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Jun 6, 2021 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The Tories & the press relentlessly attack & undermine the @nationaltrust & the @BBC, two of our most loved & quintessentially British institutions, not because they're "woke" or "anti-British", but because they're two of the only assets we have left which haven't been sold off.
Contrary to popular belief among the fewer than 3 in 10 of the electorate who voted Tory in #GE209, deregulated free market capitalism is not about "efficiency", 'driving down costs' or 'driving up choice & quality': it's about short-term profit & is not in the national interest.
Most countries have polices restricting foreign ownership on the grounds that there are strategic sectors which should be kept in domestic ownership.

Not the UK: public utilities, the media, manufacturing & property are in the hands of foreign companies & foreign billionaires.
Alex Brummer in ‘Britain for Sale: British Companies in Foreign Hands’ estimated that no less than half of all British companies have been sold to foreigners.

The Right flaunt their nationalist credentials, while selling Britain down the river.

neweconomics.opendemocracy.net/who-owns-brita…
In the 1980s, the irresponsible Thatcher Government embraced privatisation as its primary policy, arguing that 'opening up business' to the "free market" would make them more efficient & productive, & give British capitalism the competitive edge in Europe & the global economy.
The Tories sold off Jaguar, British Telecom, British Rail, British Aerospace, Britoil & British Gas, British Steel, British Petroleum, British Airways, Rolls Royce, & public water & electricity companies - it was sheer bloody minded ideological vandalism.

The #NHS is next.
Thatcher’s reign was built upon a reckless post- nationalist faith in the global free market, enterprise culture & competition, as well as a reactionary belief in Great Britain’s imperial past.

Continued by subsequent Govts, asset-stripped Britain's cupboard is now almost bare.
Thatcherism ushered in a dangerous relationship between Govt & monied powers. MPs increasingly rendered powerless in relation to the City sought personal gain with corporate positions & memberships. The UK Govt is now mainly a vehicle for the the interests of the rich & powerful.
Most UK think tanks, radio stations, TV channels, newspapers & magazines are just the #propaganda wing of powerful corporations & libertarian billionaires; our public institutions are headed by their representatives; & our Government is full of lobbyists, bankers & hedge funders.
So after forty years, what does Britain have left to sell off? The "woke" museums, Universities, #NHS, #BBC & #NationalTrust.

Having got their Brexit, the ERG, Tufton St & now Andrew Neil's hedge-funded TV channel aim to turn public opinion against them, so they can be sold off.

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More from @docrussjackson

Nov 21
#THREAD

"Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government."

John Prescott has died.

In September 2000, John - then Deputy Prime Minister - gave a speech at the @UKLabour Party Conference, introducing Nelson Mandela. Image
Nelson Mandela died in December 2013. Writing a tribute in the Daily Mirror, John reflected on his death, writing: “In my office at home I have a picture that is my most treasured possession. It’s of me shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand on stage at the @UKLabour conference in 2000." Image
At the Rivonia Trial, between 1963 & 1964, Mandela gave a dramatic speech from the dock.

John wrote in 2013 “When I read that, I knew that I wanted to enter politics. He was my ­inspiration. So when he walked free in 1990, we felt as if one of our own comrades had been freed.” Image
Read 28 tweets
Nov 16
🧵
Allison Pearson posted then deleted disinformation, falsely accused three people of being "Jew haters", lied about where the photo was taken & what they were doing, then lied about what the Police said to her - and then moaned about being a victim! FFS

bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
The Telegraph's divisive shit-stirrer Pearson falsely claimed she was told by the police who came to her home it was over a “non-crime hate incident”. Her lie was then dutifully amplified by every Reform UK MP & billionaire-owned right-wing "news" media, painting her as a victim.
Essex Police said “At no stage... was she informed that the report being investigated was being treated as a non-crime hate incident. To suggest otherwise is wholly inaccurate and misleading.”
Read 17 tweets
Nov 15
#THREAD

Pearson, Farage, Musk, Young, Habib, & many other shit-stirrers who shamelessly try to normalize hateful, divisive, provocative & inflammatory rhetoric, often refer to George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is much closer to the dystopia we inhabit... Image
Harassment, malicious communications, incitement, & threatening violence are all crimes in the UK, & have been for a long time.

Print & broadcast media, & online social media are simply platforms on which we behave or misbehave: it's not about the medium, it's about the offence. Image
The UK is signed up to Article 10 of the #ECHR: everyone has the right to free speech, which may only be qualified in limited circumstances, including: national security; public safety; the protection of morals & of the reputation or rights of others.

herbertsmithfreehills.com/notes/publicla…Image
Read 30 tweets
Nov 15
#THREAD

"Enoch Powell was a hero of the young Nigel, but at this point he could do without any association with the politician who made the notorious Rivers of Blood speech... the accusation of racism follows Farage & his party around like a bad smell." - Allison Pearson Image
"Farage has tried for years to shrug off the charge that his parties are more than “the BNP in blazers”... although I don’t think Farage is a racist, it’s a problem that racists attach themselves to Reform." - Allison Pearson Image
“We’re investigating a report which was passed to us by another force. The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed. An investigation is now being carried out under section 17 of the Public Order Act.” - Essex police spokesman Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 9
🧵

Every episode of #bbcqt Image
Image
Not a lot of people know that Oxbridge alumni Fiona Bruce, presenter of 'Fake or (paid a) Fortune?', and since January 2019, the @BBC's interrupting Chair of #bbcqt, was born in Singapore.

One of her first episodes as Chair was the one that made Laurence Fox a household name. Image
In my widely read & reported February 2023 Open Letter to the @BBC about @bbcquestiontime, one of my concerns was about Bruce’s chairing of #bbcqt which I said was "at best, unacceptably poor."

I haven't seen anything to change my mind since.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/an-op…Image
Read 12 tweets
Nov 8
#THREAD

Hard-core “ultra” supporters of Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Israel’s most successful football club, often use inflammatory, offensive and racist language.

In Amsterdam, their fans chanted racist slogans and refused to observe a minute’s silence for Spain's victims of the floods.
The Mail reported the violence ahead of the match against Ajax, reporting 'Israeli football hooligans tore down Palestine flags as they marched through Amsterdam. Videos show hooded figures dressed fully in black cheering & chanting 'fuck you Palestine'.'

dailymail.co.uk/sport/football…
On 7/11 the Mail said 'Israeli thugs shouted 'ole' as one climbed the front of a building & removed a Palestinian flag. Footage also shows a thug thumping a taxi with crowbar before the driver takes off, while there were reported clashes between the visiting hooligans & cabbies.'
Read 10 tweets

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