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EU referendum live: voter registration site crashes after Cameron-Farage debate
EU referendum live: voter registration site crashes after Cameron-Farage debate
(35 minutes later)
10.25am BST
10:25
And the Electoral Reform Society is saying the same thing. This is from Katie Ghose, its chief executive.
This is a similar situation to the 2010 general election, when people were turned away from polling stations despite being in the queues before close of polls. Those queueing up last night shouldn’t be turned away, and plenty more may have heard about the site crashing and not bothered. There’s still time to put this right, with over two weeks to go until the referendum.
Given the huge rush to register there is clearly a huge demand for people to have their voice heard, so we believe the deadline should be extended until at least midnight tonight, or ideally the end of the week if feasible. Everyone turned away needs time to hear about the extension and to sign up, and a day might not be long enough given the high numbers involved.
Over 1.5m people have applied to register this past week, and 525,000 on the final day alone. This huge enthusiasm to take part shouldn’t be cast aside because of a short cut off.
10.22am BST
10:22
Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader, has joined those saying the voter registration deadline should be extended. “It is unacceptable that thousands of people were unable to register to vote last night due to a technical error on the government’s website,” she says.
10.01am BST
10.01am BST
10:01
10:01
Farage says more black migrants would come to UK under his proposed immigration system
Farage says more black migrants would come to UK under his proposed immigration system
On ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage also claimed that, under his preferred immigration system (the Australian-style, points-based one, in case you had not heard), there would be more black people coming to the UK.
On ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage also claimed that, under his preferred immigration system (the Australian-style, points-based one, in case you had not heard), there would be more black people coming to the UK.
I believe in the Commonwealth. I believe our relationship with the Commonwealth is vital. I think we’ve been stupid to turn our backs on it in favour of EU membership. And what has happened, because of the huge numbers of people coming from the EU, is it’s now very difficult for somebody who’s qualified from India or from Africa to get into this country because we have an unlimited open door to unskilled labour from southern and eastern Europe. And the effect of what I’m proposing – a points system, call it the Australian one or whatever you like – actually more black people would qualify to come in under that.
I believe in the Commonwealth. I believe our relationship with the Commonwealth is vital. I think we’ve been stupid to turn our backs on it in favour of EU membership. And what has happened, because of the huge numbers of people coming from the EU, is it’s now very difficult for somebody who’s qualified from India or from Africa to get into this country because we have an unlimited open door to unskilled labour from southern and eastern Europe. And the effect of what I’m proposing – a points system, call it the Australian one or whatever you like – actually more black people would qualify to come in under that.
9.54am BST
9.54am BST
09:54
09:54
Farage accuses archbishop of turning 'blind eye' to problems exemplified by Cologne sex attacks
Farage accuses archbishop of turning 'blind eye' to problems exemplified by Cologne sex attacks
In his interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, also hit back again at the archbishop of Canterbury, accusing him of turning a “blind eye” to the problems exemplified by the sex attacks in Cologne.
In his interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, also hit back again at the archbishop of Canterbury, accusing him of turning a “blind eye” to the problems exemplified by the sex attacks in Cologne.
The row was triggered by an interview Farage gave to the Sunday Telegraph in which he warned about the danger of Cologne-style attacks in the UK if the UK remained in the EU. He described the issue as a “nuclear bomb”. Yesterday the archbishop, Justin Welby, accused Farage of racism.
The row was triggered by an interview Farage gave to the Sunday Telegraph in which he warned about the danger of Cologne-style attacks in the UK if the UK remained in the EU. He described the issue as a “nuclear bomb”. Yesterday the archbishop, Justin Welby, accused Farage of racism.
Speaking on GMB, Farage tried to clarify what he meant.
Speaking on GMB, Farage tried to clarify what he meant.
I didn’t say that I was going to detonate that bomb, did I? In fact, what I said was this was an issue for the longer term, it’s not a problem for the short term. Longer term, there could be an issue if the one million men, young men, economic migrants that went to Germany last year were to get EU passports but I quite deliberately played that down ...
I didn’t say that I was going to detonate that bomb, did I? In fact, what I said was this was an issue for the longer term, it’s not a problem for the short term. Longer term, there could be an issue if the one million men, young men, economic migrants that went to Germany last year were to get EU passports but I quite deliberately played that down ...
Read what Alison Pearson’s written in the Daily Telegraph, listen to what Liam Fox has said, listen to what Iain Duncan Smith has said – they’ve gone far further than me, they’ve been far more explicit about this. But there was no question that during this campaign there was going to be a moment when people chose to attack me. What they’ve done here is, frankly, confected outrage.
