Why Rupert Murdoch considers it worth his while to pay David Aaronovitch a large six figure sum for such puerile antics as tweeting that I am insane, is a conjecture I find difficult to resolve. Today this exchange occurred on twitter:
David Aaronovitch: This suggestion that if elected Corbyn could be quickly ousted is utter bollocks. Democracy allows Labour to commit Hara Kiri.
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch I hope everyone is watching how these servants of the micro-elite try to paint “attracting popular support” as “committing suicide.”
Mark Doran: @DAaronovitch Craig finds the elite-serving contortions every bit as funny as I do
David Aaronovitch: @MarkJDoran I tend to find Craig Murray unpersuasive on the grounds of him being unhinged. I can see why you like him, though.
Mark Doran: Says the man who managed to find Bush and Blair credible. I can see why you liked them, though.
It is remarkably ironic that on being referred to an article which argues that views outside a very narrow neoliberal establishment narrative are marginalised and ridiculed by the media, the Murdoch hack’s response is that the author is unhinged. Aaronovitch could not have more neatly proved my point.
But something else struck me about the twitter record. Aaronovitch’ twitter account claims to have 78,000 followers. Yet of the 78,000 people who allegedly received his tweet about my insanity, only 1 retweeted and 2 favourited. That is an astonishingly low proportion – 1 in 26,000 reacted. To give context, Mark Doran has only 582 followers and yet had more retweets and favourites for his riposte. 1 in 146 to be precise, a 200 times greater response rate.
Please keep reading, I promise you this gets a great deal less boring.
Eighteen months ago I wrote an article about Aaronovitch’s confession that he solicits fake reviews of his books to boost their score on Amazon. In response a reader emailed me with an analysis of Aaronovitch’s twitter followers. He argued with the aid of graphs that the way they accrued indicated that they were not arising naturally, but being purchased in blocks. He claimed this was common practice in the Murdoch organisation to promote their hacks through false apparent popularity.
I studied his graphs at some length, and engaged in email correspondence on them. I concluded that the evidence was not absolutely conclusive, and in fairness to Aaronovitch I declined to publish, to the annoyance of my correspondent.
Naturally this came to mind again today when I noted that Aaronovitch’ tweets to his alleged legion of followers in fact tumble into a well of silence. I do not even tweet. The entire limit of my tweeting is that this blog automatically tweets the titles of articles I write. They are not aphorisms so not geared to retweet. Yet even the simple tweet “Going Mainstream” which marked the article Aaronovitch derided, obtained 20 times the reactions of Aaronovitch’s snappy denunciation of my mental health. This despite the fact he has apparently 10 times more followers than me. An initial survey seems to show this is not atypical.
In logic, I can only see two possible explanations. The first is that my correspondent was right and Aaronovitch fakes twitter followers like he does book reviews. The second is that he has a vast army of followers, nearly all of whom find him dull and uninspiring, and who heartily disapproved en masse of his slur on my sanity. I opt for the second explanation, that he is just extremely dull, on the grounds that Mr Aaronovitch’s honesty and probity were never questioned, m’Lud.
Frankie Boyle in the Guardian: “So Labour passed the welfare bill with the passive silence of a married orgasm.”
Ooh Frankie! You cynical sod!
An approximate rendition of Galloway’s* putdown of Aaronovitch on a C4 debate:
“I remember you. You used to be a card carrying communist with a Karl Marx beard….But you had to shave it off because Tony [Blair] was complaining it was tickling his backside too much.“
From Blair, David continues ever rightward. And Boris may not even be complaining: (paywall, but the obsequiousness is visible)
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4379311.ece
*Still an asshole. But a very witty one on occasion.
I warn however we cannot become complacent about the neo-con chicken hawks who are ‘running scared’ as Mary quite rightly tells us.
Neocon models still have a dominant voice in this interval of modulation after the Iran deal. They are at war. Why? Obviously this deal sets an incredible, wonderful precedent – where is the elation here??
The deal shows you can use diplomacy instead of war, which puts the Aaronovitchs, Blairs, Murdochs, agent Camerons in a ridiculous position of having to say we wanted a better deal but cannot explain what sort of better deal because we wanted war – of the Libya/Syria/Iraq/Ukraine preemptive strike/chaos/regime change decimation flavor.
Too boot, it demonstrates to this tired and antediluvian cabal the hypocrisy of Britain’s past horse trading with the Shah monarchical dictator, that Iran has achieved something, it has not been overthrown by those who use the nuclear issue as a pretext to carry out a blood-thirsty regime change.
That is frustrating Israel big time.. because the ‘outbreak’ of peace between Britain & Iran will undermine the UK/US/IS axis.
