UK government leads 'fake news' & cyber manipulation - new report

If you listened to the noises coming from Whitehall, Westminster and the MSM about the manipulation of social media, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was all being distorted by Aaron Banks and the Russians pumping out fake news and running thousands of bots. This is indeed the rationale being drawn, the narrative the government is seeking to establish, in order to introduce draconian controls over the armies of Burke's little platoons such as this blog that offer a countervailing voice to the mandarins' Big Lies. 

In fact, lost in the silly season, is a new and authoritative report from the prestigious Oxford Internet Institute that finds that the UK government is itself in the forefront of social media manipulation through 'fake' content creation, distraction, trolling and harassment, using around 1,500 Full Time Equivalent staff to distort, manipulate and pollute social media. It's not we, private citizens, that need to be regulated - it's Whitehall and Westminster. 

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The report finds internationally that five nations - Cambodia, China, Iran, Israel and the US - lead the league in government-controlled cyber-manipulation, but that the UK comes in second tier place, alongside Ecuador, Malaysia, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. Fine company we're keeping. 

Apart from this report having bypassed the DCMS Select Committee that should have taken this evidence instead of itself distorting evidence in a vindictive campaign against 'Leave' actors, one must question whether the government's methods are even legal. The report finds that the UK uses both human agents operating fake accounts and automated fake accounts to manipulate social media - and does so across all categories of distortion, omission, deviation and fake content creation. 

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It may suit the MSM to lose this vital report in the Summer silliness, but I urge you all to download it. Come September, we need to shove our Parliamentarians' noses into it.

Vaz disgraces our democracy, says MP

Andrew Bridgen MP is not impressed by 'Teflon' Keith Vaz's latest ugly headlines; "The problem with Keith Vaz is that although the charge sheet against him gets ever longer, justice seems to get no nearer. It is difficult to believe that the public’s perception of politicians will ever improve while he remains a member of the House of Commons."

Well, Andrew, I think Vaz is amongst the most egregious of the liggers, dags, liars, peculators, barrators, narcissists, fools and knaves polluting our Parliament, but you blew your chance of winning back public trust in politics when you decided on a self-interested cover-up following the expenses scandal. We haven't forgotten the B&O TVs and hi-fis, crystal grapefruit bowls, duck houses, fine art, hand woven carpets and all the rest of the bling stolen by your colleagues, many of whom are still sitting, from our taxes.

No, not all MPs are bent - but too many are, even after the great scandal. Deal not only with Vaz but with all those you let slip under the radar and our minds might change.

Second Referendum?

The pressure from Remain is now for a second referendum - preferably a single question, three choice version designed to split the Leave vote.

Well, if we're to gamble, let it be at least fair. Best to refuse a second referendum altogether - but as Mrs May has already categorically said we won't have one, you can be sure it's on the cards. My suggestion for a fair format below. 

Is tiny Brexit puppet Minister Raab taking Steroids?

The one thing that struck folk most about Dominic Raab's appearance alongside his Brexit boss Oliver Robbins at last week's Select Committee appearance is how small he is. His boss towered over him not just intellectually but physically. 

And although being the Remain elite's puppet Brexit minister can't be wholly stress-free, tiny minister Raab, we're told, was tough - a Judo black belt, no less. Perhaps he joins William Hague in sweaty naked man-wrestling in the Commons basement gym. We aren't told. These pastimes are often enthusiastically followed by diminutive men; one wouldn't be surprised to find Speaker Bercow in a karate robe. 

Gyms, narcissism and little men go together. So the revelations in the Express by a good time girl who briefly worked for Raab are interesting. He was more interested in achieving his gym-bod than in his ministerial work, she claims. And also that he flew into uncontrollable rages at the most minor irritations. 

Well, gyms, narcissism and uncontrollable rages also frequently go together - and when they do, they are frequently symptomatic of Steroid use. I think Mr Raab should tell us whether our puppet Brexit minister is taking these stimulants or not. I think journalists should ask him. We should know.   

 

Cameron's £9.3m tax 'diversion' to Remain campaign to be investigated?

The DCMS Committee has called for the donor of 'Britain's biggest ever campaign donation' to be investigated by the police.

That would be the £9.3m diverted from UK tax funds to the Remain campaign by David Cameron, then. 

REMAIN SPEND: £28,359,066
LEAVE SPEND: £13,436,241