Read what Alison Pearson’s written in the Daily Telegraph, listen to what Liam Fox has said, listen to what Iain Duncan Smith has said – they’ve gone far further than me, they’ve been far more explicit about this. But there was no question that during this campaign there was going to be a moment when people chose to attack me. What they’ve done here is, frankly, confected outrage.
Turning to Welby, Farage went on:
Turning to Welby, Farage went on:
He hasn’t read what I’ve said, he hasn’t studied what I’ve said ...
He hasn’t read what I’ve said, he hasn’t studied what I’ve said ...
This is the archbishop who, in his New Year’s message on 6 January, didn’t even make any mention of what had gone wrong in Cologne. It would appear to me he’s one of those people who’s prepared to turn a blind eye.
This is the archbishop who, in his New Year’s message on 6 January, didn’t even make any mention of what had gone wrong in Cologne. It would appear to me he’s one of those people who’s prepared to turn a blind eye.
As I say, there are people leading the debate on this subject; I’m frankly a follower on it. But to try to talk about this and to link it to people who are black or racism is ludicrous. What actually has happened in Germany and in Sweden is there is a cultural difference, that there are countries in North Africa and the Middle East where women are not treated as they are in the West.
As I say, there are people leading the debate on this subject; I’m frankly a follower on it. But to try to talk about this and to link it to people who are black or racism is ludicrous. What actually has happened in Germany and in Sweden is there is a cultural difference, that there are countries in North Africa and the Middle East where women are not treated as they are in the West.
This is not the first time Farage has made incendiary remarks in an interview, only to find himself clarifying them later after being branded racist. There was a good example two years ago when he had a go at Romanians.
This is not the first time Farage has made incendiary remarks in an interview, only to find himself clarifying them later after being branded racist. There was a good example two years ago when he had a go at Romanians.
I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
9.36am BST
9.36am BST
09:36
09:36
Here is more from the legal blogger Carl Gardner on how the government could extend the voter registration deadline.
Here is more from the legal blogger Carl Gardner on how the government could extend the voter registration deadline.
I can't find where in legislation the June 7 registration deadline's laid down. But I think it's these regs: (1/3) https://t.co/eV0ywnIAQK
I can't find where in legislation the June 7 registration deadline's laid down. But I think it's these regs: (1/3) https://t.co/eV0ywnIAQK
Anyway, s4 of the EU (Referendum) Act 2015 gives ministers power to modify electoral registration rules: https://t.co/cqrABuJJ2C (2/3)
Anyway, s4 of the EU (Referendum) Act 2015 gives ministers power to modify electoral registration rules: https://t.co/cqrABuJJ2C (2/3)
And an amending SI made today (Wednesday) would I think take effect automatically *at the start of* today. Problem legally solved. (3/3)
And an amending SI made today (Wednesday) would I think take effect automatically *at the start of* today. Problem legally solved. (3/3)
9.32am BST
9.32am BST
09:32
09:32
Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader, says the whole voter registration system is flawed anyway.
Harriet Harman, the Labour former deputy leader, says the whole voter registration system is flawed anyway.
Why on earth do we still have "opt in" elec registration? U shouldn't have to apply. Govt should put all eligible on register
Why on earth do we still have "opt in" elec registration? U shouldn't have to apply. Govt should put all eligible on register
9.26am BST
9.26am BST
09:26
09:26
This is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
This is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
Record referendum registration applications yesterday - 525,000...(previous high 485k) 302k under 35, 402k under 44: pic.twitter.com/60IHJODcQ5
Record referendum registration applications yesterday - 525,000...(previous high 485k) 302k under 35, 402k under 44: pic.twitter.com/60IHJODcQ5
9.25am BST
9.25am BST
09:25
09:25
More than 500,000 people did register to vote on Tuesday, government sources are saying.
More than 500,000 people did register to vote on Tuesday, government sources are saying.
But Philip Cowley, a politics professor, is using Twitter to point out that technically these are applications to register. Many people apply to register to vote who are either already registered, or who turn out to be ineligible.
But Philip Cowley, a politics professor, is using Twitter to point out that technically these are applications to register. Many people apply to register to vote who are either already registered, or who turn out to be ineligible.
