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May 28, 2021 14 tweets 8 min read Read on X
#THREAD

Various bankers & journalists have recently been very upbeat about the prospects for Britain's economic recovery:

"The British economy will be booming. It is not yet widely appreciated just how big this boom will be" - Andrew Neil.

My advice: don't believe the hype.
Last week the Bank of England said: "Economic growth in Britain this year should not be confused with a normal boom... economy shrank almost 10% last year, biggest slump in 300 years".

While the opinion polls show a 'vaccine bounce' for the Tories, again: don't believe the hype.
A fascinating new opinion poll by the respected Pew Research Center, discussed in the Financial Times, tells a fascinating story about how a clear majority in the US & Western Europe support large scale, systemic change.

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021…
As Gillian Tett writes in the FT:

"You might have thought that the development of vaccines and thus the prospect of an exit from fresh lockdowns would have sparked an upbeat mood... But it isn’t so."

ft.com/content/081914… via @financialtimes
Roughly two-thirds of respondents in France and exactly half of those in the US, UK & Germany said they wanted either a “major overhaul” or “complete reform” of ­economic structures.

Only a tiny minority – as low as 3% in France – said they backed the status quo.
Remember fewer than three in ten of the UK electorate voted for the @Conservatives in #GE2019, & despite what the right-wing press & broadcast channels keep telling us, people are far more concerned about inequality & the economy than 'the woke' - whatever it's supposed to mean.
The survey suggests that the British are even more eager than continental Europeans to see higher levels of government control & redistribution.

In fact, 67% of British people strongly support MORE regulation of business, whereas it is 53% in Germany & just 46% in the US.
British people desire a much more expansive role of the state: 62% deem it “very important” for the government to build more public housing, & 53% for it to increase benefits to the poor - higher than other countries. 50% want a universal basic income, much higher than elsewhere.
The fact that British voters are expressing higher levels of support for government regulation & redistribution than the French & Germans, might reflect the fact that in free-market-obsessed Britain, we have had much less of this than our peers on the continent in recent decades.
The survey implies we cannot assume that any economic rebound & return to “normal” will automatically lead to voters embracing the status quo: the poll is showing a bigger zeitgeist shift, partly driven by the pandemic but with deeper roots, which could reshape policy attitudes.
The FT's Gillian Tett speculates that the reason there is high demand for government intervention is that #COVID19 has not only exposed grotesque levels of #inequality, but has reminded people just how uncertain the future is.

Maybe "there is a search under way for protection".
Hilary Cottam, UCL: “The [post-pandemic] flourishing we want can’t be brought about by postwar institutions.”

Jenna Bednar, Michigan Uni: the social fabric has decayed so far that a complete overhaul of our institutions is needed to create a more collaborative, inclusive system.
The scramble to develop & distribute the vaccine has not only shown people that governments can – sometimes – do good things, including collaborating with the private sector, but that companies can sometimes work together too, instead of just competing.
If/when we eventually emerge from #COVID19, do not just look to the economic data; look to see if a subtler shift in the zeitgeist is also under way.

Returning to “normal” does not necessarily mean re-embracing the old systems.

Political & corporate elites should take note.

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More from @docrussjackson

May 14
🧵In January, Farage said Musk was justified in calling Starmer complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs: “In 2008 Keir Starmer had just been appointed as DPP & there was a case brought before them of alleged mass rape of young girls that did not lead to a prosecution.” Image
The allegation that Starmer was complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs is often repeated. But how true is it?

Two Facebook posts, originally appearing in April/May 2020, claimed Starmer told police when he was working for the CPS not to pursue cases against Muslim men accused of rape due to fears it would stir up anti-Islamic sentiment.
In 2022 the posts and allegations saw a resurgence online with hundreds of new shares. They said: “From 2004 onwards the director of public prosecutions told the police not to prosecute Muslim rape gangs to prevent ‘Islamophobia’.

Then, in January, Elon Musk joined in.
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May 13
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Decades of research shows that parroting or appeasing the far-right simply legitimises their framing, and further normalises illiberal exclusionary discourse and politics.

Starmer's speech is more evidence that the far-right has been mainstreamed.

The mainstream right-wing consider social inequalities natural or beneficial, but support liberal democracy’s core institutions & values.

The far-right rejects liberal democracy & is rooted in nativism (xenophobic nationalism) & authoritarianism (emphasizing order & discipline).
Liberal democracy upholds minority rights via rule of law & independent institutions, ensuring equal treatment & freedoms for all.

The far-right opposes it, & instead prefer illiberal democracy, which favours majority rule, curbs minority rights, & erodes checks on power.
Read 22 tweets
May 10
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Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist who focuses on political extremism and populism in Europe and the US, is, imho, one of the most important voices on the Left today.

Allow me to briefly summarise some of his work.

Image
In a 2023 lecture, Mudde emphasizes the importance of precise terminology in discussing the far-right, distinguishing between extreme right (anti-democracy) and radical right (accepts elections but rejects liberal democratic principles like minority rights and rule of law).
He argues we're in a "fourth wave" of postwar far-right politics, characterized by the mainstreaming & normalization of the far-right - what Linguist Prof Ruth Wodak in a related concept refers to as the 'shameless normalization of far-right discourse'.

Read 49 tweets
May 6
🧵

After eight years as US President, on Janury 17, 1961, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, former supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during WWII, warned us about the the growing "military-industrial complex" (and Trump2.0) in his prescient farewell address. Image
Before looking at that speech, some context for those unfamiliar with Eisenhower, the 34th US president, serving from 1953 to 1961.

During WWII, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank as General of the Army.
Eisenhower planned & supervised two consequential WWII military campaigns: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–43 & the 1944 Normandy invasion.

The right-wing of the Republican Party clashed with him more often than the Democrats did during his first term.
Read 54 tweets
May 3
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In England, 18% of adults aged 16-65 - 6.6 million people - can be described as having "very poor literacy skills" AKA 'functionally illiterate'.

This leaves people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation, and poses significant challenges for society and democracy. Image
Being 'functionally illiterate' means that a person can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately & independently, & obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources or on unfamiliar topics can cause problems. Image
Adult functional illiteracy—lacking the reading, writing, and comprehension skills needed for everyday tasks—poses significant challenges for a country, society, and democracy.

Allow me to spell these challenges out...
Read 22 tweets
Apr 22
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Two Priests, who both smoke, go the Pope.

The first asks "Is it OK to smoke while I'm praying?"

The Pope replies "No! You should be focused on God!"

The second Priest asks "Is it OK to pray while I'm smoking?"

The Pope replies "Of course, there's never a bad time to pray" Image
Nigel Farage’s rhetorical technique of framing controversial or inflammatory statements as questions, often defended as “just asking questions,” is a well-documented strategy - sometimes called “JAQing off” in online discourse - that has drawn significant criticism. Image
This approach involves posing questions to imply a controversial viewpoint without explicitly endorsing it, thereby maintaining plausible deniability. Farage often uses this strategy to raise issues around immigration, national identity, and 'wokeness' or 'political correctness'. Image
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