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.
bureaucracy, damn
I’m waiting, Fred.
Kindly admit that at least one paid-up, pro-independence SNP nationalist, Craig, isn’t a neonazi.
That’s all you need to do. The rest will follow.
On Labour’s current position. This guy’s sharp – and constructively critical. Recommended.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=31457
From the Underground.
This is a good read from David Graeber.
“Hostile Intelligence:Reflections from a Visit to the West Bank.”
http://internationaltimes.it/hostile-intelligence-reflections-from-a-visit-to-the-west-bank/
Dave: Excellent article. Thanks. A very convincing and credible analysis, which fits the facts, er, on the ground.
Netanyahu was in Cyprus this week, incidentally, discussing the carve-up of eastern Med oil and gas.
@Brian “Electromagnet Pulse.”
The guy Ted Cruz is a over the top Nutcase. We are more likely to get one of these events.
http://www.rt.com/uk/311113-solar-storm-power-loss-radiation/
Be prepared.I still have my old valve steam wireless set which is immune to solar flares.
Thanks Brian and Dave Lawton for those links.
Adelson and Cruz are a lovely pair are they not?
~~
I agree with Ba’al on nationalized utilities.
That was ‘Tell Sid’ on gas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nedVpG-GjkE
BT privatisation (Kleinwort Benson handled that)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkCI5mWtOcY
BT have just raised the price of a landline by £12pa.
‘Sid’ did well.
British Gas shares have increased by 12 times in the 25 years-…
15 Nov 2011 – Shares in British Gas have risen 12-fold since it floated in 1986, easily …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061083/British-Gas-shares-increased-12-times-25-years-privatisation.html
Ban, who must qualify as the best ever USUKIsNATO stooge at the UN, makes some feeble protests on settlements…..again.
Ban condemns Israel’s approval of new settlement construction in West Bank
29 July 2015 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the announcement today that Israel has approved construction of some 300 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, as well as the planning and construction of nearly 500 housing units in a number of settlements in East Jerusalem
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51529#.Vbnpu8rbLSd
Kleinwort Benson, mentioned above, is now owned by a Belgian outfit, RHJ International.
Its founder is one Tim Collins. I spotted the TBFF and Bilderberg here.
This list under a heading of ‘Public Service’ is ironic. S/be ‘Personal Aggrandisement’!
‘Public Service and public sector activities, including the U.S.-Japan Business Council, the Trilateral Commission, the U.S.-Japan Private Sector/Government Commission, Yale Divinity School advisory board, Yale School of Management board of advisors, American Friends of the British Museum, Yaddo, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, Trout Unlimited, and Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.[4]
He was also a delegate at the 2010,[5] 2011,[6] and 2012[7] Bilderberg Group Conference held in Spain, Switzerland, and Chantilly, Virginia. This group consists of an assembly of notable politicians, industrialists and financiers who meet annually to discuss issues on a non-disclosure basis.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Collins_(financier)
He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations so a paleocon.
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=74957&privcapId=22717&previousCapId=20517&previousTitle=Freeman%20Spogli%20&%20Co.%20Incorporated
Thanks, Mary for reminding us of when BG worked. Sid turned out to be Global Sid International (BVI), didn’t he?
i>”BT have just raised the price of a landline by £12pa.”
In 2013, BT announced that all BT broadband customers would get their new channel, BT Sport, for free. Many people switched to BT in order to take advantage of this offer. Many existing BT customers activated their access to BT Sport because it was free.
Next month, BT will start charging £5/month for this channel and will automatically opt in all customers who previously watched it for free. I am one of them. So far I have received no notification of this £60/year hike. It took me an hour to find out how to opt out.
Many BT customers will find themselves unwittingly paying £12 + £60 = £72/year extra.
“in Hind Sight… It’s NOT Fucking Funny”
It’s not even true.
If you know Clark you will know he has mental health issues, much of what he remembers about his stay in Caithness is not true.
Fred, bollocks. I have no diagnosis, and no problem with my memory.
“It’s not even true”
What?!! That you don’t intend to wind people up? That you seriously believe the stuff you post?
Fred, you’ve turned to outright lying. Fucking HELL Fred; what are you trying to do?
Re. the debate on robot warfare:
Ministry of Defence
Exercise unmanned warrior
The tenderer will demonstrate, trial and experiment with the tactical employment of unmanned and autonomous systems in the maritime and littoral environments in order to mature credible capability choices for the mainstream utility of maritime autonomous systems.
Deadline: 17-Sep-15
http://www.dcicontracts.com/app/search/displayNotice.html?id=618512202&type=&form=quickSearch&page=1&position=5&year=®ionalisation=mod&cType=
My bold. Background:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akshan-dealwis/robotic-warfare-is-no-lon_b_7093912.html
I haven’t revealed a fraction of what I could about Fred. The most serious thing I’ve revealed is that he’s not ethnically Scottish.
