Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #politicsLive

Most recents (24)

On #PoliticsLive there was a short discussion about slavery reparation and the fund set up by Laura Trevelyan. Having attended @HaileyburyUK College (also Clement Attlee's school) I know something about the Trevelyan family - so here's a 🧵 /1
The name Trevelyan is 'celebrated' at @HaileyburyUK, with a Boarding House named after Charles Trevelyan, created first Baronet of Wallington in 1874. Charles Trevelyan was the son of George Trevelyan who was handsomely compensated for the loss of hundreds of slaves /2
whom he 'owned' in the West Indies. This compensation was the equivalent of £millions today and will have, with prudent investment, grown into £billions. The debt incurred by the British government to compensate slave owners was only paid off in 2015. /3
Read 11 tweets
Fact checking the claims of Ben Bradley and Ann Widdecombe on #PoliticsLive.
1/ Most of the unemployed have been unemployed for less than 6 months. Longer-term unemployment is much lower. ons.gov.uk/employmentandl… Image
The data underlying the chart above show that in Jan-Mar 2023 about 300,000 people had been unemployed for longer than 12 months, and just under 170,000 people had been unemployed for 6-12 months.
That's less than 500,000 people who are potentially available to fill agricultural jobs. And that's before we look at the reasons why they are unemployed, whether they are capable of doing those jobs and whether training would make any difference to their ability.
Read 11 tweets
Emily Carver is an ideological extremist from Conservative Home, who works for the opaquely funded free-market #IEA, & represents the interests of fossil fuel corporations & rich libertarians who want to kill the #NHS & remove worker & environmental protections.
#PoliticsLive
The @BBC gives their influential platform to the opaquely funded free-market corporate propagandists, the #IEA, which represents the interests of overseas billionaires, & pushes for lowering taxes, & abolishing the #NHS & worker, consumer & environmental protections.
#PolitcsLive
Ideological extremist Emily Carver moved seamlessly from the #IEA to Conservative Home last year. It doesn't really matter - the global network representing billionaire-interests includes the billionaire-owned/funded press/media, Govt Ministers, & #TuftonStreet 'think tanks'.
Read 11 tweets
#THREAD
The @BBC should let viewers know Matt Goodwin is a lobbyist for the Koch-funded free-market Legatum Institute, founded by Legatum Foundation, the "philanthropic" arm of Dubai-based investment firm Legatum Group, which funds GB "News".
#PoliticsLive
bylinetimes.com/2021/02/15/gb-…
Last year, GB "News" appointed as its Chairman Alan McCormick who has tweeted articles questioning climate science & chairs a foundation that has received funding from fossil fuel interests, & was bought out by existing backers Legatum Ventures Ltd.

desmog.com/2022/05/12/gb-…
GB "News" regularly hosts guests who cast doubt on climate science & oppose green polices, including the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of @Conservatives MPs. Nigel Farage launched a call for a “Net Zero Referendum” on the UK’s climate targets, modelled on his #Brexit campaign.
Read 16 tweets
#THREAD

I've been researching twenty-first century UK non-broadcast 'news' articles featuring #TuftonStreet's ideologically extreme (deregulatory, anti-welfare, anti-union, low tax, free-market) 'think tank' (lobbyist) the 'Institute for Economic Affairs' (#IEA).
Counting articles is a relatively crude measure, but it's clear that the overwhelming majority present the the #IEA as disinterested/neutral, often using IEA reports & spokespeople to help frame or initiate stories. With very few exceptions, the IEA's funders are never revealed.
From 2000-2023, across all print & online non-broadcast UK news outlets, the #IEA is mentioned a staggering 9,175 times - predictably, mainly in Murdoch's, Barclay's, & Harmsworth's "newspapers":

The Times: 1,278
Sunday Times: 424
Times online: 457

The Sun: 379
Sun online: 133
Read 8 tweets
#THREAD

After a week of discussing @BBC impartiality, ANOTHER appearance from a representative of the opaquely funded ideologically extreme tax-hating #TuftonStreet lobbyists, the IEA.

There are more than 150 UK think tanks, yet the IEA is CONSTANTLY on the BBC.

#PoliticsLive Image
At least the @BBC say which organisation Reem Abrahim is from!

