Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
GET A GRIP Profile picture
@docrussjackson
Apr 26, 2021 • 18 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
#THREAD about Boris Johnson, dead bodies, Brexit, & Andrew Neil's TV Channel & power.

The news is full of claims that last year, Boris Johnson said “No more fucking lockdowns: let the bodies pile high in their thousands”, which our sociopathic Govt dismissed as "comedy gossip".
Boris Johnson, 2017: "I look at Libya... There's a group of UK business people... want to invest in Sirte on the coast... They have got a brilliant vision to turn Sirte into the next Dubai. The only thing they have got to do is clear the dead bodies away!"
The speech was given to the #Legatum Institute (originally registered in Cayman Islands) a well-funded free-market think-tank specializing in disaster #capitalism, which in 2016, jointly sponsored a report called 'The Road to Brexit'. The foreword was penned by Iain Duncan Smith.
The Legatum Institute was founded in 2007 by the Legatum Foundation (a "philanthropic" arm of the Dubai-based investment firm the Legatum Group), & was given charitable status in 2015. Philippa (Baroness) Stroud was appointed CEO of the Institute in 2016, & it is based in London.
The Legatum Foundation was registered as a company limited by guarantee in 2010. According to the 2015 accounts, the bulk of its income used to come from the Legatum Foundation Limited, a company registered in Bermuda. It's complicated! See @bakerstherald

bakerstreetherald.com
In 2017, the Legatum Institute stupidly proposed using unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the Irish border issue post-Brexit.

Other potential measures including creating a special economic zone (aka 'free ports')- see @bakerstherald for details.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northe…
Shanker Singham left the Institute in March 2018, to take his team to another questionable free-market think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, & Tufton St favourite Matthew Elliott (co-founded the TaxPayers' Alliance/director of Vote Leave) left in May 2018.
Legatum Limited (aka Legatum), is headquartered in Dubai, & uses its own funds to invest globally.

It was set up in 2006 by the multi-billionaire Christopher Chandler.

Philippa Claire Stroud, Baroness Stroud, is the current chief executive officer of the Legatum Institute.
Philippa Stroud was a Special Adviser to Iain Duncan Smith (while Secretary of State for Work & Pensions) from 2010-15, & is also a co-founder & former executive director of yet another questionable free-market think tank, the ironically named 'Centre for Social Justice'.
One more figure: Lord (James) O'Shaughnessy, senior fellow at the Legatum Institute, & formerly Deputy Director of ANOTHER free market think tank, 'Policy Exchange'.

He was Cameron's Director of Policy (2010/11) & was Conservative Party Director of Policy & Research (2007-10).
Legatum's founder, Chandler, made his fortune through Sovereign Global Investment, investing in emerging markets, & Legatum invested heavily in developing countries: their speciality was moving into markets at times of crisis 'where assets are mispriced':
ft.com/content/fac8b5…
Legatum look for opportunities arising from deregulation & further privatisation – especially in the #NHS (it already has considerable healthcare interests).

It openly states that it "finds value where disruptive transitions create unique opportunities".

opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
At the top of the thread I mentioned Andrew Neil's new controversial 'Fox News-style' & explicitly "anti-woke" TV channel - I don't mention it by name because it amplifies their brand, but some people call it #GBeebies. 😉

What's this got to do with #Legatum?

*Everything*.
#GBeebies' £60 MILLION funders include hedge-fund manager Sir Paul Marshall, & of course investment group Legatum, who are said to have put up to £20 million into the new station.

Btw, in 2016, Marshall donated to Michael Gove's leadership campaign.

bylinetimes.com/2021/02/15/gb-…
To be clear: a powerful network of Libertarian billionaires, through offshore investment funds, media ownership, think tanks & funding Political Parties, seek to maximise their wealth & power by dividing voters on issues as diverse as Brexit, climate change, trans rights & COVID.
The facts are largely hidden from good people on Left AND Right, who are played like fiddles: the culture war/anti-woke agenda is MAINLY a vehicle for introducing yet more damaging deregulated free market #capitalism, which is destroying democracies, societies, & the environment.
So when Boris Johnson says “No more fucking lockdowns: let the bodies pile high in their thousands”, or jokes about having to "clear the dead bodies away" to make way for 'business opportunities', please keep in mind Britain's largely avoidable #COVID & #austerity-related deaths.
This has been going on for forty years, & sadly, they're getting better at it.

Many disruptions we're seeing across the world are basically the fault lines created by a handful of sociopathic billionaires, driven by a mix of libertarian ideology & greed.

