The government’s proposed new rules will allow a flood of toxic chemicals to be sold in the UK. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd July 2025 It’s what the extreme right of the Tory party wanted from Brexit: to tear down crucial public protections, including those that defend us from the most brutal […]
corporate power
Astonishingly, the Tufton Street junktanks that shaped Liz Truss’s agenda are still operating at the heart of government. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th September 2025 Forgive me if I’ve got this wrong, but I seem to recall the country voting the Tories out last year. Part of the reason, if I remember […]
This is how Labour’s war on regulations will stymie its own policies. It is irrational and self-destructive. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th February 2025 This might sound astonishing, but the UK government’s core programme now appears to be the same as Donald Trump’s: dismantling the administrative state. There’s less theatre, but the […]
Hidden in the detail of the UK’s carbon capture and storage scheme are unlimited financial liabilities and huge environmental costs. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th October 2024 This will be Keir Starmer’s HS2: a hugely expensive scheme that will either be abandoned, scaled back or require massive extra funding to continue, after […]
There’s a new asset class being traded between corporations. It’s called children in care. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 18 May 2024 I’m a patron of a small local charity that helps struggling children to rebuild trust and connection. It’s called Sirona Therapeutic Horsemanship, and it works by bringing them together with rescued […]
Thanks to neoliberalism, government in the UK feels like one long trick played on the people. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 10th May 2024. The news should have stopped us in our tracks. Astonishingly, however, it was scarcely reported here. The latest map of mental wellbeing published by the Global Mind Project reveals […]
Why do so many people obsess about false conspiracies, but ignore the real ones? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 4th May 2024 I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I […]
How do HS2 and other white elephants get commissioned? It’s clientelism – the subtle form of corruption. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 28th September 2023 In 2010, when a high-speed rail line from London to the north – HS2 – was proposed by the outgoing Labour government, I wrote an article arguing that […]
Why do we put up with daily assaults on our health? It has everything to do with corporate power. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 22nd September 2023 There are some things we rightly find intolerable, such as the possession of poorly trained, aggressive dogs. There are other things, whose impacts are many thousands […]
The remarkable story behind the disciplining of a major charity shows how power really works. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 8th September 2023 Economic power seldom needs to discipline those who might challenge it. Most of the time, they do it to themselves. However extreme the ideologies promoted by corporations and oligarchs, organisational […]