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26 May, 5 tweets, 5 min read
On Friday, @BorisJohnson welcomes Viktor Orban, a populist leader who speaks of "Muslim invaders" & has pushed #Hungary into what @freedomhouse calls a 'grey zone' between democracy & pure autocracy”

Downing St insists good relations with Budapest "vital"
hungarytoday.hu/orban-johnson-…
“We don't want #Hungary to be a diverse country. We want to be how we were 1,100 years ago," said #Orban in 2019, harking back with nostalgia to that golden era...known as the Dark Ages!

After reshaping the Constitution, judiciary & electoral system, he launched a culture war.
If this sounds eerily familiar, that’s ‘’cos it is

In 2017, Steve Bannon asked @Nigel_Farage be part of a "convening authority" to "knit together a populist nationalist movement around the world"

He mentions Modi, Orban, Sisi, Duterte

We can add Trump, @BorisJohnson, Bolsonaro
“If you’re surprised by the rise of the far right, then you weren’t paying attention” wrote @garyyounge after the 2019 European elections

Disturbingly, since then, the far-right have further consolidated their power

Don’t be assuaged by Biden in the WH.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Bannon was VP of #CambridgeAnalytica who were rptdly taught data-mining by the firm Palantir

Palantir set up by right-wing billionaire, Peter Thiel, are running #COVID19 Data Stores collecting population-wide health data (including genomic data) in the UK, US & around the world

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
25 May
"UK intelligence agencies unlawfully spied on @amnesty Intn'l"

The ECtHR human rights court confirmed UK surveillance regime was unlawful for 8 years

We brought the litigation in the wake of @Snowden revelations in 2013 with @privacyint @libertyhq etc amnesty.org.uk/press-releases…
‘The unfettered harvesting & processing of millions of people’s private communications must end’ Kate Logan @amnesty

@Snowden’s 2013 revelations included details of an operation which tapped into & stored huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables
"Indiscriminate mass communications surveillance has proven to be ineffective for the prevention of terrorism

"To treat everyone as a potential suspect, data must be stored, analysed & profiled"

"A society built upon such foundations is more akin to a police state" Judge Pinto Image
Read 4 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
24 May
1/. In 2009, I there was a commotion in the small Tuareg compound where I was staying near Aueglhok, northern Mali

3 boys had chased a deadly snake into a nearby rocky outcrop

Men gathered with sticks & takobas (swords) pushing dry grass into holes & crevices around the outcrop ImageImageImageImage
2/. The men positioned themselves around the outcrop, waiting by each hole with their weapons raised

They then lit the grass

Snakes are v sensitive to smoke & before long the horned viper emerged from rocks to be swiftly battered to death

And I learned how to smoke out a snake ImageImageImageImage
3/. I've been smoking out snakes ever since

Like everything in life, the answers we seek are usually in front of our noses all along

But sometimes - if something is being concealed - you have to smoke it out

Which brings me on to #DominicCummings!
#Cummings #CummingsTestimony Image
Read 5 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
24 May
@Dominic2306 FACT: I acknowledge that in the next tweet, Dom (Tweet 10)

FACT: There was a SPI-B meeting on 12/3/20 (attendees not listed)

FACT: There was a SAGE meeting on 13/3 & some of the docs are marked 12/3

FACT: The redacted ‘minutes’ were only released in May gov.uk/government/pub…
@Dominic2306 FACT: The claim in the Sunday Times was that you changed your mind on #HerdImmunity in mid-March

This tallies with your own claim: “we stared to figure out plan B”

FACT: @ShippersUnbound says the “if pensioners die too bad” comment was “at a private meeting” at the end of Feb.
@Dominic2306 @ShippersUnbound @BylineTimes @BBCNewsnight @maitlis @jonsnowC4 @cathynewman @TanDhesi @justinmadders @mrjamesob @DawnButlerBrent @Keir_Starmer FACT: On the day the PM was telling @Schofe that “one of the theories was we could take it on the chin”, you were attending the SAGE meeting that - bizarrely - concluded social distancing wasn’t necessary

On the same day, a 70yr old woman became the first Briton to die of COVID
Read 10 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
23 May
With #Cummings’ admission of what has been obvious from the start & is what me & a handful of journalists have been saying all along, it’s surely time for @peston to come clean & tell the nation who in No.10 briefed him on 12/3/20 that #HerdImmunity was the UK’s #COVID19 strategy
2/. But #Cummings’ thread raises more questions than it answers

We KNEW #HerdImmunity was the strategy & the govt didn’t “pivot away” from it

In Feb, @Dominic2306 rprtdly said the strategy was “herd immunity to protect the economy & if that means some pensioners die, too bad."
3/. Every epidemiologist or virologist will tell you #HerdImmunity is an “outcome” never a “strategy”

Without a vaccine it would involve “sacrificing the vulnerable on the altar of the economy in truly vast numbers”

It was clear this “strategy” would ALSO devastate the economy.
Read 13 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
21 May
1/. As we dig out our sequins & prepare for the #Eurovision Song Contest, it's hard to believe that it's only been a year since the final of the Corona Vision Song Contest
150+ entries
32 finalists
12 categories
Only one winner
#EurovisionSongContest2021 #eurovision21 @Eurovision Image
2/. "Let the virus inspire us!"

Coronavision tapped into that extraordinary burst of creativity in those early months of the COVID pandemic

Our slogan - "We have a category for that" - meant that even if you couldn't sing you could enter for "Worst Song" podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/pol…
3/. “Now we’ve been blessed!
The Coronavision Song Contest
People vote & chose the best
Coronavision Song Contest”

One highlight of the competition was when @gloriagaynor RTed this version of @LoveTinaTurner's Simply the Best!
#Eurovision #Eurovision2021
Read 5 tweets
Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
20 May
1/. "Govts aren't insensitive to the outside pressure & when world opinion is concentrated on one weak spot, it can succeed in making govts relent...That is why we have started Appeal for Amnesty, 1961"

It's 60 years since @amnesty launched with this OpEd
theguardian.com/uk/1961/may/28…
2/. The idea of @amnesty founder, Peter Beneson, was a simple & beautiful one

To harness the power of public opinion to change the world for the better

Six decades, on that idea still fizzes with energy & boundless potential & Amnesty Intnl's work has never been more important.
3/. In 1977 - 16 years after it was set-up - Mumtaz Soysal, an ex-Prisoner of Conscience accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on @amnesty's behalf with a poem

"Soon night will fall & they'll close the cell doors
I don't feel lonely
I am with the whole of mankind & mankind is with me"
Read 4 tweets

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