"Stop Blaming Russian Bots For Our Own Political Failures"
26 November 2017, 14:07
Owen Jones does not believe Vladimir Putin is responsible for the Brexit vote.
Owen Jones thinks elites are being let off the hook for the role they played in the Leave vote and also Donald Trump's election.
He said that Russia was being blamed and that, while they have been interfering with a campaign of misinformation, the country's potential impact was limited.
The journalist also questioned the timing of the outpouring of concern - where we these complaints when the US intervened in other nation states, culminating in hundreds of thousands of deaths?
Today's newspapers report a Russian link to Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and their efforts to harden Theresa May's Brexit stance.
Owen Jones argued the Kremlin's impact was minimal, that a poorly run Remain campaign was far more relevant to the referendum result.
He said: "Yes I think we had this awful campaign to blame immigrants rather than the tax dodgers and the bankers and the politicians who pushed all this free market nonsense that people are finally turning away from.
"It's easy isn't it, to go 'no it's none of that'? It's none of the failings of our own elites, it's not the failing of the Remain campaign or the Clinton campaign - it's all Vladimir Putin. Pulling the strings, the puppet master general.
"Is it possible the Russia is being used to deflect from our own elites?
"Are we letting our own elites off the hook by blaming Russia for everything?
"One of the things I found frustrating about this Russian interference, and I'm saying it is happening, did it really sway the referendum?
"Bots on Twitter churning out pro-Brexit propaganda? I'm just not buying it. I blame the failings of David Cameron and George Osborne and our own elites and the media and demagogues and all the rest, I just don't buy this.
"I think it's such a convenient excuse."
Watch the clip at the top of this page.