The next facile-flag might be nuclear!
Thanks for the link to Aarono witch’s review of Caroline Lucas book on the machinations of parliament.
he knows about as much of Caroline Lucas as a horse knows of making a decent cup of coffee.
This hatchet job is more like himself than Caroline, changing his allegiances to wherever the wind comes from.
Caroline is well educated worked for Oxfam for years before she became a Green MEP. And when she did it did not stop her sitting in the rain campaigning for Trident to be removed from Faslane, I know, I was sitting next to her and got arrested with her and put into Glasgow nicvk, I was involved in this period of the Green Party, serving on their regional council, short listing staff for her and drafting ‘the Green Party’s relationship with their MEP’s’ policy.
Aarano’s witch is a failed Marxist who has never found a political home, a paid stooge for the establishment and Israel, what a journey ….
“Iran has achieved something”.
Don’t kid yourself. What is it to achieve to be allowed to produce a bit of nuclear energy so long as the Zionist entity stays as the only nuclear-armed power in the region, and not with ust 5 or 10 nuclear warheads either, but with several hundred?
It’s the Zionist way to fight like lions saying “12! 12! Not 11 or 10!”, when the real answer, for those who have their senses about them, is 0 or maybe minus infinity.
If the Zionists didn’t want this agreement, they’d never have allowed their sabbath goyim in Washington DC, London and Berlin to sign it, and in any case they could always have stopped it because they own the US Congress.
But I’m not saying it’s not significant. Either there will be a big Iran event, or the Sharon doctrine will segue into something else, some other ‘clash of civilisations’ shit to help Israel.
The Sharon doctrine says Iran is a problem for the world, therefore the world should support Isr…oh sorry have the audience fallen asleep by this point?
I bet the Murdoch shekels are paid gross so that corporation tax is paid rather than income tax on PAYE.
http://companycheck.co.uk/director/917883633/MR-DAVID-AARONOVITCH
Iran is a problem to the world because it has not attacked anyone for 250 years, N_
Iran is only a problem because the Shah, an equally ruthless ruler, was disposed by the people, with the support of Iran’s main religious movement.
The only guarantee/action that would stop the proliferation of nukes in Saudi/Iran is to call back the west assembled nuclear capacities, the 6th. fleet from Bahrain, the French from UAE, the Pacific fleet. Not to forget Israel’s Dolphin class subs, with ICBM capabilities and a secret nuclear arsenal. It would increase security in the Persian Gulf tremendously.
The US is still expanding its bases at the western fringes of Afghanistan, eager to keep capabilities there, ready to receive nuclear weapons from Diego Garcia, thanks to those in the then UK Government who signed the 1968 agreement with the US.
Offtopic but still quite interesting
“David Cameron: UK property no safe haven for ‘dirty money'”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33684098
I thought all purpose of his trade tour to south east Asia was to promote UK property market (what else can UK offer to them) to foreign c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶i̶a̶n̶s̶ businessmen.
By the way
Investigation by outspoken opposition leader Navalny found that Russian Vice Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has purchased elite property in London in Whitehall Court. The cost of the apartment is around 12 million quid which is around 80 times more than official annual salary of Mr Shuvalov. The purchase was formally made in the name of offshore registered company owned by Mr Shuvalov’s wife.
Another fascinating fact is that it was Igor Shuvalov who called Russian citizens to tighten their belt in order to support president and his policies.
I thought all purpose of his trade tour to south east Asia was to promote UK property market (what else can UK offer to them) to foreign c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶i̶a̶n̶s̶ businessmen.
I think you were right. This is a snow job. He’ll set up a committee, and claim he did something about it at the next election. Meanwhile he and Osborne are backpedalling like crazy on their hints that they might do something about making the banks pay for what they did. That was soooo last election.
Coming on top of an apparently crashing Chinese economy, the emphasis might be more on promoting the City’s specialists in hiding oligarch money worldwide, not necessarily here. Blair’s been feeling the way for him, btw.
I did post this before, I think:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/investigations/11764487/Tony-Blair-given-sensitive-Foreign-Office-papers-before-business-trips-to-China.html
Sorry, but the permatanned turd turns up everywhere. It’s very hard to avoid.
The fat tub of lard is busy pontificating about “unhinged” Craig, at least Craig could be fitted with hinges and is not suffering from full of shitness that “little” david is suffering from that no fucking hinge can fit it!
This character ought to be in the Hague facing incitement for crimes against humanity and peace, the way he promoted the bloody and murderous war on Iraq. If it spontaneously combusted as fat bastards are known to burst into flame, there will not a be anyone found to piss on him to put the fire out, that is for certain.
