Westminstenders: Exit 2020 Vision

[RedToothBrush]

Yet it is a great mistake to suppose that the only writers who matter are those whom the educated in their saner moments can take seriously. There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and the superstitious. There are times when this underworld emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, capturers and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people, who thereupon take leave of sanity and responsibility. And it occasionally happens that this underworld becomes a political power and changes the course of history.
Norm Cohn ‘Warrant for Genocide’ 1970

(As referenced by Nick Cohen).

We have a deal (or bits of a deal). Bino til Dec 2020. Then the cliff?

Still a long way to go. It sounds better than it could be. But worse than it initially seems.

J J patrick @ j_amesp
Well, this is awkward but needs asking:

So @Conservatives and @PeoplesMomentum, I have it on good authority you both worked with Cambridge Analytica in 2017.

Firstly, is this true?

Secondly, to what extent?

And thirdly, is voter manipulation an appropriate method in politics?

Would be more surprised if the answer to 1 was a no (in reality not based on what they say).

emily I read emmerder and got Taggart in my head - there's been emmerder

oh, look, Poldarks back

Ooh, is it?

Sorry. Flippant moment.

Carole Cadwalladr
@carolecadwalla
Wow. If only @JulianAssange was there, we'd have the trifecta. Cambridge Analytica CEO with star of Robert Mueller's indictments and regular letter writer to @guardian, Russian Ambassador Yakavenko.
(h/t @MotherJones)

Here’s a Photo of Cambridge Analytica’s CEO With the Russian Ambassador to the UK

One of these men boasted of blackmailing politicians. The other is Putin’s representative

www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/heres-a-photo-of-cambridge-analyticas-ceo-with-the-russian-ambassador-to-the-uk/

Robert Peston
@Peston
The Treasury has found £4bn behind the sofa for an inflation-matching 6.5% NHS pay rise over three years, that reforms pay increments based on seniority or “progression” to include a new element based on performance evaluation www.facebook.com/pestonitv/posts/2020835918241143

Muuurder sounds good, but the best je t’emmerde translation here is “screw you” I think. 😊

We all welcome the NHS news but:

1. What about the haemorrhaging of EU staff.

1. Who is the 6% designed to placate? Brexiters because they won't like the BINO to come, or a gesture to the 48% concerned about an American health system?

Yay - Ian Blackford SNP pointing out the Tory party links to SCL at PMQs.

imo, fishing is emotive because it is the one area where working class jobs genuinely did suffer from entry into the then EC.
Made much worse of course, by boat owners selling their quotas to other E27 countries … and then their unemployed workers blaming the buyers, instead of their own bosses.

Also by British reps on the EU Fishing Committee, like Farage, who only bothered to turn up to about 1 meeting of the 100 or so that were held.
So British fishermen were abandoned by their MEPs in favour of the Brussels restaurants & pubs

A Brexit that was well-negotiated could have given a great boost to British fishing
but of course the govt blundering & blustering meant the UK suddenly had to cave into everyone, except the DUP who are keeping them in office.

Another reason fir the prominence of fishing is that in the last GE, the Tories won seats in Scotland from the SNP largely by promising a good Brexit deal for the fishermen.

It will be interesting to see if Ruth Davidson & other Scottish Tories will genuinely vote down a deal that abandons their GE promises
and if not, if those voters will have forgiven / forgotten by the next GE.

There are also a few English seats where fishing is an issue, but afaik, they are safe Labour or safe Tory seats, in which case the politicians will assume they can be safely dumped on.

Faisal Islam @ faisalislam
SNP’s Ian Blackford to various loud gasps from his MPs lists a number of Conservative connections to Cambridge Analytica:

PM: “Government has no current contracts with Cambridge Analytica nor the SCL Group”

'Current'.

And their many shell companies?

And not protected by a non-disclosure agreement or the official secrets act?

My gut is, May might live to regret that reply.

