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.
Daniel, regarding Dr Helen Caldicott; sorry to have taken so long to reply to this comment of yours:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/07/aaronovitch-blusters-to-a-well-of-silence/comment-page-3/#comment-542185
Everything Dr Caldicutt asserts in that video is factually based. There is a report from the New York Academy of Sciences compiled from five thousand papers translated from Russian, and as she says the highest estimate for excess deaths is nearly one million:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl:_Consequences_of_the_Catastrophe_for_People_and_the_Environment
And George Monbiot seems unaware of the Red Forest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Forest
Towards the end they argue at crossed purposes, but again Caldicott gets closer to the facts than Monbiot. Dr Caldicott is right that the IAEA was set up to promote nuclear power, and that the WHO is deprived of any authority to investigate the health effects of nuclear incidents, that responsibility being delegated exclusively to the UNSCEAR – the United Nations Standing Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
George Monbiot is a journalist, experienced in presenting matters to the public in a style that will appear to be ‘balanced’. Helen Caldicot is a medical doctor and is rightly passionate about protecting the public from the insidious but grave dangers of ingested radioactive pollutants. She seems a little confused about the roles of the IAEA, the UNSCEAR and the WHO, but her field is health rather than international politics; Monbiot, who deals with politics every day, should have helped her on this issue rather than apparently trying to ridicule her. Caldicott seems frustrated to me rather than deranged, and that seems entirely understandable under the circumstances.
The Chernobyl disaster released dreadful and widespread contamination; the restrictions on Cumbrian farm produce, originally initiated because of the Windscale fire but extended due to fallout from Chernobyl, has only recently been lifted. The extent of the effects of the disaster were covered up originally by the Russian authorities, but continued by the restriction that prevents investigation and analysis by the WHO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Difficulties_in_assessment
Although unclear on the details, Dr Caldicott is right that there is a conspiracy of sorts, and that it is vast; the governments of the superpowers and their respective allies, which usually oppose each other, are united in their enthusiasm for nuclear power, and for nuclear weapons for which the nuclear power industry provides cover and support.
Nevermind, to pick up on one of your earlier comments, I do not know whether molten salt reactors (MSRs) can be operated safely, but I think some prototypes should be constructed so that they can be evaluated for both safety and ability to destroy “spent” nuclear fuel.
Some in the nuclear industry suggest that conventional reactors (mostly PWRs and BWRs) would be rendered acceptable if MSRs were used to destroy the waste they produce but this is not so; a single MSR could only digest waste at a fraction of the rate that a single conventional reactor produces it – this is a direct consequence of MSRs being orders of magnitude more fuel-efficient than conventional reactors. If we started now by closing down all the conventional reactors and producing all our electricity with MSRs that were digesting “spent” fuel, it would take hundreds of years before it was all gone.
The RBS share bonanza, cont’d.
The only meaning of the verb ‘to short’ that I knew about was one to do with an electrical short circuit.
There is another.
To short – Stock Exchange – sell (stocks or other securities or commodities) in advance of acquiring them, with the aim of making a profit when the price falls
Thus see it working
Hedge funds make quick buck on RBS sale
Speculators bet on shares falling before government stake disposal
4 August 2015
Hedge funds made a fast buck at the taxpayer’s expense last week by betting against Royal Bank of Scotland shares shortly before the UK government started selling its stake in the bank, according to people involved in the deal.
They said some investors got wind that the government could be about to start selling part of its 78 per cent stake in the bank and quickly placed a bet that this would drive down the share price.
There was a sharp rise in the number of RBS shares being sold short, a technique that involves borrowing a stock to bet it will fall in value, between the bank’s interim results on Thursday and the government’s £2.1bn share sale on Monday night.
The bookrunners that handled the government’s share placement — Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS — were only appointed on Monday, hours before it started.
But on Thursday and Friday several investment banks were aggressively calling investors to poll them about their appetite for RBS shares as they jostled for position in the competition to be hired by the government on the deal.
Hedge funds have in the past run into trouble with UK regulators over what constitutes “wall crossing” during shares sales. This is the process when an investor is judged to possess inside information when they are being marketed a deal by bankers.
