The problem with “Don’t Look Up” isn’t that it’s crude or exaggerated. Quite the opposite. The true nature of Trumpian decision making & manipulation, science- & reality-denial, & the bizarre input of some ultra-wealthy, ultra-powerful individuals, is more extreme … /1.
… & more disturbing than the movie is able to convey. Probably no movie could do it. Journalists, film critics & others comforting themselves with criticism that “Don’t Look Up” is over the top, clunky & unpersuasive, either don’t understand the truth, or do but think … /2.
… it needs to be sugar-coated to land with a broad audience. But, as the movie itself makes clear, sweetening the message is a major part of the existential problems we’re facing. Certainly not a path to mass acceptance of the radical, immediate & sustained action required. /3.
Typically, some people are likely now to ask me if I have been “in the room”: the implication being that if not a 24/7 companion of Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson & Co, or their little English, European, Russian & other helpers, I’m making this stuff up. So: two responses. /4.
First: yes, I have. No, I won’t share details. You’ll just have to make your own judgements about that.
Second: so what? For the most part, you don’t need to have been in the room to know “Don’t Look Up” is accurate. If anything, understated & overly witty. /5.
Finally, it’s legitimate to examine “Don’t Look Up” for production, writing, direction, performances etc. (I think they’re all strong). But to claim it’s crudely over the top, excessively brutal or unhelpfully off-putting, is badly divorced from the reality it addresses. /6. End
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Getting big decisions right is what guides the country to a better future.
Not arguments over rearranging Whitehall departmental deckchairs👇
Or bizarre No. 10
advisors claiming deep knowledge of things about which they haven’t a clue.
2015 was a Great British Catastrophe. /1.
A Conservative government (elected by minority vote) set about implementing a jaw-droppingly reckless promise.
To take the UK out of the EU if a referendum majority voted for it.
What happened to the £ after that announcement? A crash comparable to the great 2007/8 crisis. /2.
And here’s what happened to growth in UK economic output per person (GDP per capita) compared to the G7 & €-zone. (Greece is included separately as an indicator of the broad-based strength of €-zone growth since the referendum announcement - compared to the UK at least). /3.
You’re in a political party dominated by extremists, who put their brutal fantasies & mangled emotions above the security, prosperity & well-being of the country.
When will you take back control? /1.
You know the leaked WhatsApp messages aren’t the half of it.
Nothing short of the dismemberment of constitutional, liberal, representative democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights, economic & social justice is being attempted. /2.
By around 240 government MPs, most of 200,000 Party members & a minority of the electorate. Resourced & assisted by anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, self-serving backers within & beyond the UK. /3.
The key to understanding @DavidGHFrost is ambition & self-regard.
Those can be positives, or negatives, depending on how they’re used.
He wants to reach the top. He has for decades. And he believes he’s capable of pretty much anything.
A 🧵/1.
It’s impossible to see inside a mind.
So to say for sure eg whether Lord Frost’s adherence to the great “English” philosopher Edmund Burke is genuine, is impossible.
It seems unlikely though, given the mangled version of Burke he proclaims. /2.
Fans of “Yes Minister” will recall Sir Humphrey’s horror when accused of having “beliefs” or “ideas”. Think of Lord Frost as Sir Humphrey with high political ambitions.
Though not repelled by the idea of having a “vision”, he’s never had much of one.
“We are not living in the 1930s & the Secretary of State & his team are not Nazis”.
Extraordinary @wesstreeting is left to point this out, in support of @sajidjavid, during the Covid debate in the Commons.
He’s right. He deserves our thanks.
But there’s more to it.
A 🧵/1.
To compare genuine public health measures, which of course have to weigh multiple difficult factors, with the brutal victimisation of Jews on the invented pretext that they spread disease, isn’t just wrong.
It’s vile.
And something many would see as Holocaust denial. /2.
But we shouldn’t pretend a clear & concerted assault on human & citizenship rights, protest, the rule of law, judicial independence & more, is “normal” in a decent, liberal democracy.
The Johnson-Frost Brexit - dislocating the UK from the EU customs union & single market, & putting a border between GB & NI - is supported by about two thirds of Conservative MPs (& DUP).
About one third see serious & escalating damage to the UK from it. And never wanted it. /2.
Opposition MPs (ex DUP) also oppose the Johnson-Frost Brexit, precisely because of that damage.
Having voted in favour, with a “no deal” gun to their heads, doesn’t alter that.
Combined, that’s ~390 MPs who know it has to be reversed.