL Group is currently undergoing a major shift in its relationship with Russia, driven by sanctions and supply chain disruptions following the invasion of Ukraine. While historically dependent on Russian crude, the company is now actively acquiring Russian-owned assets in neighboring countries and seeking to diversify its supply.
What a tangled web, this is just highlighting some of the connections from a handful of people in Reform and the FSU, but just how closely connected they are to the Thiel network, Orban and Russian money. Foreign influence is playing a major role in driving the UK's political narrative, and if Reform were to win power then what influence would be asserted on government policy.
There’s a lot more that can be done using this network map as a starting point.
Cambridge Analytica and Brexit, climate change denial, the anti-abortion and anti-LGBT+ network, anti anti-racism, cryptocurrencies, covid disinformation and the anti-vax movement, how much do these various elements of the radical right interlink with the nodes in this network map?
There is a considerable overlap which I will be exploring over a series of mapping exercises like this one.
I used a simple tool to put these together and will be publishing the diagrams for paid subscribers to have a play with.
Further Reading
Byline Times Bannon, Epstein, Farage and Johnson and the Plot to ‘Topple’ Theresa May
A bad week for trump will be when he and his crime gang are held accountable. Not a minute before.
I’ve thought that since they started. They mostly attack women and children!