/..
http://on.ft.com/1K2ivb0
Really politics should be all about how the 99% can keep the wealth creating nonetheless ugly capitalists in check, whilst at the same time taking care not to kill the golden goose that is creating the wealth. With the 1% so desperate to keep out Corbyn, it clearly shows how far away we have ended up from this basic self-evident no -brainer truth. That there are forces within labour against a latter day “prophet” Corbyn can mean only one thing, the devil has taken over. Rev 2:9 are in charge.
We were told that Dave is on holiday??
Yet
Iraq inquiry: Cameron to demand Chilcot name a publication date
The prime minister, who is losing patience with report delays, will tell Sir John Chilcot he must set out a timetable for its completion
4 August 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/04/iraq-inquiry-cameron-demand-chilcot-names-publication-date
This pretence of impatience with Chilcot is written in the future tense. ‘Will tell’, ‘will demand’, etc.
LOL
There was a sharp rise in the number of RBS shares being sold short, a technique that involves borrowing a stock to bet it will fall in value, between the bank’s interim results on Thursday and the government’s £2.1bn share sale on Monday night.
Utterly unpredictable! Who would have thought that anyone with an offshore account would ever seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the UK taxpayer? Etc…grunt, snuffle, oink. Bet Osborne’s* smirk’s set to 110% now. In his corrupt world, this is a major success.
But Corbyn’s right. This loss (which would get most CEO’s fired) was built-in to the original purchase. It would probably have been cheaper to let RBS crash and burn, cover the ‘small’ depositors under the guarantee scheme and have a fire sale of the assets. Or nationalise it.
*He’s apparently in Italy right now, as is Blair. The go-to destination for crooks when the PR shit hits the fan.
The FIRST Libor fixer to face trial cops a just punishment. Squeals from the City:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33763628
Will many more, senior to him, follow? You make your old teacher laugh.
Getting the language right:
http://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c1bf7e2a7a1e95bb97bee54abf1c47608423800d/581_71_4182_2508/master/4182.jpg?w=460&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=efe51c702ce93082a9ee7e459add93c8
isn’t the idea that a former Prime Minister was a child abuser pretty far-fetched? Yet it’s being taken seriously by a number of police forces.
J S-D: While I will not eat my hat if proved wrong, I’m not inclined to believe Heath was a serial abuser of children or anyone else (except, with expletives, Thatcher). All complaints are taken seriously by the police, at least in theory. The level of credence they’ve given to the allegations re. Heath is not knowable. The multiplication of forces described as interested may well be the result of interconnected enquiries into other individuals: with some information being shared. The filthiest tabloid journalism seems to be in full cry again. And Heath’s a safe target: nil nisi etc.
“Is this a genuine sighting of Fred?”
You really are very nasty people here. This site has done much to destroy my faith in human nature.
I don’t make personal attacks on other posters, I flame people who make personal attacks against me to avoid never ending exchanges of tit for tat insults which there are so many of here and can go on for years.
I didn’t post much yesterday, to tell you the truth I was sickened by node’s revelation that after I had gone to so much trouble to explain how statistics work he had just been trolling, was bored and decided to wind me up for fun.
Then I log on today and there is a totally unsolicited personal insult from Glen.
Youy people really are sick.
This site has done much to destroy my faith in human nature.
You’ll be a lot happier without it, Fred.
Trust me.🙂
back in history, was it just 2007, or was it 1955
“A gay member of the London Assembly has claimed that former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath was warned to stop having sex with men in public.
Brian Coleman, a Conservative, claims that Sir Edward was warned by police to stop cruising for sex as part of a vetting process in 1955.
That year he became a Privy Councillor and Chief Whip under Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
“The late Ted Heath obtained the highest office of state after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the 1950s,” Mr Coleman wrote on the New Statesman’s website.
He claims that the police warning was common knowledge in the Tory party. “. . .[controversial]” Coleman’s [controversial] article on the New Statesman’s website condemned the practice [of] outing people, and said that voters do not care about the sexual preferences of politicians as long as they are good at their jobs.”
according to https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2007/04/25/edward-heath-warned-to-stop-cruising/
but the BBC denied these claims http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6590919.stm by interviewing a member of the establishment, saying in 2007 “”If there was some secret [about Ted] I’m sure it would have come out by now. “
@ Clark Wholly agree with MSR need to recycle spent fuel rods which have only given less than 10% of their energy to consumers, its time to destroy this need for longterm expensive storage units and build a pilot MSR., but I think we are barking in a cellar, nobody wants to hear it, least of all Greenpeace or FoE.
