🧵PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH, OR CHANGE YOUR SPEECH?🦠

A long-standing Tory MP has backed the idea of imposing lockdowns on unvaccinated people only.

Today, as all robust democracies should be free to do, I challenge these extreme views and expose a catalogue of rank hypocrisy👇🏻
Sir Gary Streeter — @garystreeterSWD — is the longest-serving MP in Devon and Cornwall and served as a junior minister under John Major’s Conservative Government.

In December 2018, it was announced that Streeter would receive a knighthood in the 2019 New Year Honours List.
13 days ago, Streeter caused consternation when he reacted to an article which said EU member Austria was “considering a Covid lockdown for the unvaccinated only.”

It outlines a scenario where unvaccinated people would only be allowed to leave their homes for “specific reasons”.
Streeter responded to the article by stating that it was a “good idea”, suggesting that he would back similar measures were they to be proposed by the UK Gov.

Whatever your view of the last 18 months, pursuing such a divisive policy would usher in a new era of medical apartheid.
One could only assume this safe seat Tory MP was merely cementing a line of thought expressed previously, no matter how extreme those views were.

And yet, on closer inspection, that is not what I found at all. Instead I found an MP proclaiming to be a mental health advocate.
In a blog entitled “Mental Health Matters” from February 2021, Streeter talks about thoroughly investigating mental health provision in his constituency and calls it a top 3 topic.

“The pandemic is obviously going to make this more necessary than ever,” he concluded by saying.
In an April blog, Streeter bemoaned social media’s role in encouraging “extreme positions” & a lack of middle ground or reasonable debate.

“Our heritage is to hold positions with passion, but recognise the rights of others to hold an opposite view with equal passion,” he said.
He added: “We want healthy debate without closing down those who take another view. Freedom of Speech. We need to listen to the other side. Who knows, we might actually learn something.”

Curious then, that the rights, freedom, & views of unvaccinated people don’t seem to matter?
In another, he wrote: “I accept that our economy simply cannot afford a fourth lockdown and it is better to lock-step our way cautiously towards the total lifting of restrictions over a sensible time period than to rush this and get it wrong.”
Writing in November 2020, the 66-year-old said people needed to “dial down” the outrage, adding: “Although government must be held to account by Parliament & the Opposition & the media, it would help to see a much more constructive national discourse about how to beat Covid.”
In a Facebook post on 16 June, as you can see here, the Tory MP suggested quite the opposite to creating a segregated society based on medical statuses when he said:

“We must learn to live with it and once most adults are jabbed that is what we will do.”

Was this a lie, Sir?
As a regular promoter of the UK’s vaccination programme, Streeter also hails the rollout and in one blog refers to the jabs as “huge game changers”.

He also, at one point, admits to backing lockdown measures despite having no idea if the scientists are actually correct.
And, quite laughably, after the terrible murder of Sir David Amess last month, Streeter eulogised on BBC Radio Devon about Amess’s passion for marginalised groups and those without a voice, and that “everyone was equal and of worth.”
So, @garystreeterSWD, I ask how you as a long-standing MP can in all good consciousness promote your deeply held beliefs in the vaccines on one hand, whilst admitting they don’t work on the other hand by backing such extreme and divisive lockdown measures?
I ask you, Sir Gary, how you as a long-standing MP can in all good consciousness proclaim to care about mental health whilst pushing for policies which trample on decades of Western principles over informed consent, & which would decimate mental health for a section of society?
I ask you, Sir Gary, how you as a long-standing MP can in all good consciousness claim to be taken seriously after stating:

“We must learn to live with it & once most adults are jabbed that is what we will do,” in June.

Followed by “Good idea” to unvaccinated lockdowns in Oct.
And finally, Sir Gary, I ask how you as a long-standing MP can in all good consciousness talk about “extreme positions”, “constructive national discourse”, & of treating everyone in society equally whilst advocating for policies that do the precise opposite setting us back years?
I urge none of my followers to verbally abuse you in any way, but as a public servant whose wages are paid for by the British taxpayer, I equally urge you to answer the fair and robust questions I have outlined above; in the interests of transparency and the public interest.
From what I can see, your words fail to match your actions if you are indeed advocating the segregation of civil Western society based on people’s private medical statuses

Can you clarify?

Pretending you’re moral, & saying you are moral, is not the same as acting morally.

ENDS

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More from @James_Townsend9

31 Oct
🧵DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE…🦠

Yesterday, after @PoliticsForAlI incorrectly labelled yesterday’s #FreedomMarch an “anti-Covid restrictions” rally, Twitter was awash with the usual suspects screaming: “What restrictions?”

