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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Analysing the weekend’s extraordinary Twitter storm targeting LAB Deputy Leader, Tom Watson
Anatomy Of A Tweetstorm: Looking At The Numbers Behind #ResignWatson https://t.co/bG4SZBmBVA pic.twitter.com/MMiSfy7VgZ
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Sad.
But when you account for people supportive of Watson, people merely commenting on the campaign, people who arent labour members and of course the computers - even that looks like a vast overestimate.
That website suggests 15% of all tweets on twitter come from a known network of Russian bots if I am reading that right. That can be a lower bound for a controversial topic like this.
That website says that at one point Tom Watson was the number one hashtag in the world. That is obviously ridiculous, most people in the UK have never heard of him, and internationally his name recognition must be zero.
All of this is to say the obvious. Twitter is not representative of anything.
Twitter should be ignored; it is nearly as meaningless as a ConHome poll ....
I try not to tweet my views on every passing cloud because only I’m interested in them. Others feel less constrained.
It would actually have been really handy for me sixteen years ago. Since then... less so.
Like any tool, Twitter has its uses. Sadly it is massively misused and has a massive signal-to-noise ratio. It's far worse than FB.
The NHS bill for blood-pressure meds would drop significantly too.
It is not a tool for measured political debate. More a tool for tools.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/dozen-labour-mps-in-secret-plot-to-oust-corbyn-party-moderates-gather-at-£144-a-night-farmhouse-to-hatch-plans-to-take-back-control-and-repair-the-damage-that-has-been-done/ar-BBLAyZ7?ocid=spartandhp
Could've sworn the Hate in 1984 was either two or three minutes. Still, that's inflation for you.
https://www.joe.co.uk/amp/news/ukip-condemns-three-idiotic-members-involved-in-bookshop-ambush-193655
https://order-order.com/2018/08/06/russian-linked-twitter-accounts-pushing-resignwatson/
EDIT: but why isn't Britain's largest socialist bookshop called not Bookmarks, but BookMarx?
Yeah a touch sad but believable then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrvEwKMFwAE
I'll put it at the start of the mid-season ramble, if I ever get around to writing that.
UKIP always was the BNP in a blazer, but increasingly it leaves off the blazer.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2018/04/nick-griffin-declares-his-support-jeremy-corbyn
(Presumably a lot would be just retweets, but still)
I do, however, find the concept of a twitter storm fascinating and this is a really interesting example. They are not self contained because the MSM seem quite shameless in picking up high trending items as the basis for news stories (I use the words "news" and "stories" advisedly). This means that this absurd effort can and often does spill into the real world and can be used to influence the agenda. The involvement of Russian bots in this is a concern. It surely wouldn't be that hard for Twitter to do something about that.
Utter fraff.
(I love the high-faluting term 'our research' - ie one badly-informed intern in his pants reading for a bit on the Internet).
EDIT - AH - Upon reading the writer's twitter stream, it is clear he is an anti-Corbyn nutter with an axe to grind, too.
Ignore.
Do you seriously believe 'Russian Bots' care whether Tom Watson is Deputy Leader of the Labour Party or not?
Christ there's some gullible buffoons in here. Early dementia?
Labour has a deep malaise.
“Useful idiots” implies that they have done something against their interests
You disagree with the decision the voters made, and I think the criteria they used to make that judgement, but it doesn’t follow that they were manipulated into it by anyone, least of all Putin
At best you can say they had a common objective so he’s with the outcome. 90% of that however is down to crap handling of the negotiations on both sides.
The unwillingness of some to acknowledge their Party can never be wrong and other parties can never be right distorts and cheapens discourse as much as any tweet.
Unfortunately, the key question of whether this had any effect is not answered.
I post very occasionally on culture, but I stay away from politics, which would be a massive time sink.
However, the anti-Semitism mess that Labour has found itself in is a step beyond. You have people defending clear anti-Semitism, and saying the Labour Party is so *special* that it cannot accept a standard definition that many other organisations use.
It also depends who you follow the level of debate and information you get
There was an outcome that was achievable, albeit with a narrow path, wilhich ended up with either associate membership (pre referendum) or with a friendly and rational partnership (post referendum). The inflexibility of the EU Commission and the failures of our own political leaders meant we have ended up in a sub-optimal outcome
It is possible to thread that needle - I’ve just done it with the transfer of a factory in Georgia to a Brazilian company at a value in excess of BATNA but, more importantly, saving 120 jobs. Took me a year and a lot of hard work but worth doing.
Yet instead of trying to lead the world, it is trying to drag the rest of the world down to its decayed level.
The Easter Islanders would have had no idea what the consequences of their action might be. It was hardly their fault that they made a catastrophic decision.
The sort of news that moves betting markets for example.
Sadly, you are one of those useful idiots. Unless you now claim that a “mess” is in yours and everyone else’s interests.
https://twitter.com/foxinsoxuk/status/1026716729454546944?s=19
Disavows responsibility for the biggest mess since Suez despite voting for it, and drops in some irrelevant story meant to show off his business prowess and sense of nobless oblige (120 jobs saved!)
Climate Change could see average global temperatures rise by 4 to 5 degrees by the end of the century making sone parts of the earth uninhabitable
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45084144
That's just common sense, whether one is talking about Government Policy or personal life decisions. You don't commit to irrevocable action before figuring out how you are going to deal with the consequences.
As is often the case, it was probably multi-faceted, with over-population causing pressures, and most importantly the introduction of rats, which ate the tree seeds and saplings.
Its like a poundshop reprise of the Mccarthy era.
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-continue-to-rehabilitate-and-unify-with-bush-era-neocons/
(Of course a crumbling ruling class branding their critics as agents of another power is the oldest trick in the book. Shame some of the slowly dementing old gibbons on here lap it up because it reinforces their own prejudices).
There will be an article about some fat cat banker burning money in front of the homeless and bragging about all the taxes he avoids... Or someone will claim they saw Muslim women on benefits laughing a news reports of a terrorist outrage.
Or heaven forfend, an academic claiming he can demonstrate that eating pineapple on pizza lowers cognitive ability substantially.
https://order-order.com/2018/08/07/picture-special-inside-luxury-country-estate-blarities-plot-corbyn-brexit/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Hence, a government flailing about trying to negotiate an impossible policy objective.
Charles is right about one thing, there might have been a better way. But this was essentially eliminated first by the cake-and-eat-it campaign, then my May’s complete lack of statesmanship at a critical time, and finally by a seeming official government policy of utter lies.
David Davis was claiming it was all going to be unicorns and muffins until the moment he resigned.
On principle, I'm in favour of accepting responsibity for one's decisions, however ill-judged. I feel it's our only option now.
And they have a point, though not perhaps the one they imagined
https://twitter.com/Baghdaddi/status/1026360396075159554
Interesting story nonetheless though if anyone missed it earlier and suggests not just Tory MPs plotting over the summer holidays
https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1026593474265722881
1. The make-up of the PLP means that a Corbyn-led Labour government would find it very hard to implement important parts of its programme.
2. Mass deselection of sitting MPs creates a de facto new party & makes winning a GE next to impossible.
As much as one can see a transparent attempt to create an Islamophobic meme, equate it to fascism, and smear Boris Johnson with it - Boris is a narcissistic cretin and pretty much deserves what he gets.