Oho, is May ignorant of the facts ?
(As PM and leader, she shouldn't be, but then she shouldn't have been ignorant of the Brexit trade facts either)

"current" sounds a weasel word

Did Legatum have any CA or SCL meetings, contacts etc?

Did Legatum have any CA or SCL meetings, contacts etc?

Also Blackford said 'government'. If the Conservatives do, thats also a source of contention.

Just musing over the implications of momentum using them too. As opposed to Labour. If true Labour have the ability to also reply, 'wasn't us gov'.

Also see the close and cosy relationship between certain kippers and certain cons.

Banks and Farage will go under the bus first.

Oh looky, whats this here. Farage gets more toxic by the day.

Mr Malky @ Mrmalky
^Ross Thomson was ordered off the fishing vessel that was booked for the fish throwing stunt by Theresa May
Because she doesn't want the Tories associated with Nigel Farage^
Too late Theresa

That was quick...

Ross Colquhorn @ rosscolquhorn
Here's a photograph of the Chairman of the board of SCL Group, which The Times and The Guardian have reported as being the 'parent company' of Cambridge Analytica, campaigning alongside former Tory leader David Cameron. #PMQs

No current contacts? Sounds a bit like no direct links to the Panama papers.

J.J. Patrick @J_amesp
If you’re wondering what I’m saying SCL might have in the way of kompromat on the UK establishment, preventing a real response, it’s the same reason I’ve been tweeting an article about GCHQ from last October.

@DefenceHQ used SCL:
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/576258/FOI2016-08132_-_Payments_made_to_named_Ltd_companies.pdf

Here is a FOI request from August 2016 in which the MOD says that it has paid £190,000 to SCL since 2010.

Note this says that
'The MOD have no records of any direct payments made to SCL Group Ltd since 1st June 2010 but the table below shows the recorded direct payments made to Strategic Communication Laboratories Ltd over this time period.^

Provision of external training 10/11 £40,000
Procurement of Target Audience Analysis 14/15 £150,000

So they have no records of direct payments but they have recorded direct payments. (????)

And they also specify explicitly 'direct' payments which by default suggests 'indirect' payments.

Why were they so cagey even in Sept 2016?

A bit ashamed we didn't research and break that pic!

Momentum is a private company. Just saying. There have been a lot of complaints about the lack of transparency about who owns membership fees and data.

I've often despaired of the fact they use similar techniques to those we've complained about wrt Brexity-Trump people.

It's very effective.

I have no idea if they've been in contact with CA.

In a way, it doesn't matter: even if they haven't been in contact, using the same techniques muddies the waters and just makes talking about use of social media difficult.

But then, of course, it would matter - for many reasons - quite a bit, actually. I find it a little hard to believe - would they be that stupid?

Why have the ICO previously had warrants to search CA?

George Bowden @georgebowden
Information Commissioner's Office tells me any Cambridge Analytica raid will NOT be the first time the body has used a warrant to gain access to premises. Other examples include unrelated raids in Nottingham in December
ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2017/12/ico-executes-search-warrants-related-to-millions-of-automated-nuisance-calls/

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has searched two addresses in Nottingham as part of an investigation into a network suspected of making hundreds of millions of nuisance calls.

ICO enforcement officers were joined by colleagues from the Claims Management Regulator and Nottinghamshire Police to execute a search warrant at an office building in the city. A house was also searched at the same time.

The operation was part of an ICO investigation into a network of people and associated companies believed to be responsible for bombarding UK citizens with hundreds of millions of unsolicited automated calls promoting personal injury claims.

Computer equipment and documents were seized for analysis and the ICO’s enquiries into alleged breaches of the laws surrounding unsolicited telephone marketing continues.

See whole thread:
twitter.com/georgebowden/status/976380795865780224

Why would CA be making so many nuisance calls? (Off the top of my head, I would say to try and double check the data they already had was correct. Just saying is that X then blah blah blah claim, they do that the second you say 'yes speaking'.)