dan barker Profile picture
Aug 23, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Here's the current status with the Extinction Rebellion protest on Long Acre & St Martin's Lane.

A handful of protesters stood on a giant pink table in the middle of the road.

Oddly, it was just the police, the protesters, and me. Everyone else has been kicked out of the area.
There are tons of police in the area. I'd guess a few hundred. And it's all fenced off with temporary barriers.

The area is only a couple of hundred yards from one of the largest police stations in Central London, so fairly easy for police to come & go.
The police aren't letting anyone in, but oddly they have closed it using a 'Section 14'. They have cleared the whole area using that, and are telling everyone they cannot go in, but legally that is not true: They should let you in if you are not part of it.
Aside from the large pink table, most of the area has been cleared.

There're a few people in a couple of the roads like this - locked onto whatever is in the rolling luggage.
The junction Extinction Rebellion have picked is not actually a particularly busy traffic junction, and is easy to cordon off

The main effect tonight is several restaurants have closed. Monday is a quiet night, and the only theatre within the cordon is closed on a Monday anyway.

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More from @danbarker

Jun 20
The ‘Assisted Dying Bill’ is on the front page of many newspapers, and at the top of most news websites today.

It may feel like it has got to this stage organically, but much of its success is due to an extremely strong marketing campaign from one organisation - Dignity in Dying - some in public, some less immediately visible, spending six figures on average each month to make it happen.

Whether you are for the Bill, or against it, it is worth knowing a little about how things like this work, and the influence of marketing on lawmaking in the UK today.

Here is a thread summarising just a few of the marketing tactics used to achieve this, from the outside looking in...Image
Firstly: What is 'Dignity in Dying'?

- Dignity in Dying is not a charity, it is a limited company. They do not aim to make a profit - instead they aim to use the money they make (some of which is large donations, some a few pounds each month) to change the law

- Dignity in Dying used to be called the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and changed names a number of times over their history

- In the last available accounts they spent over £100,000 average every month on campaigning to achieve Assisted Dying legislation

- They also have a ‘sister charity’ (Compassion in Dying). Many of the team, and the marketing experts on their boards, work across both of these organisations.

- At the same time Keir Starmer was elected PM, they appointed a new Chair who had worked directly with him for several years

- They are also behind much of the polling you see telling you how much people are in favour of Assisted Dying, and if you email the All Party Parliamentary Group on 'Choice at the End of Life', you are actually emailing Dignity in Dying

Without Dignity in Dying's work, it is likely the issue would not even be in parliament.Image
As one illustration of just how influential Dignity in Dying is, here is the information on the All Party Parliamentary Group on 'Choice at the End of Life'.

You may have seen the MPs listed here (red circle 1) talking about Assisted Dying. But: You have possibly not seen them explaining that their group's secretary, its point for enquiries, and essentially its funder (through benefit in kind) is Dignity in Dying itself.Image
Read 19 tweets
Oct 14, 2023
I went to take a look at the 'Palestine' protest in London today.

I guess I've seen more than 100 demos of one sort or another in London.

Most banners at this one were from either Socialist Worker, or 'Friends of Al Aqsa', which was formed by the optician @Ismailadampatel. Image
I asked various people what the Socialist Worker/Palestine connection was and even some people carrying 'Socialist Worker' branded signs did not to know. The Socialist Party had various recruitment gazebos at the start of the route too, so I asked there. Image
It felt slightly odd that they were using a demonstration against military action in Palestine so explicitly to try and recruit new members.

The man on the stand said the link was 'anti imperialism', and they recruit there as people are open to anti-capitalist movements. Image
Read 15 tweets
Apr 30, 2023
Here is a very short thread on this news story, and how the story has become bigger than it probably deserves to be:

If you read the text the BBC put out here, it says "Public *asked* to swear allegiance to King Charles"

That's not quite the case... Image
If you dig into it a bit, you find that strangely the news article itself switches the word 'asked' to 'invited'.

Those are pretty similar, but 'invited' is a slightly weaker word. Image
The word 'Public' also exaggerates the difference between 'invited' and 'asked':

'Public invited to attend gathering at parliament square' is different to 'Public asked to attend gathering at parliament square'.

(One means 'anyone may', one means 'everyone should')
Read 11 tweets
Sep 18, 2022
We decided to walk 'The Queue' today, but the wrong way: from the finish to the start.

Here is a short thread of photos, from the gates in front of Parliament Square back to the park in Bermondsey where people collect their wristbands to join the queue...
The exit is actually an odd spot - people leave, get asked if they're ok by Samaritans (a nice idea), and have to either force through the crowds of Whitehall, or wait to cross to the relative quiet of the square.
Here's the final outdoor bit of the queue - where people go through security, under the windows of Parliament, after they've looped through Victoria Towers Garden.
Read 24 tweets
May 10, 2022
On the value of proof reading, and unintended consequences:

There is an NFT project called Azuki. A month ago it would cost you around 34eth to buy one, which at the time was about $100k. Even at the current lows of the crypto market, they were selling at 25eth a few days ago...
As the crypto market has hit a rough patch, one of the team decided to write an article to talk about ups and downs, and that the way out of a crisis is to keep building.

Obviously, they didn't get it proof read too widely.
The blog post revealed - which the writer seemed to think fine - that the team had been involved in several 'rugs' (projects where other people had invested cash, and the team had just abandoned the project, pulling the rug on it).
Read 9 tweets
May 9, 2022
What an inspiring person.

The fund has just passed £500,000 (plus gift aid).

justgiving.com/campaign/Bowel…
This has now passed £600,000.

Worth reading the message, if you have not already.
And... this has now passed £1 million.

justgiving.com/campaign/Bowel…
Read 6 tweets

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