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Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
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9 Mar, 5 tweets, 3 min read
1/. Ten years ago, when William got engaged to Kate - a Commoner - I wrote this piece about how wall-to-wall fawning media coverage of this so-called ‘Cinderella Story’ exposed the fact that Britain remained a deeply class-ridden & deeply sexist society.
newstatesman.com/blogs/the-stag…
2/ Like Cinderella, this modern romance was also rife with negative gender stereotyping & ugly class prejudice

Britons it seem, aspire to upward mobility but despise themselves & are despised for it

@AJEnglish saw the article & signed me up as their Royal Wedding correspondent
3/. The arrival of #MeghanMarkle exposed further deep-seated class & racial prejudices that run deep within our society

So deep that it’s far easier - & more fun - to kick against a scapegoat rather than acknowledge the prejudices & start unpacking them.
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.news…
4/. I don’t know the Royals, but I was impressed with #Meghan here:

“Women don’t need to find a voice. They have a voice. They need to be empowered to use it.”

This cuts to the heart of what prejudice is & how to tackle it

Meghan was going to make waves
5/. Rather than being employed as a weapon of UK soft power & laying the ground to cut lucrative arms deals with autocratic regimes, #MeghanAndHarry are ploughing their own furrow

It’s not been easy

Even attending a Mandela exhibition on the invite of @PeterHain(!) was fraught.

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
11 Mar
1/. “Not so long ago, Britain was the envy of the world

It had the world’s best healthcare system...the world’s finest public broadcaster...growing wealth & happiness...& was part of the world’s most successful political union

Now it is a failing state.”
eand.co/how-britain-be…
2/. Britain became afflicted by a fever dream of nationalism: the biggest lie of all

Nationalism says: “we’re better off on our own. We’re better than them. We should be competitors with everyone. Our only motivations are greed & self-interest”

But none of that is true
@umairhb Image
3/. British people might not know it, but they’re going to be getting American-style healthcare bills soon

GP practices have been sold off to an US “health insurer” who aren’t in it for human kindness, but for money

We will be billed - $4,000 for a X-ray
Read 6 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
10 Mar
1/. Just over a year ago, in a pre-lockdown world, I travelled to #Turkey with a high level @amnesty delegation to observe the judgement in the case of #OsmanKavala, a philanthropist who, at that time, had been unjustly behind bars for more than two years.
2/. The hearing of OsmanKavala & 15 other Turkish civil society figures - all facing the same absurd charges - was taking place in a court in Silivri high security prison, Europe's largest jail

The dock had space for 250 defendants

This was a courtroom designed for mass trials ImageImageImageImage
3/. We watched proceedings from the back of the gargantuan courtroom

"So much space in this courtroom yet so little room for justice," I thought

But suddenly, the judge stood & declared #OsmanKavala & all co-defendants in this Gezi trial, were acquitted.
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
8 Mar
“How bizarre
How bizarre, how bizarre”
(Video by @OriginalStrachs)
#MeghanMarkle #MeghanAndHarry #MeghanandHarryonOprah #oprah #OprahMeghanHarry #PrinceHarryandMeghan @ACTBrigitte @Oprah
The arrival of #MeghanMarkle - a woman directly descended from slavery - offers an opportunity to openly discuss bigger issues of race, class & gender. Her arrival opens a window on deep-seated racial & class prejudices that run deep within society #Oprah
newsweek.com/dont-let-gover…
“Did you make Kate cry?” - #Oprah

“The opposite happened” #MeghanMarkle

...also Meghan admitted she & Harry got secretly married 3 day before the wedding #MeghanAndHarry #Oprah
#OprahMeghanHarry #OprahHarryMeghan #HarryandMeghanonOprah ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
5 Mar
1/. One year ago, the BBC reported that a 70 year-old woman in Reading had became the first Briton to die of #COVID19

A year on, it is time for the UK to take a moment to grieve

Today we mark #CovidMemorialDay

Join our 7pm candle-lit minute's silence.
covidmemorialday.org.uk
2/. Shakespeare warns that if we fail to "give sorrow words the grief will o-er wrought heart and bid it break".

#CovidMemorialDay is a day to give our sorrow words

Take a moment to reflect on those lost, individually or collectively, over the last year covidmemorialday.org.uk/2021/03/04/pre…
3/. The importance of grieving & the power of collective grief shouldn’t be underestimated

Unless we process our grief, it can easily turn into anger or depression - & there is a great deal of that swilling about

Grief is healthy. Necessary

It is the collateral damage of love
Read 20 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
4 Mar
1/. #OneYearAgoToday a 70 year-old woman in the Royal Berkshire hospital became the first Briton to die of #COVID19

Tmw, exactly a year after her death was reported, we will mark #CovidMemorialDay

Share your memory

Join 7pm candle-lit minute's silence
covidmemorialday.org.uk
2/. Shakespeare warns that if we fail to "give sorrow words the grief will o-er wrought heart and bid it break".

#CovidMemorialDay is a day to give our sorrow words

Take a moment to reflect on those lost, individually or collectively, over the last year
3/. On 5 March, it was reported that a 70-year-old woman in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, had become the 1st Briton to die of #COVID

On Friday - exactly one year on -
we will take a moment to remember: a moment to grieve

Light a candle
A minute’s silence 7pm
#CovidMemorialDay ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
3 Mar
1/. #OneYearAgoToday Italy & Spain had locked down

@BorisJohnson said:

“I was at a hospital the other night where I think a few there were #coronavirus patients & I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know, & I continue to shake hands."
2/. “And I continue to shake hands and, I think it is very important that we...people can make up their own minds”

A month before, the PM had made the #GreenwichSpeech, where the blueprint for their deadly #HerdImmunity strategy (& the #PalantirPlan!) was laid out.
3/. On 5 March, two days after boasting about shaking hands with COVID patients, @BorisJohnson was asked why UK was delaying lockdown

He replied saying: “One of the theories is that we could take it on the chin”

On 12 March, @Peston confirmed
#HerdImmunity was govt ‘strategy’
Read 7 tweets

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