Butler to the World

May 2, 2022
Britain and its overseas territories have spent decades soliciting ill-gained fortunes, according to this impressively detailed and frequently enraging exposé. Journalist Bullough (Moneyland) examines how decolonization in the 1950s left Britain “essentially broke” and in need of foreign investment. He also details how budget cuts in the wake of the 2007–2008 financial crisis led police to stop “showing interest in cases of financial crime... just as the spread of online banking and payments made fraud easier than it had ever been,” and explains that notaries, who handle some property transactions, have been regulated by an obscure office under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury since the reign of Henry VIII. On a tour of Britain’s overseas territories, Bullough notes that officials in Gibraltar turned a blind eye to smuggling when the Royal Navy shuttered local bases in the 1980s and then authorized low-tax offshore betting on the peninsula. Spotlighting the influx of Kremlin-aligned oligarchs into England, Bullough also details how British officials including Prince Philip feted Dmitry Firtash, a “cash-rich” oil executive who funded pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine and bought a disused Tube station in London for £53 million. Lucid explanations of complex financial matters and a simmering sense of outrage distinguish this timely investigation into how Britain sacrificed its principles for pounds.