Guido Fawkes - Murder Sentencing Liar

As his heroine Priti Patel has been caught lying about her previous support for the death penalty, the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines has felt the need to indulge in a little whataboutery, and in doing so has demonstrated just how knowledgeable he and his rabble really are when it comes to the criminal justice system, or maybe not.

Feared. But only by rickety furniture

The Great Guido has clearly decided to push the idea that sentencing for those convicted of murder is getting “softer”, that these people are spending less time behind bars than in those Good Old Days That Never Were, when the act of sloshing a Bogey in the execution of his duty meant you could be in line for a handful on the Moor.

Sadly, Staines has come badly unstuck, and has shown only that he is staggeringly ignorant, and wilful with it. He opened with “When capital punishment was abolished parliament promised ‘life would mean life’. It often means 7 years. Now we are being promised ‘life will mean life’ again”. He does not understand the principle of being released on licence - and that a lifer can be recalled to prison at any time.

But it then got worse: “The killers of Jamie Bulger were sentenced on 24 November 1993, and released in June 2001, 7 years and 6 months later. Life did not mean life in that case”. Where do we start with that one? One, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables had already been in custody for nine months when they were sentenced. Two, they were not given a life sentence (minor point, eh?), but were sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Three, they were children - both were 10 years old at the time of the abduction and murder. And Four, the murdered toddler was called James, not Jamie.

Could it get even worse? Sadly, it could. “Murderers cop a plea of manslaughter and serve short terms”. Bloody hell, that must have been a good lunch. We do not have plea bargaining in the UK. Also, what plea is accepted is not down to the accused to dictate.

Unsurprisingly, The Secret Barrister was on the case in short order. “This is a lie. No murderer is sentenced to 7 years”. Could the time served work out at that amount? “No”. Author Julie Bindel added “Absolutely right. I have seen sentences for murder (I am thinking specifically about women who have killed in response to violence and are wrongly convicted of murder in the first place) start at around 16 – 18 years. 20 years ago sentences were considerably lower for such cases”. Quite.

The Secret Barrister agreed. “Exactly. There has been a severe ratcheting up of sentences for murder over the past decade. And Johnson’s new proposals for whole life orders for defendants who murder children under 4 will disproportionately affect mothers of young children … Usually women with severe mental health problems who don’t qualify for the defence of diminished responsibility, and in respect of whom judges currently have a discretion to tailor an appropriate minimum term. They are who he is going after”.

Well, well. Tories going after the vulnerable and mentally ill, cheered on by the ignorant and unprincipled? They don’t need experts, because they just make it up anyway.

Anyone still unsure how honest the Fawkes blog is? Now you know. Another fine mess.

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Don’t Feed The Rachel Riley

A new campaign has launched today in a bid to stem the flow of online abuse being disseminated through social media platforms. As the Guardian has told, “Actors, television personalities and politicians are calling on their colleagues to stop giving fuel to online trolls in an effort to stop the spread of hate and abuse online”. So who’s involved?

Rachel Riley

“The former England footballer Gary Lineker, the former home secretary Alan Johnson, the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, the anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali and the comedian and actor Eddie Izzard are among those uniting on Monday to advise people to stop engaging with trolls altogether online … The call by these public figures is part of the launch of a new guide for victims of online trolling called Don’t Feed the Trolls, launched by the new Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)”. Who they?

It’s a new group: Alan Johnson said of its head man “I worked with the CCDH’s director, Imran Ahmed, on the EU referendum campaign, in which we saw outbreaks of virulent hate offline and especially online, and in which our colleague Jo Cox lost her life to a radicalised white nationalist terrorist”. We’re talking serious abuse here.

Victoria Derbyshire - once again, Ms Riley's chosen conduit

Gary Lineker added “We’ve all been shocked by the way in which racist trolls have been targeting footballers recently. It is frankly horrifying that they have done so in a calculated way to spread their abhorrent views. Let’s not allow the beautiful game to be tarnished in this way”. And serious racist abuse. But then, someone had to ruin things.

Seeing a bandwagon passing by, Z-list Sleb Rachel Riley, who has risen to the giddy heights of doing the numbers on Countdown, went on Victoria Derbyshire and made sure anyone not quick enough to the off switch knew that she was a victim of trolling. She had had to block 1500 other Twitter accounts (does anyone actually count blocks? I don’t).

