Jim Armitage: Gina Miller doesn’t deserve the personal attacks of Brexiteers

Taking the Government to court over Brexit always seemed bafflingly pointless, even to an ardent “remoaner” like me.

The whole affair could only ever add more uncertainty for businesses at the sharp end of EU trade and worsen the rift in the country between Inners and Outers.

But none of that excuses the vitriol meted out by Brexiteers yet again today to Gina Miller, the fund manager who brought the case.

Since she dared exercise her democratic right to go to law, every element of her private and professional life has been dug over and smeared, her abilities as a mother mocked, her business credentials besmirched, her Guyanese heritage needlessly and repeatedly cited.

Unnamed “City sources” are quoted attacking SCM, the business she runs with former New Star hedge funder Alan Miller (the fact SCM exposes profiteering in the fund industry from which these sources probably hail is usually glossed over).

Yet for all the battalions digging into her past, the worst anybody has uncovered is that she may have given the impression one of her degrees was in law when it wasn’t.

Being economical with the actualité in matters curricular is not a good look. But it’s nothing against the lies and exaggerations told by her detractors in the run-up to the referendum.

The nonsense claim about £350 million a week for the NHS; the suggestion Turkey was joining the EU; the idea that Nissan and Unilever wanted Brexit?

Besides, what relevance do her personal shortcomings have to the ruling of the Supreme Court? None.

Regarding the judges’ decision, it’s tempting to fling back at Miller’s attackers their oft-repeated phrase to Remainers: You lost. Deal with it.

Tempting, isn’t it, to buy BT’s shares after yesterday’s 21% crash? Bad though the Italian fraud might be, worrying though its public sector contracts are, does it really merit £8 billion off the stock market value?

Sadly, yes. The shares failed to bounce back today for a good reason.

Not only could yesterday’s problems worsen but others loom large, from its yawning pension deficit to rising regulatory pressure.

Sports rights — whose acquisition have driven BT’s broadband sales — are getting pricier, and audiences are getting smaller. Longer term, BT’s fixed-line dominance can only become less relevant as rivals eat into its share of bundled packages and the younger generation flocks to mobile.

Even house broker JPMorgan isn’t recommending the stock. Best heed their opinion.