…there will not be anyone found to piss on him to put the fire out…
A Fire Officer Writes: using water on a fat or oil fire makes the blaze worse, as oily scum floats and spreads. You need to deprive it of oxygen (of publicity, in this case)
http://lifehacker.com/whats-the-best-way-to-safely-put-out-a-grease-fire-1002810379
Asphyxiation is your ally….
Private Eye has been reporting for ages on London as a safe haven for dirty money.
The Eye also make the point that any effective action will have to deal with Trusts and Limited Liability Partnerships (as well as companies). On these, however, Cameron and Osborne are silent.
The words ‘beneficial ownership transparency’ have been far from their thoughts, too. Never mind LLP’s, what about LP’s….
TB is money making machine for sure. Look at his business deals listed on the Telegraph link. He had made the most successful (profit wise) post MP career in British history. I wonder what DC is going to do when he passes his torch to Boris?
Two pages of Blair starting here, Uzbek:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-1/#comment-508703
BobM
For them it will be like slathering hen that lays golden eggs. Tories won this election in great part due to populous interest in rising house prices. Despite all the debate about unaffordability of housing for young families and issues of overcrowding, majority of Brits and home owners with majority of properties being mortgaged. None of them want to end up in negative equity, thus rising house prices = capital gain was what brought DC to Westminster without LibDems on his tail.
For majority of Brits it is secondary (if of any importance at all) what is driving house prices up. For what we now (and can speculate) the next shiny apartment on Thames bank could be bought with money gained as a result of government (non UK of course) slaughtering few thousands opposition protesters. Every bullet costs money, and people who gives orders to shoot are usually the ones end up hiding their money in London.
But who cares???
Thank you. Very interesting to read about TB business adventures. He was on my radar only as an adviser to Kazakh president (and Middle East peace envoy before that). But I see he has many more business deals than just being fed from Nazarbaev’s hands.
Does anyone know if he pays tax in the UK? Or is he non-dom type of?
Uzbek – he pays some tax in the UK. we have his word for that, lol. However, it’s very unlikely he pays all of it here, and due to his complicated corporate structure no-one is encouraged to know. Latest news on that is perhaps this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11328929/Tony-Blair-cuts-his-tax-bill-despite-another-bumper-year.html
Quite a lot of his winnings are invested in London property as well as a couple of low rental flat blocks in the North, in his wife’s name. One side of his operation, Firerush Ventures, appears to be entirely financial, and to operate as an investment bank. There is more than a hint of an offshore cash pile. It could well be that his considerable publicised income is far lower than what he actually makes. However, I’d better not trespass on Craig’s patience any more as I have wandered off-topic.
I never ‘kid myself’ N_ – Israel has neither confirmed or denied it has nuclear bombs. I am assuaged that you are saying the Iran deal is significant.
You raise an interesting point Nevermind by saying the US military base on Diego Garcia stores nuclear weapons. I have tried to clarify this with a senior Naval friend to no avail albeit some British naval monitoring by both high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry and neutron multiplicity counts indicates perhaps you are right.
Interesting in that protocols I and II to the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty were signed by Russia with a number of reservations.
In the past both the United Kingdom and the United States have argued that the British Indian
Ocean Territory cannot be included in the geographical area of the Treaty of Pelindaba, as it is a UK territory used by the United States as a major military base. On depositing the ratifications:
The UK stated that it did not accept the inclusion of the British Indian Ocean Territory within the African nuclear-weapon-free zone without its consent, and did not accept, by its adherence to Protocols I and II, any legal obligations in
respect of that territory.
The AU, however, considers the islands to be part of Mauritius, and a map, in Annex 1 of the
treaty, explicitly includes the Chagos Archipelago—although with the note “Appears without
prejudice to the question of sovereignty” in reference to the long-standing diplomatic dispute
between Mauritius and the United Kingdom. While the airstrip on Diego Garcia played a
central role in the war against Iraq and Afghanistan from 1991 through 2006, it is not known
whether the United States has ever stored nuclear weapons on the Indian Ocean island.
In signing this treaty the reservation was made it does not apply to the US base of Diego Garcia.
[…] This is an important reservation, which allows us to fully maintain our own security in hypothetical situations of the emergence [of] crises or conflicts in which the potential use of nuclear weapons is possible.
http://www.unidir.org/files/publications/pdfs/nuclear-weapon-free-zones-en-314.pdf
Island of Shame: The secret history of the US military base onDiego Garcia by David Vine., Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009. 281 pp.
http://www.chagossupport.org.uk
Thank you. Another interesting info on TB.
I think a lot of (regular) people here move off topic after about 20 posts.
Rising house prices don’t mean capital gain for most owner-occupiers, because if they flog the house they’re probably going to buy another one.
