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> The Remain campaign completely blew the legally mandated spending limits for campaigning in a single mailshot to every home in Britain As benj111 points out,
by stordoff 8y ago
> The Remain campaign completely blew the legally mandated spending limits for campaigning in a single mailshot to every home in Britain
As benj111 points out, it was the _Government_, not the Remain campaign. Different rules apply to them (they are prohibited from campaigning _at all_ during the 28 days prior to the referendum). Furthermore, a large percentage of distribution (to England) was done at a spend time when the spending rules did not apply at all (which to my understanding means the Leave campaign could have _also_ spend more during that time).
> They spent far, far more money than the Leave campaign did.
This is an exaggeration. The cost of the mailshot was £9.3m[1] - the Leave campaign could spend up to £7m (in the regulated time - as above, I believe it is unlimited outside of that), with UKIP a further £4m (and other groups could spend up to £700k). More, yes, as the Remain campaign could _also_ spend up to £7m, but "far, far more" feels like an overstatement.
[1] http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7579/CBP-7579.pdf http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7...
- repolfx 8y agoThis is sophistry - the Remain campaign was the government. It was the official position of the government and the entire thing was organised by them. There was simply no distinction between them at all. Again, people here are finding ways to excuse behaviour for their favoured team based on legalistic readings of the rules. Which is fine, if it's applied consistently. Of course it isn't because the goal here is not to be fairly applying campaigning rules, but rather to try and stop the UK leaving the EU via any means possible.