Friday, November 02, 2018
Another day, another criminal inquiry
Just as we are digesting the news that Arron Banks is to be investigated by the National Crime Agency, the Guardian reports that the Metropolitan Police are to open an inquiry into claims of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
One of the reasons I decided not to get back involved in national politics was the constant claims and counter-claims of wrong doings levelled against politicians, most of which turned out to have no substance. In many cases this agenda cancelled out any rational debate on policy or what was in the best interests of the country.
That is not to say that there is no wrongdoing, or even that the current claims do not have substance. For all I know these inquiries may throw up successful prosecutions. What I object to is that it is the inquiry that becomes the story, and that in doing so the constant reporting implies guilt before any proper investigation has begun. Whatever happened to due process?
Of course there is plenty to investigate. As Luke Harding points out, also in the Guardian, the National Crime Agency investigation into Arron Banks will inevitably examine his contacts with Russian officials in the run-up to the EU referendum, and a series of apparent deals offered to him by Moscow:
Banks has consistently denied receiving money from Russia. On Thursday he angrily dismissed as “ludicrous” the decision by the Electoral Commission to refer him to the NCA, which concluded a number of criminal offences may have been committed.
Banks also rejects the commission’s suspicion that he is not the “true source” of £8m funding supplied to Leave.EU.
But the businessman has given shifting and evasive explanations for his multiple meetings with Russian diplomats and suspected spies, which began in autumn 2015. He initially said he had met once with Russia’s ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko.
Banks subsequently conceded that three meetings had taken place. He later revised the figure up to four in an interview with the New York Times. The evidence indicates that the Russian embassy ran a major operation to cultivate and support Banks in the crucial months leading up to the vote.
The question the NCA will want to answer is whether Kremlin money may have found its way to Leave.EU and Banks.
That is fine. Let the National Crime Agency get on with it, and if at the end of their investigation they find wrongdoing then no doubt they will prosecute. In the meantime, if we want to convince people that Brexit is the wrong course for the UK and that they need a say on the final deal, then we must concentrate on the issues.
Arguing that people have been misled, conned or lied to, just entrenches their position. The reason public opinion has been shifting towards a people's vote is because there is growing awareness of how much Brexit will damage our economy and our living standards, how it will isolate us within the world and how much we will then have to depend on the goodwill of people like Donald Trump.
Let us keep making those arguments and leave the speculation about wrongdoing to the appropriate statutory agencies.
One of the reasons I decided not to get back involved in national politics was the constant claims and counter-claims of wrong doings levelled against politicians, most of which turned out to have no substance. In many cases this agenda cancelled out any rational debate on policy or what was in the best interests of the country.
That is not to say that there is no wrongdoing, or even that the current claims do not have substance. For all I know these inquiries may throw up successful prosecutions. What I object to is that it is the inquiry that becomes the story, and that in doing so the constant reporting implies guilt before any proper investigation has begun. Whatever happened to due process?
Of course there is plenty to investigate. As Luke Harding points out, also in the Guardian, the National Crime Agency investigation into Arron Banks will inevitably examine his contacts with Russian officials in the run-up to the EU referendum, and a series of apparent deals offered to him by Moscow:
Banks has consistently denied receiving money from Russia. On Thursday he angrily dismissed as “ludicrous” the decision by the Electoral Commission to refer him to the NCA, which concluded a number of criminal offences may have been committed.
Banks also rejects the commission’s suspicion that he is not the “true source” of £8m funding supplied to Leave.EU.
But the businessman has given shifting and evasive explanations for his multiple meetings with Russian diplomats and suspected spies, which began in autumn 2015. He initially said he had met once with Russia’s ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko.
Banks subsequently conceded that three meetings had taken place. He later revised the figure up to four in an interview with the New York Times. The evidence indicates that the Russian embassy ran a major operation to cultivate and support Banks in the crucial months leading up to the vote.
The question the NCA will want to answer is whether Kremlin money may have found its way to Leave.EU and Banks.
That is fine. Let the National Crime Agency get on with it, and if at the end of their investigation they find wrongdoing then no doubt they will prosecute. In the meantime, if we want to convince people that Brexit is the wrong course for the UK and that they need a say on the final deal, then we must concentrate on the issues.
Arguing that people have been misled, conned or lied to, just entrenches their position. The reason public opinion has been shifting towards a people's vote is because there is growing awareness of how much Brexit will damage our economy and our living standards, how it will isolate us within the world and how much we will then have to depend on the goodwill of people like Donald Trump.
Let us keep making those arguments and leave the speculation about wrongdoing to the appropriate statutory agencies.
Comments:
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Interesting to see that Labour is to be looked into and Tories look 'clean'.. The vitriol that is passed around by Trump et-al cheapens politics and can turn people off real concerns as you say.
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