Sarah Wollaston leaves leave campaign over NHS lies

[WidowWadman]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36485464

I wondered why she ever supported leave in the first place, but it's good that she speaks up.

[nearlyhellokitty]

Good on her

[Brokenbiscuit]

Just seen this on the news. Personally, I'm not sure how anyone could get on that battle bus with such obvious lies emblazoned on it. Good to know that there are some with enough integrity to speak the truth.

[WhereTheFuckIsWonderWoman]

She's my MP. It concerns me somewhat that she believed that figure to start with

[MrsBlackthorn]

Good to see an MP openly admitting they were wrong. It happens so rarely.

[PausingFlatly]

"For someone like me who has long campaigned for open and honest data in public life I could not have set foot on a battle bus that has at the heart of its campaign a figure that I know to be untrue."

I wonder if she ever believed it - but now it's being touted as a central plank of the campaign can no longer turn a blind eye.

Good on her for having the integrity to say evidence matters. A value that can be thin on the ground in politics.

[MrsBlackthorn]

Listening to the evidence and changing your mind on the basis of it is a central tenet of science - and she is a scientist I guess!

[bananabrain35]

Any odds out there for Sarah Wollaston being made Health Secretary after the referendum?!

[unexpsoc]

To be fair - some politicians will. Like George Osborne and David Cameron - who have changed their minds on forced academisation. And on Tax credits. And on disability benefits. And on policing costs. And on Trade Union rights. And on...

Actually, scrap that - they clearly haven't got a pot of glue what they are doing.

[nearlyhellokitty]

have you seen all the nasty stuff? she's been called a traitor, bitch, whore.. horrible.
www.byline.com/column/11/article/1094

[unexpsoc]

Horrible. BUT (and I hate myself for saying this) - don't conflate the fact that some supporters are saying this with the campaign are saying this. Got to keep it in perspective.

Whatever your position on any subject there will be some arseholes who support you. Just because you can now identify those arseholes through the magic of social media we can't assume it applies to all of the leave supporters.

[nearlyhellokitty]

True enough. The official leave campaign have more gone down the 'flaky' route.

[dogchewedtoy1]

That's awful that she's been called those names - but I do agree with unexpsoc that it is vile individuals making these comments not an official campaign.

According to her blog she still has very real doubts about the UK's ability to govern itself if we stay in

"I wanted to stay in a reformed EU and yet the renegotiation only served to highlight that the EU appears neither interested nor capable of genuine reform. The democratic deficit at the heart of the institution and our own detachment from it are deeply troubling."

"We tend to think of the EU as benign and remote but what if a federal and ever more centralising Europe moves against our national interest? We will be powerless to effect meaningful change just as we are already unable to vote its leaders from power. "

It just shows it is not a perfect IN/OUT decision and that many will be voting "holding their nose".

[claig]

Andrew Neil asked her if she intended to do this all along and mentioned conspiracy theories. It looks a bit like a classic spin operation, a whizzkid wheeze operation. She said that there may be more defections. More spin operations to feed the media headlines.

I don't think she will ever be put in charge of health because she doesn't seem like a real Tory and i doubt the Etonians fully trust her to keep on message. She is good for spin and the "caring" image that he Etonians want to feed the public.

[dogchewedtoy1]

The timing was interesting too - on the day JCB announced support for Leave, when economic figures look good....

Looks like the Tory machine is putting pressure on any Leave MPs

order-order.com/

[claig]

dogchewedtoy1, yes and the JCB guy is getting far less publicity. The BBC is practically doing cartwheels explaining why Sarah changed her mind.

She said she had talked to other people and that some further defections may happen. The whizzkids will probably roll these out to feed the BBC.

[unexpsoc]

Well, that must be a conspiracy!

Or, every day between now and the 23rd there will be somebody, somewhere publishing a letter either pro- or anti- EU, and if anybody defects in either direction on the same day we call all of that a part of a conspiracy.

The tories can't even hold their own party together, I hardly think they are clever enough to write and pull off clever wheezes like this.

[PausingFlatly]

Haven't seen a thread yet from our friendly neighbourhood astroturfer(s), BritBrit/SpringingIntoAction.

Do you think they're still locked in an emergency briefing, trying to work out how to spin this? They'll be needing sarnies by now...

[PausingFlatly]

And I'm just SO glad that someone - anyone - has stood up and said "This is cobblers, even though it's produced by my own team."

People should vote how they want.

But the lying during this referendum is doing my nut in. Makes general elections look almost honest!

[claig]

Ok, reading this it is obvious to see what the whizzkids have got planned

"Rumour doing the rounds [13:20 now confirmed] that Downing Street have got Grant Shapps, who calls himself a Eurosceptic, to declare for Remain. Presumably a return to government for him is imminent. Is Michael Green backing Leave?

Below are the Tory MPs who have yet to declare:

Andrew Mitchell, Grant Shapps, Tracey Crouch, Jackie Doyle-Price, James Heappey, Pauline Latham, Phillip Lee, Charlotte Leslie, Huw Merriman, Wendy Morton, Caroline Nokes, Mary Robinson, David Tredennick, Jessie Norman [not declaring"

order-order.com/

Most people have never heard of any of tthat lot, but the BBC will make sure they hear about their "decisions", but unfortunately for the whizzkids, the public don't care what they think.

[unexpsoc]

politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/06/09/the-conspiracy-theories-pushed-by-the-brexit-campaign

Some other things the whizzkids have planned for us.

[claig]

This is from that article. The publicly funded whizzkids really think the public are stupid. Sarah doesn't seem too bothered about the advert the Etonians put out to try and scare British pensioners showing the empty purse. For principled Sarah, all issues of national sovereignty, making our own laws, the EU democratic deficit etc were outweighed by things like the £350 million figure on the bus and the fact that her 81 year old father kept asking her to reconsider because he thought that the EU had delivered peace to Europe.

The Etonians must be laughing at the people.

"As polling day approaches, increasing numbers of conspiracy theories are being spread by those wanting to leave the EU. Here are just a few of the most popular.

1. Remainers have planted sleeper agents in the Leave campaign
   

Widely-respected former Leave campaigner and Conservative MP, Sarah Wollaston, announced today that she has changed her mind and is now backing Remain. The GP explained to the Times that she could no longer support the false claims made by the Leave campaign about the cost of the EU and the NHS. While many applauded her for reassessing her views, others smelled a rat.

"Was always gonna happen," Nigel Farage's former spokesperson Raheem Kassam Tweeted in response to the news."

[unexpsoc]

I would also suggest only drinking bottled water between now and the 23rd if you are publicly known as an OUT voter. Wouldn't put it past them you know.

[nearlyhellokitty]

you mean the Raheem Kassam who tweeted this?

Raheem Kassam ‏@RaheemKassam Jun 7
Good lord 150k under 35s reg'd to vote yesterday alone. Govt and Facebook colluding to flood #euref with Remainians

Apparently encouraging voter registration is undemocratic.

[nearlyhellokitty]

Meanwhile other members of the leave campaign have expressed 'surprise'

[claig]

@ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go

Whizzkids await their bonus, Establishment very satisfied, teenage spinners ecstatic, mobile messages of congratulation ten a dozen, Etonians at HQ uncorking the champagne, another MP defects to Remain

"Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood backs EU 'remain' campaign"

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-mp-khalid-mahmood-backs-11451505

They think the people are stupid, but the people understand their game.