In giving Evan Davis a little credit at the end of that last post for behaving himself more on last night's Newsnight special (after he behaved so badly on Friday night's Newsnight), I forgot the bit where he (seriously) plugged that petition calling for a second referendum (at 26:55):
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| Evan Davis, plugging that petition |
As soon as I heard about that seriously undemocratic petition (long before Evan mentioned it on Newsnight) I thought it had better reach around the 18 million mark - and then have to be checked very thoroughly for massive fraud - before anyone in their right mind would even begin to start to take it seriously.
And yet here was Evan plugging it, with a serious face.
I've been trying so hard to catch up today that I've fallen a long way behind, so I'm relying (if you don't mind!) on you for help....
Has the BBC kept on plugging this petulant, childish petition without raising all the obvious caveats about fraud (and charges of fraud are being widely made about this petition now) or raising the even more obvious points about how undemocratic such a petition is?
(If it has, good on it. If it hasn't, shame on it).
P.S. I see Alan at Biased BBC is saying that "the BBC seems to be trying to incite a civil war and the overturning of democracy", which would be quite something.
P.S. I see Alan at Biased BBC is saying that "the BBC seems to be trying to incite a civil war and the overturning of democracy", which would be quite something.
Span Ows has been talking about this petition. He says it's not what everyone thinks it is, but I'm not sure I understand.
ReplyDeletehttp://owsblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/online.html
Googling around, Span Ows turns out to be right about it being not what it seems.
DeleteThe petition was started a few months back by a Leave supporter (from the English Democrats). He wanted it put into law in order to overturn, if necessary, a fairly small Remain win in the referendum.
And now his petition is being used by Remain supporters.
Whether they are, as Span suggests, being stupid in not realising the original intent of the petition or whether they are actually being very clever in hijacking a Leave-supporter's somewhat undemocratic petition to support their own undemocratic ends, I was going to say I couldn't say but, actually, I can: I'd guess that they are being very clever.
The Daily Express claimed an 'exclusive' over it:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/683410/EXCLUSIVE-The-VOTE-LEAVE-backer-whose-petition-could-inadvertently-derail-the-Brexit
It may get more complex yet. I follow that ex-Tory MP lady Louise Mensch on twitter and she appears to be pointing at some FACTS that everyone from Polly Toynbee to the mighty BBC weekend team may have leapt on a bit precipitously.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter. That complicates things a lot more:
Deletehttp://heatst.com/uk/exclusive-brexit-2nd-referendum-petition-a-4-chan-prank-bbc-report-it-as-real/
No one - least of all the BBC - should take this petition at anything like face value.
I just saw this. It is brilliant. I downloaded the petition data, and it's hilarious.
Delete{"name":"Albania","code":"AL","signature_count":20},{"name":"Algeria","code":"DZ","signature_count":15},{"name":"Andorra","code":"AD","signature_count":19},{"name":"Angola","code":"AO","signature_count":5},{"name":"Anguilla","code":"AI","signature_count":9},{"name":"Antigua and Barbuda","code":"AG","signature_count":18},{"name":"Argentina","code":"AR","signature_count":110},{"name":"Armenia","code":"AM","signature_count":2},
And so on.
Yes BBC still peddling the dubious petition, was on Radio 4 yesterday morning
ReplyDelete