My condiments to the jury. It mustard been a tough session. Very easy to find yourself in a pickle but some people would relish the chance to get their teeth into a meaty case like this.

🚨 NEW: We wrote to the Chancellor, urging her not to leave billions lost to illicit finance and tax-related crimes on the table ahead of the upcoming budget. www.ukanticorruptioncoalition.org/work/our-let...

Inexplicable why the UK govt and associated accounts are still Twittering. On our podcast I mentioned Musk as a wannabe enemy of the state here bsky.app/profile/inst...

We need to do ultra-masculine fascism, like in J.R.R Tolkien's famous book, "Lord of the here's why Ultra-Masculine Fascism is evil, stupid and self defeating. Under no circumstances do it you fucking clowns."

Elon Musk is once again inciting violence on British streets because the government has taught him there are literally no consequences for doing so. They even carry on using his far-right social network to promote government policy as he does it. The absence of backbone is *astounding*.

It’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that large parts of Westminster remaining on X - a platform that tolerates and amplifies extremism and racism - has led a great many people to normalise what previously was unacceptable.

I'll also be frank: whether he is a "friend of the working class" is goddamn irrelevant. He is the democratically elected constitutional guarantor of the Ukrainian People, who serves at their wish and their mandate. It is not for Sultana to discuss who she, Not a Ukrainian, would prefer as president

👇 Crypto donations are back in the news. For a quick summary of why they could be problematic and what could be done about them, check out this article from last week by @timpicton.bsky.social.

👇 Great reporting from @catneilan.bsky.social and @theobserveruk.bsky.social. We'll be covering the sentencing of Nathan Gill next month after he pleaded guilty to 8️⃣ Russia-linked #bribery charges in a case that has huge implications for addressing #foreigninterference in UK politics.

⚖️ Last week saw a dramatic twist in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s #SLAPPs case against Hamlins solicitor Christopher Hutchings for allegedly making an improper legal threat against a journalist who wrote about a high-profile corruption scandal involving the theft of billions of dollars. 1/5

So, another week when we'll continue to ignore the increasingly obvious issue of political radicalisation via social media? And indeed the tied issue of the large tech companies who promote this, and the tech bros who see this as some sort of move to a utopian paradise governed by them?

👇 This is a tremendous bit of work by my @spotlightcorruption.org colleagues @megandavis-lawthor.bsky.social and Helen Taylor

📨 Our newsletter went out to subscribers yesterday. It features stories on crypto donations to political parties, the launch of @ethicsandintegrity.bsky.social and news of some great public events coming up! ✍️ Sign up at our website to receive future issues: www.spotlightcorruption.org/newsletter/

👏 Brilliant to see Crossbench Peer Lord Cromwell set out the case in today's debate on the Crime and Policing Bill for securing desperately needed funding for the fight against #EconomicCrime by reinvesting seized assets and fines back into enforcement agencies.

💥The first crypto donation to a UK political party has been made – but what should happen next? @timpicton.bsky.social sets out what guidance the @electoralcommission.org.uk could issue right now, and takes a look at how the forthcoming #ElectionsBill could deal with potential future risks.

Interesting piece. But it's not just about channels, it's about a larger crisis in government comms - and in society - which is not a new thing and goes back perhaps 15 years. Put simply, the Whitehall comms machine has lost the ability to win arguments.

🎙️Our executive director @suehawley.bsky.social will be talking to @stephensackur.bsky.social on @listentotimesradio.bsky.social at 1.30pm today about the case of Nathan Gill, Reform UK's former leader in Wales, who pleaded guilty to #bribery charges last month. For more on the case, see our article👇

Go get your @privateeyenews.bsky.social folks and buckle up for another incredible report by @rbrooks45.bsky.social on the Teeside development - a tale of insane #cronyism and #profiteering at taxpayer expense. @csc-barrington.bsky.social @ethicsandintegrity.bsky.social

🚪🔚 Party Conferences Season 2025 comes to a close. 🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ We've been busy! 🌎 From Bournemouth to Aberdeen, Manchester to Liverpool, we discussed the urgent need to fight corruption, tackle dirty, and restore trust in our politics. ❤️ Thanks to all of you who joined us -- see you next year!

🏃 Spotlight Associate and running aficionado @justinlmoore.bsky.social has completed another long run in Spotlight's colours! He completed a half marathon trail run through the scenic Chiltern Hills this weekend. Great job raising awareness about our work fighting corruption, Justin!

