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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/16/lies-coverup-russia-role-brexit-vote-too-big-to-ignore
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| Lies, fears and cover-up: Russia’s role in the Brexit vote is too big to ignore | Lies, fears and cover-up: Russia’s role in the Brexit vote is too big to ignore |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The first duty of the leaders and citizens of a democracy is to defend its elections from subversion. Yet a country that boasts of giving the world free parliaments feels little obligation to even look at allegations that Russia subverted British democracy. The government and opposition are compromised and want the scandal closed down. As does an embarrassed rightwing press and a shamefully negligent BBC. | The first duty of the leaders and citizens of a democracy is to defend its elections from subversion. Yet a country that boasts of giving the world free parliaments feels little obligation to even look at allegations that Russia subverted British democracy. The government and opposition are compromised and want the scandal closed down. As does an embarrassed rightwing press and a shamefully negligent BBC. |
| “Suggest we send a note of support to the ambassador,” wrote Andy Wigmore, press officer for Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU just before the Brexit referendum. Arron Banks, who gave the campaign the largest political donation in British history, agreed, and Leave.EU duly sent its best to the Russian ambassador and parroted the Kremlin line that it was not interfering in British politics. Pause to think about the scene described by Carole Cadwalladr in today’s Observer. The demagogues behind a lavishly-funded campaign, whose claim to be patriots was accepted by 52% of the electorate, were scrambling to provide cover for a hostile foreign power. Why? | “Suggest we send a note of support to the ambassador,” wrote Andy Wigmore, press officer for Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU just before the Brexit referendum. Arron Banks, who gave the campaign the largest political donation in British history, agreed, and Leave.EU duly sent its best to the Russian ambassador and parroted the Kremlin line that it was not interfering in British politics. Pause to think about the scene described by Carole Cadwalladr in today’s Observer. The demagogues behind a lavishly-funded campaign, whose claim to be patriots was accepted by 52% of the electorate, were scrambling to provide cover for a hostile foreign power. Why? |
| I’ll leave you to read our pieces on the contacts between Russia and Leave campaign, the ties that bind Banks and Farage to Trump to Steve Bannon and to Russia, and the offers from the Russians to Banks of a stake in a goldmine. (Whatever it does to the rest of us, Brexit may not leave Mr Banks poorer.) One issue remains: a campaign that purported to be for the “left-behind” was organised and funded by men with links across the global network of oligarchs and kleptomaniac dictators. | |
| We know that Russia has interfered in elections in North America and Europe. Russia had a direct interest in promoting Brexit because it would destabilise a strategic rival. (Anyone who doubts me need only look at how Brexit has brought Whitehall close to collapse.) We know too that the Electoral Commission referred Banks’ campaign to the police for alleged “unlawful overspending” and has raised urgent questions about the behaviour of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove’s supposedly “respectable” alternative, Vote Leave. | We know that Russia has interfered in elections in North America and Europe. Russia had a direct interest in promoting Brexit because it would destabilise a strategic rival. (Anyone who doubts me need only look at how Brexit has brought Whitehall close to collapse.) We know too that the Electoral Commission referred Banks’ campaign to the police for alleged “unlawful overspending” and has raised urgent questions about the behaviour of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove’s supposedly “respectable” alternative, Vote Leave. |
| Shouldn’t we be following the money? If you rely on our supposed public service broadcasters, you would not know there is money to run after. LBC has given Farage a platform to propagate his special pleading. In apparent contravention of broadcasting impartiality regulations, LBC allowed him to cut off Cadwalladr when she challenged him. “LBC: Leading Britain’s Conversation” runs its motto. But it silences the conversation when it turns to the financing of Brexit. | Shouldn’t we be following the money? If you rely on our supposed public service broadcasters, you would not know there is money to run after. LBC has given Farage a platform to propagate his special pleading. In apparent contravention of broadcasting impartiality regulations, LBC allowed him to cut off Cadwalladr when she challenged him. “LBC: Leading Britain’s Conversation” runs its motto. But it silences the conversation when it turns to the financing of Brexit. |
| The BBC, meanwhile, has more journalists than any other news organisation in Europe. Given its dominance, it is almost true to say that news isn’t news until the BBC acknowledges its existence. For months, its editors have not let its reporters cover Russia-Brexit. They can report on Trump’s links to Russia – and I suppose we should be grateful for that – but not on evidence of the subversion of the electoral process in the country whose taxes fund them. | |
