Tuesday 27 March 2018

Jeremy's Judgement Revisited - Facebook, too

... and if we thought he'd screwed it up on Russia ...

But this latest one, well - stand back and light the red touch-paper.  Tough shit, Jezza, but you definitely had it coming.

Still, check the BTL comments on the CiF link; they are pretty much 50:50.  The Jeremy-right-or-wrong horde is still out there.  Does anything dent their ardour, does anything ever stick?  

GE 2017 notwithstanding, I think it does: four years is still a very long time.  Long enough for detailed memories to fade, for sure; but also long enough for residual dirt and doubt to hard-bake, as Kinnock found out.  And Corbyn will be generating dirt and doubt for as long as he is in the public gaze: he is a dubious and politically dirty old man.  One of the CiF-ers describes him as "the acceptable face of McDonnell", but I'm not sure John-boy will find him quite as useful an idiot as heretofore.  Cult leaders are sometimes worshipped, sometimes torn down and trampled.

Anyhow, a couple of other significant points, both of which have almost been lost in the noise (except on the Beeb and in the Graun, ironically, because they'd really rather talk about something else).  Firstly, May's triumph of diplomacy on the Russian front continues to snowball.  The Beeb reported yesterday that the Russians have described other nations expelling diplomats as "puppets of British policy", which must bring a smile to her face.  Of course, we know the euro-wallahs will be busily trying to parlay this into - See, it's best if you don't leave after all - but they are incorrigible and we may diskard them uterly.

But here's one you may not have seen.  It's a fairly thoughtful worry-piece from Labour List (not a typical link-destination of ours) bemoaning the fact that Labour's extremely successful GE 2017 media strategy had Facebook-optimisation squarely as its centre of gravity (I happen to know that one of Momentum's first actions was to set up a highly tech-savvy social media team) - so what on earth are they going to do now?  

What indeed!  Well moan away, chaps, because for once, asymmetric political warfare is going to work against you.   For I can exclusively reveal that the Wicked Tories had no such FB-based strategy ...

The weather may be rubbish this month but just now the political climate, after a long cold lonely winter, is positively balmy.  Here comes the sun?

ND  

10 comments:

purplepangolin said...

I see no mea culpa in that linked albour list article, just a) concern that they may not be able to repeat it as Facebook may change their algotithm and b) concern at paying a company that pays little tax

Electro-Kevin said...

We need to be aware that MAD no longer applies between the US and Russia since the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

At a time when the temperament of both leaders seems volatile.

Putin needs to be treated carefully.

Russia and America would be largely intact after any conflaguration. Northern Europe would be hit hard.

Britain would be wiped off the map.

Anonymous said...

Britain would be wiped off the map.

And when the nuclear dust settles, and we all start crawling out of the B&Q shelters we purchased on a sale or return basis, a voice will be heard ..."Vote for me"

Cockroaches have an uncanny ability to survive even a nuclear blast.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/mythbusters-database/cockroaches-survive-nuclear-explosion/

Thud said...

I don't care if it's all fake, if he has been 'set up' etc I just want him and his whole rotten crew gone, by any means necessary as the lefties like to spout.

Anonymous said...

@ Tories had no such FB-based strategy ...

Would it be fair to say they had no strategy at all, ND??

Sobers said...

Its ironic that Trump Derangement Syndrome is going to destroy the Left's advantage in social media. Because Trump was tangentially connected to some sort of data harvesting (which of course St Obama also did in 2012 but that different because reasons) they are now attacking those doing said data harvesting. The outcome of all which will be to harden the rules about who can and cannot use said personal data in the future. Cue the Left wondering why this hits them the hardest.......and indeed may spell the end for Facebook - if FB is stopped from monetising the personal data of its members, then where does it make any money? If it is forced to charge for access to pay the bills, then goodbye FB.........

Nick Drew said...

Ironic indeed, Sobers - though of course the big effort is to discredit Brexit with it now.

if FB goes under, one must presume the yoof will all migrate to something else - possibly less vulnerable than FB. Equally open to promoting angry-snowflake Corbyn memes, perhaps? Or is the FB total-package formula irreplaceable for that kind of stuff. Twitter seems to run it a close second ...

No social-meejah strategy, anon? - well, not quite 0, but rather close to it (and extremely feeble, too). I can tell you that post GE 2017, the Word from Tory HQ to candidates etc, is: use Instagram. Which is much more benign, but has remarkable reach for simple visual messages

andrew said...

Facebook owns Instagram.

Anonymous said...

It feels like the current attacks on Corbyn are rather co-ordinated.
If so - why now, by who and for what purpose?
Is this the work of the Labour moderates to oust Cobyn in the hope they can get Keir Starmer as leader in a last bid attempt to "save us from Brexit"?

Nick Drew said...

the work of the Labour moderates to oust Cobyn in the hope they can get Keir Starmer

can't disagree Labour 'moderates' have been all over this one and, to a lesser extent the Russia fiasco (though not, I think, the Agent Cob nonsense)

but (though Starmer may be a beneficiary) I'd say it is simply to save their party / their own skins: have a listen of this:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/momentum-plots-new-power-grab-secret-tapes-reveal-activists-conspiring-against-moderate-labour-chief-a3800041.html

there is absolutely no doubt Momentum is the classic 'party within a party' and, as it seems from outside, a great deal more of an ubiquitous threat than Militant ever was

personally (as a Tory) I find some comfort in the almost inevitable seizure by Momentum of a handful of Councils: sorry for the residents (I may soon be one of them, in my own borough) but, in the long run, glad of the opportunity to show the wider electorate what they get up to in those oft-remarked 4 long years ahead