Nadine Dorries Conned By Fake News

The blatant anti-Labour propaganda splashed across the front of the Murdoch Sunday Times should have put anyone with brain plugged in and a hole in their backside on their guard: as I told earlier, the ST, and especially its Insight team, has been misused for the purpose of disseminating propaganda for around 35 years now - starting not long after Rupert Murdoch took over the title back in 1981.

The idea that Jeremy Corbyn was helped by an army of Russian Twitter bots in the run-up to last year’s General Election is fanciful in the extreme. Had the evidence been so clear, it would not have taken more than ten months to figure out. And it would not have been splashed the Sunday before a round of local elections where the Tories are expected to do very badly indeed. But someone has swallowed this hokum whole.

No prizes for guessing that the hokum swallower is Mid Bedfordshire’s Tory MP (yes, it’s her again) Nadine Dorries, who needs no persuading. “1000’s of Twitter accounts promoting and liking Corbyn during the election, all Russian bots. The same bots that drove Trump into power. Invasion of the Russian bots to fight in Corbyn’s army”.

Go on, add a flat-out lie just for the hell of it. “The same bots” my arse. Still she went on “Here’s how Swansea university traced the Russian bots. The Russians are trying to take over the world, via Twitter and Facebook!” Might be an idea to see what the ST actually said, no? “Swansea University passed The Sunday Times 20,000 general-election-related tweets sent in the four weeks leading up to the vote by accounts that gave their language or location as Russian … the vast majority were pro-Labour or anti-Tory”.

That’s it, is it? 20,000 out of how many? What percentage of Russian-based Twitter accounts does that cover? How was the study scoped out and run? When do we get to see the methodology used? No, the fragrant Nadine asked none of those questions. But she does know that when John McDonnell dismisses the ST claims, that’s the green light for her to snipe “He protests too much. At least we all now know why Corbyn refuses to speak out against Putin/Russia. Big question is did he know his communist friends were helping him into power? (and failed) Story comes from that well known bastion of Tory voters, Swansea uni not ST”. Communism ended with the fall of the Soviet Union.

These are the wibblings of yet another paid propagandist, someone prepared to blithely claim “To those thinking Labour has claimed a scalp and the Brexiteers are helping, you are wrong @AmberRuddHR isn’t going anywhere. Home Office is a poisoned chalice at the best of times. She’s staying exactly where she is and will continue to do a great job”. Amber Rudd is either terminally inept, appallingly dishonest, or both. Great Job - not.

Ms Dorries is even prepared to take another made up claim from Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham of the Guido Fawkes rabble on trust, responding to another anti-Semitism smear with “This is a new low for the Labour Party. Surely it’s almost all over? How can Labour MPs continue with this take over if [sic] Labour by Marxists?”

Nadine Dorries is so partisan, and so credulous, that she is prepared to take glaringly obvious Murdoch Fake News as read. And they allowed her to become an MP.