Blah blah blah, 'cut taxes', 'economic growth', 'red tape', 'deregulate', 'Brexit opportunities' - the same old failed mantra the anti-@BBC, anti-#NHS, & anti-Union IEA have pushed for decades. Here's a quote from me from this weekend's Sunday National:

Read 24 tweets
The letter from Sir Laurie Magnus to Rishi Sunak regarding Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs.
gov.uk/government/pub…
Magnus found Zahawi broke the Ministerial Code in three respects:
- failing to disclose HMRC's investigation as part of his declaration of interests
- similarly failing to disclose the penalty imposed by HMRC
- failing to correct an untrue public statement
Magnus also issues an important clarification regarding Zahawi's use of the term "carelessness". HMRC's terminology is "failing to exercise reasonable care". That's much worse than accidental carelessness. It is dereliction of duty.
Read 6 tweets
Jo Coburn is trying very hard to suggest the decision as to where Isla Bryson serves her sentence is a political one. But it is solely an operational decision of the Scottish prison service. MSPs are not party to it, nor does it have anything to do with the GRR. #PoliticsLive
The Scottish First Minister has told the Scottish Parliament that Bryson will not serve her sentence at the Cornton Vale women's prison. That's all we know right now. Anything more is fruitless speculation.
The prison service decides based on their own risk assessment where a trans prisoner should serve their sentence. Their decision does not depend on whether that prisoner has a GRC. thenational.scot/news/23275201.…
Read 4 tweets
Watching #PoliticsLive on this #PublicOrderBill, it is appalling

The commentator pictured in the below tweet is from the Heritage Foundation think tank. We are on a very dark path here on all fronts
The ambulance blocking line pulled out again as predictable
Read 16 tweets
*** Chancellor Hunt promises a “shallower downturn, lower energy bills, higher long term growth” as a result of the plan…
“The Office for Budget Responsibility confirms global factors are the primary cause of current inflation. Most countries are still dealing with the fallout from a once-in-a-century pandemic.” Says Chancellor
Hunt: “Bank of England, which has done an outstanding job since its independence, now has my wholehearted support in its mission to defeat inflation and I today confirm we will not change its remit.”
Read 29 tweets
Historically, the Tufton St ghouls largely tried to pretend their ideology was really about helping everyone

It's a sign of how this country has become detached from its moral & rational moorings, that vampire squids from the IEA can now just say what they really think out loud
Amazing, even hard right Tory commentators are now openly admitting that the party, and the British govt, have been captured by the secretly funded Tufton St lobby firms who are shilling for foreign billionaires and corporations.
Read 10 tweets
🧵 on the long shadow of the 2016 referendum; prompted by the status of anyone tainted by association with 'remain' in the forthcoming Tory leadership race. 1/9
In 2016, the country had a choice, to decide whether to stick with EU membership, or to leave the EU. We know how the referendum was conducted, and what the outcome was. We also know what has happened in the years since 2016. 2/9
In one sense, Brexit is done. The UK has left the EU. It isn't going to rejoin any time soon.

In another, Brexit is not done. The 'future relationship' is not functioning smoothly. There is widespread agreement that *something* needs to be done to improve it. 3/9
Read 12 tweets
BREAKING: @BorisJohnson news that he got his hairdresser pregnant then packed her off to Canada is subject to news blackout #newsnight
The PM @BorisJohnson has only gone and got himself a press super injunction so you cannot know that he got his hairdresser pregnant and then shipped her off to Canada. #PMQs #PoliticsLive
Prime Ministers Questions should be renamed Prime Ministers Apologies #PMQs #PoliticsLive
Read 3 tweets
NEW: Following our report last night, the former head of the diplomatic service Simon McDonald has written to the Standards Commissioner accusing No10 of not telling the truth and confirming a formal complaint was made about Pincher at the Foreign Office.
Simon McDonald confirms our story that Boris Johnson was briefed about the process *and the outcome* of this complaint, says Pincher deceived him and others, and says just because an issue was “resolved” that doesn’t mean somehow Pincher was cleared - in fact the opposite.
I’ll be talking about the latest on this story from 10 on @BBCWomansHour, then #PoliticsLive and @BBCNews TV, radio and online throughout the day.

