Brexit donor met with Russian officials in the months leading up to EU vote

[Mr Trick]

Brexit donor Arron Banks 'had meetings with Russian officials'

Scroll down for the full-story. Nothing concrete yet, but this alone is enough for some sort of investigation.

My question is, if its proven that these meetings were Brexit related and Russian played a part etc... do you think that should lead to another vote? I suppose the problem for me is that it would still be hard to prove that the outcome would have been different. But this is certainly very dodgy and needs some tough action.

 

[thetopher]

No.
I voted to stay in- for entirely business related reasons- but the reaction of the EU politicians has been telling and I would vote the opposite way now.
Let the referendum stand as is; most people on both sides actually want this, not another vote.

Overall I find the whole 'Russia influenced the outcome of -'whatever' stories to be dubious and pretty much unprovable. It's a scary idea- and for that reason Russia should be condemned and guarded against- but the 'examples' of things they (allegedly) did seem rather vague and inconsequential in terms of outcome.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

This seems to be riding on the coattails of the Trump - Russia investigation but in this case, the connection is even less clear. People went to voting booths and voted on the Brexit issue. Neither Arron Banks nor the Russians were in the voting booths looking over their shoulders. This does not seem to be an allegation that Russia hacked the voting process. The story seems to be that a guy met with the Russians who was coincidentally a Brexit supporter.

The connection between the EU and democracy is hanging by a thread. It has three parts, the European Council which is the 28 national governments whose compromise decisions rarely reflect the wishes of anyone, the European Commission which negotiates trade deals, enforces antitrust legislation and proposes legislation and the 751-member Parliament which cannot introduce legislation and has limited control of the budget. The Parliament elects the head of the European Commission who then acts independently.

You can find a previous post of mine where I said that Brexit would be short-term pain for long-term gain. Only the vindictiveness of the remaining countries will tell how much pain that is. But the EU is simply too unwieldy and fragmented to continue as good government and the economically distressed countries are a drain on the finances, so England can just sit back and wait for the inevitable collapse.

 

[Mr Trick]

This seems to be riding on the coattails of the Trump - Russia investigation but in this case, the connection is even less clear. People went to voting booths and voted on the Brexit issue. Neither Arron Banks nor the Russians were in the voting booths looking over their shoulders. This does not seem to be an allegation that Russia hacked the voting process. The story seems to be that a guy met with the Russians who was coincidentally a Brexit supporter.

The connection between the EU and democracy is hanging by a thread. It has three parts, the European Council which is the 28 national governments whose compromise decisions rarely reflect the wishes of anyone, the European Commission which negotiates trade deals, enforces antitrust legislation and proposes legislation and the 751-member Parliament which cannot introduce legislation and has limited control of the budget. The Parliament elects the head of the European Commission who then acts independently.

You can find a previous post of mine where I said that Brexit would be short-term pain for long-term gain. Only the vindictiveness of the remaining countries will tell how much pain that is. But the EU is simply too unwieldy and fragmented to continue as good government and the economically distressed countries are a drain on the finances, so England can just sit back and wait for the inevitable collapse.[/QUOTE]

I think the suggestion is that Banks used funds from Russia to support his campaign. How much of a factor that played on Brexit happening I'm not sure. I think that would be too hard to prove.

Even if there was merit to what you are saying. The problem from a UK point of view is that we now have to go out and make deals with other countries. Something that is already looking like an up hill struggle. Time is ticking against us. We already have a good system in place with the EU. The tricky part of Brexit (or at least the trade side of it) is to keep some form of contact with Europe while striking trade with the rest of the world.

 

[The Bronze]

Illegally funded, based on lies and still no sodding plan for how it will happen years later. No point in a second vote. If it's going to be a disaster then our politicians should stop it.

 

[Mr Trick]

Illegally funded, based on lies and still no sodding plan for how it will happen years later. No point in a second vote. If it's going to be a disaster then our politicians should stop it.

Disagree on this bit. You can't dismiss the people who voted to leave originally. I don't think there's enough at the moment anyway. But if it was deemed as such then the only way would be to have a second vote. You have to remember that a lot of people seem to have voted leave for purely symbolic reasons rather than anything else. I'm not sure such a scandal would make a difference to those voters.

 

[The Bronze]

They won't do it but they should. Anyone in there who can see it's going to be a disaster should stop it. Ruining the country on the back of a narrow margin advisory referendum is crazy. No one will thank them for it if things go to hell.

I expect what will happen is we'll stay in indefinitely because no one can figure out a workable way to leave.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Obviously the EU will try to penalize England (and Scotland) for Brexit so the ability to move around and work anywhere in the EU may be jeopardized but this does not mean the EU is not going to collapse under its own weight. Germany and France have to contend with supporting Greece, a country where a civil servant can retire on a 90% pension at age 55. Germans don't retire until they are 67 and not at any 90%. The unfairness of lumping their financial fortunes together is not lost on Germany or France. Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy and Ireland (although Ireland has improved) are dragging the economy down and a lot of Germans and French want to just forget the whole thing.

England will have to make its own trade deals but they always did before and so have other countries so this is not a hardship. England has to have an input on EU trade deals as it stands so it just means they will be making deals on their own behalf rather than for the EU. But no one seems to be in a rush to leave in England and no one in the EU seems to be in favour of shoving England out the door.