Thread by @WanderinTeacake

1/ A thread about the Government's response to the petition asking for a Public Inquiry into illegality in the #Brexit referendum, because this sort of self-serving and bilious dismissal of the public needs calling out sometimes. And I'm cross.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/2418…

2/ Statement-by-statement...

Yes investigations are carried out by the EC, but not solely. The Government could, to take an example completely at random, choose to launch a public inquiry based on the conclusions of an investigation by the Electoral Commission. If it chose.

3/ Yes, we know. That's the point of the petition, to ask you to make plans. There would be no point petitioning you to do something you are already doing, would there?

4/ Yes, we know. This petition is asking you to halt that process while an investigation is carried out.

5/ Yes, but this is all irrelevant to what the petition is asking for, except inasmuch as it could be argued that a public inquiry is only necessary *now* because insufficient provision was made *then* regarding conduct of the referendum.

6/ Good. We agree. A public inquiry would be an important part of that process at this stage, and demonstrate you actually do take that responsibility seriously, not just for us the public but for anybody tempted to meddle in any future votes.

7/ Okay, interesting false equivalence of one fine for one group on the remain side with the mass law-breaking across multiple leave campaigns, referred for potential prosecution, but... but this is why we are petitioning for a public inquiry, right?

8/ But to emphasise - finding out that more than one group broke the rules does not suddenly make the result more valid than if only one group had done it, it makes it even less valid. This should not be controversial.

9/ Irrelevant. Why are you even stating this? But for the record, one set of spending was legal, the other wasn't. Can you see the important distinction?

10/ Yes. Those agencies have investigated and referred leave campaigns for criminal investigation. This fact is why the petition is asking for a public inquiry.

11/ Three-quarters of those franchised in this particular vote, which is not quite the same thing. But anyway, we take your point. This being a big and important vote, it's vital that the process is seen to be legitimate, isn't it?

12/ Wrong. A previous Government did that, in the time-honoured and democratically-unquestionable method of writing immutable policy in a leaflet. That's like a super-duper-pinky-swear.

(That may have come across a bit sarcastic. If so, I apologise, I meant to be very sarcastic)

13/ A Government cannot, by any means, least of all by dint of publishing a leaflet, tie the hands of its successors, or of Parliament. But in any case, this is all irrelevant to the petition.

14/ You keep claiming this "biggest democratic mandate" bollocks. It is not true, in percentage, numerical or margin terms. It is also irrelevant to the petition.

15/ Whoopee for them. It's still irrelevant to the petition.

16/ Okay you're just cutting-and-pasting now. This has nothing to do with whether the law-breaking should be investigated.

17/ I suppose we should be glad that it's not DExEU replying to these petitions now, but the Cabinet Office responses are as tin-eared as ever, so I'm not sure we're any further forward. However...

18/ It seems to me their responses do illustrate a difference of opinion in what we think is the purpose of these petitions.

19/ We the public - perhaps naively - think the petition site is there as a means for us to contribute to the democratic process. A means for us to suggest things we would like the Government to do. And - if appropriate - for them to do those things. At least consider them.

20/ We are aware that the Government has no plans to establish a public inquiry into the widespread and egregious law-breaking during the Brexit referendum. So we sign a petition which says: we would like you to establish that inquiry. We want to know our democracy is protected.

21/ So when the Government replies to state blandly they have no plans to establish a public inquiry, we get frustrated. Because that was the point of asking them. We already knew they had no plans, the petition was a request for them to start making those plans.

22/ It's like saying to the waiter in a restaurant "Could you please bring me a glass of water?" and them replying "There is no water at this table." Yes, we know, that's why we asked you to bring it.

23/ But the Government doesn't see petitions as requests, it sees them as more of an FAQ. Ask us a question and we will explain why we are or are not going to do that thing you're asking about. No contribution to the decision, just an explanation of a decision they already made.

24/ To them it's not "please do this thing". It's "please explain why you aren't going to do this thing". The restaurant has aleady decided it doesn't supply water. So it doesn't supply water, and here's why. Problem for us is that we can't just go to another restaurant.

25/ In the public inquiry petition, it's illuminating how defensive is the rest of the (largely irrelevant) justification for not doing what has been requested of them.

26/ Rather than seeing itself as duty and honour-bound to find out whether our democratic processes were undermined by the proven law-breaking in the referendum campaign, the govt instead treat any questioning of the referendum result as itself undermining the democratic process.

27/ That's an interesting position to take. Rather than standing aloof from the process, taking the moral high ground and ensuring it is done correctly and lawfully, the Government is deflecting any and all questions about its legitimacy.

28/ It is deliberately denying the possibility of us understanding what went wrong in this referendum, of understanding what effect it may have had, and of drawing a line in the sand for anybody tempted to meddle in our democracy in future.

29/ Why would this Government consider sunlight to be a poison rather than the best disinfectant? That's an exercise left for the reader.

/Ends