Democracy For Sale: Longford author, Peter Geoghegan, talks Brexit and politics

The infiltration of undisclosed donations in British politics is the subject of local man, Peter Geoghegan’s latest book, Democracy For Sale, which is due to be launched in early August.

Brexit has been the most significant decision in modern British political history. It was a vote with repercussions around the world, not least in the United States. But the money and influence that delivered it was far from the grass-roots campaign often depicted in the media.

In Democracy for Sale, Peter documents the rise of dark money on both sides of the Atlantic, showing how it has circumvented – and corrupted – democratic mechanisms.

We hear first-hand from the new generation of political communications gurus who have made data the most priceless commodity in politics, and step inside the transatlantic think-tank world, where secret money can buy serious influence.

We meet the whistle-blowers and transparency activists fighting against the increasing influence of money in politics, and see how easy it is to evade the cash-strapped regulators vainly struggling to police our democracy.

Peter grew up in College Park, Longford, and went to school in St Mel’s College before going to college. He did a PhD in Edinburgh and graduated in 2008, but always did freelance journalism while he was in college.

“I had a very circuitous route into journalism. I was working in the art college in Belfast as a researcher on a project in Derry,” he explained.

“I used to freelance a lot in Belfast for an arts website, which was funded by the Arts Council. And when my contract ended, they offered me a job on ridiculously small wages. I’d always wanted to get into journalism so I took the job. That was 2008 and I worked as a journalist. I ended up working at papers in Scotland for quite a while. I was stringing a lot for the Irish Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, stuff like that.”

He wrote a book about the Scottish referendum in 2014 called The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again, which was nominated for a Saltire book award.

“In 2015, I got onto Channel 4’s Dispatches training scheme for investigative journalism, where basically Channel 4 train you for six months and you work for dispatches on investigations,” Peter explained.

“That directed my career quite a lot. I started to do a lot of investigations. I worked on a number of dispatches for Channel 4 and I started doing a lot more longer investigations.”

Peter is mostly based in London now, but spent a lot of time in Scotland. The last few years, he said, were defined by a trip he took to Sunderland when he was stringing for the Irish Times.

“They sent me to Sunderland, which is in the northeast of England, and it became a big symbol of the Brexit referendum because they voted overwhelmingly to leave,” he said.

“I went there just before the referendum to write a colour piece from Sunderland on what the vibe was like, how things were looking, talking to people on the street, that kind of thing. I was there for a couple of days and it was very interesting.

“But the most interesting thing, actually, was I was getting the train out of Sunderland and they had the Metro newspaper on the train. And I started reading it and on the front page of the newspaper was a big advert that said ‘take back control’, which was a ‘vote leave’ slogan. And on the back of the newspaper was a little logo that said ‘paid for by the Democratic Unionist Party’.”

It all snowballed from there. Six months later, Peter found himself working with a journalist friend, Alan Ramsey, doing some digging around the topic and wrote a series of investigative pieces, which exposed a number of previously unknown facts about the money that was going into the Brexit campaign.

“We were able to say that the DUP had spent at least a quarter of a million pounds, which was five times as much as they’d spent on the previous Stormont election a few weeks earlier - that’s a lot of money from the DUP.”

The book, he said, is the combination of three years of work and investigation into the topic, with in-depth interviews with senior politicians and experts on electoral law.

“I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity, because as a journalist, you’re often doing things that are day to day. It’s in today’s paper and then it dies,” Peter told the Longford Leader.

“It was quite nice to have an opportunity to put a narrative on it and to tell a coherent story. It’s written very straight. I don’t really come down on a side but it’s interesting just to get a chance to put it all together in one space.”

Unfortunately, the book launch got “coronavirused”, as Peter put it. Its launch was initially set for May but, due to Covid-19, has been set for August 6 instead.

In fact, Covid-19 has changed a lot for Peter since he came home to Longford in March with the intention to stay a short time. At the time of going to print, the local man was still in the county and enjoying his time at home.

“It’s been interesting. Maybe like a lot of people, I found the start of it quite difficult,” he said.

“It’s been the longest I’ve been back in Longford. Last year I was back for a month to write this book and that would’ve been the longest I was back in about 20 years, so to be back again for this length of time has been really interesting.

“And I think, journalistically, workwise and personally, the start of it was quite difficult and I think it was hard to figure out how to work in this new way. I’d often be meeting sources for coffees, and out and about quite a lot. So being back in the house was strange. And even trying to figure out the role of a journalist at that time was quite strange.

“But I feel like I kind of got into it. I’ve been fishing, I’ve been camping, I’ve canoed along the Camlin, I’ve set up a hammock in the back garden. I’ve really enjoyed not being in the city, actually. I’ve appreciated Longford in ways I didn’t appreciate it before, I have to say. That’s been really nice. That’s been really positive.

“I’m lucky as well that I can work from anywhere and that’s been very useful to me. I feel very fortunate. Some people have jobs that you just cannot do from home.”

