1/. All the claims about our preparations & how everything was in order were basically completely hollow, but we didn’t figure this out until the back end of February”
#Cummings claims he was lied to by Hancock & others about the preparedness for COVID
“Attempts to reach out to people who ran the government, such as himself, seem to have met with total neglect....The overwhelming impression is that we have been led by a bunch of raging inadequates. While hardnut talk is sadly understandable” @MarinaHyde on #Cummings
“@amnesty say the govt quietly granted access to millions of UK health data records including to controversial data-mining firm Palantir – to build a Covid19 Datastore”
They also say
“We could close our eyes & pretend that contrary to all the evidence, #Palantir is a rights-respecting company or we can call this façade what it is: another company placing profit over people, no matter the human cost”
8/. In Sept 2020, the UK launched a ten-year strategy, #GenomeUK, which will transform the NHS & put genomics at the heart of the PM’s programme for govt
Incredibly it was launched quietly (on a Saturday!) & received no media coverage
It was set up by counter-terror chief, Tom Hurd (son of Douglas) who was at Eton & Oxford with the PM who was replace by Claire Gardiner, a senior cyber expert from GCHQ👇
1/. When far-right activists descended on a French Alp town in 2018 to prevent refugees & migrants crossing the border, residents joined forces to stop them
7 of them - the #Briançon7 - were convicted under anti-smuggling laws!
2/. The far-right group, Génération Identitaire, who blocked the mountain were banned in France last March after the govt found that it was a private militia & incites "discrimination, hatred & violence"
But Generation Identity are still active elsewhere
3/. Generation Identity - part of the far-right Identitarian Movement & whose members have been described as “hipster fascists” - has been banned on Facebook
But they & other neo-Nazi groups are recruiting predominantly online & have done for some time. abc.net.au/news/2021-03-2…
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”
“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.
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