I was struck by this sentence, written by Andrew Neil, calling for penalties for the unvaccinated:
"I'm not impressed by those who claim this is an egregious assault on our freedoms. Liberty is not the same as unbridled licence to do what you want, which is the road to anarchy."
Functional democracies have to find the right balance between on one hand, maximum freedom for individuals, & on the other, sensible measures to protect decent people from those who would cheat, lie, exploit, manipulate or use violence or intimidation to satisfy their desires.
Over recent decades, the Right has lurched toward 'free-market libertarianism', of the kind that reduces the influence of the state on economic matters, yet increases the repressive power of the state by abandoning rules, rights & regulations designed to protect citizens.
This lurch toward unbridled free-market capitalism, pushed by almost every grotesquely wealthy media baron, corporate CEO, right-wing Government & free-market think tank on earth brought us the catastrophic financial crash & is pushing the earth toward cataclysmic climate change.
As we can see in Britain, the Govt's cynical libertarian attitude, exploitation of good faith, & utter contempt for rules, regulations, human rights, codes of conduct & even truth itself, is resulting in division, anger, frustration & the breakdown of trust in democracy itself.
Imho, the Govt's cynical, exploitative & dangerously irresponsible lurch toward right-wing libertarian populism - of the kind broadly supported by Andrew Neil - is the REAL "egregious assault on our freedoms. Liberty is not the same as unbridled licence to do what you want".
"Freedom".
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🚨 Prof Brooke Harrington has researched the ultrarich for 25 years & offers some terrifying observations about the aims of the new breed of super-wealthy tech barons, #Broligarchs like Thiel, Musk, Mercer etc - the real 'Sovereign Individuals'.
Very few people are fully aware of the goals & beliefs of Broligarchs like Elon Musk & Peter Thiel.
The truth is that these ultrarich Broligarchs want to reorder society, giving rise to threats to women, to minorities, society & democracy, all while bypassing accountability.
They will push women out of public life; deny kids a rounded education; remove sensible regulations & laws designed to help keep people safe; & they will further normalise crypto, which will have seismic, destabilising & potentially catastrophic consequences for the entire world.
A 2016 petition calling on the Govt to have a threshold on the EU referendum got more than FOUR MILLION signatures. A 2019 petition calling on the Govt to revoke Article 50 & remain in the EU got more than SIX MILLION signatories.
Both were ignored.
The Express says the petition, pushed by some of the UK's worst people, “is now being branded Britain’s fastest-ever growing petition!”
WHO BY?
Started on 20/11, by 11am 4 DAYS later, it had 509,095. The 2019 Revoke Article 50 petition got FOUR MILLION signatures in 48 hours!
The relatively new, highly suspicious, divisive anonymous right-wing #disinformation @X account, @InevitableWest, amplified by Musk & which falsely claims Tommy Robinson was jailed "for journalism", is pushing the petition, & making false claims about it.
There was outrage when in 2020, the Tory Govt conceded a new bill to amend the UK's Brexit deal would "break international law" in a "specific & limited way".
But what is international law? What is the ICC?
And what were Margaret Thatcher's views on international law?
First, what is 'international law'?
Broadly (it's complicated!) it refers to the body of legal rules, norms, and standards that apply between sovereign states and other entities that are legally recognized as international actors.
The term was coined by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). According to Bentham’s classic definition, international law is a collection of rules governing relations between states. This original definition omits individuals and international organizations.
"Improving the quality of life for people of this country is perhaps the most important duty of Government."
John Prescott has died.
In September 2000, John - then Deputy Prime Minister - gave a speech at the @UKLabour Party Conference, introducing Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela died in December 2013. Writing a tribute in the Daily Mirror, John reflected on his death, writing: “In my office at home I have a picture that is my most treasured possession. It’s of me shaking Nelson Mandela’s hand on stage at the @UKLabour conference in 2000."
At the Rivonia Trial, between 1963 & 1964, Mandela gave a dramatic speech from the dock.
John wrote in 2013 “When I read that, I knew that I wanted to enter politics. He was my inspiration. So when he walked free in 1990, we felt as if one of our own comrades had been freed.”
🧵
Allison Pearson posted then deleted disinformation, falsely accused three people of being "Jew haters", lied about where the photo was taken & what they were doing, then lied about what the Police said to her - and then moaned about being a victim! FFS
The Telegraph's divisive shit-stirrer Pearson falsely claimed she was told by the police who came to her home it was over a “non-crime hate incident”. Her lie was then dutifully amplified by every Reform UK MP & billionaire-owned right-wing "news" media, painting her as a victim.
Essex Police said “At no stage... was she informed that the report being investigated was being treated as a non-crime hate incident. To suggest otherwise is wholly inaccurate and misleading.”
Pearson, Farage, Musk, Young, Habib, & many other shit-stirrers who shamelessly try to normalize hateful, divisive, provocative & inflammatory rhetoric, often refer to George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is much closer to the dystopia we inhabit...
Harassment, malicious communications, incitement, & threatening violence are all crimes in the UK, & have been for a long time.
Print & broadcast media, & online social media are simply platforms on which we behave or misbehave: it's not about the medium, it's about the offence.
The UK is signed up to Article 10 of the #ECHR: everyone has the right to free speech, which may only be qualified in limited circumstances, including: national security; public safety; the protection of morals & of the reputation or rights of others.