Thread by @simon_brooke

Thread: an analogy about the world's - and Scotland's - dilemma. It's long; bear with me, I think it's worth it. #1/18

We all understand what happens if you jump out of a plane with a parachute. Before you deploy the parachute, you will accelerated downwards under gravity, and you will continue to accelerate until you reach terminal velocity. #2/18

If you hit the ground at terminal velocity, you will almost certainly die. #3/18

After you deploy your parachute, you will start to decelerate, and you will continue to decelerate until you reach a new, much lower terminal velocity - call this 'terminal parachute velocity'. #4/18

If you hit the ground at this terminal parachute velocity, you have a very good chance of not being injured at all. #5/18

But it takes a period of time to decelerate from your natural terminal velocity to the parachute terminal velocity, and if you deploy the parachute too late, there won't be time to decelerate to terminal parachute velocity. #6/18

With #ClimateEmergency, we're already past this point. If we'd deployed the parachute in 1972 - when we already knew we had a problem - we'd (probably) have managed a soft landing. #7/18

If you hit the ground between terminal parachute velocity and your natural terminal velocity, you're very likely to be injured. The faster you hit it, the more injured you'll be. #8/18

So when you've already passed the point where it's no longer possible to land safely, is it worth deploying the parachute? #9/18

Obviously, if you don't deploy the parachute until you have actually hit the ground, it will do you no good and you will still almost certainly die. #10/18

So you'd think we'd all agree to pull the ripcord RIGHT NOW, and before #Covid19 hit I thought it looked as though we were finally going to. But that momentum is lost. #11/18

And now we have people like Benny Higgins saying 'we can't pull the ripcord yet, there would be less money for the billionaires to loot'. And @scotgov are listening to him. #12/18

thetimes.co.uk/article/corona…

Let's be clear about this: over the past forty years, as Piketty et al have shown, *ALL* the value of economic growth has been captured by the very rich. #13/18

medium.com/@russroberts/d…

Economic growth benefits Benny Higgins' employer, the Duke of Buccleuch, in the short term; it may even benefit Benny Higgins (he's pretty rich). It does not benefit Scotland as a whole, in the least. #14/18

buccleuch.com/about/senior-m…

Not only does growth wreck the planet, but the overwhelming majority of the population - and the public purse - do not benefit at all. #15/18

So what Benny Higgins and @scotgov's Advisory Group on Economic Recovery are saying is, 'we must all die horribly so that the ultra rich can get very much richer before they, too, inevitably die horribly'. #16/18

And @scotgov thinks this policy makes sense. #17/18

I despair. #18/18