Follow along on the BBC’s live page here too bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-p…
Read 3 tweets
Dear @TomHunt1988, your statement on #politicslive that asylum seekers are obliged to seek asylum in the first safe country they enter is wrong. There is no such requirement under either the Geneva Convention on Refugees or UK law.
The EU's Dublin agreement allowed EU countries to send asylum seekers to other EU countries for claims processing. But the UK is no longer party to the Dublin agreement. So it can no longer send asylum seekers to other EU countries for claims processing.
This is a consequence of the Brexit you supported, @TomHunt1988. Own your mistakes, please. And learn what the law says. You should not make egregiously wrong statements on flagship politics programmes.
Read 6 tweets
Has to be said, it appears that there have only been a maximum of 26 more fines issued since the last update from @metpoliceuk - so, the chances that Johnson accounts for several of these seems increasingly unlikely.

#PoliticsLive #OneRuleForThem #CrimeMinister
Read 7 tweets
On the Fabricant tweet Simon Hart, Welsh Secretary tells @Jo_Coburn on #politicslive: “It’s idiotic, it’s insensitive, it attempts to make light of a really serious situation- I despair when I read stuff like that.”
Mr Fabricant has called those who have taken issue with his tweet “professional offence takers.” That would therefore now appear to include a Cabinet Minister from his own party.
Read 4 tweets
Just heard Robert Jenrick on #PoliticsLive attempting to defend the Govt's Rwanda policy.

He said (echoing the PM and Priti Patel) that if the policy doesn't work, that would be because of opposition from lawyers and courts, which the Govt would then try to tackle. 1/5
This strategy is all too common - and it beggars belief that, in some quarters at least, it still works.

It was a big part of the Govt's approach to Brexit (see this thread).

It goes like this. 2/5
1. Announce eye-catching policy (send asylum seekers to Rwanda, leave the EU, level up the entire country, trigger A16 etc).
2. Wait for the inevitable criticism.
3. Attack the critics for frustrating the Govt's, nay the people's, ambitions. 3/5
Read 5 tweets
#THREAD

Who knew that lying hard-right extremist snowflake Tory MP Scott Brenton hates free speech?

But who is @ScottBentonMP?

I'd never heard of the grotesque clown, so let's take a look at some of his 'best bits'...
Benton was among the signatories of a 2020 letter to The Telegraph from the hard-right "Common Sense Group" of Tory MPs, accusing the @nationaltrust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma" - Cultural Marxism is the antisemitic conspiracy theory that inspired Anders Breivik!
In 2021, we found out freeloader Benton was one of 9 MPs who had accepted tickets to high-profile sporting events as hospitality from betting & gambling companies, including Royal Ascot, two Euro 2020 football games, & the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

theguardian.com/politics/2021/…
Read 12 tweets
A global network of free-market think tanks, in Britain based in Tufton Street, represent the interests of the corporations & billionaires who fund them by saturating the media with propaganda, thus shaping public opinion. The IEA's Annabel Denham was on #PoliticsLive yesterday.
The global network of free-market think tanks CONSISTENTLY:

-call for removal of worker, consumer, & environmental protections
-prioritise profit over human suffering
-challenge climate science
-support Brextremism
-call for lower taxes
-protect billionaires
-support fracking
So how can or should concerned citizens respond to the sustained, sophisticated, & extremely well-funded attack on democracy, decency, citizens, human rights, & the environment?

Read 5 tweets
The Institute of Economic Affairs are on #PoliticsLive AGAIN?

The IEA is a dodgy free-market fundamentalist think tank which refuses to say who funds them, & represents the interests of billionaires who want to reduce taxes & remove worker, consumer, & environmental protections.
Read 9 tweets
Just *fuck* these moronic, divisive, shit-stirring populist nationalist anti-humanity charlatans.

They've already spent years trying to turn Britain into a polarised hateful shithole on behalf of a right-libertarian billionaire elite who do not give a shit about British people. Image
Thankfully, not many people have heard of Dominique Taegon (now Dominique Samuels).

She was "a young influencer" for the dangerously irresponsible hard-right propaganda outfit Turning Point UK, which was supported by the likes of Paul Joseph Watson, Nigel Farage, & Priti Patel.
Here she is with Charlie Kirk, who launched TPUK, who has falsely claimed humans have no significant effect on global climate change & promotes the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Cultural Marxism which inspired far-right terrorist Anders Breivik, & conspiracy nut Candace Owens.
Read 16 tweets

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