Researchers have uncovered new evidence of networks of thousands of suspect Twitter bots working to influence the Brexit debate in the run-up to the EU referendum.

The findings, from researchers at City, University of London, include a network of more than 13,000 suspected bots that tweeted predominantly pro-Brexit messages before being deleted or removed from Twitter in the weeks following the vote.

The research – which is published in the peer-reviewed Social Science Computer Review journal and was shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News – suggests the suspected bot accounts were eight times more likely to tweet pro-leave than pro-remain content.

"This is research that corroborates what Facebook and others say: that there are bots that serve to falsely amplify certain messages," co-author Dan Mercea told BuzzFeed News.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/a-suspected-network-of-13000-twitter-bots-pumped-out-pro

Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
So a wee bird has dropped into my inbox what a major newspaper has described as a report from HM Treasury. THREAD


Jo Maugham QC?@JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
It deals with the consequences of us leaving the EU without a deal - exactly what the "wing-growers" are pushing on us now. /1


Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
"Wing-growers" because their strategy is to leap off a cliff and believe very hard that we will grow wings. Would you like some extracts? /2


Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
Thought so. Coming right up. But first let me tell you that it dates to shortly before the Referendum vote. /3


Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
Ok. Well, the headline is that it won't be as pleasant as @KateHoeyMP and her Hard Right pals told you last night. We won't grow wings. /4



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
We won't have a very open economy. Which isn't great if the magic plan is to be a great trading nation. /5



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
Woah! It won't just hurt our access to the EU. It will also hurt our access to over 50 other countries. How many does that leave left? /6



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
And in relation to the world's biggest market, we'll have worse access than Yemen. Dunno about you, but that doesn't sound good to me. /7



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
Man! 61% of our agri-food exports will face average tariffs of between 36% and 70%. Still, it'll be good for (inadvertent) set-aside. /8



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 4 hours ago
How much of our economy is made up of services again? I can never remember. Really? That much? Ooh. /9



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
But, I mean, lots of countries trade on WTO terms just fine. Don't they? Lots of advanced economies? Are you sure? /10



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
So prices are gonna go up for consumers or our producers are gonna get shafted. But the wings. Think of the wings. /11



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
Still, at least we won't be a rule-taker. We'll make our own. Take Back Control and all that. Won't we? /12



Jo Maugham QC?? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
Remember what it used to be like? If the big guy knocked over your pint he bought you another, because you had lots of mates. /13



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
To compete, we'll slash environmental standards and labour protection. "Caution - some might argue that we should emulate" that model. /14



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
And the great argument for Leaving? That the EU stops us trading with the rest of the world? /15



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
56% of our trade will be hit if we leave on WTO terms. 44% is quite a lot. 56% is even more. /16



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
Only 7% of foreign investors view a substantial decline in access to the Single Market positively. 80% would lose a reason to invest. /17



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
Farming subsidies. Gove can promise you'll keep them. But, you know: it's Michael Gove. /18



Jo Maugham QC?? @JolyonMaugham 3 hours ago
Up to 28.6% of profitable farms will become loss making. But that's fine because, you know, umm... it was on the tip of my tongue. /19



Jo Maugham QC? @JolyonMaugham 3h3 hours ago
Still. Onwards and over. Just wait til you feel those little nubs, pushing through your shoulders, where the wings will grow. /Ends

Jo Maugham QC @JolyonMaugham
Paging @JamesCleverly... James? Are you there, mate?

Jo Maugham QC retweeted,
Jo Maugham QC @JolyonMaugham
So a wee bird has dropped into my inbox what a major newspaper has described as a report from HM Treasury. THREAD
11:56 AM - 19 Oct 2017

James Cleverly? @JamesCleverly 2h
Replying to @JolyonMaugham

“Mate” if I wanted to read your obsessive outpourings I would follow you. I don’t, so I don’t.

Christopher Snowdon? @cjsnowdon 36m36 minutes ago

Big news, James. The intrepid Mr Maugham has read a report that was published 18 months ago. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517415/treasury_analysis_economic_impact_of_eu_membership_web.pdf …

No 10 has been forced to delay its flagship Brexit bill after Conservative rebels backed a series of hostile amendments.

Ministers had planned to push the EU Withdrawal Bill, which has passed its second reading in the House of Commons, through to committee stage next week.

But the timetable has slipped after the Tory whips decided they needed more time to strike compromises with rebel MPs in order to avoid a series of damaging defeats.

In total 300 amendments and 54 new clauses have been tabled to the bill, which transfers European law onto the domestic statute book after Brexit, underlining the resistance within the Commons from both opposition parties and some Conservative MPs.

http://news.sky.com/story/hostile-tory-rebels-force-no-10-to-delay-flagship-brexit-bill-11077953

The government is using the “extremely expensive” Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to cross-subsidise Britain’s nuclear weapon arsenal, according to senior scientists.

