Quote of the day 22nd July 2020
"The lessons that were learnt in the life-and-death struggle against Nazi Germany are still valid. One of them is that even the most sophisticated cultures can be perverted under diabolical leadership into committing the most abysmal crimes against humanity in the name of an evil ideology.
"Another is that, while such a totalitarian state may well acquire a reputation for efficiency and even technical superiority, sooner or later the intrinsic flaws in the political system will vitiate its plans for global domination. Ultimately, it did not matter that the Nazis built the first motorways and led the world in rocket science. The peace-loving democracies were reluctant to confront the self-styled master race, but once they did so, they were always going to win.
"Today, the Western democracies are still forced to defend themselves against hostile states that prosecute their undeclared war by non-military methods. Cyber-theft is a continuation of that war by other means. But their lack of scruple is not a sign of strength. They know that, if they play by the rules, they can never win. That is the real meaning of Cozy Bear’s pitiful plot to claim credit for Oxford’s putative Covid-19 vaccine. The despots are doomed forever to play the part of the desperado . Putin in his pomp is nothing more than an emperor with no clothes."
Daniel Johnson, from a piece on "The Article" website,
"What Putin’s plot to plunder the Covid-19 vaccine tells us about tyranny."
My reason for quoting this is to make the point that there are two equal and opposite mistakes democracies can make about authoritarian or totalitarian tyrannies.
The first is to fail to be on our guard against their tricks and plots - and the report which was belatedly published yesterday shows that Britain does indeed need to up our game against Russian attempts to interfere with our democracy.
But it is also a mistake to overestimate them and become paranoid. Putin failed to obtain a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum. Putin failed to secure a Labour victory in 2017 or 2019. And most of those who did vote Yes or Labour did so for their own reasons and would have done so whether Putin had been trying to interfere or not.
Given how ineffective Russian attempts to interfere in the votes in 2014, 2017 and 2019 were, it would be a mistake of giving him the victory of suggesting that Russia was responsible for the vote in 2016, I don't believe they were.
And suggesting otherwise plays into their hands because the Putin regime is NOT particularly interested in getting a particular result in any given vote, as much as in disrupting and undermining Britain.
And ironically, if the legitimacy of a vote is undermined because people think Russia may have caused it, that hands Putin his objective of undermining confidence in our democracy, even if Russian state actors did not in fact change the result.
So yes, let us take much stronger precautious against interference in our elections from all foreign state actors in future (including, but not limited to, Russia.) But please let's not give them a victory they do not deserve by buying into another aspect of Russian propaganda - about the strength of their influence.
"Another is that, while such a totalitarian state may well acquire a reputation for efficiency and even technical superiority, sooner or later the intrinsic flaws in the political system will vitiate its plans for global domination. Ultimately, it did not matter that the Nazis built the first motorways and led the world in rocket science. The peace-loving democracies were reluctant to confront the self-styled master race, but once they did so, they were always going to win.
"Today, the Western democracies are still forced to defend themselves against hostile states that prosecute their undeclared war by non-military methods. Cyber-theft is a continuation of that war by other means. But their lack of scruple is not a sign of strength. They know that, if they play by the rules, they can never win. That is the real meaning of Cozy Bear’s pitiful plot to claim credit for Oxford’s putative Covid-19 vaccine. The despots are doomed forever to play the part of the desperado . Putin in his pomp is nothing more than an emperor with no clothes."
Daniel Johnson, from a piece on "The Article" website,
"What Putin’s plot to plunder the Covid-19 vaccine tells us about tyranny."
My reason for quoting this is to make the point that there are two equal and opposite mistakes democracies can make about authoritarian or totalitarian tyrannies.
The first is to fail to be on our guard against their tricks and plots - and the report which was belatedly published yesterday shows that Britain does indeed need to up our game against Russian attempts to interfere with our democracy.
But it is also a mistake to overestimate them and become paranoid. Putin failed to obtain a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum. Putin failed to secure a Labour victory in 2017 or 2019. And most of those who did vote Yes or Labour did so for their own reasons and would have done so whether Putin had been trying to interfere or not.
Given how ineffective Russian attempts to interfere in the votes in 2014, 2017 and 2019 were, it would be a mistake of giving him the victory of suggesting that Russia was responsible for the vote in 2016, I don't believe they were.
And suggesting otherwise plays into their hands because the Putin regime is NOT particularly interested in getting a particular result in any given vote, as much as in disrupting and undermining Britain.
And ironically, if the legitimacy of a vote is undermined because people think Russia may have caused it, that hands Putin his objective of undermining confidence in our democracy, even if Russian state actors did not in fact change the result.
So yes, let us take much stronger precautious against interference in our elections from all foreign state actors in future (including, but not limited to, Russia.) But please let's not give them a victory they do not deserve by buying into another aspect of Russian propaganda - about the strength of their influence.
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