EU Referendum and quote attribution

Now, I like to think that we try to obey netiquette in this here blogosphere; the rules are fairly well-known, if unwritten, but one of those rules is that quotes are acknowledged as such. To do otherwise is to essentially plagiarise, a practice frowned upon even outwith the Fifth Estate.

Reading EU Referendum of late, I seem to have been getting severe deja vu. And... Well, EU Referendum have written a post on the subject of Tom Wise, UKIP MEP. Leaving aside the story itself (which I know a bit about but not enough to speak with any authority), perhaps you'd like to do a compare and contrast on a few paragraphs (none of which are attributed as quotes)...

Daniel Foggo in The Times:

Wise’s method was simple. He supplied the EU payments office with a contract, obtained by The Sunday Times, which included Jenkins’s name and details and stipulated that she apparently wanted her money to be paid into her account, entitled “Stags”.

In fact, this account, the full name of which was “T Wise trading as Stags”, was a business account run by the MEP himself.

EU Referendum:

Wise's method was simple. He supplied the EU payments office with a contract, obtained by The Sunday Times, which included Jenkins's name and details and stipulated that she apparently wanted her money to be paid into her account, entitled "Stags". In fact, this account, the full name of which was "T Wise trading as Stags", was a business account run by the MEP himself.

Daniel Foggo:

From November 2004 until October 2005 he funnelled £39,100 of taxpayers’ money into his own account with the Cooperative Bank from which he paid Jenkins just £13,555, according to bank statements obtained by The Sunday Times. They show that the only money coming into the account was from the EU, ostensibly for Jenkins.

EU Referendum:

From November 2004 until October 2005 he funnelled £39,100 of taxpayers' money into his own account with the Cooperative Bank from which he paid Jenkins just £13,555.

Bank statements obtained by Foggo show that the only money coming into the account was from the EU, ostensibly for Jenkins.

Daniel Foggo:

In another breach of the EU rules, some of the £13,555 paid to her was actually for work done on behalf of other party members, including the UKIP leader Nigel Farage who had agreed to fund the publication of a Eurosceptic book written by Jenkins.

EU Referendum:

But the breach of rules did not stop there. Some of the £13,555 paid to her was actually for work done on behalf of other party members, including UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who had agreed to fund the publication of a book written by Jenkins.

Daniel Foggo:

During the same timespan, more than £19,000 of the money was steadily paid out from Wise’s account to other destinations, some of them apparently credit cards. One disbursement alone, made via a transfer to somebody other than Jenkins, was for £6,500.

EU Referendum:

Then, during the same timespan, more than £19,000 of the money was steadily paid out from Wise's account to other destinations, some of them apparently credit cards. One disbursement alone, made via a transfer to somebody other than Jenkins, was for £6,500.

Daniel Foggo:

The party has been paying its regional organisers by designating them “advisers” and “assistants” to its 10 MEPs, thereby allowing them to draw salaries of up to £40,000 a year from the EU, while they do their actual jobs “in their spare time”.

EU Referendum:

... the Party has been paying its regional organisers by designating them "advisers" and "assistants" to its 10 MEPs. By using this ploy, salaries of up to £40,000 a year have been paid from the MEPs' EU expenses, relying on the further fiction that they do their actual jobs "in their spare time".

Daniel Foggo:

Further details are set to be exposed because Denis Brookes, one of the party’s former officials, issued industrial tribunal proceedings against Mike Nat-trass, the party’s MEP for the West Midlands region.

It is understood that Brookes has stated in his claim for unfair dismissal that he was being paid to do one job while actually employed to do another one entirely, so that the party could secure EU funding for him.

EU Referendum:

Further details are set to be exposed because Denis Brookes, one of the party's former officials, issued industrial tribunal proceedings against Mike Nattrass, the party's MEP for the West Midlands region (pictured). It is understood that Brookes has stated in his claim for unfair dismissal that he was being paid to do one job while actually employed to do another one entirely, so that the party could secure EU funding for him.

Now, I am not saying that Richard North has actually plagiarised Daniel Foggo's article (would I do that?) but I am saying that, in any real test of plagiarism, altering a word here and there wouldn't get you off. Unless, of course, Dr North is entirely permitted to use Foggo's words because they are, in fact, his?

In any case Dr North should declare his interest: Dr North was employed as a researcher for UKIP, and was sacked for failing to turn up for work.

UPDATE: Nosemonkey weighs in, in typically measured yet scathing style. I particularly enjoyed NM's reference to the military hardware pictures...

... which North then verbally masturbates over like a cross between a caged monkey and the most deranged characature of a right-wing militaristic maniac since Dr Strangelove’s General Ripper.

It should be pointed out that this one example that I picked out is far from being the first example that a noticed, and I'm sure that it won't be the last.

UPDATE 2: Iain Dale suspects that it is collaboration between Foggo and North; in which case, as I said, anyone with integrity would declare their interest.

Whatever the truth of it is, the whole saga hardly paints UKIP in a very positive light.

This is true, although a good deal of it is old news and baseless. However, UKIP will be making a statement in the next 24 hours or so which I shall relay here. You can also tune in to see your humble Devil on 18DoughtyStreet from 9pm tomorrow, when I imagine that some of this stuff with come up.