Current Affairs EU In or Out
- Thread starter micknick
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As I've said numerous times the leave campaign does not represent me and people like me. They were and indeed continue to be, an embarrassment to me. Tommy Robinson and his thugs are just vile creatures. They are most certainly not my political bedfellows.
But to say that I should question my beliefs just because they use Brexit as a platform to promote their filth is like saying I should stop supporting Everton because a handful of supporters went on the razz in Millwall.
The sad fact is there are a lot of remain supporters out there who are quite happy to believe that these sickos represent the leave contingent, purely because it fits with their own image of the typical Brexit voter.
Ripped from Reddit :
A history of the BBC's abject failure to report on Vote Leave's cheating during the referendum campaign [Thread]
u/chowieuk
This week Vote Leave finally dropped their appeal against the Electoral Commission's findings that they committed the largest breach of electoral law in British political history. A breach so serious and unforeseen that our own electoral law doesn't make adequate provision for it, and one that has exposed the serious weakness of our own electoral regulator's ability to uphold our democratic functions.
Throughout the process the BBC have failed to accurately report on the issue and have provided an almost uncontested platform for those responsible to spread falsehoods and misinformation about the nature and egregiousness of the illegality. Most recently on Marr yesterday morning, where Gisele Stuart (chair of the campaign) was allowed to repeatedly state outright lies absolving herself and the campaign of responsibility. A particular highlight was her claim that they can't defend themselves 'because they destroyed all the data', or alternatively because they destroyed all the evidence.
They were of course initially found to be fully compliant, before numerous whistleblowers came forward with reams of (allegedly destroyed) data, and the 'good law project' - headed by Jolyon Maugham - launched a legal challenge.
The following thread by Jo Maugham highlights the gross failure of the 'impartial' state broadcaster to cover the story.
Threadreader / Twitter
Watchdog attacked over Vote Leave ruling - Electoral Commission faces possible legal action over dropping a probe into Brexit campaign spending.
- It begins here, when @GoodLawProject began judicial review proceedings against the Electoral Commission. A balanced piece of coverage (by Brian Wheeler.) /1
Watchdog reopens Vote Leave probe - Electoral Commission investigates why group gave £625,000 to a student just before the EU referendum.
- Next. The Electoral Commission having vigorously denied the allegations before @GoodLawProject issues proceedings it then agrees to reopen the investigation when we do. Again, fair reporting (by Brian Wheeler).
News Daily: England's World Cup win and Vote Leave 'broke electoral law'
- Next. It becomes clear to Vote Leave the Electoral Commission is going to find against it. The BBC agrees to carry a story from Matthew Elliott on the day after the England World Cup match. Look at the sequencing (and the summary "refuting the findings").
- I make this point - remember the BBC can carry this story whenever it wants - and the BBC's Editor, Live Political Programmes smears me (not for the first or last time) as a conspiracy theorist.
Gyazo
gyazo.com
Watchdog expected to find Vote Leave broke rules
- Now at this point in time, only two groups have seen the draft report: the Electoral Commission (who can't talk) and Vote Leave. No one can second guess what Matthew Elliott says about the draft report. At this stage the coverage is taken up by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.
- And here's what she reports. This is the softening up article on 21 June.
- She allows Vote Leave to mark its own homework. She doesn't come to @goodlawproject for a quote. She treats the offender's word as being of the same value as the regulator's.
Vote Leave campaign 'broke electoral law'
- And then the notorious 4 July article. Again by Laura Kuenssberg. No one else has seen the report at this stage. She doesn't come to @GoodLawProject for comment. She gives Matthew Elliot free reign. An extraordinary piece of reporting from the BBC.
Vote Leave chief Matthew Elliott defends his group following an Electoral Commission investigation.
- The BBC also, separately, carries this interview between Laura Kuenssberg and Matthew Elliott in which he is given free reign to undermine the findings of the Electoral Commission.
The Brexit campaign group is referred to the police by the Electoral Commission and fined £61,000.
- At this stage the damage is done. The hugely dominant BBC has allowed itself to be used completely to undermine the findings of the Electoral Commission that Vote Leave cheated at a time when no one else could respond.
- Here is the article the BBC publishes on the day the findings come out. No quote from @GoodLawProject. No by-line.
