November 04, 2018

Brexit campaigner under investigation

located:	United Kingdom
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

Fraudulence and controversy in the elections of western liberal democracies have been commonplace since the very beginning. Whether it’s a case of the loser winning as John Quncy Adams did in 1824, so-called “hanging chads” in the Bush vs Gore election of 2000, or indeed gerrymandering in the 2016 Brexit referendum and U.S. presidential elections, (not to mention tales of dead voters being registered), people of power have always sought to sway the outcome of elections by whatever cynical means they had.

However, just because it’s not new doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. In our political systems, which discourage participation and encourage indifference, the outcome of elections is of the greatest significance. Each election has longlasting effects. A controversial election gave us the Iraq war. Another gave us years of Greek austerity. A dubious election gave us Donald Trump. And of course, a single referendum may spell the end of the European Union and the post-war European consensus.

Two years on, the legitimacy of the Brexit referendum of 2016 is nowhere near settled. It looks possible that a 'no-deal' Brexit will take place, where Britain leaves the European Union without a set of agreements on trade and other vital issues. This has been projected to be disastrous for both the U.K. and the EU and has even been linked to potentially causing another global recession. To say that the implications of Brexit are significant is a severe understatement. Brexit will shape the future of both entities for the next several decades. At a time when the EU is threatened by racist demagogues and nationalist politics, Brexit is a deeply destabilising event. This begs another question, is Brexit racist in nature?

Which is why it is important to establish if Brexit is a legitimate event. Aaron Banks, millionaire businessman and former UKIP donor has been recommended to the National Crime Agency of the U.K. by the country’s Electoral Commission. The appropriately named Banks is being investigated by the NCA to determine whether the roughly £8 million he spent on his hugely influential Leave.EU campaign is legitimate and legal. The campaign, although unofficial, contributed to the momentum behind the Leave vote. It has also been linked to suspicious Russian payments, which, though predictable, is deeply dismaying.

Banks and his associates have strenuously denied the allegations and in his first public statement he even cynically dog-whistled to Anti-Semites, asking “isn’t it funny how George Soros [gets to influence elections]?”. George Soros, a billionaire and non-U.K. citizen does indeed hold considerable sway in centrist politics across the world, but the intent is clear: Soros is Jewish and of course, we all know how the “billionaire cosmopolitan Jew” influences world politics. It’s an old story – a tawdry one – and will no doubt deflect attention away from the central point, that in all likelihood, the Brexit referendum was corrupt in a deep way and as a result, will cause untold damage to the future of two major political entities.