The Brexit Scandal - Power, Profit and Populism: The Battle for Hard Brexit

Director: Tom Costello - 10/08/2023
 
Share this article
  • Bootstrap
  • Bootstrap
  • Bootstrap

What if Brexit was ultimately not about the “will of the people” at all, but about the interests of a small British elite?

Lord Bamford

This is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand how we got from a finely balanced Brexit referendum to the hard Brexit that is destroying our country today, and the small British elite that drove it, and are the only ones who will benefit.

There's a strong Staffordshire connection as the multi-millionaire Lord Bamford, chair of Staffordhire's JCB, features prominently.

Synopsis

Brexit was presented as a populist revolution against the elite. But in the years since the referendum, a group of men deep in the heart of the British establishment have been carrying out a coup of a different kind – using Brexit to try and turn Britain into a low-tax, low regulation, high finance utopia.

This revolution is funded by dark money – cash from unknown sources – which has been flooding into the British political system through mysterious front groups, opaque offshore firms, clandestine digital campaigns and corporate lobbyists in disguise.

Today dark money and shadowy influence operations continue to push an agenda that is anything but popular, and is deeply undemocratic. In this film, we follow the dark money trails to find out: who are the men who bought Brexit, and what is their vision for Britain’s future?

Reviews

"The ripples of Brexit continue to look more like giant waves. And yet for all the chatter that surrounds our separation from the European Union, do we understand how we ended up with this version of divorce? Power, Profit and Populism: The Battle For Hard Brexit is here with answers – they won’t be the ones you expect, nor will they come from the people you’d expect to give them.

Presenting this most unpalatable of topics in a bite-sized, digestible format proves a winner for Tom Costello’s documentary; as does the calm, cool narration from Semira Zadeh. They balance out the rising rage you may feel as a group of avaricious larcenists manipulate poverty, patriotism and peace for their own ends.

Coming from German documentary production firm A&O Buero, the outsider’s perspective is useful here; as are interviews, remarkably, from both sides of a most divided isle. This is a powerful, precise dissection of the methods used post-referendum to secure a particular type of Brexit; it’s also a stark warning against demagoguery and dislike of others who are simply different from us.

Ultimately, this film offers its viewers the strength to continue the battle for fairness, openness and international co-operation." - written by "Pauline Rieux" on raindance.org

Share this article
  • Bootstrap
  • Bootstrap
  • Bootstrap