Cue Pushback. “She is the troll” … “I had to to Block Ms Riley because of the Abuse and false accusations of AS she was throwing out - just because people had a different views to the great Ms Riley (who naturally as she is on the telly is beyond reproach)” … ”Rachel Riley is an online troll and a bully. So I hope the same rules apply to her” … “Rachel Riley playing the victim this morning going on about trolls. Yeah I blocked her for troll behaviour. I hate online abuse but you could argue she brought a lot on herself”.

And there was more. “Rachel Riley is on [Victoria Derbyshire] to talk about the trolls she gets etc yet she’s the biggest bloody troll out there herself” … “I'm confused. I thought Rachel Riley was one of these trolls? I don't remember anybody trolling her back before she started trolling people on Twitter”. And as to “don’t rise to the bait”, well … “I quite agree, I've had Rachel Riley blocked for months”.

This was, after all, the same Rachel Riley who responded to seeing a brass band playing Hava Negila at the Durham Miners' Rally with "As tasteful as showing Black Panther at a Klan rally".

There is serious abuse going on on social media platforms, and those quoted show how serious much of it is. Alongside that, Rachel Riley is just attention seeking.

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Priti Patel LIED To Andrew Marr

In the looking-glass world of today’s Tory politics, Priti Patel, sacked by Theresa May after it was revealed that she was conducing her own foreign policy independently of the Foreign Office, has been appointed Home Secretary. It is the kind of move which has made even Diane Abbott’s most vicious detractors stop and think. Sadly, Ms Patel’s elevation to one of the great offices of state has not improved her memory.

So it was that she told the Daily Mail last month “that she has never supported the death penalty”. Even the Mail was not having that, and pointed out that she gave an interview to its sister paper, the Mail on Sunday, shortly after being selected as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, where she had said something very different.

Indeed, the interview with the MoS, under the by-line of Simon Walters, was headlined “'Restore death penalty and never scrap the pound' says Priti Patel”. The article went on to tell “The woman chosen as the Tories' first female Asian candidate has revealed how she fought off her rivals - by pledging to restore the death penalty”. Mind you, it also claimed “Ms Patel, whose parents were driven out of Uganda by Idi Amin”, which they weren’t.

Walters continued “She won cheers at the selection meeting by saying she backed restoring capital punishment … ‘The punishment must fit the crime and yes, I do support capital punishment’”. She also claimed, in an infamous Question Time appearance - the one where Private Eye editor Ian Hislop took apart her argument in short order - “I would support the reintroduction of capital punishment to serve as a deterrent”.

And so it came to pass that our new Home Secretary appeared on yesterday’s edition of The Andy Marr Show™. And, at the end of the interview, the inevitable question was pitched. “At a press conference this week that you said you had never supported capital punishment … It’s absolutely fine to change your mind on something but let’s be straight with us and honest with us about why you did” offered Marr.

Ms Patel responded with an unforced error. “Actually what I said on Monday is that I’ve never in my time as a Member of Parliament been an advocate of it, so that is fundamentally different”. But she was an MP when she appeared on Question Time and said she supported the reintroduction of capital punishment “as a deterrent”.

She then conceded to Marr that she had changed her mind. But once again, there was an unforced error: “But on this particular issue I have never in my time as a Member of Parliament been an advocate at all of that”. Except she was.

Priti Patel lied to the Daily Mail - and even the Daily Mail felt the need to point out her dishonesty, although the L-Word was omitted. She then lied to Andrew Marr, live on BBC1. Peter Oborne said yesterday that he was “Looking into this one for the dossier” - to perhaps add Ms Patel’s exhibition of dishonesty to his rapidly growing list of political lying.

Well, he now has the green light to go right ahead and add it in. Because Ms Patel has shamelessly lied about her past support for the death penalty. Twice.

That makes her ideal material for Bozo The Clown’s cabinet. I’ll just leave that one there.

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Last Night Of The Brexits

The 2019 BBC Proms season ended yesterday with the now traditional Last Night celebrations. In the second half of the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, we heard part of Henry Wood’s arrangement of the Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March #1, aka Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia! and of course Elgar’s orchestration of Parry and Blake’s Jerusalem.

It was all good stirring stuff, added to which there was the overture to Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld - which includes the Can Can - and Percy Grainger’s Marching Song of Democracy. All who attended appeared to be having a grand time. But at the Northcliffe House and Baby Shard bunkers, there was deep disquiet at what the BBC was broadcasting. Because many Promenaders were waving EU flags.