For the next two days, I will mostly be tweeting this...From The British General Election of 2015. pic.twitter.com/elfVUU3Sru
For the next two days, I will mostly be tweeting this...From The British General Election of 2015. pic.twitter.com/elfVUU3Sru
9.13am BST
9.13am BST
09:13
09:13
Cabinet Office not saying yet whether voter registration deadline will be extended
Cabinet Office not saying yet whether voter registration deadline will be extended
This is what the Cabinet Office is saying this morning. A spokesperson said:
This is what the Cabinet Office is saying this morning. A spokesperson said:
We became aware of technical issues on gov.uk/register-to-vote late on Tuesday night due to unprecedented demand. Some people did manage to get through and their applications were processed. We tried to resolve the situation as quickly as was possible and to resolve cases where people tried to register but were not able to.
We became aware of technical issues on gov.uk/register-to-vote late on Tuesday night due to unprecedented demand. Some people did manage to get through and their applications were processed. We tried to resolve the situation as quickly as was possible and to resolve cases where people tried to register but were not able to.
But the Cabinet Office is not saying yet whether or not the government will agree to extend the deadline.
But the Cabinet Office is not saying yet whether or not the government will agree to extend the deadline.
That is probably because they are still thinking about it. We will almost certainly get an answer one way or the other later, and perhaps at PMQs, where David Cameron will be asked about this.
That is probably because they are still thinking about it. We will almost certainly get an answer one way or the other later, and perhaps at PMQs, where David Cameron will be asked about this.
9.09am BST
9.09am BST
09:09
09:09
Farage says backs extending voter registration deadline - but just for a day
Farage says backs extending voter registration deadline - but just for a day
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has given half-hearted backing to the call to extend the deadline for voter registration in the light of the fact that the website crashed last night. This is what he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning.
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has given half-hearted backing to the call to extend the deadline for voter registration in the light of the fact that the website crashed last night. This is what he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning.
If you apply that logic, you might say why not delay the date of the referendum itself. I think there have been some pretty big clarion calls for people to register and my understanding is that a very, very large number of people have. So if the website crashed last night then maybe the sensible thing is to extend it by a day but I really wouldn’t go beyond that.
If you apply that logic, you might say why not delay the date of the referendum itself. I think there have been some pretty big clarion calls for people to register and my understanding is that a very, very large number of people have. So if the website crashed last night then maybe the sensible thing is to extend it by a day but I really wouldn’t go beyond that.
Given that the people registering to vote at the last minute are overwhelmingly likely to be young rather than old, as the government’s voter registration dashboard reveals in precise detail, and young voters are more likely to be Remain than Leave, it is not surprising that Remainers like Farron are far more keen on extending the deadline than Leavers like Farage.
Given that the people registering to vote at the last minute are overwhelmingly likely to be young rather than old, as the government’s voter registration dashboard reveals in precise detail, and young voters are more likely to be Remain than Leave, it is not surprising that Remainers like Farron are far more keen on extending the deadline than Leavers like Farage.
8.57am BST
08:57
The legal blogger and former government lawyer Carl Gardner says Tim Farron is right to say it would be easy to use secondary legislation to extend the voter registration deadline.
Tim Farron is right that quick regulations could be made today to extend the voter registration deadline. #r4today
8.49am BST
08:49
Andrew Sparrow
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire.
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has just been on the Today programme talking about the voter registration site crashing. He said that he would be tabling a Commons urgent question about it to force the government to make a statement. He also said he thought it would be relatively easy for the government to use secondary legislation, such as an order in council, to ensure the deadline can be extended.
“Terrible thing” if young people denied #EUref vote because of the “banality of a technical glitch” - @timfarronhttps://t.co/yHX5867yAy
8.36am BST
08:36
Claire Phipps
Time for me to entrust the live blog to Andrew Sparrow. Thanks for reading and for all the comments.
8.35am BST
08:35
William Hague – ahead of a speech this afternoon for the Remain campaign – has been on the Today programme arguing that voters should be focusing on the economy:
Immigration is not the issue to decide this referendum.
The vote, he says, “isn’t about sending signals” to political leaders.
Reminded by presenter Nick Robinson that when he was foreign secretary he said the UK would give its “full support to Turkey joining the EU”, Hague insists:
Turkish membership of the EU is not on the cards.
8.20am BST
08:20
A little clarification, given there are a fair few comments below the line talking about this.
There’s a bit of social media chatter around one of the women in the ITV studio audience who quizzed Nigel Farage, accusing him of being “anti-immigration”, “scaremongering” and using “inflammatory comments” against “non-white” people. She is Imi Morgan, who describes herself as a blogger, and she has denied speculation that she works for the Huffington Post and was “planted” in the audience.
