October 2017 seems a long long way away now and so much has happened in the intervening time. What got my attention recently has been a couple of programmes about the manipulation of political process, both here and in the USA.
I would thoroughly recommend anyone to have a look at: Brexit - The Uncivil War and Unfair Game Both are extremely good for different reasons: Brexit - The Uncivil War is more of a docu-drama so its hard to judge accuracy whereas Unfair Game is rather more factual. What I found most interesting was the part played in both by American billionaire Robert Mercer.
What is clear is that we have drifted (I certainly have) into rather dangerous waters where, through the mechanism of social media, individuals can be targeted with specific political messages designed to appeal to that individual. Unfair Game suggests that by targeting such individuals in three states in the US, Mercer/Trump was able to capture the presidency.
I find Trump to be a thoroughly dislikable individual but my dislike has rather blinded me to the underlying issue which is that, if you have enough money, you can put your candidate into The White House or 10 Downing Street or the Elysee Palace or any other seat of power for that matter. Now, its fair to say that it has always been thus, you only have to look at Joe Kennedy to see how it was done 'back in the day' but with social media and universal data mining, someone like Robert Mercer will be able to do it using individual voters who become zombie voters.
One claim made in Unfair Game is that the targeting of individual voters was done with specific messages which appeared ONLY on the recipients social media page. Furthermore, it is claimed that these messages evaporated after a set time period had elapsed, leaving no trace, other than on the social media's servers.
Excuse me whilst I unplug the internet....................