Worse, some wore EU berets. It was all too much for the Mail, which proclaimed “BBC viewers slam anti-Brexit campaigners for hijacking Last Night of the Proms by waving EU flags”. The Sun concurred, telling its audience “FOOL BRITANNIA BBC viewers blast anti-Brexit campaigners for ‘hijacking’ Last Night of the Proms by waving EU flags”.

The Mail droned on “Viewers of the Last Night Of The Proms last night voiced their disgust that the concert had been hijacked by anti-Brexit campaigners waving EU flags … Those watching live on BBC1 took to social media to air their fury … One wrote on Twitter: 'The Remoaners have hijacked a British institution with all the EU flags at The Last Night Of the Proms’ … Another said: 'Just watched it now - full of EU flags and hats. I really want to know what motivates these EU fanatics. They must hate their country.’”

The Sun added “The flag stunt was organised by an anti-Brexit campaign group but many BBC viewers condemned what they claimed was the politicising of the traditional evening … Others took aim at the BBC with one tweeting: ‘Disgusted to see the Last Night of the Proms politicised by remainers - shame on them and the bbc.’”

And three things here. One, all those wearing EU berets and waving EU flags did so of their own volition: none of them were coerced into the act. Moreover, it’s not as if the Proms is some kind of elitist bash: the Prommers’ standing tickets, for most Proms, cost £5. So does standing up in the Gods. My seat in the Rausing Circle at an August prom cost all of £12.50. These are ordinary people making a voluntary choice.

Two, of the two Twitter accounts that the Mail article shows, one Retweets a lot of stuff from people whose bios contain the phrase “No surrender”, with the other Retweeting the Brexit Party and a lot of people whose bios contain the word “Patriot”. Of the millions who watched the broadcast, that’s not exactly the most representative sample.

And Three, just to show just how desperate our free and fearless press is to shut out reality, the Mail has even whined about the selection of music. Seriously. “There were also accusations of bias in the music selection, with some saying the inclusion of The Marching Song Of Democracy by Percy Grainger was pointedly political”. Oh what a giveaway!

The Mail says democracy is A Very Bad Thing! Someone’s 1930s slip is showing. But seriously, this is press panic at the realisation that Brexit is not as popular as they believe. Last night showed the tide has most definitely turned. I’ll just leave that one there.

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Harry Cole - Flanelled Fool And Fraud

Such is the desperation of our free and fearless press that some of its outlets are prepared to give a platform to those who, like a soufflé that has been inflated well beyond the point of viability, need very little prodding to deflate them completely. One such is the Mail on Sunday’s alleged deputy political editor, the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole.

Claims to be a journalist. No, don't laugh

Cole, who made his name as tame gofer to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, has now been given his own opinion column, which may not increase sales of the MoS, but has already increased the mirth level of those who know that this pretend “journalist” has already been promoted way beyond his capabilities.

Around a photo of Master Cole in his serious “You nicked my beer?” pose, the column is headed “HARRY COLE … SPILLING SECRETS, PUNCTURING EGOS”. Moving right along from scenes of onlookers resembling extras in a Smash advert, it has to be said that this initial offering is, sadly and predictably, spilling no secrets and puncturing no egos.

But let us at least give the flannelled fool the benefit of the doubt. Master Cole’s lead item is “How Bad Boy Pact was torpedoed by Britain's FBI after security officials warned ministers to steer clear of Arron Banks”. Here, he pushes the idea that the reason for the Tories not wanting a pact with the Brexit Party is somehow related to the NCA’s investigation of Arron Banks, and his enormous donation (as it were).

WHAT?

The problem he has here is that Banksy and Leave EU are not the same thing as the Brexit Party. Indeed, the party’s chairman Richard Tice has been at pains to stress that he left Leave EU even before the 2016 referendum. Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has distanced himself from Banks. Cole is not comparing like with like.

Thus the lame standard of reportage well-known to seasoned Cole watchers continues. He  is, after all, the same Master Cole who called phone hacking all wrong back in 2009, to the extent of smearing Jackie Ashley, who clearly knew more about the subject - and Andy Coulson - than Cole, sniping “Jackie Ashley Talks Bollocks Shock”.

Why does Master Cole never appear on The Andy Marr Show™? Oh, I dunno. His ineptitude extended to his first Sun front page splash, “COURT JEZTER”, which claimed Jeremy Corbyn would have to be sworn to the Privy Council, or Labour would lose their allocation of “Short Money”. The story was totally untrue. And there was more.