She is also a completely different person to the audience member cited in the morning briefing (below and here) who asked Farage about his comments on the Cologne sex attacks and was told by the Ukip leader to “calm down”.
7.59am BST
07:59
Jeremy Corbyn is calling for an extension to the voter registration deadline after a government website crashed less than two hours before the deadline, reports Rajeev Syal:
Voters were encouraged to register before 11.59pm on Tuesday 7 June to be able to take part in the EU referendum. However, the Cabinet Office website would not allow voters to input their details at 10.40pm on Tuesday.
It could mean that tens of thousands of potential voters may have been disenfranchised and unable to cast a vote in what is expected to be closely fought contest.
According to government data, more than 50,000 people attempted to register to vote between 11.15pm and 11.20pm on Tuesday.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said officials became aware of technical issues on gov.uk/register-to-vote late on Tuesday night due to “unprecedented demand”:
Some people did manage to get through and their applications were processed. We tried to resolve the situation as quickly as was possible and to resolve cases where people tried to register but were not able to.
By 7am on Wednesday, the site was working again. However, those who registered at this time will not be allowed to vote on 23 June, one source said.
The crashed site is expected to be raised at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
The Labour leader wrote on Twitter:
I'm told https://t.co/qXdulxPFk2 site has crashed so people can't register to vote for #EUreferendum. If so, deadline has to be extended
The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, described the crash as a “shambles” and blamed the government:
With individual voter registration, and a big campaign to encourage young people to register, many of whom have been trying to do so last-minute, this could have major consequences for the result.
Evidence shows younger people are overwhelmingly pro-European, and if they are disenfranchised it could cost us our place in Europe. It could also turn them off democracy for life. Voters must be given an extra day while this mess is sorted out urgently.
Updated
at 8.01am BST
7.52am BST
07:52
Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s sole MP, has just been on the Today programme resisting questions from presenter Mishal Husain to back comments by his party leader on potential tariffs post-Brexit.
Nigel Farage last night said that even if France and Germany were to put tariffs on UK trade, the cost would still be lower than the cost of EU membership.
Carswell refused to back the statement, or the premise behind it:
I don’t accept that if we leave we would face tariffs or restraint …
We do not believe we would face restrictions on trade, given we are Germany’s single largest export market. It’s simply not going to happen.
He also distanced himself from Farage’s comments linking potential immigration to the UK and the sexual assaults witnessed in Cologne, telling Husain:
You should talk to him about it.
But Carswell went on:
If you’re going to talk about immigration … you need to use the right tone.
The [ITV] audience also reminded us how to talk about it in terms of tone: pressure on public services, pressure on the NHS.
He said he thought people who travelled “halfway round the planet” in search of a better life were doing something “admirable”:
but we need to control it.
He said an Australian-style points system would be the way to ensure that:
I believe that a future parliament would vote to have less immigration … Every year, like in Australia, we would determine [it].
Under Australia’s system – it’s a contentious issue in Australian politics but democratically they decide on a level … We need that too.
Updated
at 8.07am BST
7.35am BST
07:35
There are now several high-profile voices calling for an extension to the voter registration deadline after the gov.uk website crashed under the weight of demand last night.
Gloria De Piero, Labour’s shadow minister for voter registration, tweeted at seven minutes to midnight – the deadline – that more than 25,000 were online trying to register:
There are currently 26,629 people on gov.uk voter registration site trying to register - government MUST extend the deadline for 24 hours.
Yvette Cooper also argued that voters should be given more time:
If this is right, deadline must be extended. People can't be denied right to vote because computer says no https://t.co/dbzR3Zj0vY
7.29am BST
07:29
Rafael Behr, writing in the Guardian this morning, says that for some Leave campaigners, the lack of a firm Brexit plan is part of the appeal:
The Brexit camp has no idea what should happen. There is a plan to walk out and slam the door, but nowhere to go next. Turmoil is part of the appeal for leaders of the leave campaign, although they dare not advertise thrill-seeking among their motives. It makes them sound reckless.
They are reckless. For Boris Johnson, there is a career advantage in hastening the collapse of David Cameron’s premiership. Relations with Britain’s closest trading partners can be collateral damage in that campaign. There is nothing in Johnson’s record to suggest interest in the welfare of anyone who cannot advance his ambition.
Michael Gove’s case is more intriguing. The justice secretary is drawn to disorder as a purgative tonic – a moral enema for constipated bureaucracies.