Now we see police forces around the whole country digging their very own holes, re- lighting fires that they extinguished in haste, no good coming up with another dead paedophile they let off more than once some 20 years ago and longer, what of those who are doing harm today and are not prosecuted?
If the imperative is to stop harm to children, then those abusers still alive and well, carrying on as they see fit with their crimes, ARE MORE IMPORTANT TO BE CAUGHT THAN THOSE WHO ARE NO MORE.
The police has its priorities wrong, they are still walking the path of least resistance, despite MP’s like Tom Watson saying that there are many who are still alive and well.
High profile cases such as Jenner’s should have observers sitting in and watching procedures, taking notes, because we can’t trust what is written in papers, nor can we go by prechewed comments emanating from the BBC, what comes out should be known to each and everyone of us, these moral preachers and regulators and arbiters of public taste, the church, they all have failed and abused the public’s trust and if anything positive comes out of it, its safer children and a clued up society.
interesting nuclear news in Japan; prosecutors having failed to find enough evidence to convict anyone for multiple reactor meltdowns (including finding recently an highly active piece of fuel-rod that was presumably blown-up & dropped around 140km from Fukushima); a citizens committee of 22 randomly selected locals has decided to force the prosecution of the top three guys in TEPCO at the time of the disaster.
The eventual prosecution will fail, due to lack of evidence that the reactors planning failed to account for Japan’s tectonic-plate boundary location.
can anyone here envisage a UK parallel: in which case, who or why a randomly selected group of 22 brits would like to arrest & charge, (the police & CPS having lost interest in the alleged crimes/crims first, mind)
WINCHESTER COLLEGE, PAEDOPHILE ABUSE, MURDERS, A BOYS’ CLUB IN HOXTON, AND EDWARD HEATH
Yes, there were paedophile links between Edward Heath and the top private school, Winchester College.
The links went through musical circles and senior church circles in Salisbury and Winchester, both cathedral cities. On many an occasion, Heath would have dinner in the Warden’s rooms at the College, or would invite senior College staff to dinner with him in Salisbury. A lot of paedophile abuse occurred in the upstairs rooms of the College-owned Wykeham Arms in Winchester, in housemasters’ rooms at Winchester, or in Heath’s home in the cathedral close in Salisbury.
Heath is dead but the Winchester College role in paedophile abuse is ongoing.
The abuse at the school has led to a number of scandals over the past 20 years, as well as the dramatic ouster of “outsider” headmaster Nick Tate. Tate did not previously have links with the school and is not even a former public schoolboy. He was hired in the period following the revelation of criminal fee-fixing by the school, to give the illusion of social openness. Even before he arrived, he was encouraged to be involved in the abuse, and took part in it. But he drew the line at murder. Because he failed to show the “discretion” that the old-boy network requires, the insiders soon wanted him out. Investigators should contact him because he knows a lot.
Tate threatened to spill the beans in a move which amounted to “if I fall, I’ll bring you all down with me”. He would have gone to prison for a few years, but several other figures would have been jailed for much longer, the school would have closed down, and there would have been enormous political effects in the country. The knives came out for him, fake letters were sent to the police about him, supposedly by parents, and silence was imposed on him as part of his severance package.
One journalist who knows about Tate is Martin Bashir, whose car was set alight in Winchester by Tate’s son in an evening of drug-fuelled madness.
Google this.
The list of Winchester College’s governors reads like a roll-call of senior bankers and other figures in the City of London and at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
The murders by Winchester College teachers (“dons”) were of boys who belonged to or were roped in by the Crown and Manor boys’ club in Hoxton, London.
This club is practically the property of Winchester College.
Use Google to verify that.
For example, Tommy Cookson was a director of it when he was headmaster at Winchester College and there are many other direct links too numerous to mention here.
Google them.
The Crown and Manor club is used as a source of “volunteers” for all sorts of projects that Winchester College teachers (“dons”) and officials operate, both in this country and overseas, and they have been abusing boys at this club in London for decades. Among those who have come to the club from care homes, several have died while being abused.
There is much more behind the events referenced in this article in the Times Education Supplement than is apparent on the surface.
Thanks for that live report from the past and possibly present ‘care’ provided in Winchester, Hampshire Connection, what are the chances that those who are still abusing today get the full attention they deserve?
