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Astonishing. This is the medal given to UK diplomats for their services. It depicts a white angel stamping on the neck of a black man.
#InstitutionalRacism
The black man has dragon's wings. It echoes St George slaying the dragon (the devil/usurper/national enemy).
Did no one in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, or in Buckingham Palace, or among the people who received this medal, ever look at it and think "hang on a minute"?

Or is racism so ingrained in the UK's establishment that this iconography has remained unchallenged?
I'm told it depicts St Michael (the white guy), conquering the devil (the black man). THIS DOES NOT MAKE IT ANY BETTER.
Some people are questioning whether this version of the medal is current. According to the government's Official Gazette, yes it is: thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/co…
It looks as if each one is hand-enamelled. Suggesting they are being turned out fresh every year, to the same, grotesque design.
Here, for the record, is the one depicted by the Official Gazette:
I've always been struck by the mesmerising effect of medals and honours in this country. Some people appear to devote their entire adult lives to obtaining them. They are, literally, baubles. It is hard to think of a more pointless life goal.
This makes it look even worse.
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George Monbiot
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At the end of my thread yesterday (), I suggested there was a lot more to be discovered about how Britain's hidden history of atrocities influences current politics. I woke up thinking about trade. Thread/
Current politicians fetishise trade. They tell poor nations it's the way to get rich. Trade deals and trade rules are used as powerful political instruments. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
But the more we discover about our own history, the less the "trade" on which Britain built its wealth looks like exchange, and the more it looks like looting. It meant extracting stolen resources and the products of slavery, debt bondage and land theft from other nations.
Read 14 tweets
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George Monbiot
@GeorgeMonbiot
We should know as much about the atrocities committed by British governments in the 20th Century as the Germans do about theirs. But most people in the UK would have no idea what I’m referring to.
In this week’s column I try to put that right.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This is Sir Evelyn Baring.
As governor of Kenya from 1952-59, he commissioned a system of concentration and slave labour camps, in which tens of thousands were tortured and mutilated, beaten and burnt to death.
He is Dominic Cummings’s grandfather-in-law.
Every schoolchild should know his name. But his cover-ups and deceptions were so ruthless and effective, and supported so comprehensively by the British government, that his great crimes are almost unknown to us.
Read 19 tweets
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George Monbiot
@GeorgeMonbiot
The mysterious, relentless rise of members of the fake left/extreme right RCP network, at least one of whose outlets has been funded by Charles Koch, continues.
theguardian.com/world/2020/jun…
The RCP network appears to be highly coodinated and highly secretive, especially about who funds it. It was a reader of mine who stumbled across the Koch money, buried in some obscure filings. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
As far as I can see, it uses Trotsky’s entryist tactics to pursue an extreme rightwing agenda. It began in 1970s as an obscure splinter group disrupting leftwing protests and strikes. In the 1990s its members moved en masse into the mainstream media: BBC, Channel 4, The Times.
Read 9 tweets

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