…what are you trying to do?
Distract.
I spent more then a week in BrianFujisan’s company, too. Brian is welcome to test my memory at any time.
“Fred, you’ve turned to outright lying. Fucking HELL Fred; what are you trying to do?”
Clark, a little while ago you were going on about a shower, claiming I had installed it, I hadn’t.
I know the incident you are talking about and it did not happen as you claim and I did not say what you said I did.
Node 10:40am
Consider switching to The Phone Co-op. I switched to them a year or so ago. Their tariff works out (for me) cheaper than BT, even before the price hike you report, but the main reason I switched is I like dealing with a company that is owned by its employees. I found the geeks on their help line very helpful and knowledgeable when I switched (I’m using a non-standard modem).
Node:
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 may be your friend here, if the sub-microscopic print on the blurb you put straight in the bin didn’t mention that the free offer was for a trial period only:
23. Claiming that a product is completely free when there are hidden charges, other than the cost of the consumer responding and reasonable delivery charges.
http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/free-legal-articles/consumer-protection-regs-2008.html
Fred, I admit that I merely assumed that it was you who installed the shower system; it was there before I arrived. I don’t remember the exact wording of your reply to my question about you winding people up; feel free to correct me, but that was the gist of it; we had a laugh about it together.
I remember that you were opposed to independence. When I asked you why, I think you said that you thought Salmond would “turn Scotland into a tin-pot dictatorship” or something similar.
Neil,
Thanks. If I put my postcode into an ‘available broadband suppliers’ website, I don’t see The Phone Co-op, but I’ll check further, it looks like a good deal.
I live in a remote area of the Highlands. I’ve twice wasted hours trying to swap provider, even to the extent of signing a contract, but when the engineers try to do the necessary switching in the local exchange, they report that it won’t accept their equipment and I’m back to BT. Haven’t tried again for a couple of years, though, maybe time I did.
Thanks Neil, when my contract is up I will consider the Co-op. We could really do with getting our co-op bank back in our hands since th government pulled its swindle-trick to make it look like it was failing. Suddenly some private Yanks own our banks.
Node, most BT customers will have authorised a direct debit to BT, so this move will gain BT some extra, er, is it called “liquidity”? I suspect that can be traded. Same goes for all these “utility companies”, none of which have much to do with supply of services – they look to be just billing services these days.
Another example – “electricity companies” send out estimated (ie. invented) bills which are taken by direct debit. There will always be a proportion of their hundreds of thousands of customers who haven’t claimed it back or are still in the process of doing so, and in the meantime the companies can use that money.
Ba’al.
Coincidentally, ten minutes after I wrote the above, the postman delivered a letter from BT informing me that the price rise kicks in on 1st Aug – 2 days from now! I’m pretty organised and I am certain this is the first notification I have had.
I’m sure you’re right about the consumer regulations, but I’m also sure that BT’s lawyers are bigger, tougher and meaner than my lawyers. Now and again, I take on the big boys just for the hell of it, and I’ve had compensation from BT in the past for wasting my time, but I haven’t got the time for this fight at the moment.
Here’s how MoneySavingExert describe it:
“Fred, I admit that I merely assumed that it was you who installed the shower system; it was there before I arrived. I don’t remember the exact wording of your reply to my question about you winding people up; feel free to correct me, but that was the gist of it; we had a laugh about it together.”
Clark I don’t talk about personal matters on a public forum because people with opposing viewpoints will take whatever you say out of context and use it against you when they have no logical argument. Just as you decided to turn this discussion to point at me rather than consider the things I say may be true. It also involves third parties who it wouldn’t be fair to talk about in a public forum which they do not read.
Node, 11:50 am:
BT Openreach (actual service provision for all UK landlines except in Hull) was supposedly separated from BT (the billing company) by government, years ago, but the history of institutional connection goes back decades, right to the former nationalised utility Post Office Telephones section of the former GPO (and its famous integration with GCHQ – see Spycatcher). Multiple stories strongly suggest that this continues to give BT (billing) decisive advantages over their competition in the landline / ADSL sector.
A most opportune hoot here:
http://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/2015/07/prudential-vietnam-to-acquire-half-of-20-year-sovereign-bonds/
Life insurance giant Prudential Vietnam yesterday officially sealed a deal with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for a VND3.2 trillion (GBP 100 million) long-term investment of 20-year government bonds (G-Bond) in the presence of the UK’s Prime Ministers Tony Blair and his Vietnamese college Nguyen Tan Dung.
Check the photos. The metamorphosis is complete. No longer the Heir to Blair, but the real thing!