| Panorama has backed away twice from covering the story. If the BBC mentions the scandal at all, it pretends it’s a game. Andrew Marr and the Today programme have both tried to titillate their audiences with catfights between Carol Cadwalladr and Banks and Lord Ashcroft’s mouthpiece, Isabel Oakeshott. But it will not investigate itself. I think I can guess why. Journalism is hard work, complex and, if the job is well done, its conclusions won’t make comfortable listening for ideological factions and moneyed interests with the wealth to hire libel lawyers from Mishcon de Reya. | Panorama has backed away twice from covering the story. If the BBC mentions the scandal at all, it pretends it’s a game. Andrew Marr and the Today programme have both tried to titillate their audiences with catfights between Carol Cadwalladr and Banks and Lord Ashcroft’s mouthpiece, Isabel Oakeshott. But it will not investigate itself. I think I can guess why. Journalism is hard work, complex and, if the job is well done, its conclusions won’t make comfortable listening for ideological factions and moneyed interests with the wealth to hire libel lawyers from Mishcon de Reya. |
| The usual complaint against the BBC is that if someone says the world is round, it will scour the country to find a guest to argue that it’s flat. The corporation’s behaviour on the Brexit scandal is more disturbing than the usual fetishisation of balance, however. The BBC has given up on journalism itself because it is frightened of what its reporters might find. It has reduced public service broadcasting to a modern version of the Roman circus: a game that stops the plebs worrying their little heads about the future of their country. I’ve defended the BBC against Scottish nationalists, Corybnistas, remainers and the Brexit right. But how can anyone defend a BBC whose executives and presenters prefer manufactured stunts to reporting? On the Brexit scandal the BBC offers something worse than fake news: it offers no news. The broadcasters are a true reflection of a compromised political system. The National Crime Agency, Serious Fraud Office and intelligence agencies ought to be investigating whether democracy was subverted. You only have to raise that possibility to realise the objections. The Tories are committed to Brexit. They will not push for investigations into allegations of collusion by a Brexit campaign whose wishes they are now meeting. | The usual complaint against the BBC is that if someone says the world is round, it will scour the country to find a guest to argue that it’s flat. The corporation’s behaviour on the Brexit scandal is more disturbing than the usual fetishisation of balance, however. The BBC has given up on journalism itself because it is frightened of what its reporters might find. It has reduced public service broadcasting to a modern version of the Roman circus: a game that stops the plebs worrying their little heads about the future of their country. I’ve defended the BBC against Scottish nationalists, Corybnistas, remainers and the Brexit right. But how can anyone defend a BBC whose executives and presenters prefer manufactured stunts to reporting? On the Brexit scandal the BBC offers something worse than fake news: it offers no news. The broadcasters are a true reflection of a compromised political system. The National Crime Agency, Serious Fraud Office and intelligence agencies ought to be investigating whether democracy was subverted. You only have to raise that possibility to realise the objections. The Tories are committed to Brexit. They will not push for investigations into allegations of collusion by a Brexit campaign whose wishes they are now meeting. |
| In the US, opposition Democrats naturally want Trump’s every dealing with Russia exposed. But in Britain the leaders of the opposition Labour party are as anxious as Farage and Theresa May to change the subject. Never forget the far left’s soft spot for thieving autocrats. Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman Seumas Milne flew to Sochi to doff his cap to Putin. Emily Thornberry defends Russia’s Syrian policy as reliably as Arron Banks. Leaving its attraction to dictators to one side, if you can, the London far left is in a marriage of convenience with the northern Labour right. Both are determined to stop free movement and keep Britain out of the single market. For reasons of ideology and electoral calculation, we have an opposition that will not oppose. | In the US, opposition Democrats naturally want Trump’s every dealing with Russia exposed. But in Britain the leaders of the opposition Labour party are as anxious as Farage and Theresa May to change the subject. Never forget the far left’s soft spot for thieving autocrats. Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman Seumas Milne flew to Sochi to doff his cap to Putin. Emily Thornberry defends Russia’s Syrian policy as reliably as Arron Banks. Leaving its attraction to dictators to one side, if you can, the London far left is in a marriage of convenience with the northern Labour right. Both are determined to stop free movement and keep Britain out of the single market. For reasons of ideology and electoral calculation, we have an opposition that will not oppose. |
| Can you begin to see why the scandal is not a scandal? In any other country there would be uproar, but here the Tory and Labour frontbenches must pretend there’s nothing to see. I’ll leave you with the Elizabethan poet Sir John Harington, who explained how Russia has Britain where it wants it far better than the BBC, when he said: | Can you begin to see why the scandal is not a scandal? In any other country there would be uproar, but here the Tory and Labour frontbenches must pretend there’s nothing to see. I’ll leave you with the Elizabethan poet Sir John Harington, who explained how Russia has Britain where it wants it far better than the BBC, when he said: |
| Treason doth never prosper? What’s the Reason? | Treason doth never prosper? What’s the Reason? |
| For if it prosper none dare call it treason. | For if it prosper none dare call it treason. |
| • Nick Cohen is an Observer columnist | • Nick Cohen is an Observer columnist |
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