Gransnet forums

News & politics

Exit from Brexit

(505 Posts)
varian Mon 06-Aug-18 18:13:52

Brexit has not yet happened, and there can be no certainty that it ever will.

www.gfmag.com/topics/blogs/uk-could-exit-brexit

Smileless2012 Fri 19-Oct-18 23:31:41

Probably the title Jalimall 'Sir Nick Clegg'angryWhat a joke and an insult to those who deserve the title.

Jalima1108 Fri 19-Oct-18 23:52:50

Perhaps he made them a lot of promises …..
They'll learn

MaizieD Sat 20-Oct-18 10:46:35

"An army of Russian trolls sent thousands of messages with the hashtag #ReasonsToLeaveEU on the day of Britain's referendum on membership of the EU, according to new data released by Twitter.

The FBI have actually been active in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election unlike our spineless and gutless government who daren't let the UK prosecuting authorities investigate anything which might call into question the validity of the referendum result and have isssued their first indictment.

The subject is a female Russian National and she's being indicted for 'Conspiracy to defraud the US'.

The indictment can be downloaded from here and it makes eye opening reading for those who care about democracy and honesty in politics.

www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/russian-national-charged-interfering-us-political-system

This twitter comment puts its contents in a nutshell!

Can I also just say: holy sh*t FBI! Look at the amount of detail in the indictment. They have her complete budget. Her FB ad spends. The accounts involved. The talking points. Everything. They have: EVERYTHING.

twitter.com/saradannerdukic/status/1053405715417780229

And that's just the first one....

Smileless2012 Sat 20-Oct-18 15:01:42

The big difference between the election of Trump and the result of the referendum is that Clinton actually received more votes than Trump but he won more states.

At least with the referendum it was the majority of individual votes that won the day. Whatever the FBI discover, it wont invalidate the election of Trump, they wont have another presidential election.

An investigation into the referendum may well uncover Russian interference but wouldn't necessitate another vote. You cannot possibly measure how much of a difference was made. You cannot prove that if not for Russian interference, if any were found, a significant number of leavers would have voted remain and altered the final result.

Greta Sat 20-Oct-18 16:03:17

Smileless: An investigation into the referendum may well uncover Russian interference but wouldn't necessitate another vote.

You don't believe in democracy then? Putin must be rubbing his hands.

varian Sat 20-Oct-18 16:26:30

Incredible that any British person should think it is OK for the Russians to influence our votes, and to do it by manipulating both social media and the MSM. I know some Leave voters say they were not influenced by Russian trolls, but how would they know? They'll have used the same sort of British names used by the Asian scammers who phone to tell you there is a fault with your computer.

Even more incredible that some, who thought it was OK to vote Leave beacause they were told by Leave campaigner Daniel Hannan that "absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market" or they believed Nigel Farage when he assured us we'd be just like Norway or Switzerland, have not, by now discovered that they were lied to and their votes are being referred to as a mandate for something which they did not vote for and certainly do not want.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xGt3QmRSZY

Smileless2012 Sat 20-Oct-18 17:48:01

Well Greta that's what happens when you take one small part of a post. It wouldn't necessitate another vote because you cannot prove if or to what extent any Russian interference may have had on the final outcome.

I do believe in democracy which is why I don't agree on another vote but if there is one, I'll vote and accept the result unlike some.

I haven't seen "any British person" state they think it's acceptable "for the Russians to influence our vote" varian. I never take notice of anyone who 'phones me to tell me there's a fault on my computer; I just hang up.

POGS Sat 20-Oct-18 17:52:11

The Russians have ' been at it ' in several countries elections. I think they were probably ' at it ' during our UK General Elections over recent years.

I think the danger of relying on Facebook and the like , even Forums like Gransnet for your news and information is precarious and it is all wide open to ' trolling' and obviously not only from the Russians

I think some would be very surprised in how our data is collected and used , even by our political parties.

MaizieD Sat 20-Oct-18 18:00:32

The big difference between the election of Trump and the result of the referendum is that Clinton actually received more votes than Trump but he won more states.

That's irrelevant, smileless. The US has a different voting system from us. The relevant thing is that Russia interfered massively in the process. If you read the indictment you can see how they did it and what a huge amount of money they spent on it. And we know that they were very active in the UK in the run up to the referendum.

