Surely the most meaningless recent news story that has received significant coverage

[PSRB]

is the Leave campaign going about 600K over the spending limit?

Does anyone really think it made any difference or really give a toss?

Other than Ian Harvey, I mean.

Spending by leave campaigns: £13.5m
Spending by remain campaigns: £28m

Apparently.......

[Peter]

Spending by leave campaigns: £13.5m
Spending by remain campaigns: £28m

Apparently.......

Not according to the electoral commission which states that Leave just outspent remain. Funnily enough, the spendingcorrelates almost eaxactly with the outcome

[Burney]

Not according to the electoral commission which states that Leave just outspent remain. Funnily enough, the spendingcorrelates almost eaxactly with the outcome

Does that include the £9m spent by the government on those leaflets? I bet it doesn't.

Add to that the unquantifiable value of having the PM, the Governor of the BoE, the Chancellor, all major parties, Barack Obama and every other bugger queuing up to tell people to vote Remain and you have to conclude that spending is a very poor benchmark of how such campaigns work. Let's not pretend this was ever a level playing field. It was a rigged game that the mark somehow managed to win.

[World's End Stella]

Does that include the £9m spent by the government on those leaflets? I bet it doesn't.

Add to that the uncountable value of having the PM, the Governor of the BoE, the Chancellor, all major parties, Barack Obama and every other bugger queuing up to tell people to vote Remain and you have to conclude that spending is a very poor benchmark of how such campaigns work. Let's not pretend this was ever a level playing field. It was a rigged game that the mark somehow managed to win.

Mmmmm...not so sure. If you want to include Cameron, Obama, BoE etc then you also have to include the BNP, le Pen and others who stoked the anti-immigrant fire which undoubtedly contributed to the result without ever making it invalid. Everyone has a right to an opinion, to say that because more of the high profile people were Remain that that somehow made it a rigged game is an over-statement.

It was a level playing field, or as level as they can get, anyway.

[Peter]

Does that include the £9m spent by the government on those leaflets? I bet it doesn't.

Add to that the unquantifiable value of having the PM, the Governor of the BoE, the Chancellor, all major parties, Barack Obama and every other bugger queuing up to tell people to vote Remain and you have to conclude that spending is a very poor benchmark of how such campaigns work. Let's not pretend this was ever a level playing field. It was a rigged game that the mark somehow managed to win.

We are talking specifically about the quantifiable though. A quick flick through a section of the leave vote will tell you that those establishment figures queueing up to support remain were a significant factor for a lot of the swing vote that ended voting leave. So let us leave that alone for now....

I dont what that figure includes. Like you, I don't really care.

I just like winding up leave voters who are still convinced that they are somehow going to get stitched up .

[Burney]

Mmmmm...not so sure. If you want to include Cameron, Obama, BoE etc then you also have to include the BNP, le Pen and others who stoked the anti-immigrant fire which undoubtedly contributed to the result without ever making it invalid. Everyone has a right to an opinion, to say that because more of the high profile people were Remain that that somehow made it a rigged game is an over-statement.

It was a level playing field, or as level as they can get, anyway.

Those things simply aren't equivalent. And the only thing that actually 'stoked the anti-immigrant fire' was the level of immigration that took place between 1997 and 2011 and the nature of many of those immigrants. Le Pen, BNP, etc are symptoms, not the disease.

[Peter]

Those things simply aren't equivalent. And the only thing that actually 'stoked the anti-immigrant fire' was the level of immigration that took place between 1997 and 2011 and the nature of many of those immigrants. Le Pen, BNP, etc are symptoms, not the disease.

The only thing? Come on..... there was that massive ****ing global economic crash thing what happened. Nothing like an economic collapse to make people look a little more keenly for scapegoats....

Then there was the whole radical islamic terrorism thing.

[Burney]

The only thing? Come on..... there was that massive ****ing global economic crash thing what happened. Nothing like an economic collapse to make people look a little more keenly for scapegoats....

Then there was the whole radical islamic terrorism thing.

Dislike of mass immigration massively pre-dated the financial crash, p. The BNP hit their zenith in the early 2000s.

[Peter]

Dislike of mass immigration massively pre-dated the financial crash, p. The BNP hit their zenith in the early 2000s.

Right, but the BNP are bull****. UKIP picked up pace after 2008.

Dislike of mass immigration pre-dates us all, b. It is nothing new and rarely sits atop the political agenda.

If you had held the referendum in 2007 do you really think Leave would have won?

[Burney]

Right, but the BNP are bull****. UKIP picked up pace after 2008.

Dislike of mass immigration pre-dates us all, b. It is nothing new and rarely sits atop the political agenda.

If you had held the referendum in 2007 do you really think Leave would have won?

Well, Tone was worried enough about the country's inherent Euroscepticism to shelve his commitment to a vote on the Lisbon Trophy (ie, he knew it would be rejected), so I think it's fair to say that there's absolutely no inherent correlation between the country's wider feelings about the EU and the 2008 financial crash.