Tim Farron, (remember him?), is giving a speech at the IPPR think tank today. He’ll be making the case that the referendum result should be ignored and that Britain should stay in the EU regardless. With a straight face, Farron will say: “we are in danger of letting malevolent forces hijack the result”. Quite.

Farron used to be much so better at accepting defeat. After the 2011 AV referendum, he accepted the result and vowed that “as a democrat” he would always listen to the will of the people. He said it was important not to come across as a “sore loser”.

“The people have spoken. I am very proud that we have given people the opportunity to have a say about the way they elect their MPs. It’s the first time in British history that we, the people, have been able to make such a decision. And, as I said, the people have spoken. As a democrat, I fully accept and respect that result; accept that we failed to bring the country with us on this issue. I could now engage in petty recriminations and try to assert the blame on someone: to paraphrase the Canadian Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff, the only thing Britons like less than a loser is a sore loser.”

Perhaps 2016 Tim Farron should listen to 2011 Tim Farron…

The Stronger In campaign has finally thrown in the towel, all those corporate millions, Roland Rudd’s spin, Cameron and Osborne’s careers and all they have to show for it is a Commander of the British Empire for Will Straw. Will says the “Stronger In” organisation is no longer.

Which is amateurism until the end. The database built up at great expense cannot therefore legally be used by another organisation. Just don’t let the ever litigous Arron Banks hear about it… 

A damning report by IMF watchdog the Independent Evaluation Office has slammed a “culture of complacency” in Christine Lagarde’s organisation. Focusing on the IMF’s response to the Eurozone crisis, the report claims that the Fund was riven with “issues of accountability and transparency”, claiming Lagarde and senior management established “small, ad hoc staff task forces” to plan for the possibility of bailouts, rather than holding executive board meetings. The report slams the “lack of board involvement”, with management failing to discuss – sometimes despite direct requests – issues around the unfolding crisis. Preparations made by management lacked “analytical depth, rigor, or specificity”. Most damning of all, however, is the IMF’s “groupthink” and unquestioning links to European policy – particularly their irrational fervour for the Euro. The report concludes:

“At the euro area level, IMF staff’s position was often too close to the official line of European officials, and the IMF lost effectiveness as an independent assessor.”

So much for that independent report, eh Remainers?

Referendum-winning Vote Leave boss Matthew Elliott recounts how the campaign was won on today’s Daily Politics: “At 10pm on the 23 of June, the consensus was that Vote Leave had lost. A contact of mine at Number 10 texted me to say, ‘You’re toast'”. And the rest is history…

Anatole Kaletsky, one of the first economists to point out the severity of the Northern Rock crisis, has been emailing round telling people to sign up to Labour to get Owen Smith elected so he can block Brexit. Smith’s support for a second EU referendum has inspired the Europhile economist to send this email to friends:

“If a Second Referendum becomes official policy of the Labour Party, SNP, Liberals, Greens etc will join in and this demand will prove very hard to resist for the Tories, even if Theresa May survives as Prime Minister (which I think is no more than a 50% probability).”

He has also been tweeting his 10,000 followers the same:

Get a second referendum on Brexit by helping Owen Smith beat Corbyn for Labour leader. Join for £25 by 5 pm TODAY: https://t.co/A597ODzkiI

— Anatole Kaletsky (@Kaletsky) July 20, 2016

Alternatively, Vote Corbyn, save Brexit…

You can take the pre-referendum quiz here…