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Wednesday 11 July 2018

Brexit: and "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible"

This blog has looked at Peter Pomerantsev, author of "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia":
Futures Forum: Moving beyond the ideological boundaries and "empowering people to find the solutions to their problems themselves"
Futures Forum: Managed democracy: "The deliberate undermining of people's perception of the world, by creating confusion and contradiction ... undermining any opposition to existing power structures ... which leaves us feeling helpless and depressed and to which the only response is: 'Oh dear'."

He was on Radio 4 last night - and asks whether the UK is actually going the way of Russia: 

British Politics: A Russian View

Analysis
9th July 2018

Peter Pomerantsev asks why new techniques in political campaigning have succeeded and what the consequences are for society. He has a different view to most from his past career working inside the TV industryin Moscow.

The future arrived first in Russia. The defeat of communism gave rise to political technologists who flourished in the vacuum left by the Cold War, developing a supple approach to ideology that made them the new masters of politics. Something of this post-ideological spirit is visible in Britain. Centrism no longer seems viable. Globalisation is increasingly resented. Ours is an uncertain political landscape in which commentators and polls habitually fail to predict what is to come. There was a time when if you lived in a certain place, in a certain type of home, then you were likely to vote a certain way. But that is no longer the case. Instead, political strategists imagine you through your data. The campaigns that succeed are the ones that hook in as many groups as possible, using advances in political technology to send different messages to different groups.

Pomerantsev, one of the most compelling voices on modern Russia, is a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and is the author of "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia".


BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, British Politics: A Russian View

Meanwhile, this week, the US President pays a visit to parts of the UK - as noted by Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw: 

So how might Britain be sucking up to Trump? A Labour MP, Ben Bradshaw, thinks that the government has not always done all it can to assist the Mueller inquiry into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. Bradshaw was the minister in charge of the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and has doggedly pursued allegations about Russian meddling in other people’s elections. ‘I’m told that Mueller’s team were over here late last year and they weren’t happy with the level of cooperation they were getting,’ he said. Another source, with links to the ‘intelligence community’, said this was continuing, even after the Skripal poisoning.

"Serious flaw" in management of Brexit donor Arron Banks's charity | openDemocracy

And there are questions in the UK about secret funding arrangements - again by the MP for Exeter: 

"... it is so important we have a full investigation into how the campaign for Brexit was funded and the sources of that money, so that the public can have confidence in the legality of the campaign and the legitimacy of the result."

What does the British government know about Trump and Russia? | The Spectator

With the latest from the Observer:
Revealed: Leave.EU campaign met Russian officials as many as 11 times | UK news | The Guardian
Electoral law has been broken – this is a fight for the soul of our democracy | Politics | The Guardian

As the National Crime Agency steps in:
Brexit's biggest campaign donor 'investigated by National Crime Agency over links to Russia' | The Independent
Arron Banks: UK investigates alleged Russian links to Brexit backer - CNN

And as reported by Ottery Cllr Claire Wright from London:
Brexit and the prime minister. Where’s it, and she, going? - Claire Wright.
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