Hard-right Breitbart & Spiked columnist, advisor to Lozza Fox's Reclaim Party, ex-Brexit Party candidate & divisive brass-necked Policy Exchange crank Calvin Robinson, who RELENTLESSLY demonises the #England team for taking the knee, accuses @billybragg of being bad faith actor.
And immediately loads of cowardly anonymous right-wing trolls start having a go at Billy, & sheep-like regurgitate culture war bullshit about how 'taking the knee supports Marxists', when the England team have repeatedly spelt out in terms a child can understand why they do it.
But they don't really care. The fuse has been lit, & US billionaires, Libertarian think tanks & publications, media moguls like Murdoch & the UK Govt have invested so much time & resources in waging the culture war to enable divide & rule that they can't see they're being played.
Anyone STILL arguing that "fans" are right to boo England players who take the knee to show solidarity with fellow players who STILL suffer appalling racist abuse week in week out, is, imho, a hard-right brainwashed dickhead. Disagreement is fine. Booing is fucking pathetic. 🏴👍
Steve Bannon's strategy:
'Flood the zone' with culture war crap about unwelcome change, failing democracy & free speech/religion/tradition 'under attack'
Position ordinary people as 'patriotic victims'
Demonise & scapegoat minority out-groups, intellectuals, experts & the Left
Ken Hinds, described as 'a pillar within his community' by the EHRC, dedicates his life to fighting racism, receiving a MET Police commendation for his ‘courage, tenacity & dedication’ in tackling knife crime. In April, hard-right rentagob Robinson absurdly called him "a racist".
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A research paper from the University of Greenwich, 'The case for a progressive annual #WealthTax in the UK' (updated 12th June 2024), analyses the revenue potential of a progressive annual net wealth tax on the top 1% in the UK...
A progressive net wealth tax is a tax on the stock of net wealth (assets minus liabilities), that is designed to raise revenues primarily from only the very wealthiest individuals, primarily to fund public & other essential services, which benefit *everyone*.
#TaxTheRich
The authors present a baseline progressive net wealth tax that only taxes the top 1% wealthiest individuals. Individuals with net wealth above £2.2M (the top 1%) are taxed at a marginal rate of 1%; above £3.6M (the top 0.5%) at 2%, & above £11.2M (the top 0.1%) at 4%.
#TaxTheRich
Today, you might get the impression from news and social media that the far-right has 'taken over' the EU, which is in its death throws: the evidence does not support this view: nationalist/populist hard/far-right parties are on course to get just a quarter of EU seats.
Hard/far-right parties have made not insignificant gains in several countries across the EU, not least France, Italy, Germany & Austria, producing uncertainty about the EU - and Europe's - political direction & future.
However, it's certainly not the landslide you may think.
Europe's nationalist parties have capitalised in the EU Parliament election on voter disquiet over spiralling prices, migration, & the cost of the green transition & will seek to translate their seat gains into influence on EU policy - basically Reform UK's policy platform.
We face housing & climate crises, not migrant & overcrowding crises.
We need more affordable housing, but health is often forgotten about in housing policies. Amid the clamour for economic growth & house building targets, housing quality loses out. Decent regulations & standards are often derided as unnecessary 'red tape'.
In 2022, 'political risk & intelligence analyst' & Egyptian immigrant to the UK, Khaled Hassan, explained in a podcast hosted by the controversial UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism why he, now 'a proud Jew', converted from Islam to Judaism.
In March 2022, The Jewish Chronicle featured Hassan, describing him as a "hero moderator" of @YouTube videos, "who dared to speak up (but) was silenced as Whistleblower".
He described what he perceived to be as YouTube's failure to remove hateful videos.
Rumour has it, the character leading Nigel Farage away is George Cottrell, an interesting chap, who may give some insight into Farage's 'anti-elite' Reform UK team.
(Btw, I don't agree with chucking drinks over anyone).
Cottrell's mum, The Honourable Fiona Watson, daughter of Rupert Watson, 3rd Baron Manton, is a former gf of King Charles!
I accept no-one chooses their parents, but opportunities for the privately educated like Cottrell, Tice, Farage & Habib are greater than for ordinary folk.
Given Kemi Badenoch's well-documented history of gaslighting, performative cruelty, divisive rhetoric & questionable judgement - which includes the time she told the Covid Inquiry 'there's no cure for poverty' - here's a short thread of some of her 'best bits'... 😬
That time an irritated & condescending Kemi Badenoch told the Covid Inquiry that "we don't have a cure for poverty".
That time Kemi Badenoch was asked how she felt when she first heard about Tory donor Frank Hester saying looking at Diane Abbott made him “want to hate all Black women” & she “should be shot”, & replied: 'It didn't make me feel anything in particular'.