We're led to believe that #Ukraine is a democracy, but it most certainly isn't. President Zelenskyy has banned all opposition parties, closed media outlets he doesn't like and banned the use of Russian as a second state language.
2/18
National sovereignty isn't sacrosanct when a govt is butchering its own people, as #Ukraine was doing to the people in the Donbas region. When Idi Amin perpetrated genocide in Uganda the UN violated Ugandan sovereignty to stop it. Russia's done what the UN should have done.
Just heard Ken Clarke on @BBCr4today trotting out hackneyed lines about tax & spend, govt borrowing and making dire predictions about inflation. This analysis is demonstrably wrong. Public spending doesn't cause inflation when there's spare capacity in the economy...
1/3
...and govt borrowing" is a misnomer. Britain has its own sovereign currency. The Bank of England (ie the govt) issues the currency so can never run out of money. Tax is needed to address inequality, drive behaviour change, tackle inflationary pressures when they arise...
2/3
...and create spare capacity for govt spending when the economy is at full tilt.
When will @BBCNews start inviting #MMT economists to give a counter narrative to the fallacious commentary of people like Ken Clarke, who sound authoritative but are actually perpetuating myths?
3/3
"In the midst of the greatest health emergency in modern times, with more than 4m surgical procedures delayed by the NHS, Johnson's announced a record increase of £16.5bn in so-called defence spending."
"But these billions are not for defence. Britain has no enemies other than those within who betray the trust of its ordinary people, its nurses and doctors, its carers, elderly, homeless and youth, as successive neo-liberal governments have done, Conservative and Labour."
2/9
Furthermore, "Two weeks ago, Israel’s military chief of staff and Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff signed an agreement to “formalise and enhance” military co-operation."
3/9
Congratulations to the #Coup53 documentary film-makers - a genuine tour de force, revealing the leading role played by the UK’s security services in the 1953 coup to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s democratically elected PM - a dirty tricks operation signed off by Churchill!
The 1953 coup in Iran has been a blueprint for subsequent coups that have been repeatedly used against democratic govts.
#Coup53 has chilling echoes of the dirty tricks used against Corbyn and his allies, which would have undoubtedly intensified had he actually got into power.
#Coup53 highlighted the importance of exposing useful idiots and collaborators. Sadly there were plenty inside and outside @UKLabour who facilitated the downfall of the Corbyn project.
No wonder Tony Benn used to say: "Democracy is the most revolutionary thing in the world."
The Tory manifesto pledges to protect the counter-extremism industry, but the counter-extremism industry is snake oil for racists.
1/11
Just like phrenology in the 19th century and Robert Wilson Shufeldt’s racist quack science of the 20th century was used against black and Indigenous peoples, ‘counter-extremism’ is a pseudoscience that exists to demonise and belittle Muslims.
2/11
Even this Islamophobic Tory government, which has forced our nurseries into Orwellian pledges to uphold ‘British values’ and inform on toddlers, has given up trying to define ‘extremism’.
3/11
Article 4 of the Extradition Treaty between the UK and the USA states that: "Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense."
So why the hell is #JulianAssange behind bars pending extradition to the US? 1/5
The British govt's treatment of Julian Assange is a grotesque abuse of state power.
The circumstances of his incarceration are tantamount to torture.
The Extradition Treaty clearly doesn't apply in his case because his 'offence' was political, i.e. he exposed US war crimes. 2/5
Yesterday's proceedings at Westminster Magistrates Court for the case management hearing regarding the attempts to extradite #JulianAssange to the US, were both sinister and farcical. The events that unfolded in that courtroom brought our judicial system into disrepute. 3/5