Read on Twitter
1. Hello, tonight’s thread is going to be focused on the recent article by @anandMenon1 and @jillongovt about how we ended up outside the Single Market. https://twitter.com/anandMenon1/status/1326552656383414272
2. It makes various claims which have merit, and some, like the EU’s attitude to bespoke deals, which are inaccurate, but it’s biggest failing is not recognising how the media is the main actor in this.
3. At the start of the referendum the government were very clear we would have the vote and then they would look at the various options available.
(They were required to publish those options as part of the referendum act 2015).
(They were required to publish those options as part of the referendum act 2015).
4. The government couldn’t just state a model, because it’s not just down to them, so they laid out the various options in their documents and speeches.
They include membership of the Single Market, an FTA, and even No deal.
They include membership of the Single Market, an FTA, and even No deal.
5. The process is accepted by both sides:
We vote and then the elected government decides on the model.
There is ‘no arbitrary existing “model” which we have to accept”, said Michael Gove.
We vote and then the elected government decides on the model.
There is ‘no arbitrary existing “model” which we have to accept”, said Michael Gove.
6. And to cut a long disaster short the Leave campaign win, and when Chris Grayling highlighted the ‘clear messages that came out of the referendum’, the Single Market is notably absent.
7. There is a brief period where nobody knows what Boris supports.
8. Michael Gove teams up with Gisela Stuart in a rebranded Vote Leave that writes a Questionnaire to determine if people want to stay in the Single Market or the Customs Union.
9. The Prime Minister thinks that the position has been somewhat over sold, and he can’t deliver the immigration line of the Leave campaign at the same time as delivering the Economic line.
10. So the PM obviously resigns and goes to parliament to say “Sort it out yourselves, I’m off…so long suckers!”
– Thanks, Dave
(You don’t mind if I call you Dave…no, of course you don’t).
– Thanks, Dave
(You don’t mind if I call you Dave…no, of course you don’t).
11. Theresa May applies for Dave's old job and people wonder if she is looking for a soft Brexit or a hard Brexit.
12. When Theresa gets the job she looks for an empty vessel.
Someone who would have absolutely zero knowledge of how trade works at the start, and would be lucky to have any more than the most basic trade knowledge at the end.
Someone who would have absolutely zero knowledge of how trade works at the start, and would be lucky to have any more than the most basic trade knowledge at the end.
13. Someone who believed that out inability to be part of the Single Market without signing up to Freedom of Movement was (and I kid you not) ‘something Guy Verhofstadt has said’.
14. The sort of trade illiterate MP that shouldn’t under any circumstance be invited to discuss trade, and yet somehow Tortoise did.
(Sorry Tortoise, but you booked him, you knew what he was, and you're only enabling him.)
(Sorry Tortoise, but you booked him, you knew what he was, and you're only enabling him.)
15. It starts, as you might expect considering the quality of the hire, with Theresa May rebuking David for saying we might leave the Single Market.
She had to try and square the circle that made David Cameron run to the hills, and this meant keeping quiet until they had a plan
She had to try and square the circle that made David Cameron run to the hills, and this meant keeping quiet until they had a plan
16. In the meantime there has been multiple debates about the Single Market that revolve around free movement, the court, and if the UK would 'really be outside of the EU'.
17. And on the more extreme side, it wasn’t long before the people who said that it wasn’t for them to tell the government what to do began to say: “You must do what Leave said!”
18. Further still on the fringes, and from the very start, is a twitter account, with all the hall marks of the alt-right, with clips of the PM and the Chancellor talking about the Single Market.
19. There are, shall we say, one or two problems with it. For example the PM is talking in a sequence, and when put alongside his description of going to the Norway model, the phrasing is the same.
20. Then, of course, there is the campaign itself where David said from the start it would be between Canada and Norway.
21. Problems with the George Osborne clip can be found in the same interview.
22. Not to mention that George Osborne’s campaign is better known for his Treasury documents and the Brexit budget, which all contain an EEA option.
23. But with persistence, the alt-right looking account keeps posting and it's not long before similar clips start getting attention from the right wing Blogosphere.
24. And then one day, Andrew Neil retweets it claiming "Osborne and Cameron clear Brexit = quitting single market".
25. By the end of the week Pat McFadden is being shown the clips as part of a montage of David Cameron, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, and Boris Johnson.
