As Covid cases rise, this New Scientist item is good reminder of the importance of combining vaccination programme with social measures to suppress virus. We continue to lack a proper infrastructure for doing so. What little we have is about to be removed newscientist.com/article/225725…
@sajidjavid using virus to cast himself as the new strong man is a disgrace. He made catastrophic error in his first statement as Health Secretary. And now he expects us to follow him into a very dark place. Johnson seems to be nowhere. We must try to help each other #NHS
@sajidjavid's admiration of Ayn Rand's hyper-individualism is the lens through which he views the virus. He does not see that we must hold together or fall together. He just sees his own individual desire to be free of interference. Your freedom to be safe & well does not count.
Let's remember this as a line in the sand. @sajidjavid has been given expert advise & caution. He has also said we must be honest about the consequences. So, honestly, one consequence is that you & your government must go. You have harmed us enough.
I thought we could wait for next GE. But I am starting to think this govt must go far sooner. Food shortages, health crisis, economic decline. These people who are failing to govern the country must just go & we will pick up the broken pieces they leave behind @Conservatives
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If the message has not got through, then here it is again. Our govt has abandoned us. It has deliberately smashed social solidarity. Set us one against another. By foregoing its responsibility to protect, it has become an illegitimate, failing regime @Conservatives@sajidjavid
We are on our own. As we were at pandemic start. Stitching together mutual aid & joint action. Organised society & communities can respond:
Corporates - let people work from home, mask up frontline staff & customers. Require social distancing. Set up your own test, track, trace
Civil Society - come together as whole services. Pool your people & resources. Maintain Covid-19 infrastructure (ignore govt advice post July 19)
MINI Cooper - German owned by BMW
British Airways - Spanish owned by IAG
British Steel - Chinese owned by Jingye Group
Cadburys - US owned by Mondelez
And most notoriously, key British technology company ARM sold to Japan's SoftBank & now US's Nvidia
Buying British - strategy based on economic nationalism - will do us no good if we keep selling off the family silver. We need to grow globally relevant businesses in key industries. That means integration into core markets. That means EU @UKLabour @RachelReevesMP @Keir_Starmer
Giving this more thought. Since the opposing parties lack a parliamentary majority, how will they secure PR? Whilst debates on PR go back & forth, we get closer to a 2022/3 General Election #ProgressiveAlliance #DemocraticAlliance #FBPPR #FBPE @chilterns4
In the next GE, we must remove from power the people who have stolen the #conservative party. We will likely not have PR to help us. So we need to start building now a #ProgressiveAlliance. Goes beyond tactical voting. Makes choice easier for the voter #DemocraticAlliance #FBPPR
What is a #ProgressiveAlliance ? It is the strategic answer to the meta-threat the people who have stolen the #Conservative party present to our democracy. To the freedom, power and solidarity we need to pursue all other progressive policy objectives. @chilterns4 #FBPPR #FBPE
There may be other strategies - such as tactical voting. But these put too great a burden on the voter. And gets the parties off the hook - they don't need to do anything. The parties must take back responsibility. They must serve their core public purpose of giving us voice.
It is not fair to keep asking the voter to shoulder the risks of perpetually losing parties. The task of the voter (especially under #FPTP) needs to be made easier with a binary choice - and it is the job of the opposing parties to provide one. #FBPPR #FBPE
If you can, do please enrich the discussion with your experiences and ideas. Send Tweets & Messages
Here goes:
(1) The political parties need our support to come to the table, to start their talks. Let's identify and dismantle their barriers to doing so.
(2) Operationally, PA might consist of: 1. Shared values - inc. conservatives who feel politically homeless 2. Committed party leaders 3. Mobilised network of local groups 4. Climate of goodwill & joint purpose 5. Orchestrating entity to hold whole lot together