U.S. accused of meddling in British politics with $500,000 grant for ‘public education’ courses
The US embassy in London is offering grants of up to half a million dollars for new “public education” programmes in what has been criticised as interference in British domestic politics.
Using language that the pro-Trump Maga movement has sought to appropriate, a funding notice identifies a goal of fostering a “national conversation” about “shared civilizational values” underpinning US-UK ties. Priority will go to applicants aiming to celebrate “freedom of speech” and “limited government”.
It comes after senior Trump officials voiced sharp criticism of British authorities and repeated misinformation on a range of fronts including abortion and digital regulation, and allied with European far-right movements in attacks on hate speech and immigration policies.
The grants appear to be separate from other grants of $12m which the US state department is planning to allocate to organisations in the UK founded by the prominent Conservatives Jacob Rees-Mogg and Toby Young.
Those intended grants, revealed in US government documents leaked to the Guardian, are part of a package of support for European groups viewed favourably by the Trump administration.
However, the US government has now been accused of “meddling in British democracy” after documents published on the US embassy’s website invited charities, non-profit organisations and others to apply for grants under a scheme labelled “Liberty Under Law: The Shared Anglo-American Tradition”.
It seeks “innovative, high-visibility public education and civic-engagement programs” that “deepen public understanding of the shared Anglo-American common law tradition” and to commemorate the 70th anniversary next year of the American Bar Association (ABA)’s unveiling of the Magna Carta memorial in Runnymede.
The ABA – which is not involved in the grant scheme – is suing the Trump administration over alleged intimidation of lawyers and legal firms. European counterparts including the Law Society and the Bar Association in Britain have voiced support for US lawyers claiming that the US president’s attacks on law firms bear similarities to events in Nazi Germany. [Continue reading…]