Read the full article here:
Related: Brexit’s leaders want to smash the system – but they won’t pay the price | Rafael Behr
6.55am BST
06:55
Morning briefing
Claire Phipps
Welcome back, on another morning after the night of a not-quite debate.
Yesterday was ITV’s turn to host the prime minister and a Brexit-favouring rival in separate Q&A sessions, and this time David Cameron followed Nigel Farage on to the studio floor.
I’ve rounded up the key moments below, along with the rest of the news you need for another day on the referendum campaign. Andrew Sparrow will be along later to take his seat. Do come and chat in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.
The big picture
Last night’s ITV Q&A followed familiar themes for this campaign: immigration, the economy, accusations of scaremongering by both sides, and the question of sovereignty, with the consensus from political observers being that neither man was particularly hoiked out of his comfort zone.
Here’s the round-up of the debate from our Westminster team, and the verdicts from Guardian columnists.
The debate does appear to have had a galvanising effect on some, though, with the government website to register to vote in the referendum – deadline: midnight Tuesday – crashing in the wake of the Cameron/Farage show. Reassuringly, the Cabinet Office tweeted at 12.57am (57 minutes past cut-off time) to say everything was working again nicely.
Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron were just two of the voices calling for the deadline to be extended to allow frustrated would-be voters to sign up.
What we learned
David Cameron does not think Brexit would be a boost to British sovereignty:
It might give you the illusion of sovereignty to withdraw on June 23, but you’d find out, in area after area after area, things that affect our great country, we would have no say over.
(With Peter Mandelson as his unlikely inspiration) Cameron said the British were fighters, not quitters:
Leaving is quitting and I don’t think Britain, I don’t think we are quitters, I think we are fighters.
Despite previous insistences to the contrary, he does fear another bid for independence for Scotland:
Frankly I do worry about a second Scottish referendum if we vote to leave. You don’t strengthen your country by leading to its break-up.
And he thinks the cross-party backing for Remain is an:
extraordinary alliance of Greens and Liberals and the Labour party and the Conservative government, the trade unions, business large and small.
Nigel Farage doesn’t think GDP is all that important:
Do you know something? There is more to this country, there is more about this community than just being competitive … What I’m saying is that it’s wrong, wrong, wrong for average decent people in this country, their living standards are falling by about 10%.
It’s about time we were not thinking about GDP, the rich getting richer, and think about ordinary decent people who are having a rotten time.
Despite the row over his comments on the mass sexual assaults in Cologne – including criticism yesterday from Justin Welby, the archibishop of Canterbury – Farage thinks it’s a “tiddly issue”:
I’m used to being demonised ... I’m not going to stand and attack the archbishop of Canterbury but he would have done better to read what I actually said … It is a tiddly issue in this campaign. I knew the Remainers would come for me and inflate what I said out of proportion.
And the Ukip leader doesn’t think the EU will be around in 20 years’ time:
I think it’s done for, frankly … The project doesn’t work.
What we didn’t
Cameron remains very reluctant to put a date on his ambition to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands and whether new restrictions on benefits might speed that along:
I haven’t made a forecast, because frankly we have had pretty extraordinary years recently in the EU. The first five years I was prime minister, our economy created more jobs than the rest of the EU put together and so we have seen a lot of people coming to live and work here.
The key exchange
Quizzed by a woman in the studio audience over his Cologne comments, Farage resorted to the “calm down” tactics used by Cameron in the past:
Audience member: In light of the recent, horrific sexual assaults in Germany, you have basically suggested that a vote to remain is a vote for British women to be subdued to the same horrific assaults.
Farage: Well, just calm down there a little bit.
Moderator Julie Etchingham: She asked it perfectly calmly.
Audience member: I am calm.
Nigel Farage tells audience member to 'calm down' #ITVEURef https://t.co/EVIua9pngG
Clarification of the night
Courtesy of ITV’s Chris Ship, responding to Ukip MEP David Coburn’s tweet:
The Remain campaign verdict
Tory minister Anna Soubry said Farage had displayed an “awful, patronising, slightly chauvinistic attitude” towards the woman he told to “calm down”:
That’s the trouble with Nigel: he’s a prickly pear really, and he doesn’t like it up him when someone asks him a tough question.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said the prime minister had done … OK:
Cameron did his job adequately. The frustration as Labour politicians is that we could not talk about our distinct message on the EU that, yes, it’s a single market but it also offers full workplace protections and we don’t want a race to the bottom on workplace rights. But I guess we couldn’t expect David Cameron to make that case.