Also if people have got any sense, they will realise that rising house prices are caused by, and cause, increased indebtedness to moneylenders. That’s a social ill if ever there was one.
Most owner-occupied homes are owned outright: 7.4 million, as opposed to 6.9 million that are mortgaged. (Source.)
I don’t know what the figure is for rented homes. Quite a high proportion are mortgaged. Banks love landlords. Any dirty little shit with a yearning to exploit his neighbours will get a loan, no problem. It’s a similar story to the capitalisation of agriculture in most countries in the world.
The owner-occupied sector is declining. It is only 63% now. It was once 71% or higher.
It’s the private rented sector that’s increasing. In some areas, the large majority of former council houses are owned and let out by scummy landlords.
There are around 4-5 million privately-rented homes. This is twice the figure for 20 years ago.
Against the backdrop of depraved trash such as Game of Thrones…
…and Yahoo and Google front-paging of videos showing e.g. “baby thrown onto railway tracks”…
…and a culture in which perhaps the majority of young men have deliberately sat in front of screens watching real-life videos of prisoners getting their heads hacked off,…
…there is a perhaps unsurprisingly a growing antagonism between younger people and older people in Britain.
On several occasions I have older women referred to in a contemptuous (and bloodchilling) way as “old grannies”, including by women. You didn’t hear that 20 years ago.
I mention this because living in homes owned by private landlords is on the increase, as British towns and cities go down the tubes; and although most owner occupiers now own their houses without a mortgage, most of those who do so are in their 60s or older.
Debt is knocking the crap out of a huge part of the population – not just working class people but many middle class people too. This is a situation that successive governments have welcomed.
This should be a key issue of concern for any left-wing movement worthy of the name.
I doubt Aaronovitch has more than half a dozen genuine followers. John Rentoul, Alistair Campbell, Jim Murphy and a few swivel eyed obsessives from the Henry Jackson Soceity.
The rest are about as real as WMD in Iraq.
N
I argue that capital gain is still appreciated by home owners whether or not they own their home outright. (apologies for slightly inaccurate figure as I was likely using info on London and SE and not UK).
Those who own mortgaged property fear negative equity the worst. For them increase in their home value means cheaper mortgages and better access to credit (and credit is a God now). For those who own outright (usually retired couples with grown up children) benefit from growing house value when they downsize or pay for their care. Their children also benefit from inheritance. Some homeowners (who benefited a LOT from house value growth and pay now pennies in their mortgage) re-mortgage in order to help their children with the deposit.
As the society we loose from indefinite house prices growth (here I agree with you) but each of us benefit when bricks and mortar goes up twice in value every 5 years which means our outgoings is getting smaller but our potential gain is getting bigger.
I also agree with you about landlords, but some stats I have viewed point out that of the 4+ million rented properties are owned by 1.5 million people, so which means most of those properties owned by people who own them as second property. They are those who benefited the most from house prices growth and I bid they are the ones who (and whose family members) voted DC and his crooks to the Westminster.
Ken Bell 28 Jul, 2015 – 12:51 am : “Given that [Aaronovitch] was in the CPGB back then, you can understand Orwell’s point in The Road to Wigan Pier that socialists are a poor advert for socialism in working class eyes.”
Yeah but Aaronovitch out-orwelled Orwell when he won the Orwell prize for journalism in 2001.
Then in 2014 Johnathan Freedland increased Orwell’s in-grave rotation rate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell_Prize
Also if people have got any sense, they will realise that rising house prices are caused by, and cause, increased indebtedness to moneylenders. That’s a social ill if ever there was one.
Agree. One man’s longterm debt is an immediate credit entry in some fat bastard’s ledger. The future is not only mortgaged, it’s leveraged, sold on and speculated on. I’m guessing that if house prices stalled for a year, we’d be looking very much like Greece.
Therefore, anything the Tories purport to do about this contribution to personal desperation is going to be strictly cosmetic.
Though I don’t think house ownership would be a fetish if stably-priced, secure tenancy were the norm. France and Germany, I believe, have much more of a rental culture….lust of possession wreaketh desolation. There is no goodness in the sons of Man….
N
I also blame average people for house prices growth. It is not the banks and not even corrupt money launderers who drive up average house prices. All those Russian, Arab, Chinese, Brazilian billions are contained within few specific areas in London and SE. It is average people who (with the help of estate agents) come up with funny number for their house price.
“Though I don’t think house ownership would be a fetish if stably-priced, secure tenancy were the norm.”
Interestingly but former Eastern Block is very sharp antithesis to it. As soon as people were given a chance of privatising on what they have had secured tenancy, they jumped and did it. Most (if not all) of the housing stock in eastern block including former USSR is now privately owned.