The REAL ‘Shadow Cabinet’ (Part One)

by Joe St Clair

For a long time now, many enlightened thinkers have shared the view that most, if not all, global leaders are mere ‘puppets’ controlled by unseen, unaccountable and unelected string-pullers who remain silently in the shadows. In the UK for example, Rishi Sunak, just like Boris Johnson, has represented the public face of government supported by his Cabinet of equally visible ministers. But do they really control all the key policy decisions and law-making activities that affect us all? Or are there ‘influencers’ operating at a higher level that the public are completely unaware of? And is it these influencers who actually make the decisions that our government then publicly deliver to the masses and the media?

Whenever I have dared to air this view in public I am usually derided as just another ‘conspiracy theorist’ talking nonsense. I am told by sceptical ‘realists’ that it would be impossible for all world governments to be controlled in this way – and I am also assured that as far as the UK is concerned, if such a shadowy group existed, the public would surely know about it.

However, for me, the nagging feeling that I could be right refused to go away. All I knew for certain was that I was not alone in my suspicions. Various figures in government are frequently asked the question about ‘hidden advisors’ during many video and radio interviews that I have watched or listened to over the years. It has always been vehemently denied by the government of course – and it still is to this day.

Then, in 2019, along came the Covid pandemic and the world we thought we knew changed overnight with the imposition of lockdowns, social distancing and mask wearing. Every night on the BBC we were bombarded with scary statistics while Boris and his ‘Public Health England’ (PHE) cohorts told us what we could or couldn’t do. My nagging feeling came back. Was it really Boris and PHE steering the Covid ‘ship’ or were those shadowy figures (who officially don’t exist) back to work again, pulling the puppet strings?  My question was finally answered from a most unexpected source – a lead article in ‘The Sunday Times’ newspaper entitled, ‘The Shadowy Cabinet’. Given a full two-page spread as well as a front-page headline with the tagline, “Billionaires joined secret advisory board”, it seems that all my intuitions were absolutely correct, and my suspicions were finally vindicated.

Investigative journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Henry Zeffman were not pulling any punches. Their Sunday Times article starts with reference to the leaked photo, taken on May 15^th, 2020, that started the ‘Partygate’ fiasco, showing Boris and his staff enjoying an unmasked garden party at the height of lockdown. The journalists then get straight to the point:

“It can now be revealed that another previously unreported event was taking place on the same day, inside No 10, one which perhaps offers a starker illustration of the way power works.”

That ‘unreported event’ which started at 3pm was a virtual, online, meeting of Boris’s ‘Advisory Board’ – a secret group of ultra-wealthy Conservative Party donors. An Advisory Board which officially does not exist.

The journalists then added:

“The fact that the Board is a Conservative, rather than government body, means its activities fall outside the remit of transparency laws.  Members are allegedly told not to record or take notes of meetings or discuss the group publicly. The party has refused to say who its members were, what its purpose was, or how often it gathered”.

Now, however, thousands of leaked documents are starting to reveal the truth. What has been revealed is that these anonymous ‘Advisory Board’ members, with a combined worth exceeding £30bn, have direct access to current as well as previous Prime Ministers, as well as a considerable influence over the decisions they make. In short:

“They (the Advisory Board) have been granted the contact details of ministers and advisors and some have used them to lobby the government directly on Covid-19 strategy and procurement. Some have received lucrative public contracts approved by ministers and signed off by Johnson”.

Some commentators have argued that there is nothing inherently wrong with a government listening to the views of their biggest private funders, and that is a fair point. But it seems this particular ‘Advisory Board’ is not content to simply share their views and opinions. The leaked documents reveal that the government welcomes the Board’s ‘thought leadership’ with regard to policy and political direction and in return, “They get privileged insight into what was happening in GCHQ, Downing Street and Whitehall”.

One ‘insider’ summarised what was expected of an approved Advisory Board member thus:

“It’s about making sure the Tories continue being in power, whatever we need to do – how to raise more money, how to get the message spread, how to ensure policies get designed that are business-friendly”.

For example, one of the named Advisory Board members, the wife of one of Vladimir Putin’s senior ministers no-less, allegedly used her position on the Board to lobby against the tax burden on high net-worth individuals and stressed the importance of the ultra-rich for the overall economy. According to the intelligence gathered by the journalists the main item on the Agenda on May 15th, 2020, however, was how the pandemic could be ‘managed’ in such a way that the Advisory Board’s personal wealth and business investments would not be compromised or negatively affected by Covid (!)

Meetings took place approximately every two months and no minutes of those meetings seem to exist. As the journalists make clear:

“Even the existence of the Advisory Board has never before been disclosed, let alone its meetings”.

The Sunday Times feature lists the full names and photos of the fourteen Advisory Board members as well as information about each person’s livelihood, net worth, donations made to the Conservative party and other information – including examples of their leaked emails relating to their involvement. When asked to comment about their involvement on the Advisory Board by the two journalists, all the participants declined to comment.

The Sunday Times Editor’s comment on this article says it all:

“When the party receiving money is in government, a standard of integrity must apply to stop donors crossing the line between supporting that party and influencing policy. Unsurprisingly, this is a standard Mr Johnson’s government seemed unable or unwilling to uphold”.

So, there it is. The ‘Advisory Board’ that officially doesn’t exist, is still there today and calling the shots behind the scenes. Rishi Sunak is obliged to simply ‘do as he is told’. At last, the truth has been fully exposed about the corruption and deception at the heart of our ‘democratic’ government led by a group of wealthy party donors that we are supposed to know nothing about. Will this expose make a difference? I doubt it.

For me, only one very important question remains and it is this. Who might be pulling the strings of those Advisory Board members?

(In Part Two we delve into more detail and expose the truth about how the inner workings of our government are manipulated and controlled by these individuals hiding in the shadows)