HoZ scoops dirty money and politics expose from Geoghegan

Head of Zeus has scooped an investigation by journalist Peter Geoghegan into how dirty money has subverted democracy and led to the rise of populism.

Publisher Neil Belton acquired world rights to Democracy For Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics from the David Grossman Literary Agency. The book will be published on the Apollo list on 14th May 2020 as a trade paperback and e-book.

The synopsis explains: “Democracy For Sale is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery have destroyed trust in democracy and fuelled the rise of populism in Britain and across the West. Speaking to leading players from across the political spectrum, the book delves deep behind the headlines to deliver a colourful, incisive account of a broken politics.”

Geoghegan is an Irish writer, broadcaster and investigations editor at openDemocracy. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Review of Books and dozens of other publications. He is a founder of the award-winning investigative website the Ferret and was nominated for a 2019 British Journalism award and the Paul Foot award for his investigations into the Brexit referendum. His 2014 book, The People's Referendum: Why Scotland Will Never Be the Same Again (Luath), was nominated for the Saltire First Book Award. 

He said: “The rules that govern our politics don’t work anymore. Anonymous money and lobbying flows into our political system in ways that we cannot see. Online misinformation is rife. The law-breaking that took place in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the disinformation that we saw in the 2019 general election will happen again and again. Unless we understand how our democracy is broken we cannot begin to fix it.”

Belton added: “What are called 'populist' forces are often unwittingly manipulated by people who control very large sums of money, which they can now channel into politics using the astonishing speed and opacity of digital media—and electoral law is limping to catch up with them. Peter Geoghegan has been tracking these flows of dark money for years and his book is both a powerful indictment of shady corporate operators and a compelling alarm call for reform of our political system, especially of our electoral process, which marginalises so many varieties of political opinion. This is an important book.”