Thread by @docrussjackson

If you were still in any doubt about not just how divisive & misguided Laurence Fox is, but also how dangerously irresponsible he is, this might help.

Brextremist millionaire Jeremy Hosking, who funds contrarian libertarian magazine 'The Critic', also funds Fox's Reclaim Party.

Hosking is a multi-millionaire financier with a financial interest in Marathon Asset Management, which is owned offshore in Jersey & operates in the Cayman Islands. Hosking gave over £1.8 million to the Vote Leave campaign & previously donated £700,000 to the @Conservatives.

Like other rich libertarians such as Robert Mercer who funded Breitbart, last year Hosking gave £850,000 to Standpoint magazine - its core mission "to celebrate western civilisation", in particular 'free speech'. Michael Gove is on the advisory board.

 –ft.com/content/77f879…

In 2017, @GeorgeMonbiot wrote about the anti-democratic nature of Hosking's pledge to spend up to £700,000 on ousting @UKLabour MPs who campaigned against Brexit, thereby reducing parliamentary opposition to a hard Brexit or, as is now likely, no deal.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

As @BylineTimes recently reported, Patrick Barrow, Reputation Communications' founder & MD, has a longstanding relationship with Hosking, & now, with a small team behind him, Barrow is 'constructing Reclaim’s foundations.'

bylinetimes.com/2020/11/20/beh…

Patrick Barrow used to run corporate affairs for the group which encompassed the Sunday Telegraph & The Spectator.

In a June 2020 Critic article about #GE19, he wrote: "Oh, bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, The Daily Telegraph was, quite literally, running the country."

While the article is critical of Johnson & virtually the entire cabinet (not Sunak & Patel) - he also attacks Unions, teachers, broadcast media & the police, & says George Floyd's death ("a race incident") caused "a corrosive attack on Britain’s history, society & rule of law."

As part of the well-funded army of unhinged 'libertarian' cranks, supported by endless think tanks, contrarians, bigots & grifters, he inevitably blames 'Cultural Marxism' for society's ills - since Bannon, the 'go-to' antisemitic conspiracy theory which inspired Anders Breivik.

Barrow knows all about the dark arts: he worked for @BBCNews on Today & The World at One, then as press officer for #BBCQT with Peter Sissons, then Corporate Management at PR giant Ketchum, helping multinational clients such as the World Economic Forum & investment banks.

Why does any of this matter?

Imho, societies across the world are under sustained attack by powerful libertarians, who much prefer a completely deregulated oligarchy to democracy, & who are doing everything they possibly can to divide societies & encourage populist nationalism.

I want to attach two related THREAD:

First, one that makes explicit the links between the dangerously divisive anti-lockdown rhetoric used by Laurence Fox & Nigel Farage, & powerful US libertarian billionaires:

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1323197511813767168

The second THREAD acts as an introduction to the rise of the Far Right across much of the world: we hear a lot about the terms 'populism' & 'nationalism', but what exactly do they mean, what do they refer to, & why should we be concerned?

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1339499790447554568