Oakeshott gave evidence + statement to Sunday Times in Nov 2017.
This is letter from editor Martin Ivens. He’s left but @ShippersUnbound is still there. Does he know what happened? Can new editor @EmmaTuckerST find out?
Did Oakeshott change mind? Did govt ministers intervene?
Theresa May got it. She tried to warn us. Listen to this speech again. She said it all here.
She called Putin’s invasion of Crimea what it was. She calls out ‘election meddling’. And its attacks on our information space.
Her cabinet colleagues - Johnson & Williamson - didn’t.
Johnson was asked about Russian interference by @RhonddaBryant just 2 weeks earlier. ‘Not a sausage,’ he replied.
This is not true. Theresa May isn’t just calling out Putin in that speech. She’s calling out her own foreign minister.
Johnson’s failure to take action against Russian £ even now is a national security risk & we need to know what happened in Nov 2017 when FBI revealed London investigation, when Theresa May warned us, when Sun Times spiked explosive scoop.
Where was NCA? Where was MI5/6?
Britain’s national security apparatus was paralysed by a failure of leadership. The Russia Report told us that explicitly. And our political leadership was paralysed by Brexit.
I think @theresa_may got it. And I suspect she has answers.
The evidence suggests Johnson directly involved in covering up Russian interference. New docs I published yesterday reveal Williamson’s involvement.
This is photo of Johnson in Congress with Mifsud who head of FBI called ‘a Russian agent of influence’
Will Sunday Times tell us why it spiked its story? I hope so. It had explosive story about Brexit funder as 'Russian agent of influence' 3 days after Theresa May's speech on Russia dominated the front pages.
We know Johnson had already tried to bury the story once. Did he again?
Why did Arron Banks state on oath that Wigmore gave emails to Sunday Times in June 2018? When ST editor confirms he has them in Nov 2017?
Nov 14, 2017: Theresa May dominates front pages with speech saying Russia has attacked our elections.
Nov 17, 2017: Sunday Times indemnifies Oakeshott over explosive story of Brexit funder as "Russian agent of influence"
Nov 19, 2017: This is Sunday Times front page.
To be clear, I am not trying to lay blame with Sunday Times or even Oakeshott. I don't know what happened. There were other forces at work here at highest levels of govt.
But I do think @ShippersUnbound & others can help expose what happened here. And hope they will.
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This is president of @Google - a company accused of illegally harvesting copyrighted work - saying journalists need to learn to use AI or ‘risk missing out’.
He’s just been appointed to the board of @guardian. I hope every journalist in the org watches this & asks: why?
This is a headline in @pressgazette today. This is a rapacious company whose business practices have done more to undermine journalism than almost any other yet he has been appointed to Guardian board while *still actually working for Google*. The conflict of interest is off the charts
NEW: Why not calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute puts us in a whole new place of danger. We have to call spades spades or what else is there? 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligarch…
I've been a Sunday journalist for 20 years and what I'm trying to do in my newsletter is the slower take. Including what's missing from the news. And this week, that's Peter Thiel. *Where was he*??
He literally made JD Vance so was he missing from the tech bro line-up? 2/
And then there's these guys. If you want bad 2016 vibes, please come & read my dive into the straight-up weirdness of Nigel Farage & Arron Banks's inauguration party.
This is Bad Boys of Brexit #2. Only this time, the special geopolitical friends are Chinese. 3/
NEW: Meet Sergei Cristo, a Russian-born Conservative party activist turned whistleblower.
Ep 1 out today: A meeting at the Carlton Club. And the start of efforts to uncover the biggest Russian intelligence operation since the Cambridge Spy Ring. 1/ podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epi…
Above on Apple or here on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes will be weekly from now on so please subscribe.
It's an incredible story, John Le Carre but true. But it's also vital to get UK govt to act to protect our elections 2/ open.spotify.com/episode/3VnVjm…
More on it here. Sign up for latest news inc a special event we're hosting in Feb. And if you can afford to chuck a couple of quid into the crowdfunder, we'd be grateful. This is an independent production funded by the public for the public 🙏
Hahaha. I just got a call to ask if 'I'm going to the Indie'. To be clear, this is Lord Lebedev trolling me. But the serious point is that we just lost a liberal independent newspaper. With everything that entails for both journalists & readers. 1/
This week the Scott Trust sold the Observer brand to Tortoise Media. But they're using this to slash 70 core Guardian jobs in a sleight of hand. Observer journalists are *Guardian* journalists on *Guardian* contracts.
2/
But TUPE legislation legally allows the Guardian to transfer any part of its company out. So, 70 journalists on Guardian contracts have a choice to make this Christmas: go to a financially struggling start-up which may or may fail in a couple of years. Or take voluntary redundancy.
3/
Well this is very exciting. My investigation into the Guardian’s new partner & the Observer’s new owner has just got the thumbs up from the Baron of Siberia.
I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with my journalistic oeuvre, mind…
The Guardian is cancelling my contract after 19 years continuous employment with no pay-off so totes happy to go to the Indie to continue my investigation into Evgeny’s dad, the ex-KGB spy.
To be clear, I’m not being singled out: fully one third of Guardian & Observer staff are on either zero hours or sham ‘freelance’ contracts. The Guardian issued notice on all these this week. If you’re an employment lawyer, feel free to slide into my DMs!
This week the Guardian's owner, the Scott Trust, gifted the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media.
This isn't just a dark day for journalism, it's a sign.
Meet the team.
This is Putin giving Tortoise's energy advisory board member an 'Order of Friendship' medal in 2017. 1/
Independent news is under pressure across the world. The US is already crumbling: ABC settled with Trump. WaPo pre-obeyed.
This week Guardian lost 100 journalists & one of its arms. To understand what's lost, let's start with Putin's friend: Ivan Glasenberg, ex Glencore CEO.
2/
Glasenberg didn't just get a medal from Putin, he sat on the board of a Russian oil company, Rosneft, chaired by one of Putin's closest allies
And here he is: on Tortoise's energy advisory board, assembled by Tortoise, founder, owner & editor, James Harding. 3/