ANOTHER week, another explosive story about the chicanery of the Leave campaign. This time, it’s revelations that Arron Banks, Brexit donor and charm vacuum, had been chattering away with the Russians in the run-up to the EU referendum.
Isabel Oakeshott – ghostwriter of Banks’s Bad Boys of Brexit book – has confirmed that she was aware of emails linking Banks to Russian officials and businessmen but says she only recently appreciated their significance.
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Oakeshott is, of course, the co-author along with Lord Ashcroft of Call Me Dave, the David Cameron biography that let loose the pigs of war, recounting an uncorroborated anecdote from Cameron’s university years and delighting the press for days afterwards. She later said she would have struggled to get the story into the Sunday Times as her source “could have been slightly deranged”.
Ashcroft is a pro-Brexit supporter who had issues with David Cameron. He declined a job offer from the Prime Minister, later clarifying “After putting my neck on the line for nearly 10 years – both as party treasurer under William Hague and as deputy chairman – and after ploughing some £8 million into the party, I regarded this as a declinable offer.” The juxtaposition of financial donations and job offers don’t sit well together, do they?
But on to Russia. Putin is not what you’d call a fan of the EU. That’s what happens when you have a huge, powerful-by-consensus trading bloc capable of slapping him with economic sanctions when he rolls the tanks into a neighbouring country and announces Crimea is now Russian territory. He got his claws into America, courtesy of their volatile puppet President – now that’s how you win a Cold War, folks – but he couldn’t capitalise on a weak point in the EU.
Well, until now. Look at Italy, where the two Eurosceptic parties in charge have openly called for closer ties with Russia. Or Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev back in 2015 revealing Russia had launched a hybrid warfare campaign to destabilise Europe. Or the Swedish security service’s 2016 report that Russia was engaging in psychological warfare. The list goes on.
Oh, and speaking of lists, remember that Russian travel ban list, featuring prominent MEPs who have disagreed with Putin’s regime? Of course, this was back in 2015, so I’ve no doubt it’s grown since then. If you’re not an ally, you’re an enemy. There is no room for neutrality in Putin’s politics.
So, news that the Russian state may have been deeply involved in the Brexit vote is justifiably a cause for concern. Right now, any official opposition worth its salt would be booting down the doors of Parliament and demanding to know who’s been sitting on evidence of collusion, and why the UK Government is so terrified to admit that its own referendum may not be as clean as one would expect.
As more and more evidence comes tumbling out that the campaign may have been shonky, and that the government has no plan, it’s clear that we are sleepwalking towards disaster because there aren’t enough adults willing to steer us to safety.
There is no good Brexit. Brexit is going to be bad for jobs, society, and our economy. The blame game is underway, with the Remainers being the most popular choice for not believing hard enough. The UK Government – a lame conglomerate of the weak, the vain, and the dim – is ignoring all changed opinions, all expert analysis, and all reports forecasting the results. Instead, it’s lurching towards the cliff.
Take back control? Aye, the question is “who’s taking back control?” The whole thing stinks, and it won’t get any sweeter as time goes on.
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