Andy Burnham has said Russia did interfere with the Brexit referendum and warned that similar activities were taking place in France and Germany.
The prime minister told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in No 10, he had asked about possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.”
“I think we’ve been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven’t informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas,” he added.
Politicians being so out of touch with international politics that they’re not aware of outside interests in destroying the EU… That they’ll do a Brexit without expecting international interference. That’s the ridiculous thing.
That Britain went ahead and did it, is the ridiculous thing.
What’s more elections these days are becoming questionable and will only become more questionable with the prevalance of AI culture bots.
Look at it this way: States that don’t have democracy are common in the world today. States that don’t have democracy tend to be rightwing and authoritarian.
It should be assumed that outside interference will then be rightwing and authoritarian in nature… And we’re seeing that trend play out globally now. Gee I wonder why!
You think buck tooth farage didn’t know he was doing precisely this?
He was either paid, or was a useful idiot.
It’s almost certainly both.
“Russia is behind the problems in our country” is the Liberal’s version of the Far-Right’s “Immigrants are behind the problems in our country” - blame the foreigners rather than the extremely wealthy people who own the news media that relentlessly pushes this shit and subsidize far-right politicians and lobbyist offices and hard-neoliberal “Think Tanks” pushing for laws that help their economic interest whilst making life worse for everybody else.
Specifically for Britain and Brexit, it takes some seriously selective memory to “forget” how the Newspapers owner by Murdoch and the Rothermere family were pushing extra hard nationalism and anti-immigration for decades in the run-up to Brexit, very openly for people voting Leave during the Referendum and some seriously unhinged takes on how Britain should negotiate the Exit Treaty with the EU.
Also, don’t get me started on how the choices made by both New Labour and Tories in the aftermath of the 2008 Crash, both the unconditional saving of the wealth of the Asset owners (both the way banks were saved and the choices of the BOE which went way beyond just setting interest rates and even included buying corporate bonds from selected companies) and making most of the population pay for it with crushing Austerity. very much plowed, fertilized and seeds the field upon which Brexit was born.
Next to what was done by 100% local billionaires and their politician minions, foreign interference was minuscule.
And I think it is worth repeating because I don’t see enough of it being mentioned when reflecting about Brexit. It was a non bing referendum. They could have done another one, especially after the first years before the deadline when people started to realize what Brexit really means. Or they could just ignore it, is not like the UK thinks twice before enacting some wide unpopular legislation (like the Internet porn ones). The people that could have stopped wanted Brexit, new how shit it would be and they just needed a scape goat, referendum, foreign influence, it is all shifting blame.
PS: That is not to say there was no interference, but that it was a welcomed one and they could have done something about it, even post referendum, because, again, IT WAS NON BINDING
More things can be true at the same time, it’s absolutely possible tha both russia influence and rich idiots influence politics
Oh, I have no doubt in my mind that Russia put their thumb on the balance to try and move things towards Brexit - geostrategically it makes sense for them to do so.
Most definitely America did the same - again it makes sense for the nation were many politicians saw the EU as an adversary and who lost tons of influence in Europe when the countries pooled together into forming the EU (especially amongst small countries, which used to be a kicking ball for great powers).
Quite possibly China did too - weakening an adversary Trade coalition makes sense for them.
It’s just that their ability to influence Britain and Britons is minuscule compare to the influence of Britain’s own elites, especially the ones who own newspapers that have been spouting rabid far-right bullshit for decades.
Brexit was build in Britain layer by layer over the last 3 decades or so, it wasn’t just cast into being in an otherwise perfect country by nasty Russian magicians.
The point I’m making is that in this Russia is an excuse to, as usual, move people’s attention away from far more powerful people in Britain and from the politicians who willingly act as their minions.
Further, having seen Brexit first hand as an immigrant in Britain, the “blame Russia” from the politicians given the huge amounts of Jingoism in Britain (much more than other European countries I lived in) stinks with the same smell as the “blame the EU” so beloved by politicians in both New Labour and the Tory Party before Brexit and shares the same ideological foundations as “blame immigrants” - blame foreigners so that the 100% British people that did most of it suffer no repercussions for their actions.
Hey I’m from the Soviet Union. I’m sadly pretty familiar with how russia does shit. Your “omg libruls tussia lol” comes from a place of abject ignorance. Just don’t say anything. Don’t pretend that you know. I know you’re full of BS. I can see right through you.
I’m not denying that Russia put their thumb on the balance, I’m saying that this shit has long been brewing in a country were amongst other things it was for years common for politicians from both main parties to blame the ills of the country on the EU.
In the “List of people who are to blame for Brexit”, Britons come first, then far behind comes America and then Russia.
I lived in the bloody place since before the 2008 Crash and throughout the whole Brexit thing and for me as an EU immigrant there it was painfully obvious that the Media and Politicians kept pushing Nationalistic Delusions Of Grandeur, anti-immigration and anti-EU, all of which then used very openly by Tory Party politicians to weave ideas such as that EU regulations where what was stopping Britain from recovery after the Crash (and beyond, to almost a British version of the MAGA ideation), that EU immigrants were the ones making cost of living go up and keeping salaries low and that when Britain left the EU the EU would give Britain the same rights as an EU member but without the obligations.
That shit was coming out of TVs, Newspapers and the mouths of British politicians.
Rightwing authoritarianism benefits corporations (helps them consolidate power) as well I think.
They’re aware. They were just avoiding the issue.
…and also masquerading as left wing goons to spread confusion
this is why social media needs authentication. can’t be social media without real people
also check out mr hindsight blaming the victim lol