The Government proroguing of parliament was illegal.
The Government announced it was going to break the law ‘in a limited way’.
Eleven Tory MPs have now broken the Ministerial Code at least once.
Voter suppression, gerrymandering & the criminalization of protest is under way.
£Billions in taxpayers' money has been handed to Government friends & supporters without any transparency or oversight.
Government gross incompetence has led to 128,000 largely avoidable deaths.
The Government commissions reports that have no intention of finding the truth.
The Government appoints ideological extremists & supporters to important institutional roles & positions which require nuance & independence.
The Government appointed a Goldman Sachs hedge funder who gave the Government £400,000 as @BBC Chair & wanted Paul Dacre for Ofcom Chief.
The Government relentlessly attacks decent charities & organisations such as the National Trust – which just 4% of the population have a negative opinion of – because they give an honest & balanced account of history.
The Government has destroyed Britain's global reputation.
The Government pushes populist nationalist rhetoric in ways that resemble the most tyrannical dictatorships in history.
The Government denies the reality of structural racism which has resulted in a disproportionate amount of minority ethnic deaths during the pandemic.
The Government has created the conditions in which the wealth of Britain’s billionaires - many of whom fund the Tory Party because they prioritise & protect their interests over the interests of ordinary people - has increased by £100 billion in the last twelve months.
The Government has a huge majority despite just 29% of the electorate voting for them.
The Government still demonizes the EU & talks about "the will of the people" in relation to Brexit, despite just 26% of the current UK population voting to leave the EU.
The Government are determined to destroy the @BBC despite the revolving door between No 10 & the BBC, & despite its enormous help over the last decade, especially in treating Jeremy Corbyn completely differently to Boris Johnson in the context of alleged antisemitism & racism.
The Government have pressed ahead with privatizing the #NHS & lied about it.
The Government lied about the number of new hospitals.
The Government will shortly begin selling the confidential medical records of over 50 million NHS patients in England to commercial third parties.
Despite being the sixth richest country on earth, during a global pandemic the Government is to significantly cut foreign aid.
The Government have already broken many manifesto promises, including about food standards in a deal with Australia that will devastate British farming.
Boris Johnson met & works closely with anti-democratic far-right authoritarian racist Viktor Orban, despite the Biden administration calling Hungary a totalitarian regime.
The Government is supported by a global network of free market think tanks funded by foreign billionaires.
The legal system is on the verge of collapse, with 56,000 Crown Court cases backlogged, & people waiting years.
The Law Society has warned that the Government's judicial review "would allow unlawful acts by Government or public bodies to be untouched or untouchable".
The Government demonizes minorities, young people, Universities, schools, footballers, Unions, Black Lives Matter, judges, feminists, environmentalists, scientists, the NHS, BBC, & National Trust, public sector workers, charities, foreigners, historians, the poor, & the Left.
They don't care about the honesty or truth.
They don't care about bodies piled high.
They don't care about poverty.
They don't care about the law.
They don't care about voters.
And they certainly don't care about YOU.
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Voters need to know how right-wing populist nationalist politicians and radical/far-right nativist extremists construct their divisive discourse and rhetoric to exploit the anti-elite climate and fuel violence and division - and what to do about it.
So what can be done to counter divisive narratives and framing and to help Britain to become a more open, inclusive, fairer, less polarised and better multicultural society?
I make several suggestions in the above article, but make more below,
Countering the extreme right’s narrative of feeling "attacked" and needing to "defend" national identity requires a strategic, multi-faceted approach that challenges their framing while addressing underlying concerns and emotions.
The shameless lie that "Britain is lawless" is categorically false, as it contradicts empirical data on crime trends, rule of law metrics, and the functioning of UK institutions. Reform UK often use fearmongering exaggeration and selective framing to create a sense of crisis.
Official data from the ONS and Home Office indicate that overall crime rates in England and Wales have fluctuated but do not support the notion of a "lawless" state. The ONS reported a 7% decrease in total recorded crime (excluding fraud) from 2023 to 24.
#OnThisDay, 21 July, 1969, the Chicago Daily News published: The ‘love it or leave it’ nonsense, by Sydney J. Harris.
It began: One of the most ignorant and hateful statements that a person can make is “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?”
I reproduce it, below.
Harris was born in London in 1917, moving to the US in 1922. A formidable journalist who established a distinct voice integrating incisive social commentary with wit and humour, his weekday column, ‘Strictly Personal’, was syndicated in 200 US newspapers.
The ‘love it or leave it’ nonsense, by Sydney J. Harris.
One of the most ignorant and hateful statements that a person can make is “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you leave?”
That attitude is the main reason America was founded, in all its hope and energy and goodness.
A few thoughts on Bob Vylan leading the #GlastonburyFestival crowd in chants of "Death to the IDF" (Israeli Defence Force), livestreamed by the @BBC, and the mischaracterisation of the chant by some MPs, news media, and activists.
In England, where #GlastonburyFestival is located, all of us have the right to freely express our criticism of anyone or anything - as long as there is no intent to provoke immediate unlawful violence or there is a reasonable likelihood it will occur as a consequence.
In England, free speech is protected under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998. However, inciting violence is a criminal offence under several laws which attempt to balance public safety with free expression rights.
In many countries, especially since Musk bought Twitter/@X, underregulated online extreme content has been used to groom and radicalise vulnerable people.
Too many cowardly politicians are scared to speak up for fear of being branded 'anti-free speech'.
Some MPs who have been in parliament for many years NEVER appear on any of the @BBC's "flagship" politics shows - but Reform's privately educated shit-stirring 'anti-elite' former Tory Sarah Pochin - an MP for FIVE WEEKS - gets her own special introduction on #PoliticsLive.
Politicians using dangerously irresponsible anti-Muslim rhetoric know their comments are normalising Islamophobia and endanger British Muslim women. Islamophobic incidents rose by 375% in the week after Boris Johnson called veiled Muslim women “letterboxes” in 2018.
#PolitcsLive
Britain prides itself in NOT being the sort of country that tells women how to dress. States that do dictate women’s clothing (eg Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia) are vilified as misogynistic & ultra-controlling: the antithesis of the enlightened, liberal west. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…