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Related: About this forumFollow the data: does a legal document link Brexit campaigns to US billionaire?
Source: The Observer
Follow the data: does a legal document link Brexit campaigns to US billionaire?
We reveal how a confidential legal agreement is at the heart
of a web connecting Robert Mercer to Britains EU referendum
Carole Cadwalladr
Sunday 14 May 2017 08.00 BST
On 18 November 2015, the British press gathered in a hall in Westminster to witness the official launch of Leave.EU. Nigel Farage, the campaigns figurehead, was banished to the back of the room and instead an American political strategist, Gerry Gunster, took centre stage and explained its strategy. The one thing that I know is data, he said. Numbers do not lie. Im going to follow the data.
Eighteen months on, its this same insight to follow the data that is the key to unlocking what really happened behind the scenes of the Leave campaign. On the surface, the two main campaigns, Leave.EU and Vote Leave, hated one other. Their leading lights, Farage and Boris Johnson, were sworn enemies for the duration of the referendum. The two campaigns bitterly refused even to share a platform.
But the Observer has seen a confidential document that provides clear evidence of a link between the two campaigns. More precisely, evidence of a close working relationship between the two data analytics firms employed by the campaigns AggregateIQ, which Vote Leave hired, and Cambridge Analytica, retained by Leave.EU.
British electoral law is founded on the principle of a level playing field and controlling campaign spending is the key plank of that. The law states that different campaigns must not work together unless they declare their expenditure jointly. This controls spending limits so that no side can effectively buy an election.
But this signed legal document a document that was never meant to be made public and was leaked by a concerned source connects both Vote Leave and Leave.EUs data firms directly to Robert Mercer, the American billionaire who bankrolled Donald Trump.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
We reveal how a confidential legal agreement is at the heart
of a web connecting Robert Mercer to Britains EU referendum
Carole Cadwalladr
Sunday 14 May 2017 08.00 BST
On 18 November 2015, the British press gathered in a hall in Westminster to witness the official launch of Leave.EU. Nigel Farage, the campaigns figurehead, was banished to the back of the room and instead an American political strategist, Gerry Gunster, took centre stage and explained its strategy. The one thing that I know is data, he said. Numbers do not lie. Im going to follow the data.
Eighteen months on, its this same insight to follow the data that is the key to unlocking what really happened behind the scenes of the Leave campaign. On the surface, the two main campaigns, Leave.EU and Vote Leave, hated one other. Their leading lights, Farage and Boris Johnson, were sworn enemies for the duration of the referendum. The two campaigns bitterly refused even to share a platform.
But the Observer has seen a confidential document that provides clear evidence of a link between the two campaigns. More precisely, evidence of a close working relationship between the two data analytics firms employed by the campaigns AggregateIQ, which Vote Leave hired, and Cambridge Analytica, retained by Leave.EU.
British electoral law is founded on the principle of a level playing field and controlling campaign spending is the key plank of that. The law states that different campaigns must not work together unless they declare their expenditure jointly. This controls spending limits so that no side can effectively buy an election.
But this signed legal document a document that was never meant to be made public and was leaked by a concerned source connects both Vote Leave and Leave.EUs data firms directly to Robert Mercer, the American billionaire who bankrolled Donald Trump.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/14/robert-mercer-cambridge-analytica-leave-eu-referendum-brexit-campaigns
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Follow the data: does a legal document link Brexit campaigns to US billionaire? (Original Post)
Eugene
May 2017
OP
Yup. Big daddy Mercer is a fucking sociopath, and Breitbart/Bannon are his ideas.
Sculpin Beauregard
May 2017
#1
Sculpin Beauregard
(1,046 posts)1. Yup. Big daddy Mercer is a fucking sociopath, and Breitbart/Bannon are his ideas.
roscoeroscoe
(1,369 posts)2. Billionaire Boy's Club
So obviously manipulated
WhiteTara
(29,699 posts)3. Robert Mercer, the American billionaire who bankrolled Donald Trump.
I hope they have a sealed indictment for this *@$#!^ % along with all the others.
CousinIT
(9,238 posts)4. Yes. Robert Mercer. One of the most evil billionaires alive. n/t