1 The exemplar of such reporting is Nick Davies’ book Hack Attack, Chatto & Windus, 2014.
2 For instance, Carillion employed the PR firm Spada, named after a Greek sword, which continually monitored social and mainstream media activity and the Blacklist Support Group in particular. That included sending pictures of BSG protests. Spada has since merged with another company to form Infinite Spada. Laing O’Rourke was given a profile of author Phil Chamberlain by its media-monitoring outfit.
4 Oral evidence given to Scottish Affairs Select Committee on 19 June 2012
8 ‘The Family’, Building magazine, 1999.
9 merchantventurers.com/about-us/membership
10 Interview with the authors.
11 Interview with the authors.
13 ‘Government “unlikely” to bar blacklist firms from public work, Building, 20 May 2014, nin.tl/unlikelytobar
14 Interview with the authors.
15 Mark Hollingsworth and Richard Norton-Taylor, Blacklist: the inside story of political vetting, Hogarth Press, 1988, p 229.
16 Scottish Affairs Select Committee, Blacklisting in employment: interim report, 26 March 2013.