Democracy For Sale will be available from August 6 in all good book stores and is currently available to preorder on Amazon.The infiltration of undisclosed donations in British politics is the subject of local man, Peter Geoghegan’s latest book, Democracy For Sale, which is due to be launched in early August.

Brexit has been the most significant decision in modern British political history. It was a vote with repercussions around the world, not least in the United States. But the money and influence that delivered it was far from the grass-roots campaign often depicted in the media.

In Democracy for Sale, Peter documents the rise of dark money on both sides of the Atlantic, showing how it has circumvented – and corrupted – democratic mechanisms.

We hear first-hand from the new generation of political communications gurus who have made data the most priceless commodity in politics, and step inside the transatlantic think-tank world, where secret money can buy serious influence.

We meet the whistle-blowers and transparency activists fighting against the increasing influence of money in politics, and see how easy it is to evade the cash-strapped regulators vainly struggling to police our democracy.

Peter grew up in College Park, Longford, and went to school in St Mel’s College before going to college. He did a PhD in Edinburgh and graduated in 2008, but always did freelance journalism while he was in college.

“I had a very circuitous route into journalism. I was working in the art college in Belfast as a researcher on a project in Derry,” he explained.

“I used to freelance a lot in Belfast for an arts website, which was funded by the Arts Council. And when my contract ended, they offered me a job on ridiculously small wages. I’d always wanted to get into journalism so I took the job. That was 2008 and I worked as a journalist. I ended up working at papers in Scotland for quite a while. I was stringing a lot for the Irish Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, stuff like that.”

He wrote a book about the Scottish referendum in 2014 called The People’s Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again, which was nominated for a Saltire book award.

“In 2015, I got onto Channel 4’s Dispatches training scheme for investigative journalism, where basically Channel 4 train you for six months and you work for dispatches on investigations,” Peter explained.

“That directed my career quite a lot. I started to do a lot of investigations. I worked on a number of dispatches for Channel 4 and I started doing a lot more longer investigations.”

Peter is mostly based in London now, but spent a lot of time in Scotland. The last few years, he said, were defined by a trip he took to Sunderland when he was stringing for the Irish Times.

“They sent me to Sunderland, which is in the northeast of England, and it became a big symbol of the Brexit referendum because they voted overwhelmingly to leave,” he said.

“I went there just before the referendum to write a colour piece from Sunderland on what the vibe was like, how things were looking, talking to people on the street, that kind of thing. I was there for a couple of days and it was very interesting.

“But the most interesting thing, actually, was I was getting the train out of Sunderland and they had the Metro newspaper on the train. And I started reading it and on the front page of the newspaper was a big advert that said ‘take back control’, which was a ‘vote leave’ slogan. And on the back of the newspaper was a little logo that said ‘paid for by the Democratic Unionist Party’.”

It all snowballed from there. Six months later, Peter found himself working with a journalist friend, Alan Ramsey, doing some digging around the topic and wrote a series of investigative pieces, which exposed a number of previously unknown facts about the money that was going into the Brexit campaign.

“We were able to say that the DUP had spent at least a quarter of a million pounds, which was five times as much as they’d spent on the previous Stormont election a few weeks earlier - that’s a lot of money from the DUP.”

The book, he said, is the combination of three years of work and investigation into the topic, with in-depth interviews with senior politicians and experts on electoral law.

“I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity, because as a journalist, you’re often doing things that are day to day. It’s in today’s paper and then it dies,” Peter told the Longford Leader.

“It was quite nice to have an opportunity to put a narrative on it and to tell a coherent story. It’s written very straight. I don’t really come down on a side but it’s interesting just to get a chance to put it all together in one space.”

Unfortunately, the book launch got “coronavirused”, as Peter put it. Its launch was initially set for May but, due to Covid-19, has been set for August 6 instead.

In fact, Covid-19 has changed a lot for Peter since he came home to Longford in March with the intention to stay a short time. At the time of going to print, the local man was still in the county and enjoying his time at home.

“It’s been interesting. Maybe like a lot of people, I found the start of it quite difficult,” he said.

“It’s been the longest I’ve been back in Longford. Last year I was back for a month to write this book and that would’ve been the longest I was back in about 20 years, so to be back again for this length of time has been really interesting.

“And I think, journalistically, workwise and personally, the start of it was quite difficult and I think it was hard to figure out how to work in this new way. I’d often be meeting sources for coffees, and out and about quite a lot. So being back in the house was strange. And even trying to figure out the role of a journalist at that time was quite strange.

“But I feel like I kind of got into it. I’ve been fishing, I’ve been camping, I’ve canoed along the Camlin, I’ve set up a hammock in the back garden. I’ve really enjoyed not being in the city, actually. I’ve appreciated Longford in ways I didn’t appreciate it before, I have to say. That’s been really nice. That’s been really positive.

“I’m lucky as well that I can work from anywhere and that’s been very useful to me. I feel very fortunate. Some people have jobs that you just cannot do from home.”

Democracy For Sale will be available from August 6 in all good book stores and is currently available to preorder on Amazon.

Read also: Ballymahon’s Adrian Duncan scoops inaugural John McGahern book prize