Here is an open letter to them all👇🏻
Firstly, who am I referring to? Well, it would be dozens of these fine individuals who seemed *genuinely* puzzled that anyone would have anything to protest about right now.

Because, as one of them articulates, they are able to go shopping & have a pint. That’s freedom, right?
These people are cheered on and influenced by celebrities, media professionals, and the greater good of society who peddle the same line.

“We don’t have any restrictions,” is their message and it’s a message many lap up.

So, for those who think we have no Covid measures…
Read 24 tweets
6 Oct
🧵THE WEAPONISATION OF WORDS🦠💥

The Tory Party, as it has done throughout the pandemic, is continuing to use communication techniques to push an agenda:

The Great Reset — #BuildBackBetter

Here’s how they do it, & why we all need to raise awareness of these deceitful tactics👇🏻
STEP 1: NORMALISATION
If you want a flavour of what Britain’s leading political party is now pushing, you only have to analyse its packed conference schedule #CPC21 which (thankfully) ends today.

Over the 4 days, there were 340 conference sessions, panel debates, & themed stands
From the 340 sessions, almost a third (31.9%) had the following words in the title:

• Levelling up: 10.3%
• Build Back Better (or variation): 4.1%
• Green/climate change/environment: 5.8%
• Carbon/Net zero: 7%
• Covid/pandemic: 4.7%

These are today’s closing speeches…
Read 21 tweets
1 Sep
🧵GUTTER JOURNALISM STRIKES AGAIN🦠💥

There was once a time, in the now dark & distant past, when journalists would craft their stories with balance and panache. Using credible sources to add “weight” to an article.

I’m about to tell you what today’s crop of “journalists” do👇🏻
But first, a bit of background. Yesterday @beverleyturner debated @DrNighatArif on @thismorning over the proposed rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to 12-year-old children.

Safe to say, it was a lively affair. But it’s important to note it was a more balanced interview than usual.
Both guests had opportunity to speak, and the presenters remained largely impartial throughout.

Dr Arif was representing an organisation called @projecthalo which is part of the United Nations “Verified” initiative. It is regularly promoted by big tech companies like YouTube.
Read 24 tweets
26 Aug
🧵THE PANDEMIC IMPACT ON CHILDREN🦠

The Children’s Society has published its tenth annual study on the wellbeing of young people, The Good Childhood Report 2021.

It paints a worrying picture of how some of our kids have fared during the pandemic.

More👇🏻
childrenssociety.org.uk/good-childhood
The headlines include:

• roughly a quarter of a million (250k) children did not cope well with changes during the pandemic

• 42% of children are worried about new illnesses/pandemics

• 24% of children are ‘quite’ or ‘very’ worried about their mental health (vs 17% in 2019)
• 61% of parents reported the ‘slight’ or ‘very’ negative impact homeschooling had on family life

• 43% of parents said there had been a ‘slight’ or ‘very’ negative impact on children’s happiness in the household

• the pandemic ‘might have exacerbated existing inequalities’
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17 Aug
🧵WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT CARE HOMES?🦠

Today four brave care professionals, including a husband and wife, lift the lid on the appalling conditions facing residents and staff in England’s care homes, exacerbated by the looming mandatory vaccination deadline.

Read more👇🏻
Through their courageous & very personal testimonies, I can reveal an alleged litany of failings inc:

• care homes at breaking point & residents left to wet themselves in isolation

• staff sobbing in corridors & regularly working illegal shift patterns due to under resourcing
• “endless pressure” and “bullying” from central HR teams to coerce employees into having the vaccine

• mental health insinuations against those choosing not to be vaccinated

• minimum wage carers pressurised into work when previously sick, who now face losing their jobs.
Read 37 tweets
25 Jul
🧵PROTESTS: ARE WE GETTING IT RIGHT?🦠

I’m probably going to get pelters in some quarters for this but I feel it needs to be said.

I’ve often defended the protest organisers, however, I feel yesterday they got it badly wrong in London. Damagingly so.
I’m going to tell you why👇🏻
When I attended the march back in April, the beauty was the sheer diversity of people in attendance (as I wrote about at the time).

June and July was the same. You don’t attract a diverse crowd like that by focusing on niche topics — you do it by targeting key central themes.
Themes like lockdown, like vaccine passports, and like bodily autonomy/mandatory vaccinations. Issues that have a solid foundation from which to argue our point of view; issues which, with some gentle persuasion, members of the public at large could/should get energised about.
Read 18 tweets

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