Viewpoint: The Russia Report released.

So, a day earlier than expected, The Russia Report finally gets released to the world, and whilst there's nothing that is a smoking gun, what is says is potentially more damaging to the British government, moreso to David Cameron's administration of it, than the current one, though their reluctance to actually publish this is very notable as well.

Whilst it doesn't actually say if Russia interfered in the EU Referendum, and let's be honest, we know they did, the Russians are truly the only ones to actually benefit from the UK leaving the EU, so of course they would try and interefere, it fits their style, it fits the whole KGB-esque way that Vladimir Putin has run things during his time as President, the fact that it criticises the UK government for not even trying to investigate if such a thing was happening, is way more damning. 

The report does say that Russia has been engaging in influence campaigns targetting British Politics using things like social media campaigns, wealthy individuals and other means.  Evidence of this dates back to 2014's Scottish Referendum on Independence, yet apparently, there was no attempt to discern if such behaviour was being done during the Brexit campaign.  Spoiler Alert: Yeah, there was, we saw it with our own eyes on social media.

Bias by deliberate action is one thing.  But bias by deliberate inaction is worse.  And allowing interference in internal affairs by deliberately avoiding investigating, is frankly unforgivable.  This government as a whole needs to resign, on mass.  Yes, I know, we don't want another general election, we've had so many in these last few years, but frankly, that would be a small price to pay.

Unsurprisingly, The Kremlin has dismissed all this as "Russophobia", but I would say, there was no "Russophobia" until Putin started showing he was still doing things the old KGB way.  Coincidence?  No way!

Russia interfered in Scottish Independence, they interefered in the EU referendum, they interfered in the US Presidential Election in 2016, they've interefered plenty since, and now the world is finally realising just how low and sneaky and downright dispicible Vladimir Putin has been, the fact that he has been running Cold War style campaigns of disinformation for the purposes of not just growing Russian influence and power in the world, but also to generate outcomes that will favour his country, it is going to get a lot harder for Russia to continue that kind of influence peddling.  They're already being called out for it on social media everytime they try.  And then, there's what will happen in 2024, when his second term in office comes to an end.  Plus, what is happening with the global pandemic in Russia currently.  Politics in Russia is going to be very interesting in the next few years, especially after the constitutional amendments he got voted in earlier this month, giving him the power to effectively veto candidates for the Prime Minstership, before they even stand for office, and stating that Russian law supercedes international law.  That is not going to go down well globally.

This was not closure on this issue.  We might not get any closure on this until Putin is out of political office and maybe not even then.  But the more we know about what Putin is doing, the more it makes him look like a wannabe global dictator.  We must be on the look out for more Russian influence peddling and trying to influence public opinion on social media, because that's the only way we can effectively counter what is going on.

Viewpoint: Now even Farage wants another referendum.

Okay, this is a genuine surprise, as I wasn't expecting this at all.

Nigel Farage wants a second EU/Brexit referendum.

Let me say that again.  Nigel Farage wants a second EU/Brexit referendum.

I never thought I'd see the day.

Admittedly he thinks that a second referendum would kill off the "remoaner" campaign to undermine Brexit, and certainly if a referendum happened, and it went 55-45 or greater in favour of Brexit, then certainly it would kill off any further campaign to remain, but the evidence at the moment suggests otherwise.

The most recent poll, done by ICM in December actually gives Remain a 3% lead, 46 to 43.  ORB International's Brexit tracker, puts disapproval of the Prime Minister's handling of Brexit at 63%.  Neither of these are great indicators that a second referendum would deliver what Nigel Farage is looking for.

Of course, he does have the radical extremist right wing press on his side, which he thinks can deliver him the vote he's looking for.  But the influence of the press continues to diminish and as their losses mount up, they try to get louder and louder to encourage people to take notice of them, which is in fact having the opposite effect.  Plus, campaigns like Stop Funding Hate are having an impact on these company's bottom lines, by persuading advertisers not to advertise with these brands that have decided to align themselves with hateful messages.

I'd actually quite like a second referendum to happen, but I don't expect it to.  Theresa May already bungled one major gamble with last year's general election, and I don't see her going for another big gamble in a second referendum, but I've been wrong before.

Ian Beaumont Live & Direct video short: Brexit is a mess.

My latest video post, on the Brexit Secretary, David Davis, being forced to admit that the UK government has not conducted a single Impact Assessment on the aftermath of leaving the EU, despite having previously said his department was doing about 57 of them.