A nation celebrates Master Cole's elevation

Cole’s first MoS splash was the claim that Shamima Begum was such an unrepentant jihadi - remember, she was trying to come back to the UK, losing yet another baby and being improperly stripped of her British citizenship at the time - that she had sewn suicide bombers into their explosive vests. There was only one problem with the article: no journalism was involved, which is par for the course with him.

Master Cole had been taking dictation from the spooks. That’s right: his first Mail on Sunday “exclusive” was as a conduit for the security service’s dirty tricks operatives.

Yet now he is being sold to unwary MoS readers as not only a real journalist, but someone who can “puncture egos”. When the only one being punctured is his. Pass the sick bucket.

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Rees Mogg Anti-Semitism EXPOSED

The veneer of sophistication, tolerance and intellectual rigour that had previously attached to the member for times long past Jacob Rees Mogg began to fracture recently with his use of Parliamentary privilege to defame someone of inconvenient view. It has, whisper it quietly, now been utterly shattered after an outburst during a Commons debate.

Rees Mogg used a crude and blatant anti-Semitic smear to attack Tory MP Oliver Letwin and Speaker John Bercow. You may not have heard about this; after all, newly-anointed anti-Semitism supremo John Mann has said and done nothing about it. Our free and fearless press has said and done likewise. There have been no carefully phrased articles from Gabriel Pogrund and Jake Wallis Simons. Why not?

Ah well. Here we need to consult Michael Berkowitz, historian at University College London, who has posted on “Jacob Rees Mogg’s alarming cry of ‘Illuminati’”. Here is what he has to say about the episode. “Few seem to have noticed an expressly antisemitic sentiment articulated by Jacob Rees-Mogg in the vociferous Brexit debate during the evening of Tuesday, 3 September 2019”. There is more.

“As a historian of antisemitism who has published on the stereotype of ‘Jewish criminality’ used by the Nazis and their accomplices, it was extremely unsettling for me to hear Rees-Moog castigate his opponents, particularly his two fellow Tories of Jewish background, Sir Oliver Letwin and Speaker John Bercow, as ‘Illuminati who are taking the powers to themselves.’” The utterance came as the Bill removing a No Deal Brexit was debated.

Here is what Berkowitz says about the term “Illuminati”: “Superficially, the term ‘Illuminati’ refers to a short-lived Central European fraternal organisation of the late eighteenth century. But far more significant than the actual, inconsequential history of this small organisation is the afterlife it has assumed in a number of conspiracy theories, which have been frequently used as justification for violence”. Do go on.

After noting three works which use the term, he tells “Common to all these works is the allegation that the ‘Illuminati’ infiltrated the ranks of European Jewish bankers in the nineteenth century. Following the lines of the notorious forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, these books assert that the bankers/Jews/Illuminati were behind the Bolshevik Revolution - as well as the creation of the Federal Reserve system in the United States. They then, so the tale continues, went on to form the influential American think tank Council on Foreign Relations and subsequently what the far-right refers to as The New World Order - whose tentacles are said to be comprised of institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union”. The full set of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

Berkowitz concludes “There is no other, anodyne usage of this term in current political discourse … With his nod to ‘Illuminati’ - pointed at Letwin and Bercow - Rees-Mogg is knowingly trafficking in the portrayal of Jews as underhanded and sinister … while studiously avoiding the word ‘Jew’, he has exhumed, embellished, and rebroadcast one of the most poisonous antisemitic canards in all of history”. Rees Mogg bang to rights.

As he’s entirely consistent, I expect John Mann to be down on Rees Mogg like the proverbial tonne of bricks, camera crew and all. Once someone has explained it to him.

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Top Six - September 15

So what’s hot, and what’s not, in the past week’s blogging? Here are the six most popular posts on Zelo Street for the past seven days, counting down in reverse order, because, well, I have domestic stuff to do later. So there.

6 Yellowhammer - There’s No Hope Sad and desperate Telegraph hack Christopher Hope was so distraught at the Yellowhammer revelations that he invented an imaginary friend.

5 Cherry Case - BBC Pol Ed Spins For Bozo Once again, Laura Kuenssberg gave us the Government line - not the facts.

4 How Poor Is Dominic Cummings? His in-laws own a castle - and his Islington pad, bought for £1.65 million in cash, has a Tapestry Room.

3 Leave EU Investigations NOT All Dropped Arron Banks and his pals made out that they were in the clear, only for the National Crime Agency to confirm that they weren’t.