The BBC would show this several times before the end of the year.
The BBC would show this several times before the end of the year.
26. The first programme, broadcast on the 16th October, did no end of good educating people what had been clear and what everybody knew at the end of the referendum, especially the ones who had apparently forgotten up until then.
27. People who been arguing for months that Vote Leave were clear, suddenly, out of some amazing act of recollection, realised it was actually both sides who had been clear all along. https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/790124763410796545
28. The politicians and Brexit commentators weren’t the only ones to experience this incredible recollection moment.
The BBC goes from asking if this is a legitimate position to aggressively stating that leaving the Single Market was what it was all about.
The BBC goes from asking if this is a legitimate position to aggressively stating that leaving the Single Market was what it was all about.
30. Mixed up in that argument, and pretty much from the beginning, was the suggestion that staying in the Single Market wasn’t really leaving the EU.
Not from the beginning...beginning, obviously...
Not from the beginning...beginning, obviously...
31. When Open Britain produced a video showing lots of people pointing out these were valid options, the BBC attacked the video suggesting the clips were out of context because the people talking in them weren’t advocating those options.
32. Which not only ignored the proposition in the film, but it put more weight to the argument that Vote Leave's position was the end state, and ironically it was the BBC who removed vital context in that segment.
33. It’s not the only time they do this and present video dishonestly, here they show a clip of Nick Clegg saying Vote Leave wanted to leave the Single Market and claim it meant he knew we would be leaving the Single Market.
34. But it’s actually very difficult to miss the massive rant he has where he claims the exact opposite.
Vote Leave aren’t the only leave campaign.
Vote Leave aren’t the only leave campaign.
35. After several weeks the language being used is very aggressive.
Hard Brexit is what people voted for and this was "Never in question", which is an extraordinary claim consider some of the people who asked that question.
Hard Brexit is what people voted for and this was "Never in question", which is an extraordinary claim consider some of the people who asked that question.
36. The implication being that Theresa May, having been non-committed either way until now, can square her circle.
She is damaging the economy because that’s what people voted for, and is free of her democratic accountability.
She is damaging the economy because that’s what people voted for, and is free of her democratic accountability.
37. So I find it weird that an article about why we left the Single Market doesn’t refer to the reasons given both in the announcements that we were leaving the Single Market, and in committee, as to why the policy was given.
It was the result of 4 television interviews.
It was the result of 4 television interviews.
38. When the article questions why there wasn’t more support from MPs it doesn’t discuss the death threats that people got as a result of a betrayal narrative which should never have been given any weight. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/15/anna-soubry-receives-messages-calling-for-her-to-be-hanged-as-a-traitor-brexit
39. Some of these issues were raised with the BBC and it argued Michael Gove had said his vision was outside the Single Market on the 16th April.
When we pointed out what their own senior correspondent had reported on the 19th, they declined to respond.
When we pointed out what their own senior correspondent had reported on the 19th, they declined to respond.
40. I also took up the betrayal narrative with Evan Davis, who argued he couldn’t imagine it ever happened. So I provided two examples. https://twitter.com/EvanHD/status/1326246824240406528
41.After being told the BBC needed to do better because ‘folks like you’ interpreted one lunchtime interview, I gave examples of flagship shows doing it.
Evan Davis declined to respond. https://twitter.com/EvanHD/status/1326246824240406528
Evan Davis declined to respond. https://twitter.com/EvanHD/status/1326246824240406528
42. As the wonderful Deborah Lipstadt explains, there are lies, there are opinions, and there are facts. People can dress their lies up as opinions to encroach on the facts.
You’ve just seen Evan admit BBC presenters repeat things that they don’t think are true.
You’ve just seen Evan admit BBC presenters repeat things that they don’t think are true.
43. And if people think defending the BBC repeating lies is defending journalism, then think about the journalist who gets called a liar when their objective opinion contradicts lies which have been given undue weight. https://twitter.com/Peston/status/795959170893750272
44. By all means pick over the bones of how we left the Single Market, but don't ignore this one. Lies become opinion, they encroach on the facts, and then they are presented as some sort of "cultural position".
It's dangerous and this is a lesson we must learn.
/End
It's dangerous and this is a lesson we must learn.
/End
