Atlantic Bridge

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The Atlantic Bridge Research and Education Scheme was an educational charity founded in 1997 (?? wayback machine says "launched Nov.19.2002, ref) with Margaret Thatcher as its president to promote Atlanticism, an ideology of cooperation between the UK and the USA regarding political, economic, and defence issues. It was set up by Liam Fox, former Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom.[1] Cabinet ministers Michael Gove, George Osborne and William Hague,[2] and Chris Grayling have previously sat on its advisory panel, as have American senators Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. The organisation's principal staff included Catherine Bray (US Executive Director), Adam Werritty (UK Executive Director) and Kara Watt (Operations Director).[2] It was dissolved in Sept.2011, following a critical report from the Charity Commission the previous year.[3][4] (WP)

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Articles

  • Apr.14.2017: The Birth of Brexit. In 1997, Liam Fox founded a Think Tank called Atlantic Bridge under the patronage of Margaret Thatcher. Past directors, or "Advisory Council" members of Atlantic Bridge included Michael Gove, George Osborne, William Hague, Boris Johnson, Norman Tebbit, Malcom Rifkind and Chris Grayling. If you wanted to cast a net over this lot, they would all be found clustered together way over on the extreme right hand side of British politics. (Notice lots of Cabinet material there too). This is a snapshot of the state of play 10 years later in 2007, and the similarity between this group and the Brexit Gang is 'probably' not a coincidence.
    In 2011, the Atlantic Bridge was found to have been be registered as a charity way back in 1997. Quite how the propagation of far right politics and the delights of offshore banking and the navigation of private yachts in deep water tax havens ever justified charitable status we will probably never know, but unfortunately for TAB they were investigated and found not to be a Charity at all.[1] In a normal and sane world, those people found running a charity under false pretences would be prosecuted. Atlantic Bridge however, just closed its doors for business and quietly slipped away into obscurity.
    With the UK buttress of the charitable Atlantic Bridge having taken a knock financially by virtue of now having to be a business and pay taxes, the US buttress called "The Atlantic Bridge Inc." carried on business as usual with a team comprising the heady distillation of US neo-conservatism, among others, James Inhofe, Jon Kyl and Jim DeMint. The Dangerous Globe.
  • Feb.02.2017: How corporate dark money is taking power on both sides of the Atlantic. A secretive network of business lobbyists has long held sway in US politics. Now their allies in the UK govt are planning a Brexit that plays into their hands. In 1997, the year the Conservatives lost office to Tony Blair, Liam Fox, who is on the hard right of the Conservative party, founded an organisation called The Atlantic Bridge. Its patron was Margaret Thatcher. On its advisory council sat future cabinet ministers Michael Gove, George Osborne, William Hague and Chris Grayling. Fox, a leading campaigner for Brexit, described the mission of Atlantic Bridge as “to bring people together who have common interests”. It would defend these interests from “European integrationists who would like to pull Britain away from its relationship with the United States”. Atlantic Bridge was later registered as a charity. In fact it was part of the UK’s own dark money network: only after it collapsed did we discover the full story of who had funded it. Its main sponsor was the immensely rich Michael Hintze, who worked at Goldman Sachs before setting up the hedge fund CQS. Hintze is one of the Conservative party’s biggest donors. In 2012 he was revealed as a funder of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which casts doubt on the science of climate change. As well as making cash grants and loans to Atlantic Bridge, he lent Fox his private jet to fly to and from Washington. Another funder was the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It paid for a researcher at Atlantic Bridge called Gabby Bertin. She went on to become David Cameron’s press secretary, and now sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Bertin: Cameron gave her a life peerage in his resignation honours list. (lots more, enough for a timeline. George Monbiot, The Guardian.

References

  1. ^ Liam Fox resignation exposes Tory links to US radical right. Toby Helm, Jamie Doward, The Guardian, Oc.15.2011.