Brexit vote watchdog 'got law wrong'
- Then in September comes the judicial review finding in which the High Court also finds Vote Leave cheated. The BBC initially prints a highly inaccurate story and I am furious about it on twitter. Brian Wheeler eventually comes to me and amends his story.
Vote Leave drops appeal against fine
- The BBC nevertheless carries this lengthy quote from Matthew Elliott which is simply and demonstrably false. The BBC makes no effort to interrogate the falsehoods it is producing.
- There then follows a lengthy period in which the BBC carries more broadcast interviews with Leave campaigners smearing the Electoral Commission's findings. My only appearance on the BBC is back in June 2018, when I have not seen the findings and before the court judgment.
- Finally yesterday, Vote Leave admit the inevitable and throw the towel in. The BBC carries a short piece with a lengthy self-serving quote from Vote Leave. No real comparison with Vote Leave's original bluster. Again, no quote from @GoodLawProject.
- The real penalty for cheating is political. It undermines the validity of the result - a fact acknowledged even by Matthew Elliott.
- This is why the BBC's failures matter. The BBC allowed itself to be used to reduce or extinguish all political penalty.
- Lots of "what to do" questions, understandably. But nothing good can happen at the BBC for so long as its Head behaves like this
And this is just from the perspective of the legal challengers. Shahmir Sahni, the main whistleblower (there were several) has been repeatedly ignored by the media and refused airtime. In that time he's been smeared and outed as gay (he comes from a religious pakistani family) by the prime minister's own office to try and paint this as some sort of lover's tiff. He was also summarily sacked by the taxpayer's alliance (run by Matthew elliot) for seemingly turning against his Tufton Street, pro-brexit funders.
And all the while the likes of Darren Grimes (also given a cushy Tufton Street job with the IEA despite having no qualifications) who were entirely complicit have launched crowd funders against the 'biased electoral commission' and undermined the very foundations of our democracy. Almost nothing that they have said in the media bears any resemblance to reality.
E: don't even get me started on other water-muddying tactics such as Priti Patel's 'remain dossier' that supposedly proved the remain campaign had also broken the law. It was a media stunt and a joke, containing nothing but publicly available information already in the possession of the electoral commission. The EC's response to it is an amusing read
Reminder that the government themselves acknowledge on record in a court of law that it meets the threshold for annulment, were such a threshold to exist.
The BBC have been utterly woeful in regards to Brexit coverage. Scared to do even the basic levels of journalism and scrutiny.
They have relied upon channelling the simplest of arguments from either side in the debate and have done nothing to challenge when given the opportunity. They have come across as dismissive and lazy in my opinion.
Anyone leave is racist or 'what do you think of calls for a second referendum?'
And remain is 'why do you think you deserve a second referendum?' or 'its not the will of the people'
Not helped by supposed 'impartial' commentators like Andrew Neil.
Not worth its salt Bruce, people used to get paid in salt Bruce......
Until the EU banned it, now everyone is forced to use the Euro????
ijjysmith
Calm
Salt
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Brexit uncertainty has cost Britain 600 million pounds a week - Goldman Sachs
Britain's chaotic exit from the European Union has cost the economy about 600 million pounds ($785 million) per week since the 2016 referendum, Goldman Sachs said on Monday in a report that underscores how Brexit uncertainty has dented investment.
mobile.reuters.com
EU has gone too far now!!!!
ijjysmith
Calm
Just for clarity, I didn’t question your beliefs at all, I said what I personally would reflect on if I found my vote aligned with the political desire of those bigots.
I am fully aware that there are varying reasons for voting leave and I did acknowledge that you have taken the time to articulate your own reasons.
Brexit uncertainty has cost Britain 600 million pounds a week - Goldman Sachs
Britain's chaotic exit from the European Union has cost the economy about 600 million pounds ($785 million) per week since the 2016 referendum, Goldman Sachs said on Monday in a report that underscores how Brexit uncertainty has dented investment.
I think he's talking about the famous Indian parable of the bloke who wanted the king to pay him in wheat and asked for a doubling of wheat for each square on the chessboard. After a while the King realised his mistake and tried to have a 2nd vote on this arrangement so he ended up shooting the flash git who proposed it instead. Or was that Indiana Jones?
Don't you start with 'song replies' either. It's not big, or clever. Animated gifs on the other hand...
Old Blue 2
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Excellent post, Jebus. Credit where credit is due...
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