2 Dominic Cummings Is Humbly Ambushed Polecat Dom and his boss were forced to hand over a whole load of documentation by Parliament.

1 Bozo And Dom’s Data Fiddle EXPOSED Cambridge Analytica never went away - this time, it’s blatant misuse of GOV UK to provide the Tories with personal data.

And that’s the end of another blogtastic week, blog pickers. Not ‘arf!

Wetherspoons - Your Boss Is An Idiot

There are few more vocal supporters of a No Deal Brexit than Tim Martin, founder of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain. He has truly drunk in the Kool-Aid, to the extent of believing that No Deal means free trade and the ability not to honour the UK’s obligations to the EU - like stumping up the £39 billion divorce bill. Should Brexit go ahead, he is about to get an almighty shock. But first, he wants to talk about the chain’s latest results.

The FT has told that “JD Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin has lashed out at ‘elite Remainers’ for ignoring the long-term benefits of leaving the EU after his pub group said that profits dropped more than 4 per cent owing to higher costs during the year”. Those rotten Remainers were “ignoring the ‘big picture’, regarding lower input costs and more democracy”. More democracy, such as proroguing Parliament, perhaps.

He droned on “despite continuing political problems, stemming from the transfer of democratic power to a technocratic elite, Wetherspoon continues to perform well”. That’s the technocratic elite to which he belongs. But enough of Martin’s idiotic dribbling: let’s subject his cutting-edge business acumen to a little real world analysis.

One, Spoons has just cut the price of some beers by 20p a pint. This, Martin claimed, was to highlight the advantages of leaving the EU. But there is no EU external tariff on beer. Also, the beer which has had its price cut uses ingredients from the UK. Martin’s excuse? He “said that it reflected the overall potential for lower costs for the group in a lower-tariff regime”. Hello Tim! You can’t get lower than a zero tariff. And there is more.

Two, Spoons is moving away from EU-sourced wines. But if there really was such a punitive external EU tariff on wine, it would drive Martin’s costs up. If doesn’t, because the tariff ranges from around 9p a bottle on Australian wine to zero on that from Chile. 

Three, here’s a local example for him. Cheshire East voted to Leave, but only narrowly - 51.2% to 48.8%. But Crewe, whisper it quietly, voted heavily to Leave. So what did Spoons do with their pub in the town, a year and half after the EU referendum?

They closed it. OK, the 1960-vintage shopping centre where the Spoons was located is slated to be demolished as part of a long-due redevelopment, but the chain has made no attempt to open another outlet. Meanwhile, up the road in Sandbach …

The vote there was to Remain. The town has a Waitrose. The Spoons there remains open. So if Tim Martin wants to blame “Waitrose warriors” for boycotting his pubs, he’s playing right into their hands. Hardly cutting-edge business acumen, is it? And there is more.

Four, many of those allegedly mainland European beers are actually brewed under licence in the UK (this includes Becks, Stella Artois, Carlsberg, Heineken, Tuborg and others) - so axing them harms British, not mainland EU, jobs. And Five, the largest tariff on beers, wines and spirits is duty and VAT - which is levied by the UK Government. That’s right, the hated EU tariffs have very little influence on Martin’s prices.

And he’s still too mean to pay his staff a decent crust. What a complete idiot.

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Tory Facebook Dirty Tricks Farce

[Update at end of post]

Who could have predicted that a party now effectively run by polecat Dominic Cummings, infamous for Vote Leave’s crude and dishonest Facebook adverts telling voters that Turkey was about to join the EU, and that our border would therefore be with Iraq and Syria, would just have been caught doctoring BBC news reports in yet another round of misleading Facebook adverts? Sadly, many could have predicted it.

And that’s why the revelation has come as no surprise, although the crude and mildly ungrammatical doctoring suggests standards at The Blue Team are not what they once were. The Tories’ chosen specialist subject on this occasion is education, and the article they have claimed as their own is about a recent spending announcement.

Alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had made a claim of another £14 billion to be spent on schools, or as the Beeb put it “Next year schools will receive a £2.6bn uplift, rising to £4.8bn the following year - with schools spending £7.1bn more than at present by 2022-23”. The Corporation’s head of Statistics, Robert Cuffe, though, warned that all was not what it seemed with that £14bn claim.

“Boris Johnson's announcement of extra money for schools will be welcome to many, but do the sums add up? … An additional £2.6bn next year, £4.8bn the year after that and £7.1bn in 2022-23. When you add all three together, you get £14.5bn, but that's not normally how we talk about spending increases. We talk about budgets for each individual year … Describing this as a £14bn increase would make the government seem more generous than it is in fact being”. That did not stop the Tory Facebook warriors.

