Share this page!

Matthew Thompson Profile picture
Twitter logo
14 Mar, 7 tweets, 4 min read
“The police will not keep us safe”

The tone here is very much protest now rather than vigil. The crowd growing all the time.

This is no more COVID compliant than yesterday’s vigil, but police are keeping their distance.

Learning perhaps from their actions last night.

@LBC
Crowd must be several thousand strong. Now marching towards Parliament Square. The name of Sarah Everard on their lips. As well as some more colourful expressions of anger aimed at the police...

@LBC
Protestors just staged a lie down in Parliament Square, in memory of Sarah Everard “and all victims of state violence”

@LBC
A smaller, louder and angrier group of protestors has moved up to the gates of Downing Street.

“No justice. No peace. F**k the police” is the chant.

@LBC
The protesters are now back on Parliament Square. “How many more?” is the cry.

Police are now back on scene as well. But again, standing back and letting it continue unhindered.

@LBC .
Well. I feel like we’ve been here before...

Police forming a ring around the statue of Churchill.

@LBC
The stand-off at the Churchill statue continues.

Police are protecting it as protestors surround and chant at them. Much of it fairly profane.

“ACAB. All cops are bastards” is the chorus.

• • •

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

Keep Current with Matthew Thompson

Matthew Thompson 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 @mattuthompson

Matthew Thompson Profile picture
14 Jan
Baffling. London is 6th out of 7 English regions in terms of the numbers of vaccines given out.

Yet it has the highest infection rates in the country, and is one of the most populous regions.

The Midlands has given out nearly twice as many doses.

@LBC
Also, the @standardnews has reported on City Hall's concerns that London is getting fewer jabs than it should here:

standard.co.uk/news/london/lo…
Statement from @SadiqKhan on London’s vaccine shortage:
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Thompson Profile picture
14 Jan
These two things can be true:

1) The DUP might have forseen that Brexit would be challenging in the context of Ireland. Not like they weren't warned.

2) They were still betrayed by Johnson, who literally stood up at DUP conference and said he would never create a sea border.
The DUP's great mistake was arguably not to support Brexit in the first place, as many Remainers are gloating today, but not to support Theresa May's compromise.

That would have left NI in a much better place from a Unionist perspective than Johnson's deal.
Although that of course is only in hindsight, post-betrayal. Harder to see at the time that May's imperfect deal was better.

You could make a kinder argument that the DUP took Johnson at his word, and that was actually the mistake.
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Thompson Profile picture
13 Jan
Vaccine minister @nadhimzahawi now in front of the Science Committee. I will be watching so you don't have to ;)
Vaccine minister @nadhimzahawi tells the Science Committee that the Govt is not releasing the number of doses it expects every week, because of the way each batch of vaccine has to be checked, so the numbers "move around".
Chair Greg Clark asks if Zahawi is confident the Govt's target of 14m vaccinated by mid-Feb will be met.

Zahawi: "I'm confident we will absolutely meet our target, though there will be daily fluctuations”
Read 16 tweets
Matthew Thompson Profile picture
24 Sep 20
NEW: Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces a new "Jobs Support Scheme".

The Government will support the wages of people in work, for those working at least a third of their normal hours, paid as normal

The Govt will increase those wages to cover 2/3 of their pay.

@LBC
VAT cut is extended for the hospitality industry.

5% VAT will apply until the end of March, rather than January.
This is an important clarification. The Govt will pay 22% of the extra wages. Effectively splitting the cost of the top up with the employer.

Employers will pay over half the salary of any workers on the scheme. Image
Read 5 tweets
Matthew Thompson Profile picture
21 Sep 20
So, are we all hugely overreacting? Some thoughts after chats with epidemiologists and statisticians this morning.

I can perhaps best sum it up in the words of one SAGE member who told me: "It's not that we're panicking now. It's that last time we didn't panic enough"

THREAD
Yes, deaths and hospitalisations are low. But there are signs that they are rising.

And the key thing to remember is that there is a delay. There are roughly 21 days between infection and death.

So if you're seeing a large increase in deaths, then you're already too late.
Looking at the number of deaths relative to cases is also a misleading game, because we are now testing so much more, and catching so many more cases.

So it is not correct to say "look how much lower deaths are relative to cases than back in March"

You cannot compare the two.
Read 10 tweets
Matthew Thompson Profile picture
11 Sep 20
So fed up of the Good Friday Agreement being completely misunderstood and used as a political football by both sides.

Take it from somebody who keeps a copy of the thing in his living room.

It has precisely nothing to say about a hard border. Zip. Nada.

(THREAD)
The only mention of border infrastructure is in a passage on removing Troubles-era “security installations”.

It has nothing else to say. So the argument becomes one not about the letter of the agreement, but the “spirit”

So what on earth is the “spirit” of the agreement?
Well. It is primarily about consensus. And also about creating a space in which Irish people in NI are able to feel connected to Ireland, and British people to the UK.

Thus, so the argument goes, erecting barriers on the island North and South would risk that fragile consensus.
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

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

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @mattuthompson has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @mattuthompson!

Read all threads by @mattuthompson