Westminstenders: Exit 2020 Vision

[RedToothBrush]

Yet it is a great mistake to suppose that the only writers who matter are those whom the educated in their saner moments can take seriously. There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and the superstitious. There are times when this underworld emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, capturers and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people, who thereupon take leave of sanity and responsibility. And it occasionally happens that this underworld becomes a political power and changes the course of history.
Norm Cohn ‘Warrant for Genocide’ 1970

(As referenced by Nick Cohen).

We have a deal (or bits of a deal). Bino til Dec 2020. Then the cliff?

Still a long way to go. It sounds better than it could be. But worse than it initially seems.

Good point Born.

How could any of the vote leave team not know including our current ministers?

I have been trying to summarise what Channel 4 and other media (apart from the Guardian) hasn’t fully done yet . We need a simple summary of the alleged money chain tracing from U.K. groups and politicians back to CA.

Here are the key points. I know everyone probably knows this, but thought a synopsis would be useful. The allegations are:

•Cambridge Analytica- hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer owns 90%. Friend of Farage.He is Trump’s biggest donor.Also owns the IP in Canadian company AggregateIQ.

•Vote Leave paid £3.9m to AggregateIQ to target voters during referendum campaign.

•Veterans for Britain
given £100,000 by Vote Leave. Spent it with AggregateIQ .

•BeLeave-Given £625,000 by Vote Leave & £50,000 by another donor. Spent it with AggregateIQ.

•DUP-Spent £32,750 with AggregrateIQ.

•Thomas Borwick ( son of Kensington Tory MP)-Vote Leave’s chief technology officer. Previously worked with Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ.

•ASI Data Science-Links with Cambridge Analytica:Paid £114,000 by Vote Leave. 

•Christopher Wylie on the Ch 4 programme linked to AggregateIQ .

P.S.Steve Bannon was Vice-president of Cambridge Analytica during the referendum period. Also friend of Farage of course.

It does stink.

Some people were manipulated by CA & psy-ops
(it does sound like techniques developed maybe for military / intelligence originally )

On a landslide vote, CA Brexitgate wouldn't be enough to matter, but it very probably swung a 52:48 voe

Probably including some usual non-voters whose anger CA cleverly directed into action

Others had their nationalism and fear / distrust of foreigners whipped up to overcome any concern about their jobs & pay, or the prospects of younger family members

Problem is: even when there has been fraud in an election, UK or US, only any individual politicians charged / convicted would be penalised
The result won't be over-turned unless this removes the majority in Parliament / Congress

and in the case of POTUS, even if Trump is removed from office, the Veep takes over (same party)
then iirc the Speaker of the House ? - only a party change if it happens after the Democrats have taken the House in the next elections (unlikely anyway)

Brexit won't be automatically overturned even if electoral fraud and criminal activity can be quickly proven, because there wasn't a "candidate," just an issue.
And as we keep saying, it was only advisory

However, the political decisions resulting from the referendum result can be over-turned with sufficient outrage & determination
CA manipulation is a clear moral outrage against UK democracy

Remainers can use this as a genuine reason to stand up against Brexit & its consequences;

It should be a moral rallying cry for Remainer MPs, those who have any backbone,
even gain support from those MPs who were not particularly strong Remainers.

What are the actual rules about campaigning apart from declaring expenditure?

Gove / Johnson were technically a different leave group to Farage? They just shared a platform with him.

I guess if asked (have they been asked?) Gove / Johnson could just say they knew modern marketing, advertising or promotional social media techniques were being used by other campaigners. So whilst they may have benefited from CA/ AggregateIQ activities there isn't a direct link to Gove and Johnson.

Sorry I've just realised that this article ( although old) is the Cadwalladr article that everyone talks about.

Duh- Takes me a while!

I do recommend reading it all for anyone trying to get up to speed with the full murky depths that are being skirted around on Ch 4.

go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

I can't forget that Brexitgate and all other 'gates', get their name from the Watergate scandal. I was in Italy during the summer of 1972 and the story was rumbling away then in the American English language papers, but there was not a word in other nationality's mainstream papers. But eventually the rumbles grew too loud, and the story exploded worldwide and Nixon was brought down.

We could be seeing the same process here, although the Tories and various hangers on with vested interest will be desperate to hush it up.

Otto English @ otto_english
As Rees Mogg and his flotilla take to the Thames bear this startling fact in mind... the UK fishing industry accounts for just 0.048% of GDP. Ten times less than Nissan UK. #Moggatilla
Basically fishing is a complete red herring.

UK fishing industry accounts for just 0.048% of GDP. Ten times less than Nissan UK.

And the total fshing industry employ less than Airbus which is also under acute threat employing some 15,000 people in the UK.

Not to mention our 80%? reliance on financial services which is seeing a constant and growing exodus of hubs and staff to Frankfurt, Dublin etc.

The ERG members seem to care about fishing, but not about the effect the referendum and fallen pound has had on banks, insurers, retail, restaurants and other manufacturers? Funny that.

( Although obviously all sectors are important to those who work in them.)

