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Rob Ford Profile picture
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22 Apr, 7 tweets, 2 min read
"Ban this act of political free speech" says, errm, the Free Speech Union.
Imagine making a symbolic political statement about race at the Olympics.
Politics have no place at the Olympics
No place at all. The Olympics is about sport not politics
FSU takes a rather different and much more hardline view re: posting racist material online
FSU re posting racism online: “there is an absolute right to free speech. Those attempting to ban this material must be punished.”
FSU re protesting racism at the Olympics: “there is no absolute right to free speech. those attempting to protest like this must be punished.”

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Rob Ford Profile picture
13 Apr
Reckless prudence is bad.

Reflexive trust in authorities practicing reckless prudence is also bad (particularly if it incentivises more reckless prudence).

Authorities can be experts acting in good faith and still get stuff badly wrong. Remember Jenny Harries and Caprice?
This is *not* a call to instinctively distust authorities. It *is* a call to think about the numbers involved:

Absolutely minute risk of a harm from vaccine vs (often) larger risk of harms from vaccine suspension.

If the sums don't add up, they don't add up.
Conversely if the sums do add up, they do add up. It depends on the details of the vaccine restriction (who's not getting the jabs, how at risk from COVID are they), the state of the vaccine rollout, and the state of the local COVID situation.
Read 4 tweets
Rob Ford Profile picture
7 Apr
Interesting piece, and in points to a growing dilemma for Labour, which we discuss in Brexitland: its two strongest constituencies are increasingly white "conviction liberals" and ethnic minorities. They agree strongly on antiracism, but disagree strongly on many other things
For example, socially conservative views on gender, LGBT rights, the role of women, even law and order, are frequently found among BAME voters, & among BAME faith organisations. Labour can either shun those voters/organisations or annoy white liberals.
Traditionally, white liberals have tended to put antiracism/BAME representation first in this regard and/or the social conservatism of BAME voters has simply not been v salient. This latest incident suggests that position may become harder to sustain.
Read 4 tweets
Rob Ford Profile picture
5 Apr
Certainly fits with my anecdotal experience.
Some of the biggest founts of UK politics fake news on social media have been hyper-partisan sites like the Canary, Another Angry Voice or Westmonster, whose creators and readers are evidently motivated by intense hatred of the out-party.
Seems very plausible to me that a lot of people sharing that kind of content do it because they provide an attractive good not so easily available from mainstream sources - attention grabbing ultra-negative stories about the outgroup
Read 4 tweets
Rob Ford Profile picture
31 Mar
Today's report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities looks very much like an example of the "politics of racism" which @ProfSobolewska discussed at length in Brexitland.
@ProfSobolewska Antiracism is a losing issue for the Conservatives, who have for 50 plus years been less trusted on the issue than Labour (and for good reason - all significant antiracism legislation passed by Labour). Yet dismissing racism is also a losing issue for them, too - so what to do?
@ProfSobolewska The obvious answer is what we see today - acknowledging racism as an issue, while seeking (a) to play up (real) areas of progress and tell a positive story and (b) minimise attention to (real) areas of continuing discrimination and disadvantage
Read 10 tweets
Rob Ford Profile picture
29 Mar
I haven't backtracked Andrew. I have further explained the context of my initial statement and why drawing the distinction is important.

Something I think you should have done, for reasons I have explained in detail in the thread you are linking to.
I would appreciate it @afneil if you would either delete or correct the tweet claiming I have "had to backtrack". I have not changed my statement but instead reiterated and explained it a number of times. Please do not misrepresent my views.
@afneil For example @afneil this explains why the context of Webbe's situation is relevant. As I'm sure a veteran political journalist such as yourself will recognise:
Read 4 tweets
Rob Ford Profile picture
22 Mar
When I was tweeting a little while ago about how absurd health authorities' pausing of AZ was I had a lot of people in my replies saying the pause was precautionary and to "help build public confidence in the vaccine".

That's worked out well hasn't it?
Who could have predicted that the public would respond to a strong signal from their health authorities that there might be an issue? Who could have predicted that subsequent reassurances wouldn't be heard? IDK, anyone who's ever followed a moral panic about vaccines maybe.
What weight did these bureaucrats put on the variable "this might collapse public confidence in the vaccine" when making their "precautionary principle" decision?
Read 5 tweets

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