Anybody else see a persistent 15% Unrest?

[therother]

How would I check? Move a high level spy of mine into the towns? Will I see enemy spies move out "for sure" if I kick them out? (How can I know for sure whether my town has any foreign spies in it?)

Put one of your own spies in the city, and wait. Eventually their spy will be kicked out, and you should see it. If it is killed, you should see the effect on Public Order. Alternatively, if you've unlocked the cheats, you could switch to play as your enemies to see if they have spies in the city. If you don't fancy that, email the game to me and I'll be happy to quickly check.

AFAIK enemy spies (and your spies) do not cause unrest no matter what you may have read or heard, or what you have experienced in previous TW games.

Spies no longer have a 'secret police' function, in that they will not improve public order in friendly cities. They most definitely cause unrest in enemy cities. I've done this many times myself, causing revolts with a combination of assassins (to sabotage public order buildings) and spies.

I know that it is counted as unrest as I've seen a spy cause this in my cities. The most recent I've seen was a Carthaginian spy in Syracuse. He was constantly causing 30% unrest, and he was thrown out 4-5 times before he was finally killed, and I had 4 4+subterfuge spies protecting the city. When he was finally killed -- agent found message popped up -- that 30% unrest was flashing in the settlement details box, meaning it was a loss for next turn, and sure enough there was no unrest the next turn.