I think the British like the romance of fishing - fishermen taking to the high seas, gone for days/weeks on end, weathering storms and using their ancient skills to get their boats and catch safely back to harbour - rather than fish itself. It's a heritage industry, one of the few we have left. so people get a bit soppy about it.Maybe it feeds into our image as a sea-faring nation? Most of us have had a day out at a quaint fishing village and imagine that the industry is run from ports like Mevagissey rather than, say, Grimsby.

Conservative Voters Back Tory Brexit Rebels, New Poll Reveals
They also want a referendum on the final deal.

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/conservative-voters-back-tory-brexit-rebels-new-poll-reveals_uk_5ab169c4e4b0decad044e169

It's the independent, plucky, stubborn, salt of the earth sea buttons.
It's the last vestige of Britannia ruling the waves button.
It's the vaguely remembering poems about smugglers from 1950s education button.
It's the knowing that at some point in the past there was a cod war button.
It's all the pre decimalisation and metrication buttons.

Like the man from CA said, it's emotion, not facts.

Court of Session victory for Scottish Seven in Brexit challenge

www.thenational.scot/news/16100433.Scottish_Seven_win_right_to_have_Brexit_case_heard_in_top_court/

You are especially good today Borntobequiet -your last post had a poetic tone!

Does it also hark back to the Dunkirk spirit? Making the best out of a retreat seems apt

The Prole Star @theprolestar
Cambridge Analytica is registered as a dormant company at Companies House. Their most recent accounts show no activity and a net value of £100 - anyone else think this is more than a little odd?
beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09375920/filing-history

Ahh data laundering.

When are we banning shell companies?

Chances of ico unrevaling this?

"UK fishing industry accounts for just 0.048% of GDP. Ten times less than Nissan UK."

10 years after Brexit it will represent 5% of the remaining UK GDP :)

George Bowden @ georgebowden
Delays continue ... ICO says there's "still no update" today on its pursuit of a warrant to raid Cambridge Analytica's HQ. "We're absolutely hopeful of an update today," a spokesperson tells me.

Cambridge Analytica is registered as a dormant company at Companies House.

'Cambridge Analytica'^ sounds like a trading name. It can be registered under another name at Companies House.^

Need to search the Directorships to get any or all other company names.

Tom Peck @ tompeck
Brexit boat latest: the fish boat is being refused permission to dock at any pier. It may be that the press conference will involve shouting from boat to land. A stunt that's only really been pulled off til now by Jesus.

Men who want Brexit can't manage a piss up in a brewery.

How do they manage to survive on a day to day basis? (Rhetorical question involving women and servants)

Cambridge Analytica is registered as a dormant company at Companies House.

'Cambridge Analytica'^ sounds like a trading name. It can be registered under another name at Companies House.^

Need to search the Directorships to get any or all other company names.There is an SCL group then a Cambridge Analytica (UK) company.

Here are his directorships...

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/YEplkqBMfc6Rp3dbPs57pN3aqO4/appointments

Christopher Hope @ Christopherhope
Problem! We are not allowed to land at Embankment pier. Trawler now in a holding pattern going round in circles on the Thames. #fisheries

Must resist obvious comments

There's a bit of mis-direction and amplification going on too (with regards to the bloody fish).

0.04% of GDP and relatively few people actually involved in the industry - but you might not realise that from the amount of coverage it received over the years prior to the Referendum, during the Referendum and now after the Referendum.

It's easy to see people thinking it is far more central and important than it really is - up to the point where they cease to think about their own position in the economy (eg. being involved in a far more central industry) and start mis-identifying with what is widely reported as thought it is central and important.

And that, sadly, is the fault of a slightly unreflective media - that relays PR stunts and what are essentially propaganda stories (I'm thinking here of the ridiculous 'let's bash the EU, rather than tell the truth about what we've negotiated as a government' stories built up and placed in the media for years and years).

Ridiculous, really.

That comparative figure, LonelyPlanetMum, 0.04% of GDP, is very sobering. I'm guessing that a lot of people somehow see - have been invited to see, their contribution to GDP, their social and economic roles in society, as somehow less authentic than 'fish'. Which is crazy.

Plaice marking with a twitter thread of terrible fish puns.

mobile.twitter.com/Insinuare/status/976028720229216256

I'm baffled as to the warrant business.

I know that what I'm waiting for is the substantiation of rumours about links between the various groups (and national interests) that moved funding around between various branches and avatars of the Leave campaign (and relatedly, the bringing into the light of the various interest groups supporting that campaign) - and the links between those and the Trump campaign.

I know that it's incredibly murky and complicated. Nothing, as yet, can be proven because most of it is not in the public domain and relies on documentation not wholly available to scrutiny.

I know that the warrant will only extend to this Facebook situation but ... I had hoped that there was an increased likelihood of data relating to the other - murkier - activity might come to light, become available to scrutiny, in the course of the Facebook situation being investigated.

It's looking less likely as time ticks on.

What on earth is going on with that warrant? Is it being contested? Are there lawyers involved, haggling over the remit of the warrant?

(I have no idea how this works in law.)

Thanks, lonely