We've had discussions on here before about the use of social media and targeted adverts. I'm always surprised that anyone can be comfortable with what is clearly a subversion of democracy.

Smileless2012 Sat 20-Oct-18 18:05:34

So much talk of the "subversion of democracy" but it's OK to attempt to subvert the result of a democratic referendum on whether or not we remain in the EU. It is that more than anything that I am not comfortable with Mazie

varian Sat 20-Oct-18 19:01:50

That advisory referendum was not democratic. It was ill-conceived, fraudulent and won by lies.

Quite a lot of the 26% of the UK population who voted leave were duped because they believed the lies.

If you really believe in democracy, support a Peoples' Vote when the terms of brexit are known, with the option of Remaining.

Smileless2012 Sat 20-Oct-18 19:32:15

There you go again varian, assuming that "quite a lot of the 26% of the UK population who voted leave were duped because they believed the lies".

If you really believed in democracy you would accept the result. You wouldn't be saying the referendum wasn't democratic "was ill-conceived, fraudulent and won by lies" if the result had been to remain and I don't doubt you'd have been up in arms if that had been the case and you were accused of being duped.

Jane10 Sat 20-Oct-18 19:36:50

It's a lose/lose situation all round.

Jalima1108 Sat 20-Oct-18 19:45:36

Spot on Jane10

MaizieD Sat 20-Oct-18 19:56:15

You wouldn't be saying the referendum wasn't democratic "was ill-conceived, fraudulent and won by lies" if the result had been to remain

Of course she wouldn't because the Remain campaign didn't cheat (confirmed by the Electoral Commission), it didn't resort to 'dark' advertising and it wasn't backed by Russian money (Aaron Banks) and Russian bots.

But if Remain had 'won' something might now be being done about the Russian interference and undemocratic actions such as targeted 'dark' advertising instead of it being swept under the carpet.

MaizieD Sat 20-Oct-18 19:58:10

P.S I've already agreed with Jane10 on another thread. Brexit is tearing the UK apart; it will take years to recover.

Jane10 Sun 21-Oct-18 08:26:42

Our generation won't see that day MaizieD. Sad isn't it.

paddyann Sun 21-Oct-18 11:36:26

watch this and weep.Empire???

youtu.be/LwUIVnwla5A

paddyann Sun 21-Oct-18 11:40:30

sorry seems to have cut out the eegit telling us that there are billions of people in "the Empire" and thats what we need to be the British Empire.

Mamie Sun 21-Oct-18 11:46:10

It is horrifying isn't it. How can people be so ignorant of history? He must have lived through quite a bit of it too.
Do people really not know that the British Empire does not exist anymore?

paddyann Sun 21-Oct-18 13:28:26

Can I point out AGAIN that Scotland didn't vote Tory ,here are the figures for tory votes since 1979,
1979 31%
1983 28%
1987 24%
2016 22%

So for those of you who believe Ruth Davidson is the second coming for the tories you can plainly see she is even LESS popular than Thatcher .
Scotland voted REMAIN ...62% of the votes .
Why are we being dragged out against our will by a party we didn't vote for .Total disregard for the people of Scotland from toxic tories .

Jane10 Sun 21-Oct-18 14:02:22

And the people of Scotland didn't vote for the SNP! Much reduced majority last time remember? Have to rely on Greens to get anything through? Not exactly a ringing endorsement. I voted remain in UK and remain in EU. United we stand. Things just hit even scarier with Trump's announcement today. If the arms race with Russia starts again all this brexit stuff could become academic. sad

Fennel Sun 21-Oct-18 17:15:02

But is it possible at this stage to Remain, even if there was a majority for it?
Haven't we already detached ourselves from the several treaties that we signed up to following joining the EU?
Or not?

Jalima1108 Sun 21-Oct-18 17:39:19

I voted remain in UK and remain in EU. United we stand.
That seems logical to me Jane10

MaizieD Sun 21-Oct-18 18:23:12

Haven't we already detached ourselves from the several treaties that we signed up to following joining the EU?

I don't think so, Fennel. As far as I am aware we remain a full member until 29th March 2019. It is at that point that the treaties cease to apply and we become a third country.