NEW: the government has privately admitted the combined impact of Covid + pandemic will disrupt multiple essential services including food, medicine & drinking water & risks plunging UK into a ‘systemic financial crisis’. From @_EmmaGH & me
The ‘official sensitive’ briefing of ‘Reasonable Worst Case Scenarios’ has been distributed to multiple govt agencies.
Yesterday, the Cabinet Office refused to comment on both the content of the leaked documents or why these scenarios were being kept secret from the public
This document needs to be read by the British public. It’s Operation Yellowhammer updated to reflect situation now with the country preparing to exit Europe in the middle of a pandemic. It depicts a nation under huge pressure without time or capacity to prepare for what’s ahead
‘Concurrent events’ ‘financial instability’ ‘commercial failure’ these are just the headlines.
‘There is a notable risk of disruptive concurrent events happening towards the end of 2029’
‘A financial crisis may increase other risks such as public disorder & mental health’
‘The pandemic has limited capacity of healthcare sector to prepare’
‘Critical supply chains will come under pressure, particularly medical ones’
‘Councils...at high risk of financial failure’
The document assesses 20 critical areas according to a traffic light system
Border disruption - red
UK nationals in EU - red
Oil supply - amber
Chemical supply - amber
‘Border disruption could lead to disruption in supply of critical chemicals for food, water, medicine’
‘Low income groups will be disproportionately affected by any rise food in food prices’
‘Groups most at risk of food insecurity include: lone parents & children in large families’
‘One or more water companies cd face significant disruption to the supply of essential chemicals’
Public disorder - red
‘Protests & counter protests across UK..risk of Covid’
Law enforcement- red
‘A mutual reduction in ability to combat crime & terrorism’
‘Continuity of medical supplies’ - red
‘Flow rates could reduce by 60-80 per cent’
‘Adult social care’ - amber
‘Main risk is provider failure though acutely aware of labour & workforce pressures’
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This is president of @Google - a company accused of illegally harvesting copyrighted work - saying journalists need to learn to use AI or ‘risk missing out’.
He’s just been appointed to the board of @guardian. I hope every journalist in the org watches this & asks: why?
This is a headline in @pressgazette today. This is a rapacious company whose business practices have done more to undermine journalism than almost any other yet he has been appointed to Guardian board while *still actually working for Google*. The conflict of interest is off the charts
NEW: Why not calling a Nazi salute a Nazi salute puts us in a whole new place of danger. We have to call spades spades or what else is there? 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligarch…
I've been a Sunday journalist for 20 years and what I'm trying to do in my newsletter is the slower take. Including what's missing from the news. And this week, that's Peter Thiel. *Where was he*??
He literally made JD Vance so was he missing from the tech bro line-up? 2/
And then there's these guys. If you want bad 2016 vibes, please come & read my dive into the straight-up weirdness of Nigel Farage & Arron Banks's inauguration party.
This is Bad Boys of Brexit #2. Only this time, the special geopolitical friends are Chinese. 3/
NEW: Meet Sergei Cristo, a Russian-born Conservative party activist turned whistleblower.
Ep 1 out today: A meeting at the Carlton Club. And the start of efforts to uncover the biggest Russian intelligence operation since the Cambridge Spy Ring. 1/ podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epi…
Above on Apple or here on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes will be weekly from now on so please subscribe.
It's an incredible story, John Le Carre but true. But it's also vital to get UK govt to act to protect our elections 2/ open.spotify.com/episode/3VnVjm…
More on it here. Sign up for latest news inc a special event we're hosting in Feb. And if you can afford to chuck a couple of quid into the crowdfunder, we'd be grateful. This is an independent production funded by the public for the public 🙏
Hahaha. I just got a call to ask if 'I'm going to the Indie'. To be clear, this is Lord Lebedev trolling me. But the serious point is that we just lost a liberal independent newspaper. With everything that entails for both journalists & readers. 1/
This week the Scott Trust sold the Observer brand to Tortoise Media. But they're using this to slash 70 core Guardian jobs in a sleight of hand. Observer journalists are *Guardian* journalists on *Guardian* contracts.
2/
But TUPE legislation legally allows the Guardian to transfer any part of its company out. So, 70 journalists on Guardian contracts have a choice to make this Christmas: go to a financially struggling start-up which may or may fail in a couple of years. Or take voluntary redundancy.
3/
Well this is very exciting. My investigation into the Guardian’s new partner & the Observer’s new owner has just got the thumbs up from the Baron of Siberia.
I’m not entirely sure he’s familiar with my journalistic oeuvre, mind…
The Guardian is cancelling my contract after 19 years continuous employment with no pay-off so totes happy to go to the Indie to continue my investigation into Evgeny’s dad, the ex-KGB spy.
To be clear, I’m not being singled out: fully one third of Guardian & Observer staff are on either zero hours or sham ‘freelance’ contracts. The Guardian issued notice on all these this week. If you’re an employment lawyer, feel free to slide into my DMs!
This week the Guardian's owner, the Scott Trust, gifted the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media.
This isn't just a dark day for journalism, it's a sign.
Meet the team.
This is Putin giving Tortoise's energy advisory board member an 'Order of Friendship' medal in 2017. 1/
Independent news is under pressure across the world. The US is already crumbling: ABC settled with Trump. WaPo pre-obeyed.
This week Guardian lost 100 journalists & one of its arms. To understand what's lost, let's start with Putin's friend: Ivan Glasenberg, ex Glencore CEO.
2/
Glasenberg didn't just get a medal from Putin, he sat on the board of a Russian oil company, Rosneft, chaired by one of Putin's closest allies
And here he is: on Tortoise's energy advisory board, assembled by Tortoise, founder, owner & editor, James Harding. 3/