Good to see @ethicsandintegrity.bsky.social officially begin its important work today although serious gaps remain. The EIC will be crucial if the UK is to make progress in driving up standards in public life and reversing the public’s scathing opinion of our politics, which is at record lows. A 🧵:

₿ Big win for the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service this week as Chinese ‘BitQueen’ Yadi Zhang and her fixer Hok Seng Ling pleaded guilty to money laundering. Recovering the £5.5 billion worth of Bitcoin will be a key test of the UK's toolkit to tackle criminal crypto assets:

All to avoid the shame of acknowledging the horrible, psychologically troubling truth. Labour has for a long time been a party of the PMC, by the PMC, for the PMC. It’s just, here’s the thing about the PMC. They are the electoral majority. And they are how Labour won, will win, and can only win. n/n

🔥 EVENT: "Who Pays, Who Decides? Big Money in British Politics" Our executive director @suehawley.bsky.social joins Baroness Hodge, @liambyrnemp.bsky.social, @duncanhames.bsky.social, & @edhodgsoned.bsky.social on the panel for this crucial discussion at 4.30pm today. Check out the details below 👇

⚠️ Our Democracy in Danger report warns that ministers’ power over the @electoralcommission.org.uk “could easily be abused to undermine our democracy.” The previous govt introduced measures to allow them to set the Commission’s strategy and policy, curtailing the regulator's independence.

This is *really* important. Our elections regulator isn’t independent. Reform’s Arron Banks has said the Electoral Commission should be abolished The architecture of British democracy is really weak and easily ripped out. It needs to be protected now

💥 The independence of @electoralcommission.org.uk must be fully restored to safeguard the UK’s electoral integrity from a future authoritarian government, our new report warns. Covered exclusively by Rowena Mason in today’s @theguardian.com 👇

Later on Monday we've got a fantastic panel to be looking at the role of big money in UK politics with @transparencyuk.bsky.social and @spotlightcorruption.org

*rummages around in archive* "yep, knew it was here somewhere"

I hadn’t realised quite how contemptible the offences were.

🚨 BREAKING: The former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, has pleaded guilty to #bribery, admitting he received corrupt payments as a Brexit Party MEP in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

The UK has a real problem with enforcing our most basic laws and regulations. Police just don’t seem to care so you get situations where violations can be an open secret for years and get tackled only when it makes the papers and the police get embarrassed.

📺 Fantastic to see @spotlightcorruption.org’s research included in the brilliant ITV documentary ‘The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money’, which was screened on Sunday night. Here’s @suehawley.bsky.social explaining how much of the PPE sourced from the VIP Lane turned out to be unusable.

More than anything, the MAGA phenomenon is about letting an incredibly stupid man have near-absolute power.

Small boats: TV coverage - day after day after day after day.... PPE scandal: TV coverage - let's stick this powerful, enraging documentary on at quarter past ten on a Sunday night.

Labour MPs are pushing ministers to delay the long-anticipated Elections Bill to include a ban on crypto being used for political donations observer.co.uk/news/politic...

I wish we were still in his world. It's a disaster for the centre-left that every election is existential. That the costs of losing power are so high. But that's where we are.

A genuinely terrifying post from Sam - we’re going to distract ourselves to death and there doesn’t seem to be anything anyone can do about it. 😬

I've got a new book coming out. Everything you wanted to know about why the world is so bad at stopping money laundering, with a surprise side detour to Bicester Village. You can pre-order it here: geni.us/OliverBullough

This is actually really big and very welcome. Unannounced amidst yesterday’s Hillsborough Law are new provisions to upgrade the UK’s archaic misconduct in public office offence. Big win for @spotlightcorruption.org. Here’s our analysis @bricksilk.bsky.social @csc-barrington.bsky.social

🚨 Will politicians *finally* face real risk of prosecution? The new draft #HillsboroughLaw completely rewrites the UK’s misconduct in public office laws. This is a big win for @spotlightcorruption.org which has campaigned for several years to get this done.

This is good and realises the difficulty and gives the accommodationist argument a fair shake before coming down on what I think is the right side.

My most centrist dad take is that most governing politicians deserve sympathy because almost every policy that's actually any good for the country is unpopular, and almost every popular policy is probably bad. Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/

TLDR: Make racism shameful again. While you’re at it add fascism too.

Want to be clear that the predictable violence against the police wasn't the only problem with yesterday's march It's that 100,000 angry racists gathered in London for the biggest racist march in 50 years, and anyone not white had to steer clear The govt can't see that because they are inadequate.

Today would be a very good day for the UK govt to delete its accounts on X.

London’s South Bank this evening

📣I am very pleased to announce my book "VIP Lane" which covers 5 years of investigation uncovering the previous governments PPE procurement scandal + much more is now on sale. 👀 Buy a copy here: viplanebook.com 🚨Now the subject of a major ITV documentary hitting the screen next week. 🧵

Of course the other big effect of slash and burn deregulation is to make anyone who invested in good business practices feel like an idiot as they get out competed by lower cost cowboy operators