1/ SAGE minutes still redact names of attendees (including a scientific adviser)

But since July, it’s been the #JointBiosecurityCentre that shapes #COVID19 strategy

Run by Tom Hurd (MI6) then Clare Gardner (GCHQ), the #JBC hasn’t released ANY minutes or named ANY of its members
2/. SAGE’s advice is fed to the secretive #JointBiosecurityCentre who often seem to ignore it

In Sept, SAGE’s call for a circuit-breaker lockdown was ignored

SAGE has been sidelined since the took over #COVID19 strategy

Why are It’s membership & it’s discussions kept secret?
3/. The #JointBiosecurityCentre, was launched as a £9 billion directorate of @DHSCgovuk, on 1 June 2020

According to sources, there is no actual ‘centre’. Instead the #JBC is spread across Whitehall offices

There is much speculation as to its membership
researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-pol…
4/. Ystdy, after 4 delays, @EinsteinsAttic finally received a response to a FOI request

It claims the #JointBiosecurityCentre doesn’t need an ‘establishing document’ as it is part of NHS Test & Trace

But Test & Trace = a ‘service’

#JBC = a ‘directorate’
whatdotheyknow.com/request/696875…
5/. “Hiding a £9 billion ‘directorate’, set up by spooks, behind a mere ‘service’ - however massive that service may be -must be breaking all sorts of govt/civil service rules.”

In his thread, @EinsteinsAttic is unimpressed with the DHSC’s response to his questions on the #JBC.

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More from @StefSimanowitz

6 Apr
1/. QUESTION: What’s the worst day of the year for dictators, despots & populist autocrats?

ANSWER: April 7

Tomorrow, @amnesty release our annual 2020/21 report covering the state of #HumanRights in 149 countries

JOURNALISTS: For a copy or to an interview👉 press@amnesty.org
“How's life in your country?"
"We can't complain"

This cartoon was about #Turkey but it also applies to:
#Myanmar
#China
#SaudiArabia
#NorthKorea
#Syria
#Egypt
#Turkmenistan
#Eritrea
#Yemen
#Uzbekistan
#CAR
#Vietnam
#Sudan
#Iraq
#Bahrain
#Belarus
#Bangladesh
#Laos
#Somalia etc.
“I don’t care if they respect me, so long as they fear me.” (Caligula)

At @amnesty we don’t respect dictators, autocrats & human rights abusers

We don’t fear them either

As we publish Annual Report, here’s a guide for dictators human on ‘how to respond’ amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Read 11 tweets
6 Apr
1/. EU Leaders @CharlesMichel & @vonderleyen are meeting #Turkey’s President Erdoğan today

This comes as it was revealed that the prosecutor in the trial of @amnesty’s honorary Turkey Chair, #TanerKilic, has requested that the court uphold his conviction ahvalnews.com/eu-turkey/eu-l…
2/. If the court upholds #TanerKilic’s conviction, he’ll be taken back to jail to serve the rest of his 6yr jail term

He’s already been behind bars for 1+ years

This despite the fact not a SHREAD of evidence has been produced of any criminal wrong doing.
3/. "We’re responsible not only for what we say but what we fail to say by staying silent"

In 2018 when #TanerKilic was in jail, @snowden joined 2m people to demand his release

They included @aiww @itspetergabriel @OfficialSting @BiancaJagger @DavidLammy
Read 6 tweets
5 Apr
It is vital for @Peston to reveal who was his senior Downing St source that told him UK strategy was “allowing #COVID19 to spread through the population”

These were the identical words @BorisJohnson used in his #TakeItOnTheChin interview

It is in the public interest we know.
Every virologist will tell you that herd immunity without a vaccine is - by definition - not a preventative measure

The govt knew this

The No.10 press office has never attempted to correct @Peston’s story & yet govt ministers claim that #HerdImmunity was never their “strategy”!
Contrast No.10’s reaction to the @Peston story with their reaction to the @thetimes story that #Cummings had said the govt strategy was #HerdImmunity “& if that means some pensioners die, too bad”

They claimed it was “a defamatory fabrication”

No action for defamation was taken
Read 9 tweets
1 Apr
“I am definitely released. Solidarity will no longer be a crime!”

French farmer, @CedricHerrou, who offered food & shelter to asylum seekers, has been released

The court also quashed of the judgment condemning
@LoanTorondel for an ironic tweet on police practices in Calais. ImageImage
The recognition by one of France's highest courts that #SolidarityIsNotACrime is good, but across Europe & around the world, people are being arrested & criminalized for providing food, shelter, transport & basic acts of kindness to migrants & refugees. newsweek.com/you-can-now-go…
In 2016, I was in Calais as the bulldozers rolled into the Jungle

Five years on, brave humanitarian volunteers - from the Med to the Alps to the Arizona desert - show that camps can be demolished & tents torn down, but solidarity isn't so easily destroyed
Read 5 tweets
31 Mar
“This is a report produced by a govt that would rather belittle the realities of institutional racism in this country than take steps to address it”

Truth bombs being dropped by @RunnymedeTrust’s
@kapoor_alba to @CliveMyrieBBC @bbc5live re #RacismReport
“The problem has been diagnosed, it has been given a name: it’s called institutional racism.”

More truth bombs on the #RacismReport, this time from
@BellRibeiroAddy

She tells @katierazz on #Newsnight “the denial of its existence is a complete whitewash”
This report into institutional racism - run by Tony Sewell who, 15 years ago, said he doesn't believe in #institutionalracism was designed to demoralise

Don’t be demoralised

These are their tactics

Tactics designed to get you to switch off the news & apply for an allotment. Image
Read 11 tweets
30 Mar
Blistering introductory monologue by @maitlis on standards in public life covering the #AcuriAffair #BorisJohnson #DavidCameron & #PritiPatel

The last time #Newsnight did such a
powerful opening was in May in the midst of the Barnard Castle scandal
“A great journalist puts into words the things people feel. They seek truth & speak truth & are never seduced by the gilded strumpet of power”
(E. Warner)

Following her monologue on Cummings, the govt complained to the BBC

Instead of backing @maitlis, the BBC issued an apology!
“What is spectacularly gutless is that these ministers have avoided @GMB , @Channel4News, @BBCNewsnight & anywhere they might get rough ride. That’s a dereliction of their duty as govt ministers. It’s completely shameful.” @piersmorgan

It’s a national scandal & nothing is done!
Read 9 tweets

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