Did Russia buy Brexit?

[SoloD]

It is alleged that a very substantial part of the Leave campaign funding came from overseas (which is strictly against the law) possibly from Russia.

A large proportion of this money was paid to Cambridge Analytica who illegally harvested peoples data on facebook, to target them with micro adverts, not all of them we know what they said.

Up to £8 million is under investigation.

Add this to the blatant lies of the Vote Leave campaign which they now admit were untrue (the 350 million a week for the NHS for example) is there any legitimacy left in the result of the referendum?

This is what the polls indicate
uk.businessinsider.com/brexit-polls-show-britain-wants-to-remain-in-eu-2018-9

Watch the real Leave campaign (the one with the stupid bus) distance itself from Leave.eu (Faridge/Banks etc).

I think the real Leave campaign is already distancing itself. In the public mind, all Leave campaigns were as one - how many realised that Farage's campaign wasn't official?

So not the Will Of The People at all. We’re leaving because it is The Will Of Putin.

One individual may feel they were not influenced by any form of media. Fair enough.

However, on a population level many other people were. If they were influenced and funded by a foreign agency or government, that is illegal and is a genuine threat to British sovereignty.

So what is in it for Putin.

I get that he probably wants to destabilise the EU... but to what end?

Power! same as most really.
It is a lot cheaper and safer to 'attack' a 'weakling' of a heard (the UK has nover been totally committed to the European project) and cyber war and 'bots' throwing elections it can be done from the comfort of your armchair.
Promising 'loadsa money' to a few influential people and provide an easy route for some (ERG mob) to large 'investment opportunities' through disaster capitalism and the job is almost done for you.
For Tories (particularly) to get rich with various schemes is to be expected as once you have plenty of money the whole reason for life becomes a grand game of 'betting' for fun.

Destabilise the EU. Undermine a force on his border and in the world. Make it unattractive for Ukraine

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/15/russia-meddle-western-politics-putin-superpower

Huge power to Putin who has proved decisively that, despite being the leader of a bankrupt country, he can pull strings effectively in the USA and in Europe, and make money at the same time out of exploiting the foolish voters who had not the first idea where their ideas were coming from.

Banks in the news again today.

Arron Banks faces new claims of misleading MPs over Brexit
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/03/arron-banks-faces-new-claims-of-misleading-mps-over-brexit

Hundreds of internal emails leaked by former employees from Eldon Insurance and Rock Services to the Observer reveal that – despite categorical denials by Banks – insurance staff worked on the Leave.EU campaign from their company offices.
[...]
Damian Collins, chair of parliament’s inquiry into fake news, said that the leaked emails appeared to “flatly contradict” what Banks had told his committee, and that he could have “deliberately misled the committee and parliament on an important point”. Collins requested the emails and said they would form key evidence as part of his inquiry into disinformation and its threat to democracy.
[...]
Collins said: “If Eldon employees were being paid to work on the campaign during the regulated period, it should have been a declared expense. We asked him directly if he’d used his insurance employees to work on the campaigns and he said they didn’t.”

One ex-Eldon Insurance employee told the Observer: “I made it absolutely clear that I didn’t want to work on the political stuff. I wasn’t comfortable with it. I didn’t want to be complicit in it. There were quite a lot of spats about it. People were frozen out if they refused to work on it.”
[...]
Another email, also dated 10 March 2016, from a Rock Services employee to the photo agency, offers a sense of the impact such anti-immigration images had in the Brexit campaign. “One of the adverts will have a reach of 10m over the 3 weeks we would like to use it, meaning a potential of 30m-40m impressions,” writes the insurance employee.

Another former Eldon worker alleged that they were frequently asked to help Leave.EU’s pro-Brexit campaign. “Some of these images were really horrible, the immigrants and refugee stuff. But there were always these urgent requests coming in. You were told to stop what you were doing and do something for Leave.EU,” they said.

Did you see Banks on Andrew Marr's programme? What a dreadful performance by this arrogant liar, yet Andrew Marr did not propbe as he should have done. The viewers were let down.

Yes, it was terrible. Marr came across as shrill and Banks had the upper hand. Massive missed opportunity.

Agh posted while editing. Banks appeared to have the upper hand. He was shifty and evasive, but will have played well to the credulous.

I do not know why the BBC keeps giving him and Farridge so much air time
oxygen of publicity and all that.

Dimbleby is clearly a pro Brexit chap who likes Farridge

but Banks should be ostracised until the police have done their work

@PickardJE
New: profile of Arron Banks in @ft by ⁦*@RKWinvisibleman*⁩ today
www.ft.com/content/4610a4be-dde2-11e8-9f04-38d397e6661c?desktop=true&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a#myft:notification:instant-email:content …

Marr never does probe He lets his interviews state blatant lies in their replies and doesn't call them on it I can't work out whether it is because he is a poor journalist who hasn't done sufficient research prior to the interview, or he has been poorly briefed, or simply that he's a wimp he just accepts the answers

Charlie Stayt on BBC Breakfast does more challenging interviews than Marr.

Half of us are informants, say Russian expats in UK
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/half-of-us-are-informants-say-russian-expats-in-uk-vskn90l02