{"id":5862,"date":"2024-05-17T22:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T21:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weegiefifer.scot\/?p=5862"},"modified":"2024-05-19T13:23:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T12:23:44","slug":"the-plot-thickens-sunak-cancels-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weegiefifer.scot\/?p=5862","title":{"rendered":"The Plot Thickens: Sunak Cancels Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Plot Thickens.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In our last blog – Are You an Extremist Threat?<\/a> – we showed you a few responses to Rishi Sunak\u2019s speech to the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Now The Plot Thickens…<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When PM gives a speech it\u2019s normal for a transcript to be posted on the UKGov website. Perfectly reasonable thing to do as it builds up an archive for future reference. Mr Sunak\u2019s Threats to UK Security speec<\/a>h<\/a> has now been added to that archive. Except, except….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

it can\u2019t be a transcript exactly as it was delivered AND<\/strong> have had political content redacted from it. It can be one or the other but not both. All rather reminiscent of 1984 and how many fingers are being held up…. But at least their system flags the redaction instances up for us. So can we find out what was redacted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was redacted?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I found out about this redacted archive version from a Twitter thread by Edwin Hayward.<\/a> If you go to the YouTube video you can get a direct transcript and follow along with Mr Sunak, in effect that provides an unredacted transcript<\/a> of the speech. So let’s have a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original Unredacted Extract:<\/h5>\n\n\n
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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Official Redacted Extract:<\/h5>\n\n\n
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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And so on, and so on… the Plot Thickens Again<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There was more than the reference to Scottish Nationalism that has disappeared from the official version. They have also redacted various comments he made about Labour Party and Labour policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also changed the image accompanying the speech. On the website he is shown as if giving the speech out side No10. I\u2019ve had a look on the UKGov\/speeches and they do use that stock photo of Sunak outside No10 for his speeches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in fact he gave this speech to an audience at Policy Exchange UK which is a right-wing think tank and one with which Sunak has previous connections. His initial remarks in the speech – where he thanks Baron Dean Godson for the introduction – are also redacted. What he said was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Dean, thank you for that warm welcome and your superb leadership of  Policy Exchange. As you said, as a proud alumnus, I’m truly delighted to be back.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I notice that they also often embed at the video of him giving the speech. There is no video embedded with this one. It does rather look like and attempt to formally distance himself from Policy Exchange. Even though he was delighted to be back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we surprised at all this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Well yes, I am surprised actually. I\u2019m surprised that an official archive has omissions \/ redactions from a speech <\/p>\n\n\n\n