Wednesday 20 June 2018

BREXIT - THE SHAKY FOUNDATIONS

I know I'm biased but it seems the Leave campaign have been accused of breaking just about every rule in the voting rule book. That they lied is beyond doubt. The £350 million a week for the NHS and Turkey joining the EU are the most egregious but there were plenty of others too. They even lie about the Remain campaign's forecasts. Nobody ever said there would be an immediate recession and it was all predicated on Cameron triggering Article 50 straightaway after the referendum. In fact looking at how things have progressed since March last year, an immediate recession might have been expected had Article 50 been triggered in June 2016.

So, we know they lied. The Electoral Commission suspect Vote Leave overspent by a considerable amount and the result of their investigation is expected in a few days. They used Aggregate IQ in Canada for their digital campaign with questions about the source of the personal data used.

Leave.EU is also accused of using data from Aaron Banks' insurance companies illegally and having connections to Russia, all of which they deny.

But now we learn the multi millionaire John Mills of JML, who donated a lot of money to various leave campaigns and often writes articles about how fantastic things will be when we've left the EU, has been found to have broken TV influence rules (HERE). Mills donated £1.65m to Labour and set up various pro-Brexit campaign groups including Labour Leave. Apparently, people who run political organisations are banned from owning TV stations, which I understand he does, although which one I'm not sure.

Such are the shaky foundations of the EU referendum, won by a narrow 1.9% majority that has almost certainly disappeared now, and which will cause the biggest constitutional upheaval this country has ever faced, occupying government departments for years in a process which will result in us becoming poorer, weaker, less secure and less influential. 

And at the end, nobody will be happy. Makes you think doesn't it?