The Leave campaign verdict
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave, which did not attend the debate after ITV invited Farage in place of an official campaign spokesperson, said Cameron had “told five outright lies”:
He lied about being able to remove EU jobseekers without a job after six months, our ability to stop foreign criminals walking into the UK, our ability to deport foreign criminals, his pledge to restrict benefits and how much his government is investing in the NHS.
He still claims that Turkey won’t join the EU while his government is spending £1bn to help speed up their membership.
Steven Woolfe, Ukip’s immigration spokesman, said Farage was the victor:
What I was surprised by was how weak David Cameron looked. His demeanour, his shoulders, even the way he was looking at the audience, showed this is a man under intense pressure. He couldn’t seem to answer the questions on immigration and was deeply confused about the question on the NHS.
You should also know
Poll position
Findings today from the Pew Research Centre indicate that euroscepticism is on the rise across Europe. Greeks, in particular, are not all that keen on the EU right now:
CHART: Favorable views of the EU, 2004 to 2016 https://t.co/FsADUUPMo7 pic.twitter.com/exZ6e3hQ1n
The Pew study found only 6% of British respondents would be in favour of transferring more power to the EU.
Overall, 70% of Europeans in the nine EU nations surveyed (excluding the UK) think Britain leaving the EU would be a bad thing, with only 16% branding it positive.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times poll of polls has Remain on 45% and Leave on 43%.
Diary
Read these
Alice Thomson in the Times is not impressed by the rash of online quizzes that claim to help voters determine if they’re Innies or Outies:
They are also part of a trend that feels alien to British politics: direct democracy. Most British voters don’t want to choose their mayors or police commissioners; many are already fed up with this referendum and don’t quite understand why we are holding it. They don’t yearn for yet more referendums on abortion, defence spending or going to war. The British are still more or less believers in Edmund Burke’s representative democracy where ‘your representative owes you his judgment, and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion’.
We prefer to delegate our democracy to the politicians and party we think will make the best go of it rather than tick boxes. If they make a bog of it we will complain; otherwise we want to get on with our lives until the next election.
George Eaton in the New Statesman says last night’s debate was an illustration of why Cameron is the prime minister and Farage has failed (seven times) to become an MP:
If there were no dramatic gaffes from Farage tonight, his performance confirmed his profound limitations. Though he struck populist blows against ‘the rich getting richer’ and Jean-Claude Juncker … he failed to offer the reassurance that a Brexit-sceptic public craves. ‘No deal is better than the rotten deal we’ve got at the moment,’ he declared on the economy, a line perfectly crafted to alienate risk-averse voters …
The Ukip base will have lapped it up but centrist voters will have been unimpressed. Farage again showed why he is a 15% politician, not a 50% one.
In the Scotsman, Scott Macnab says EU campaigners on both sides could learn from the – sometimes exceedingly detailed – agendas of the Scottish referendum campaigners:
No one can say Scots didn’t give all the issues a good run around the course. In the current EU referendum voters say they don’t have enough information. In the Scottish referendum, they complained of being swamped with too much.
Perhaps more fundamentally, Scots at least did get an impression of the kind of role the new independent Scotland would fill in the world, a left-of-centre, Scandinavian-style social democracy with a focus on excellent public services and, perhaps, higher taxes. This is a challenging concept to get across two years on in such a brief campaign. But if the Leave side fails to hold its current polling advantage and loses on 23 June, perhaps the absence of any real sense of the UK’s place in the world outside Europe will prove a fatal shortcoming.
Baffling claim of the day
It’s churlish to chide twitterers for bad grammar, I know, but then again Ukip did also tweet this about how essential it is to be able to speak English properly:
The choice is between a free independent the country, or one which cannot control it's destiny #ITVEURef
Celebrity endorsement of the day
YouTube vloggers Jamal Edwards and Louise Pentland have been unveiled as questioners in a referendum debate to be held next week, hosted by YouTube, the Telegraph and Huffington Post, and featuring Boris Johnson, Priti Patel, Alex Salmond and Liz Kendall.
The Telegraph says (the “YouTubers” quote marks are very much the Telegraph’s own):
The two online video bloggers have 3.2 million subscribers between them … The hope is that these successful “YouTubers” could help reach young people and engage with them about the referendum in a way in which conventional media cannot.
The day in a tweet
The deadline to #RegisterToVote in the #EURef has now passed. If you did not register, you cannot vote in the EU Referendum.
If today were a song ...
It would be Carole King’s It’s Too Late, 504 gateway timeout error or no 504 gateway timeout error.
And another thing
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