Thread by @docrussjackson

#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!"

https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/915295999140204544

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.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1359445197113950208