Would you agree that the priorities of the CPS and police forces is 180deg. out of kilter, why are we presented with dead abusers, when will the police concentrate on living abusers? or would that be too close to their cloth?
“when will the police concentrate on living abusers?”
When they’re allowed to.
who would have thought the Times educational supplement would refer to a prestigious headmaster resigning, that his son was driven to drink and drugs.
I’m beginning to regret having tried to stop the Winchester bypass going through the Dongas, people deserve to get away from it, fast, drive past it at speed.
It is possible that among certain circles the prospect of Tom Watson as deputy leader is more alarming even than that of Corbyn as leader.
O/T, as one can only write so much about Mr. Aaranovich and his mutterings.
Papers released by the BND show the background to the Iran hostage crisis under Carter. Anybody ever heard of Gerhard Ritzel, the then German ambassador to Tehran?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/how-gerhard-ritzel-helped-end-the-iranian-hostage-crisis-a-1045268.html
@Nevermind
“Thanks for that live report from the past and possibly present ‘care’ provided in Winchester, Hampshire Connection, what are the chances that those who are still abusing today get the full attention they deserve?”
That depends on people communicating what they know wherever they can, so as to put pressure on those who are supposed to be investigating.
“Would you agree that the priorities of the CPS and police forces is 180deg. out of kilter, why are we presented with dead abusers, when will the police concentrate on living abusers? or would that be too close to their cloth?”
Yes, I would agree without reservation.
The police are only asking for people to come forward who are victims of “historic” abuse. That’s a peculiar concept, because all crimes reported to the police happened in the past. The message is that everything is hunkydory in the present tense. The opinion formers or those who funnel opinions downwards aren’t supposed to say that, just assume it. Nobody in the general population believes it.
All the investigations and inquiries have remits that are “historic”. In public relations terms, they are all singing to the same songsheet.
The police forces are corrupt – in every area it is common knowledge where to buy illegal drugs – but not every police officer is corrupt and amoral, and most have the same view of paedophiles as almost everyone else does. Most would cheer to see paedophiles taken to prison, perhaps especially including arrogant toffs or individuals in high positions who have been abusing for decades, have not batted an eyelid at the miseries and deaths they have caused, have not cared a toss for other people’s suffering, have had people fawning around them, and have treated everyone they consider to be beneath them as if they were shit, thinking they were above the law.
The police and CPS are just being used.
Those who have not seen English ruling circles up close may not have a good appreciation of what the position is when say, Winchester police have to deal with senior figures at an institution such as the cathedral or Winchester College.
Those at such institutions will look down their noses at the cops from the first moment of the first meeting. The police will be treated like something the cat dragged in.
Housemaster Peter Metcalfe at Winchester College was charged with offences in 2003, after teaching at the school for 17 years and rising to the position of housemaster (in charge of where about 60 boys live, sleep, study and eat) – offences that included assault and sexual abuse involving stripping naked and getting into a shower with naked schoolboys, as well as other abuse, neglect and bullying.
Because of who he was, and because it was Winchester College, the charge sheet didn’t list sexual assault, but some of the crimes were self-evidently sexual in nature.
Then all of a sudden the prosecution dropped the case without him having to give a defence or, perish the thought, actually give evidence under cross-examination. He was removed as housemaster but continued as teacher or “don”.
Seven years later, he stood on a boy’s foot with his full weight during a history lesson and parents complained. Because the parents complained, headmaster Tommy Cookson (himself a long-term housemaster who was brought back in to do the headmaster’s job after Tate was removed) had to call social services who had to notify the police.
Cue wry smiles at high table. “I suppose the townies do have to follow their procedures, ha ha.”
What can we say? Most people would think “How on earth did someone who thought it was OK to act in that way, to get naked with schoolboys and to assault them, stay in his job as a teacher for so long?” That’s maybe obvious.
What isn’t obvious is how “dons” at Winchester College would view the affair. Their view was “Who the hell do the parents think they are, causing trouble for Peter?”
And if anyone says “What???”, with amazement that anyone can hold such a view, the attitude is “What the hell do you know, you jealous, lefty, council-trash, trendy social worker, state-school-alumnus moron?” (delete as applicable).
Now multiply all of this up when the crimes are much more serious, involving the rape of working class boys specially marshalled for the purpose in a boys’ club, some of whom are orphans coming from care homes or offender institutions, who are considered expendable.
