A firebreak is a gap in combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a wildfire.
What Boris Johnson's reckless Government of sociopaths has announced is the opposite of a firebreak: they're doing everything they possibly can to fuel the fire.
This is an incredibly dark time for Britain: we have a pathetically weak opposition, our democracy hangs by a thread, & our broken electoral system has handed unimaginable power to by far the worst UK Govt in history - despite fewer than 3 in 10 of the electorate voting for them.
In a functioning democracy, the powerful are held accountable for their actions. But our Government lies with impunity & misleads constantly, while demonising swathes of the population, & showing utter contempt for voters & flagrant disregard for rules, regulations, codes & laws.
Several governments worried that their pandemic restrictions would quickly lead to “behavioural fatigue” so that people would stop adhering to restrictions. In the UK, Dominic Cummings recently admitted that this was the reason for not locking down the country sooner.
The Govt’s failure to provide financial & other forms of support for people to self-isolate was driven by their fear that the system “might be gamed”, that people who tested positive may falsely claim they'd been in contact with all their friends, so they could all get a payment.
In 'The “Establishment”, the “Elites”, & the “People”:
Who’s who?', linguist Ruth Wodak explores how right-wing populist parties create a division between the 'real' & 'true' people, & the 'elites' or 'the establishment' excluded from the 'true' demos.
There has been an erosion of trust in politics in general - a far more serious threat than the loss of trust towards a specific political party or individual.
It implies a search for alternatives – which is where right‐wing populist & extreme right political parties come in.
We get new & self‐defined saviours of ‘the people’ dominating politics, presenting themselves as authentic & trustworthy, their political rhetoric reliant on the construction of a distinct dichotomy which aims to divide people living in a country into two quasi homogenous blocs:
The Govt have just facilitated the sale of Morrisons supermarkets to #Koch industries, which funds climate change denial, white nationalist hate groups, & free-market fundamentalist think-tanks which lobby to remove all regulations & worker, consumer & environmental protections.
Imho, this is culture-war-lite garbage, set up on a completely false premise: the idea that anyone exists who actually advocates for schools having NO rules.
This condescending, pompous & regressive 1950s hard-right throwback, adored by the Right, actually runs a school! 😳
Says everything that headteacher of a "free school" Katharine Birbalsingh confused Lord of the Flies (about a group of boys stranded on an uninhabited island) with Lord of the Rings (about hobbits featuring a Dark Lord striving for world domination by magic & physical violence).
In 2018, Sky News Australia sparked outcry after it broadcast an interview with a far-right #nationalist#extremist who has expressed his admiration for #Hitler.
Sky News Australia CEO Angelos Frangopoulos downplayed it as "an error of judgment".
Frangopoulos is GB "News" CEO.
GB News' creators clearly believe that US-style grievance politics can sustain at least a low-budget, tactically neutered version of Fox.
GB "News" is a right-wing TV "news" channel. Britain hasn’t had one of those before. The shift is real.