Open Britain, the current vestige of the Remain campaign, has been slammed by a former employee after sending an email to supporters on comparing the invasion of Ukraine to the UK government’s Election Bill. The Thursday night email from CEO Mark Kieran said the past 24 hours had caused to delay the planned email about the Elections Bill. The email then goes on to say that Russia’s actions have caused him to reflect on the “70 largely peaceful years Europe has enjoyed since World War Two”. Negating the war in Kosovo…
Things then get worse:
Guido didn’t receive the email himself, though an outraged former senior people’s vote staffer did:
“It is utterly embarrassing that Roland Rudd’s lackey is actively comparing the British government to the Putin regime’s violent assault on Ukraine. They should hang their heads in shame.”
This is a common theme with extreme rejoiners, the complete lack of proportionality. Putin’s regime is not comparable to the democratically elected government of the UK. We should always be on our guard for our freedoms and there are some worryingly illiberal proposals coming from the government in many areas. Guido’s not convinced the people of Ukraine would agree with Mark Kieran: that mandatory ID at polling stations is akin to Putin’s attempt to bloodily end democracy in their country…
The latest front for the Remain campaign is presenting itself as a campaign for “Less power in the hands of the ruling elite and more in the hands of the people”. Guido can confirm, however, that the man behind the curtain is the personification of the elite in Britain – Roland Rudd. When Rudd isn’t lounging in his opulent multi-million pound mansion, he’s lucratively lobbying for bankers and big businesses…
Democracy Unleashed’s privacy policy makes clear the campaign is a front for Open Britain, making clear OB runs the campaign’s website. Open Britain (formerly ‘The In Campaign Limited’), lists multi-millionaires Roland Rudd, Richard Reed, and Sangeeta Sidhu-Robb listed as its three directors on Companies House. Ten other directors including James McGrory and Will Straw resigned at the end of 2019 following a bitter boardroom coup…
Whispers around Westminster point to Democracy Unleashed becoming a campaign for proportional representation aimed at forcing the Labour Party to commit to this in the 2024 election – despite the organisation not mentioning PR at all in its petitions or social media. A source close to the People’s Vote campaign tells Guido this new campaign is being staffed by the few people “weak enough and untalented enough to capitulate to Roland Rudd for a pay cheque whilst watching their colleagues be literally locked out of their offices and worse.” All is not happy in former Remaintopia..
Sadly, Rudd’s anti-elite, pro-transparency campaign is not transparent at all about its governance structure. Rudd, Reed, and Sidhu-Robb are listed as the only directors of both Open Britain and PV Campaign Ltd, yet the websites of Democracy Unleashed and Open Britain mention no names and include no contact details, beyond an email to opt-out of messages. Consequently Guido has some questions to publicly ask the new campaign…
- Who chairs the new initiative? What is Rudd’s role?
- What role do PV Campaign Ltd play in the governance of Democracy Unleashed and who currently sits on their board?
- Who are “the elite” referred to in their mission statement? Do they include millionaires like Rudd, Geeta Sidhu-Robb, Richard Reed and Hugo Dixon?
- What efforts did you make to consult the 500,000 people on the Open Britain database about the change in direction?
- What have you done with the hundreds of thousands of pounds raised from grassroots donors that was left in the Open Britain bank account when Rudd launched his coup?
Guido looks forward to receiving answers…
This morning another email comes from the database of Rudd’s Remainers which you may remember split acrimoniously into different factions in its pre-election People’s Vote incarnation for reasons none of us can quite remember. Tom Baldwin and James McCrory were kicked out and it all sort of fizzled out.
Now it seems yet again to be rebranding as Democracy Unleashed, using a database that has been illegally re-purposed – something that the LibDems got heavily fined for doing. Obviously to avoid that they sent their email this morning signed by the CEO of Open Britain, an older incarnation under the Democracy Unleashed branding. It is a basic tenet of EU GDPR law that data gathered for one purpose can not be used for another without permission. Permission they have neither sought nor been given…
A new Companies House update shows the headquarters of Open Britain Limited – the former Stronger In campaign, who have just rebranded to “Democracy Unleashed” – are soon to move from Milbank Tower in Westminster, to Stamford in Lincolnshire. Guido imagines most staff will be deeply annoyed by the move; not only will their nearest Pret now be 15 miles away, the switch will be a stark awakening as the company moves well out of its comfort zone: from heartland Remain-territory in Westminster (69%) to heavily-Leave South Kesteven (60%). Guido wonders whether the cost of London office space also influenced the change of scenery – Open Britain’s accounts have been overdue for a month…
The People’s Vote campaign is back from the dead, following its complete collapse in November last year. It is now going by the name of ‘Democracy Unleashed’. The People’s Vote campaign was itself a rebranding of Open Britain, which in turn was a rebranding of the official Remain campaign. The same organisation holding the same valuable data changing its clothes yet again. Guido has compiled a timeline…
- 12 October 2015 – Britain Stronger in Europe (BSE) campaign founded.
- 15 April 2016 – BSE receives designation. Official campaign begins.
- 23 June 2016 – BSE loses the EU Referendum by 1,269,501 votes.
- 25 August 2016 – BSE changes name to Open Britain.
- 26 July 2018 – Open Britain changes name to People’s Vote.
- 23 May 2019 – Parties endorsing a ‘People’s Vote’ lose EU Parliamentary elections.
- 9 July 2019 – Labour changes Brexit position to back a ‘People’s Vote’.
- November 2019 – People’s Vote campaign collapses.
- 13 December 2019 – People’s Vote campaign shuts down.
- 17 June 2020 – People’s Vote campaign changes name to ‘Democracy Unleashed’.
Last week, Sheridan Parker resigned as the sole Director of People’s Vote Limited, and was replaced by Christopher Clayton. A very powerful dataset looks to be gearing back up again in British politics. Personally, Guido prefers Comedy Unleashed…
The Remain Campaign’s Director of Communications Tom Baldwin has written a real sob story for the Spectator in response to an article which pointed out a major error their recent report attacking the ‘Norway Plus’ option. Baldwin goes full holier-than-thou as he insists:
“We are determined to be an evidence-based campaign and will continue to contest claims for forms of Brexit that are clearly untrue…
“Everyone should owe it to the public to engage in that debate in a way that upholds the very highest standards of rigour and truthfulness.”
This is coming from a campaign that:
- Claimed for months that it was only interested in securing a “soft Brexit”, not stopping Brexit altogether.
- Campaigned heavily for the UK to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union – only to now launch a full-frontal attack on that ‘Norway Plus’ option.
- Was humiliated on national television for a flagrantly misleading video purporting to show Leave campaigners arguing in favour of the single market.
- Said it was closing down but kept its entire email database in a questionable interpretation of data protection laws.
- Are largely the same people who ran the Remain campaign with its vast array of discredited scare stories about the effects of voting to Leave.
- Complained about Vote Leave “micro-targeting” on Facebook but has sent almost as many micro-targeted ads on Facebook in the last two and a half months as Vote Leave did in the entire campaign.
- Are still under investigation by the Information Commissioner about data irregularities involving the Lib Dems.
- Claims to be about giving ordinary people a say but is in fact a vast, well-funded corporate lobbying operation with dozens of full-time staff whose only goal is stopping Brexit, not boosting democracy.
The “People’s Vote” campaign have no interest in what people have or haven’t voted for, they simply want to stop Brexit by whatever means that are available to them, desperate for a second chance to atone for losing a campaign that was massively stacked in their favour in the first place. They are free to campaign for what they like but trying to take the moral high ground like this really is shameless…