In evidence submitted to the influential public accounts committee (PAC), which is currently investigating the nuclear plant deal, scientists from Sussex University state that the costs of the Trident programme could be “unsupportable” without “an effective subsidy from electricity consumers to military nuclear infrastructure”.

Prof Andy Stirling and Dr Phil Johnstone from the Science Policy Research Unit at the university write that the £19.6bn Hinkley Point project will “maintain a large-scale national base of nuclear-specific skills” without which there is concern “that the costs of UK nuclear submarine capabilities could be insupportable.”

Their evidence suggests that changes in the government’s policy on nuclear power in recent years will effectively allow Britain’s military nuclear industry to be supported by payments from electricity consumers.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/12/electricity-consumers-to-fund-nuclear-weapons-through-hinkley-point-c

Theresa May is under pressure to publish secret legal advice that is believed to state that parliament could still stop Brexit before the end of March 2019 if MPs judge that a change of mind is in the national interest. The move comes as concern grows that exit talks with Brussels are heading for disaster.

...

Disquiet has been growing among pro-remain MPs, and within the legal profession and business community, about what is becoming known as the government’s “kamikaze” approach. Ministers insist that stopping Brexit is not an option, as the British people made their decision in last year’s referendum, and the article 50 process is now under way, however damaging the consequences might turn out to be when negotiations are concluded.

...

The prominent lawyer Jessica Simor QC, from Matrix chambers, has written to May asking her to release the legal advice under the Freedom of Information Act. Simor says she has been told by “two good sources” that the prime minister has been advised “that the article 50 notification can be withdrawn by the UK at any time before 29 March 2019 resulting in the UK remaining in the EU on its current favourable terms.

“Such advice would also accord with the view of Lord Kerr, who was involved in drafting article 50, of Jean-Claude Piris, former director general of the EU council’s legal service, and of Martin Selmayr, a lawyer and head of cabinet to the European commission president.” She says “there is no time to waste” and adds: “It is important that this advice is made available to the British public and their representatives in parliament as soon as possible.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/07/theresa-may-secret-advice-brexit-eu

By the end of the Conservative party conference, Theresa May had suffered so many painful betrayals and humiliations that she should have ditched her speech and dropped

...



Set the stage

“Building a country that works for everyone” announced her backdrop. Except it turns out the Conservatives couldn’t even build a sign for everyone, as the letter F dropped from the wall. (Leading many to joke about telling the Tories to “eff off”). Shortly afterwards, the E disappeared – but this is Manchester, the city of rave: Es are dropped a lot. At the end of the speech, one journalist tweeted a picture of what remained of the sign, a few sad letters, like the dregs of Scrabble tiles in the bag. It’s difficult to take the Conservatives’ message seriously when it’s literally disintegrating in real time.

...

Don’t be sick

In fairness, it isn’t May’s fault she was ill. She had better hope she perks up, though, because soon we won’t have a publicly funded NHS to speak of, and good luck with getting sickness benefit or, you know, a GP appointment. It might have made more sense after the first splattering of lung pushed its way up the oesophagus to abort the speech or skip straight to the meat of policy. As someone in an already weakened position, the optics were … how should one put this? Not good.

It did, however, mean we got to witness the hilarious moment when May was given a standing ovation for receiving a glass of water from a runner. Because, honestly, that is the level of competence we are operating at at the moment.

...

Don’t get pranked

It’s sort of incredible how, just weeks after the country’s terror threat was at critical, a prankster – who turned out to be comedian Simon Brodkin – was able to get this close to the prime minister. Handing her a P45 was a neat trick, but the most absurd thing here was that May TOOK IT. Don’t take it!

Theresa May's speech was such a nightmare she must have been disappointed to discover she wasn't naked

It was when the set started falling apart that the Prime Minister realised everything was going to be all right. Phew, she thought. Thank goodness for that. I’ll just glance down at myself now, see that I’m fully naked, then all my teeth will fall out and I’ll wake up and start getting ready for that speech that I’ve got to give to save my career.

But, much to her disappointment, the Prime Minister found that she was not naked. The cameras were rolling. The hall was packed. At her feet was a P45 form she’d just willingly taken from a serial prankster. There were still ten pages of a seventeen-page speech to go, and she was entirely unable to speak.

It was a nightmare so richly layered it was almost as if it had been directed by Christopher Nolan. Time passed, seconds warped into hours, and as Theresa May moved deeper and deeper down through the levels of her own never-ending anxiety dream it became impossible to see how she might ever find her way out.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/theresa-may-conference-speech-nightmare-simon-brodkin-lee-nelson-prankster-p45-a7982876.html