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.

Cambridge Analytica, the data-driven psy-ops company founded by billionaire brown-shirts, the Mercer Family.

Thanks for the new thread, RTB, and also the Palast article, which led with this wonderful description of the Mercers, father and daughter.

www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/4b95f9d8-a307-4ef0-bbf0-b3b9047f31f0/PSEC03a_History_Curriculum.pdf

Irish primary school history (actually 'Social, Environmental and Scientific Education') curriculum.
Emphasises the lives of ordinary people as opposed to those who stood out for any reason.
Emphasises Ireland explicitly as part of Europe, and the wider world.

We watched the Channel 4 news too last night.

So what will the outcome be? A prosecution against Cambridge Analytica? Sanctions against any political parties like the DUP who paid the company?The end of Cambridge Analytica? Setting up a new CA company under a different name?Tighter social media controls?

When the links to the referendum emerge ,and they will, it will just be shrugged off in the same way as Russian social media interference, surely?

Whilst 2% (or whatever) may have genuinely been influenced by CA material which swung the Trump and referendum result, there are still the die hard supporters (both politicians and voters) who would have voted In the way they did anyway. There are enough die hard Trump Ists to say they weren’t influenced. ^
^
Numerous sources e.g. the Times reported ages ago on the. study proving that just in the 48 hours around the referendum 156,252 Russian accounts mentioned #Brexit, seeking to influence the Vote.

However there has been little reaction to this. On a personal level I discussed the Russian interference with a die hard Tory -remain- but -respect -the- referendum friend. Her responses were :

1.	I don’t believe those reports.
2.	Even if they are true I don’t believe they carried much influence.

I think her response will be shared by many. The shocking manipulation of US politics is all out there in the book Dark Money but it makes not a jot of difference.Sadly.

Sorry if that quells excitement.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-nazi-oil-the-koch-brothers-and-a-rightwing-revolution

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/15/study-russian-twitter-bots-sent-45k-brexit-tweets-close-to-vote/

.

Well I predict the mother of all public enquiries into the EU referendum. Unfortunately I don't think it'll happen until the 2030s.

it makes not a jot of difference.Sadly
Probably right. Depends on how all this ends up being framed.

Meanwhile 10 000 more british people people died than is normal at start of year; no flu; mild weather; no contagion. Dr on this interview is good. Sorry about James O'B.
www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/10-000-extra-people-have-died-so-far-in-2018/

No, I don't think we'll have an enquiry, until the sorry crowd responsible are long gone from politics or at least from the HoC.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy 'In Police Custody Over Campaign Financing

Related to alleged Libyan funding for Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign, reports say

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-in-police-custody-over-campaign-financing_uk_5ab0babae4b0e862383ad9da?ncid=tweetlnkukhpmg00000001

Maybe 2040s then.

I feel like I've stepped into a dystopian novel.

It’s going to get even better Irene.

Just picture Rees-Mogg on a boat on the Thames flinging haddock into the river in support of the UK fisherman. Or perhaps getting Nanny to do it for him.

Funny how an industry that employs less than 12000 people is getting so much press coverage whilst reports that 144000 aerospace jobs are at risk are ignored?

I'm sure I'm not the only person to think that a nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian agent and the allegations against Putin came conveniently just before all this CA stuff went down.
But I know I'm getting more and more inclined to paranoia and conspiracy theories by the day...

Is it just me, or was the BBC R4 news uncharacteristically a tad Brexit-Sceptic ? They reported the IFS report about removing tariffs quite straight.

Who else switched off when Nick Robinson said "form-" ??? just after 8.

Driven, strange tone?

I'm sure we all fully agree that we need to be active in the ways you suggest (what makes you think we aren't? Surely the folks on this thread are likely to be the most active).

Why lie down and die now? - I must have missed that.

Yes, my MP and the BBC will be receiving (yet more) correspondence from me. It's the silent majority who need to be convinced to act; getting them interested is the hard part.

Driven, I think the suggestion is that Russia is a deliberate distraction, the implication being that, indeed, all are intertwined.

Driven is right. Action is needed. Emails to the Been and MP today.

• beeb.

Fair point.

Constant writing to MP - check.
Constant writing to BBC - check.
No telly so haven't seen C4 report yet.

(Every time I write to my MP, Tory Remainer, quite a nice woman, she either replies in person and reasonably, or replies saying she will pass my concerns to the Brexit Sec. So I did get a longish letter from Lord Callanan, quite reasonable in tone but so anodyne and stuffed full of platitudes as to just be annoying.)

Actually I think more of a factor influencing the Leave vote was the foreign billionaire owned right wing press printing lies and hatred with impunity for years on end. Also most likely to be read by the demographic voting Leave. I don't think this is a coincidence .

Good point though DrivenToDespair I have been ground down by this. If a combination of Russian interference and CA dark money is found to have influenced the EU Ref to the point of discrediting the result I don't think it will make any difference though. Could/would a court annul the result?

Sign up to Yougov -if you haven't already. Who knows how that data is used, but presumably the gov listen to changes in opinion that affect predicted voting patterns.

Another point might be to donate money to Best for Britain, they might be the only ones that would take this to court to challenge.