Metcalfe had an involvement with the Crown and Manor club, as most housemasters at Winchester do. But unlike Nick Tate, headmaster from 2000-03, he was “one of us”. Nobody who was inside wanted him out. He played the game – don’t upset the applecart and whatever else you do is fine – and of course he never got jailed or even found guilty and the offences mentioned on the public record in connection with his name remain very minor (this is not deny the trauma caused to the victims, which for all I know may be continuing) compared to far more serious crimes.
@Nevermind
“who would have thought the Times educational supplement would refer to a prestigious headmaster resigning, that his son was driven to drink and drugs.”
Over the years there’s been quite a bit about scandals at Winchester college: some very nasty bullying by teachers and boys against other boys, involving pornography; drugs; a female teacher caught in a compromising position with a pupil (she didn’t get sacked); assaults; etc.
This shows you the size of the portion of the iceberg that lies beneath the surface.
If the floodgates break, there will be enormous effects in the country.
“I’m beginning to regret having tried to stop the Winchester bypass going through the Dongas, people deserve to get away from it, fast, drive past it at speed.”
The original plan was to put the M3 motorway west of St Catherine’s Hill. Winchester College (which owns the hill – bought by the Old Wykehamists’ Masonic Lodge from the church and donated to the college in the 1920s or 1930s) opposed that plan – successfully. They quite simply told the Whitehall johnnies to eff off.
The reason they then supported putting the M3 east of the hill, through Twyford Down and the Dongas, wasn’t because it had to go somewhere. They are easily powerful enough to stop a motorway getting built altogether if they want to.
The reason was that they made a lot of money out of it.
There were restrictive covenants on Winchester College’s (unregistered) titles to some of the land. This meant that the price the DTP paid included a large sum for paying off the owners of those covenants.
The Twyford Down Association, including many leading local Tories, knew about this but were threatened by lawyers into keeping quiet.
Fred, 9:27 am:
We are very nasty people, everywhere.
The trouble is, each of us makes a special case for ourself. MY abuse is not abuse. MY abuse is justified because he/she started it.
My side or my team’s abuse is OK, whereas theirs is wrong.
We all take this so far that we don’t even recognise abuse from ourselves or from our own side. We feel justified.
Compare Labour pangs comment at 7:32 am; while I agree that politics should create a structure that helps to equalise wealth, it really isn’t about sorting sheep from goats, the 99% from the 1%. Greed and the desire to dominate are just parts of human nature and even the most altruistic people still have them, they’ve just managed to do selfless things as well.
Fred:
Fred, I sympathise, I really do, for I often feel the same. In fact, that feeling is part of the depression you criticised me for a couple of days ago. I wish you well, Fred.
So Fred likes to hand out abuse, and enjoys upsetting and frustrating others, but can’t take a bit of it himself, eh? Fancy that. This is, of course, a characteristic shared by all bullies and abusers.
Glenn, “bullies and abusers” – that’s all of us.
Clark
Did you see the Beeb openly in step with the mandelsons, he was on the Beeb sofa literally rolling out a nigerian ibo “woostershire sauce” puppet as the next labour leader with the ink hardly dry on millibands resignation. Its all one big con, the devils are all in it together, its now got to be a Syriza/Podemos or bust. Or Corbyn.
Are US sanctions working? According to this report they are not. Mitsubisi is transferring its factory in Illinois to Russia and targeting the markets of South East Asia and the Phillipines.
http://politrussia.com/news/sanktsii-kak-bumerang-499/
Also Moldova’s new president wants to re-establish trading links brought about by the US blaming Putin and Russia for downing MH17 in some country’s or countries’ false-flag event of 17 July 2014, an event in which 298 civilian passengers lost their lives.
The association between Winchester and the Crown and Manor Club is open, and acknowledged by both. The latter has been actively supported since WW2 by the former.
http://www.crownandmanor.org.uk/information/club-history/
Re. the various Winchester teachers involved in deviancy, I’d be rather surprised if you couldn’t dig up one or two paedophile masters at any boarding school of the 50’s – 70’s chosen at random. Added to that there was a culture of not telling tales, so their activities were rarely brought to official attention – or indeed anyone else’s. Who would want to tell his mates he’d been buggered by old Redacted the previous night?