To think the government refusing to release this report on Russian interference in UK politics makes them look dodgy?

[Cinammoncake]

Unless there's something spectacularly damaging to the government in it, surely them refusing to release the report on Russian meddling in UK politics until after the election makes them look suspicious and presumably worse than they'd look if they just released it?

bump

Can't speak for others, but where this government is concerned, I've reversed the burden of proof. So unless they can demonstrate they aren't concealing it because of sinister reasons (which releasing would prove) then it's pretty obvious they are.

But then unless there's something in writing, and legally binding, I don't trust anything any politician says. Years of gaslighting, and outright deception have shown they simply cannot be trusted.

There's nothing trustworthy about them.

There's obviously something to hide and Michael Gove acting all innocent and pretending otherwise on BBC radio this morning confirmed it for me. But then I can't stand him, so maybe that influenced me!

It must be iffy. Otherwise why not publish it?

If they're eventually forced to publish after the election, imagine if there was something really bad, and the Tories had a majority government. It'd be like the child catcher in Chitty Chitty bang bang, where everyone realised they were tricked.

It's sad the levels of mistrust we have reached, I think not publishing this is one of the worst.

If it weren't for The Goviot and his weird posturing I would have said YABVU. The point of government isn't to share everything with the populace as a whole, don't so ridiculous!

But he did posture and squirm....

YANBU they be dodgy.

Well the former head of MI5 is calling for it to be published, so yeah.

Lord Evans:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50300551
"Part of the reason for having an Intelligence and Security Committee is that issues of public concern can be properly considered and the public can be informed through the publication of the reports once they have gone through the security process."

He added: "If the government have a reason why this should not be published before the election, then I think they should make it very clear what that reason is."

Hasn't Javid with the red briefcase job refused to publish the economic impact of Johnson's deal or something to that effect?

This lot REALLY hate us knowing stuff.

This lot REALLY hate us knowing stuff.

They do. And today they put out a doctored video of a Kier Starmer interview to make it look like he was doing a gormless face in an interview rather than the reality which was that he replied. Shocking.

But yes if MI5 are saying it ought to be released then surely, surely it should be so we can know what's in it?

They are learning from Trump. Fake news, doctored videos and not releasing important reports.

^ This.

Clearly YANBU

They are learning from Trump. Fake news, doctored videos and not releasing important reports

Well I wouldn't say they were learning from Trump, he learnt it from somewhere and I'd they are learning it from there.

Of course it is dodgy. It reeks of dodginess.

If they had nothing to hide they would have diclosed it.

"if MI5 are saying it ought to be released then surely, surely it should be"

I didn't think they had said that.

This was in 2018:

Theresa May condemned for 'business as usual' after Conservatives accept £100,000 from former Putin ally's wife
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-party-russia-donations-putin-theresa-may-lubov-chernukhin-tory-a8375636.html

The Conservatives have received £3m from Russian-linked oligarchs since 2010, including £820,000 in the 20 months prior to March 2018.

And I really don't expect it to be just the Tories that the Russians are funding. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Because every party or grouping which believes that it has benefitted from Russian assistance will be tempted to quash investigations into Russian assistance.

Look at Trump. At one level it doesn't matter whether Putin's interference in the 2016 US election had any impact on votes; Trump believes Putin assists him (as much as his ego can admit this about anyone), so he runs round being Putin's little helper.

This govt has got Boris Johnson as their leader, they don’t give a shit about looking dodgy!

Of course it’s dodgy. I don’t know how they can claim otherwise with a straight face!

Yanbu. They don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

It must be bad if they prefer to take the hit from not releasing it.

The security services, including MI5, say it's absolutely fine for the government to publish the report, that it has been redacted and is good to go (I'm not sure whether they're allowed to stray into saying "should" publish).

The former head of MI5 personally says the government should publish or should explain why it hasn't.

I expect they’re hoping for a bit of Russian interference in this election too and don’t want the public to be wise to it.