THREAD: There is only one issue, in truth, here and I have been writing about it for over a decade. Since Andrew Lansley declared a donation from someone associated to a private healthcare co, WHILE he was Health Secretary. The issue is the notion of "above board". 1/
Politicians, of all ilks and at all levels, are meant to register ourside interests. The purpose of doing so is to make public any potential conflicts. This system, however, has been subverted by the idea that registering an interest somehow magically resolves any conflict. 2/
IT. DOES. NOT.

Politicians in a position to make or influence decisions should not be taking money from ANY entity, in a way that may or even APPEAR to compromise them. An obligation to declare would ensure this didn't happen. 3/
But at a time of crumbling convention, the register actually works the opposite way. It works as a SHIELD for outrageous behaviour. Because it's all "above board". By declaring a bribe - and most of them ARE BRIBES - you actually sanitise it; launder it. 4/
In my view, the registering of interests must be pro- not re-active. A cross-party committee needs to look at every potential registration BEFORE money changes hands and positively approve it or prohibit it. You'd be surprised what a difference being accountable makes. 5/5

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More from @sturdyAlex

9 Nov
There are hot takes and then there's Sherelle Jacobs.

Paranoid, McCarthyite, enemy-within dross, with one aim: to excuse those in power; to say that this maelstrom of isolationism, corruption and effluent is not their (or their pom-pom-shakers) fault. The opposite of journalism.
On a day the gov't is neck-deep in a swamp of sleaze, the morning after the PM ran away and left his MPs to defend a decision they were against, to begin with, four days into the Telegraph trying to ignore this story, up pops Sherelle to tell us it's AKTCHULLY all Labour's fault.
And her colleague, Olivia Utley, on Sky News obligingly defending this utter undignified nonsense, and continuing the Telegraph's attack on tHe LiBeRaL eLiTeZ by branding COP26 "a jamboree" and Barack Obama - WAIT FOR IT - "a has-been".
Read 5 tweets
2 Oct
THREAD By DM, wishes to remain anonymous.

TW/CW: rape, abuse, domestic violence

“The first time I can remember seeing a penis was when I went home for lunch from school with a school friend. I had just started high school so I must have been 11 or 12.” 1/ #STFUSaturday
"His older brother and friends were all there watching porn (animal porn) I don’t remember to this day how I ended up alone with one of the friends penis out trying to kiss me and make me touch it while they all laughed outside the door." 2/ #STFUSaturday
"Around 13 I went on a trip to France with school. Three different men exposed themselves to us, our teacher told us to ignore them. Aged around 14 I had my first proper boyfriend, I was besotted with him, we held hands a lot and kissed, that was it." 3/ #STFUSaturday
Read 28 tweets
2 Oct
THREAD By DM, wishes to remain anonymous.

TW/CW: rape, abuse, domestic violence

“The violence against me started when I was a child. My dad had rage issues and, whilst he hurt my mum and my sis, I was his preferred target.” 1/ #STFUSaturday
“After he died, I had an argument with my mum where she said 'yeah, but you used to wind him up...'.
I. Was. A. Child.
Also a grade A student, and sunny and kind (not that these things are prerequisites for not getting abuse).” 2/ #STFUSaturday
“It was never my behaviour that was the issue, it was always his uncontrolled temper. I used to have dreams he killed me.

Sexual harassment started from, I dunno, 13 years old probably - getting leered at and catcalled by blokes in vans or building sites.” 3/ #STFUSaturday
Read 10 tweets
2 Oct
By DM, wishes to remain anonymous:

"4 years ago, I worked at a tech company in Manchester. The all-male sales team were aggressively misogynistic. They rated female employees out of 10, openly shared naked pics of their gfs in the office." 1/5 #STFUSaturday
"One of them once told me: 'Look at [reducted name's] leather pants, I'm worried I'm going to get arrested.' A new, very young female employee started. The sales team took her out, everyone got drunk, and she slept with one of the sales guys." 2/5 #STFUSaturday
"On the Monday, the owner and sales manager organised a prank. They told the sales guy that the girl had gone to the police and was pressing rape charges. At my desk close to the board room, I heard the whole prank unfold and the subsequent hysterical laughter." 3/5 #STFUSaturday
Read 5 tweets
2 Oct
THREAD by DM, wants to remain anonymous:

"Prefer to remain anonymous, I’m in therapy from years of abuse. Brought up in a household of domestic violence, my mum left my dad eventually and we went to grandparents for a while." 1/ #STFUSaturday
"Age 8 Grandad exposed himself, got me to expose myself, escalated to touching (until my Nan clocked it so it stopped). Aged 10 my friends and I were flashed at by an open air swimming pool. We thought it was funny at first but then he started to follow us." 2/ #STFUSaturday
"Aged 12 a man grabbed my (hardly developed) breast as he walked past me, I was so shocked I just froze. He kept walking but when I turned he was looking back and smiling." 3/ #STFUSaturday
Read 7 tweets
2 Oct
THREAD by DM, wants to be anonymous:

"I would please like to remain anonymous. I haven't ever told anyone this.....first....thank you. Reading all these must take a toll yet you are doing it. I am grateful and already in tears!" 1/ #STFUSaturday
"I got a [car - app name redacted] home because I thought it was safer. The driver asked for my number and said to call him directly instead of using the app. He laughed when I refused over safety. Showed me he had my number anyway." 2/ #STFUSaturday
"Made me feel utterly unsafe, something that continued with texts/calls and the horror that thanks to my drop off, he knew where I lived. Then despite asking [app name redacted] not to allow him to pick me up, he came to get me after work in a different car." 3/ #STFUSaturday
Read 6 tweets

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