Exclusive: George Galloway will fund his London mayoral campaign using crowdfunding

In a soon-to-be-aired episode of “The Keiser Report,” British MP George Galloway will announce he is exploring a bid for London Mayor, financed with crowdfunding.

Mr. Galloway’s crowdfunded documentary film project, “The Killing of Tony Blair” hit its funding target in less than a week and is now set to almost double the amount initially sought from crowdfunders, who pledge donations of anywhere from $5 to $5,000 to get their name on the credits of the film, and other premiums such as a lunch date with George and exclusive invitations to screenings.

On my show, I ask George: “When you apply crowdfunding to politics, you end up with something called democracy. How did we get so far away from democratic ideals that we had to reinvent it in the 21st century, and why not use crowdfunding to finance your run for mayor of London?”

Galloway’s answer is revealing. I encourage you to watch the show when it airs on RT.

But I think you can pretty much guess what the answer is. Democracy is dead. It’s been ‘corporatized’ and now it’s only a brand concept that’s been co-opted by big business as a way to get people over extended on predatory pay-day loans, GMO food, sugary food substitutes, compromised technology products that act as spy instruments for these same kleptocrats and movies made in Hollywood pushing “freedom’ and “democracy” while the prison population in America sets new all-time highs every year. America now has the biggest prison population of any country on Earth.

Crowdfunding is a remarkable innovation. I remember being very excited about it when I launched one of the first such platforms in the early 2000s based on technology I had invented in the mid-1990s. Since then, several companies have built substantial platforms and hundreds of millions of dollars have gone toward financing entrepreneurs and artists in ways that would never have happened otherwise.

In the case of politics, though, crowdfunding might finally meet its ultimate destiny. It’s a silent “Declaration of Independence” written by a new wave of entrepreneurs who are also embracing the crypto-currency bitcoin as an expression of liberty.

Coverage on “The Keiser Report” probably helped George Galloway meet his funding target for his new film, “The Killing of Tony Blair.” It will be interesting to see whether his experiment in appealing for crowdfunding on our show will also help his innovative bid for London Mayor.

It’s all happening. In London’s Silicon Roundabout tech startup hub there are a number of initiatives involving crowdfunding and bitcoin I’m hearing about that will transform both business and politics in the UK.

The UK business and politics landscape is about to get disrupted in a very big way. The cozy relationship between bankers, politicians and the media (read: the BBC) has destroyed any pretense of impartiality, equity, and representational democracy in Britain.  

George Galloway is part of a new wave of social media-aware politicians in the UK who, after decades of observing the rot and ineffectiveness of the system from within, has not lost his zeal as a reformer and he’s got plans to take the UK out of its rut.  

As financial insiders who report on the rotten and wicked on Wall Street and the City of London, we too have not lost our taste for truth and reform.

2014 looks like it’s shaping up to be a very interesting year for politics and finance in the UK.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.