As Martin Belam of the Guardian pointed out, “Conservatives are currently running Facebook ads where they have changed the headline of a BBC News article to make it say schools are getting an extra £14bn. In the text of the BBC article they link to it literally describes the £14bn claim as misleading. It's just shameless”. It is?

Let’s have a look at the Tory Facebook advert, which is “Active” and started running last Monday. They have added their own heading “Tell this news to a friend … We’re giving schools a record £14 billion, levelling up per pupil funding across the country”.

So far, so much propaganda - then comes the doctored BBC headline: “£14 billion pound cash boost for schools”. A word in your shell-like, Tory ad person. If you use the Sterling currency symbol before the number 14, you do NOT say “pound” or “pounds” afterwards. The word “pounds” is implicit in the use of the Sterling currency symbol. Oh dear!

The Tories have been caught red-handed fiddling with BBC headlines, which is bad enough, but worse is that they have also been caught being inept with it.

But seriously, this will be only the first of many, many more examples of Facebook-driven Tory dirty tricks. The presence of Polecat Dom guarantees it.

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[UPDATE 1710 hours: Facebook has taken a dim view of the Tories' tactics, and has now removed the advert. As the BBC has reported, "The social media giant say [sic] the Tories had 'misused' its advertising platform and it was working to stop headlines being changed in this way".

The Blue Team's comment was priceless. "The party has said it is reviewing the way its Facebook adverts are produced". In other words, it's going to see how it can get away with dirty tricks without having its ads banned]

Leave EU Investigations NOT All Dropped

Aided and abetted by their pals in the right-leaning part of the media establishment, the inmates at Leave EU yesterday told anyone prepared to listen that they were now in the clear. “LEAVE EU IN THE CLEAR” told their Twitter feed, adding “In a crucial blow to the Remain nutjob conspiracy theorists, the Met Police have today informed us that all investigations into our campaign have been dropped”.

There was the customary welter of abuse directed at Damian Collins, Ben Bradshaw, and of course the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr. The claims were then reinforced by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, who declared “Police Conclude Leave EU Campaign Did Not Break Law During The 2016 Referendum”.

The Great Guido went further: “The Metropolitan Police have today announced there will be no further action against the Leave.EU campaign. The police said that there is insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal investigation.  Campaign founder Arron Banks has demanded a public inquiry into Remainer MPs’ abuse of public office in response”. Leave EU had been vindicated. Or had they?

After Leave EU trolled the BBC with “Afternoon [BBC News}, We noticed you've missed today's breaking news. Seeing how you covered the story so extensively when the investigation was announced, we're sure as an impartial organisation you'll want to give the Met Police's findings today equal coverage”, someone put them straight.

Manveen Rana, a reporter for BBC News and the Radio 4 Today Programme, responded “Just to clarify, the National Crime Agency investigation into [Arron Banks], [Leave EU] and [Liz Bilney] which [BBC News] covered at length, is still ongoing. In a statement today, the NCA said: ‘This is a live investigation’ and they’ll report the outcome once it’s concluded”.

So Banksy and his pals are not quite as in the clear as they made out. This revelation resulted in Banks’ oily sidekick Andy Wigmore trying his usual creepy bullying schtick on Ms Rana: “Careful [Manveen Rana] wouldn’t want to get that wrong would we”. Nice news gathering organisation you’ve got there, pity if something were to happen to it.

Sadly for Wiggy, Ms Rana does not bully easily, especially when she has the right story and knows it. Hence her reply “Hi Andy. I think you must have missed the detail. I quoted a statement from the NCA sent to me *today*. By all means, do give them a ring to check. I’m sure they’d be delighted to hear from you”. Ouch! 

In their response to Ms Rana, the NCA referred to their statement from November last year, and added “This is a live investigation [present tense], and we are unable to discuss any operational detail, however we are progressing the investigation as expeditiously as possible and will report the outcome of the investigation at the earliest opportunity, once all matters have been thoroughly investigated”. Well, well.

So Leave EU lied when they claimed “all investigations into our campaign have been dropped”. The Fawkes rabble also lied - no surprise there - with that headline claim. And Andy Wigmore failed in his latest crude and creepy attempt to bully the media.

Leave EU is not out of the woods yet. I’ll just leave that one there.

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