PM Rules Out Russian Influence On Brexit Vote

Well, the Prime Minister has let it be known from No 10 that Russia did try to meddle in the Brexit referendum, only it didn’t take, and the result stands as legitimate as a church raffle. I suppose that settles it, the way a fellow settles a dispute with his neighbor by announcing from his own porch that he won.

Now, I don’t doubt the first half. Russia tries to influence everything. If it rains in Kent, somebody in Moscow probably wished for it. What interests me is the second half, because “they tried and it didn’t work” is a mighty confident thing to say about a vote. You can count ballots. You cannot count what made a man in Sunderland mark his. To know a push didn’t move anybody, you’d have to go door to door and ask every voter where their notions came from, and most of us couldn’t tell you where we got our opinion of turnips.

So the Prime Minister has said something that can’t be proved, and the reason is plain enough once you see who it suits. It suits nearly everybody in Downing Street, and I mean that kindly. Saying Russia tried lets a government look tough without having to do much. Saying Russia failed means nobody has to dig, because a hole you’ve already declared empty doesn’t need a shovel.

To be fair to the other side of it, there’s a real argument that this is the sensible course. If a government stood up and said, “We can’t be sure our biggest vote in a generation was on the level,” it would hand Moscow a prize worth more than any vote: a country that doubts itself. Keeping folks’ faith in the count is a duty, not just a convenience.

But faith you keep by not looking is like a bridge you keep safe by not driving on it. It holds up fine right until the day you need it.

And the voters are no better off. The Remain folks would half like to believe Russia did it, because then they didn’t lose, they were robbed, and robbed feels better. The Leave folks need it to have made no difference whatever, because nobody wants a victory with a foreign fingerprint on it. Each side has picked its answer first and is now waiting for the evidence to catch up. Russia, meanwhile, is content with either version, since a country still arguing over who fooled whom is a country doing the job for free.

I picture the Prime Minister at the window of No 10, looking out at the rain, telling a reporter the barn door was tried but the horse never left. Nobody has gone out to count the horses.