• • •

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

Keep Current with GET A GRIP

GET A GRIP 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 @docrussjackson

GET A GRIP Profile picture
Nov 11
🧵 OPEN LETTER

Defend the @BBC Before It’s Gone

The BBC isn’t perfect — but it’s ours. As coordinated attacks on its independence intensify, I warn that if we don’t defend it now, we may lose more than a broadcaster — we may lose a cornerstone of British democracy... Image
As a long-time critic of the @BBC, let me spell it out: what we’re seeing right now isn’t organic outrage — it’s a sophisticated coordinated campaign by ideological enemies and commercial competitors to undermine the BBC’s independence and funding. Image
If you can’t see that, you’re being played — and that’s exactly the point.

Let’s start with Michael Prescott, author of the dodgy dossier leaked exclusively to The Telegraph, who is a PR man and former political editor at Murdoch’s Sunday Times.

news.sky.com/story/who-is-m…
Read 40 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Nov 2
🧵

Shameless Matt Goodwin’s post is a cascade of fearmongering, distortion, and pseudo-intellectual racism.

It takes a handful of horrific individual crimes and turns them into a sweeping indictment of entire communities.

It's pure scapegoating, dressed up as social science.
1. Misrepresenting facts.

Many of the crimes Goodwin cites are still under investigation, misreported, or involve UK citizens, not “illegal migrants.” The Huntingdon suspect is British-born — yet he cites it as evidence of “mass uncontrolled immigration.”
Image
There is no factual link between the Huntingdon attack and migration.

In fact, once you control for age and sex, non-UK nationals are slightly LESS likely to be in prison than UK citizens — and for violence and robbery, non-citizens are under-represented.
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/comm…
Read 17 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Nov 2
🧵

Shameless opportunist Rupert Lowe is the most dangerous and most extreme MP in the UK.

His latest stunt is a letter to the PM that strongly implies the knife attack on a train was the product of “mass immigration” and “Islamic extremism”. It had *nothing* to do with either.
The incident was reported as NOT terror-related and the suspects BRITISH BORN at around 8:30 am: by @BBCNews 8:32; @Guardian 8:34; @SkyNews 8:36;
@ITVNews 8:38.

Lowe published his letter strongly implying it was 'Islamic extremists' on @X at 08:41. It quickly gathered 1M views. Image
Lowe is a modern day Oswald Mosley, shamelessly normalizating far-right discourse.

His letter is political malpractice: it mixes fear, plausible deniability, and ineffective proposals that would shred civil liberties and wreck lives, all while offering zero credible evidence. Image
Read 32 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Oct 10
🧵

Let's not mince words.

A handful of selfish sociopathic billionaires and the populist politicians and media they fund have deliberately divided and radicalised millions of people across the world, solely to protect their wealth and power.
They claim to want to help “save children” while spreading distrust of experts, reputable journalism, climate science, and vaccines — which have saved over 100 million children since 1974.

By dividing the public, they protect their wealth and power.
Rather than justify how their wealth was earned, these elites cultivate scepticism of their critics and of expertise itself.

This deliberate erosion of trust shields their interests while undermining the science that saves lives and protects our planet.

Read 66 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Oct 8
🚨

Robert Jenrick closed his Conference speech with: “Let’s build this NEW ORDER. Let’s TAKE our country back.” Hitler's “New Order” was a vision for an Aryan-led Europe which involved exterminating or enslaving “undesirable” minorities.

Jenrick has a Jewish wife. He knew this. Image
Across mainstream platforms and parliamentary stages, an extremely dangerous rhetorical drift is taking hold.

I've written elsewhere about what Prof Ruth Wodak calls “the shameless normalisation of far-right discourse” in relation to British politics.

In Britain, a group of prominent MPs—including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman—are normalising far-right discourse through three recurring frames/themes: invasion, scapegoating for cultural destruction, and demographic replacement. Image
Image
Read 31 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Oct 6
🧵

Let's talk about chainsaw enthusiast, Musk buddy, and darling of the global free-market right, Javier Milei.

Let’s look at which UK politicians and news media have been most effusive in their praise for him, and at whats happened to Argentina since he was elected in 2023. Image
Milei’s election as President of Argentina in November 2023 was met with enthusiasm from right-wing news media and populist politicians who praised his libertarian, anti-establishment platform as a model for radical economic reform. Image
Support was often framed in the context of Thatcherite principles, with Milei seen as a disruptor against "socialism".

1. Kemi Badenoch celebrated Milei as a "template" for her own potential Government, aspiring to be "Britain’s version of Javier Milei". Image
Read 38 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

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

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

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(