I read that this morning, actually. OK, I was unaware that Laughland was connected to this BHHRG and so I retract the bit about "no vested interest." Independently of this revelation, though, it was a stupid thing to say anyway, because most of these groups have some kind of an interest one way or other.
Be that as it may, what is the thrust of David Aaronovitch's attack on Laughland in the end? Basically, it is: "Laughland knows this guy called Sanders. Now Sanders knows this Canadian guy called Black. Now let's talk all about Black." Using such a methodology, you could bury anybody.
He attacks Laughland for having "variously queried the idea that...the Serbs behaved so very savagely in Kosovo etc." Surely Aaronovitch must know that it is
common knowledge that Serb action in Kosovo was exaggerated by the media...The media themselves say it.
(I snipped the Belarus thing, but the article I think Aaronovitch is referring to is
this one. You can tell me what you think of it.)
His other "crime" is being a Europhobe...
At the end of the day, the basic gist of the now tainted BHHRG's report still cannot easily be dismissed.
I explain:
The Opposition's key complaint has been that Donetsk had a voter turnout of 96%, 96.2% of whom voted for Yanukovych.
The western parts of the country's turnout was also an inordinate "about 80%" in some regions (I cannot confirm this on an official table, but Opposition supporters I have spoken to say it is correct). It's not as high as 96%, though.
That 96.2% of these Donetsk voters voted for Yanukovych is not challenged by the Opposition, given that in the three provinces--Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv--the support for Yushchenko was 93.53%, 93.44%, 91.79% respectively.
So I propose a recalculation, based on the figures no one challenges:
(data taken from pro-Opposition
site I posted)
Current Donetsk total for Yanukovych based on 96% voter turnout:
3,570,710
Adjusted Donetsk total for Yanukovych based on a hypothetical 80% turnout:
(3570710/0.96)x(0.80)=2,975,591
That is a difference (drop) of: 595,119 votes
Conclusion: Yanukovych still wins the whole country.
(given that the difference nationally was: 14,966,336 -- 14,154,153 == 812,183 votes )
Nobody's made a mention of this. It's just good guys v. bad.
Finally, it's clear why a super-neocon interventionist like Aaronovitch would go after an Old Conservative like Laughland. Eighteen months ago, he probably was doing the same against those who doubted that Iraq had WMD...