1/ One of the biggest anti-vax, anti-lockdown accounts on Twitter is the so called Anti Lockdown Alliance (GLOBAL). It tweets in several languages but mostly English - all the usual bullsh*t conspiracy theories, about the "Great Reset", Bill Gates, etc...
2/ Here it is sharing a Sputnik article in Portuguese suggesting the virus was created by Bill Gates and George Soros. The Anti Lockdown Alliance often tweets stuff from Russian propaganda media controlled by Putin's mafia state...
3/ In fact, the Anti Lockdown alliance are all-round fans of Putin. Here they are welcoming his remarks about the "Great Reset" - one of the conspiracy theories most heavily promoted by Kremlin trolls...
4/ According to the Anti Lockdown Alliance, Putin's Russia is a haven of freedom and tolerance. Unlike Britain, which - along with other EU countries - is now a "police state"...
5/ The Anti Lockdown Alliance is also a fan of Belarus and its tyrannical president Alexander Lukashenko. Another bastion of freedom, apparently. Who'd have thought?
6/ The Anti Lockdown Alliance is not so busy resisting lockdowns and vaccination that it does not have time to comment on foreign policy points relating to Russia...
7/ In fact, the Anti Lockdown Alliance sometimes goes further than simply echoing Kremlin talking points. Here it is suggesting that "Russia storm in and take Nazi occupied Europe for the people" ...
8/ All this might suggest that there is rather more to the Anti Lockdown Alliance than meets the eye. And there is good evidence that Putin's mafia state has been busy promoting conspiracy theories around the pandemic... allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/a…
9/ Why is the Kremlin promoting anti-vax, anti-lockdown disinformation?
Same reason as it promoted Trump & Brexit. To cause chaos & conflict in Western countries that it sees as enemies.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of home-grown idiots only to happy to assist in this.
A bit more detail on the Anti Lockdown Alliance in this for @WCountryBylines. If it's not part of a Kremlin influence operation, it certainly looks very much like one.
Never mind the milkshake. The real #Clacton story is that Nigel Farage is being escorted by fraudster & convicted felon "Posh George" Cottrell.
More on Cottrell and various other crooks with whom Farage has close links in this by me for @BylineTimes. bylinetimes.com/2023/07/24/far…
It is indeed George Cottrell with Farage in Clacton. After serving time in the US, he changed his name to George Co & moved to Montenegro, from which he made an abrupt exit after some very murky & allegedly illegal business involving cryptocurrency. insidebitcoins.com/news/crypto-sc…
.@BBCNews & other media outlets need to ask themselves why they're so extensively platforming Nigel Farage, the unelected "leader" of a far-right political "party" that's actually a private limited company, & a man who consorts with convicted fraudsters.
I wrote about Isaac Levido, Topham Guerin, Palantir & the intersection between dark money-funded corporate lobbying & political dirty tricks for @BylineTimes.
@BylineTimes @JolyonMaugham Incidentally, I wonder if Palantir will be showing its appreciation for the award of massive NHS data contracts by contributing its big-data resources for political campaigning purposes, perhaps "unofficially".
That said, the BBC has many excellent journalists, locally & nationally - here's BBC News East reporting in depth on why the Green Party did so well in Suffolk. The political bias comes from much higher up within the organisation. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
And here's BBC Politics West reporting on big @TheGreenParty wins in the Forest of Dean & talking to @carla_denyer about Greens winning on Jacob Rees Mogg's doorstep in North East Somerset.
BBC reporting on the amazing #GreenWave has been much better locally than nationally.
The photo of Nigel Farage embracing Andrew Tate was taken at the 2019 CPAC conference, where Tate was also pictured with an assortment of other far-right creeps incl. Paul Joseph Watson & Jack Posobiec.
Tate was already notorious for his vicious misogyny.
Later that year. Andrew Tate invited some of his far-right pals to Romania, including Mike Cernovich (famous for claiming that date rape "does not exist"). Cernovich tweeted that it was a "first class event".
And here's Andrew Tate with Donald Trump Jr at Trump Tower, & with Candace Owens of the influential far-right group Turning Point (its UK branch has been endorsed by Priti Patel & Jacob Rees-Mogg). Tate is not just a virulent misogynist under investigation for alleged rape...
1/ Liz Truss's government is clearly trying to destroy the (already degraded) social contract that underwrote the NHS and the post-war welfare state.
It's doing this on the basis of an extreme version of Hayek's "free-market" ideology, the moving spirit of Britannia Unchained.
2/ Crises present good opportunities for ideologically motivated extremists to push through policies that might have seemed unthinkable before, as Naomi Klein described in The Shock Doctrine.
Pinochet imposed precisely the same sort of ideology on Chile after seizing power.
3/ Truss's extremist ideology will not produce the prosperity it promises, though it will make some already very rich people even richer.
For everyone else, it will only deepen extreme poverty & inequality, and drive social chaos & despair.
Look, Carrie Johnson was eminently suited to a £100k FO job. Here she is in 2012 with the Russian Ambassador at the launch of Conservative Friends of Russia, set up by the later CEO of Vote Leave with the help of Russian agent Sergey Nalobin. #Carriegate westcountryvoices.co.uk/tough-times-fo…
...at least, I'm pretty sure this is Carrie Johnson (then Symonds). Also pictured here is John Whittingdale MP, a founder member of Conservative Friends of Russia, whom she accompanied to this delightful event, where raffle prizes included a biography of Putin. #Carriegate
Carrie Johnson & the Tory MPs at the launch of Conservative Friends of Russia must have known the nature of Putin's regime. Putin had already presided over massacres in Chechnya, invaded Georgia & ordered the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London with radioactive polonium.