Cambridge Analytica.

It’s impossible to notice that if one buys or shows the slightest interest in possum catchers there will appear as if by magic ads for them on every page you visit. The internet knows you intimately not only for your desire to catch possums but your individual character traits, political views and intelligence. With this information on a huge database a whole populous can be categorised. Have you ‘liked’ a fracking protest, a Conservative leaning item, NHS cuts, immigration controls etc; all logged and searchable. Do you show no interest in politics or anything intellectually demanding but emotionally flit from starving cats to BMWs? All logged and noted. And are you ignorant of the implications of Brexit or in a swing seat? In seconds millions of voters can be searched for uninformed, emotionally driven, easily led, undecided targets in marginal seats. So why not create Facebook items aimed and delivered specifically at these people so you can win any referendum or election. Have you every seen an informed levelheaded Trump supporter? Without exception every one I’ve ever seen interviewed is not an ‘on balance’ supporter but a full-blown bigoted believer. Brexiteers had the same fervour. When 49% of the UK and US electorate thought the world had gone mad could there be a reason for it? Cambridge Analytica is a company, experts in the above, that worked for both the Trump and Leave campaigns. In the UK they allegedly worked for the Leave section of the Conservative party to subvert the alleged policy of the party as a whole. Who’da thought it was the Conservatives who secretly funded the analytics work that swayed the few percent in favour of Brexit! The 1975 referendum result to continue in the EU was 67% Yes and 32% No, so why the 20% swing in 2016? Has the EU (with us in it) really upset us so much? Sure we griped about Brussels but far less than about our own government, so even Leave supporters thought theirs was a protest vote and Remain thought it was a foregone conclusion. The odds at the time were 1/4 on for Remain and 3/1 Leave; that’s pretty long odds on a two horse race. Odds on Trump were 150/1 but shortened to 14/1 with Clinton evens. How can all the experts and all of us be so wrong? Surely only if there was something in play we didn’t know about; like the rest of the field having coal and concrete for breakfast. So we’re not talking a small influence here, it really is the size that can dictate the result of any democratic election.