Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Nov 25, 2020 9 tweets 5 min read Read on X
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

theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
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 Image
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 ImageImage
‘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’ Image
‘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’ Image
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’ ImageImage
‘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’ ImageImage
Public disorder - red

‘Protests & counter protests across UK..risk of Covid’

Law enforcement- red

‘A mutual reduction in ability to combat crime & terrorism’ Image
‘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’ ImageImage

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Carole Cadwalladr

Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @carolecadwalla

Feb 28
Congrats to all the news orgs that signed syndication deals with this company. You’ve licensed your journalism to be a core component of Trump’s illegal war machine. Great job everyone 👏
A special shoutout to the editor-in-chief & CEO of the Guardian, Kath Viner & Anna Bateson. The deal with OpenAI was an unforced error which legitimised OpenAI’s illegal scraping of Guardian data & IP. In exchange for a quick buck. The NYTimes, in contrast, chose to sue.
Anthropic stood up to Trump. But OpenAI has capitulated. And now all its ‘partners’ are complicit in the consequences.

That includes Guardian. It will financially benefit from its journalists’ work - inc mine - being used to support Trump’s illegal wars & ICE’s reign of terror.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 19
PREDICTION: If Andrew is charged (no assumption of guilt etc), we are going to have a crisis of both the press & judiciary.

In Britain, it is an offence to publish ANY info on defendant beyond bare facts.

But! US outlets can print whatever they like…
1/
Contempt of court is foundational principle of British justice: press must not prejudice a jury trial.

Editors risk a prison sentence if found in breach.

Even in digital age, the law held…but how could it possibly withstand deluge of US coverage in a case like this??
3/
Short answer: it won’t. Far right agitator Tommy Robinson weaponised UK laws on contempt as a ‘cover up’ over grooming scandal. And the New Yorker ignored & published on Lucy Letby.

If Andrew is charged, it’ll trigger a crisis for both the press & judiciary
4/
Read 4 tweets
Jan 28
NEW: Our investigation for @thenerve_news reveals not only that Peter Thiel’s Palantir is completely enmeshed in our critical national infrastructure.

It’s also the ‘cloud support’ for our nuclear weapons system
1/ Image
Palantir’s stated mission is to defend America. Peter Thiel is a radical libertarian who does not believe ‘freedom & democracy are compatible’.

Yet, the UK is overwhelmingly dependent on Palantir’s services. As a national security threat, this is off the charts.
2/ Image
Please read the piece with comments from tech & national security experts.

We have no national security while we rely on highly political US Silicon Valley firms that are enmeshed in Trump’s increasing fascistic administration.
3/ Image
Read 4 tweets
Jan 20
Compare & contrast. This is Trump’s demand for Greenland. And this is Hitler’s for the Sudetenland.

There is no difference. The language. The unstoppable need to dominate. The megalomania. It’s the same.

And Keir Starmer’s response is appeasement. We are in that moment.
1/ Image
Image
I’m back to mocking up my own headlines for my newsletter because the press - esp here in the UK - is failing to meet the moment.

We’re now trapped between Russia in the east. And the US in the west. Two hostile states openly seeking to crush us.

2/
open.substack.com/pub/broligarch…Image
Ignore the political pundits. They’ve failed us. The media is failing us. Listen to the historians. This is Conservative historian Robert Kagan on what is happening in Minneapolis & what it means.
3/ Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 21, 2025
The sentencing hearing of Nathan Gill has begun.

Follow @thenerve_news for updates throughout the day.
1/ Image
The barrister for the Crown has laid out the background and context for the case, including Ukraine's efforts to join the European Union.
2/
The barrister confirms that Gill was en route to Moscow when he was stopped at Manchester airport in 2021 (as first reported in @thenerve_news.
3/
thenerve.news/p/nathan-gill-…
Read 35 tweets
Nov 12, 2025
NEW: The entire BBC news cycle is an abject lesson in the disaster economics of information.

This isn’t just a news story. It’s a teachable example of real-time information collapse. We can’t fix that but we can & must save the BBC.
1/
I wrote this back in Jan. What is happening to BBC is part of a systemic issue: total information collapse.

This is what happens when justified grievance, bad faith actors & Silicon Valley companies converge: erosion of trust in all institutions.
2/

broligarchy.substack.com/p/total-inform…Image
There are sound reasons to criticise BBC. We’re all pissed off with it over something! But our valid critiques are being weaponised by the enemies of democracy.

The BBC is a crucial firewall in a moment of unprecedented danger. Why do you think Russia is joining in?!
3/ Image
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(