1/. Do you remember what you did #ValentinesDay 2020?

Prof Ferguson was warning that 400,000 Briton’s could die

Minutes from NERVTAG’s 21 Feb meeting, reveal govt scientific advisors estimated that, without action, deaths could top 1.3 million

No action was taken for a month
2/. Meanwhile, @BorisJohnson & @carriesymonds, went to stay in Chevening country house...for 12 days!

The govt claim this was a ‘working holiday’ but @JCalvertST reported that “aides were told to cut down documents or the PM just wouldn't read them”. #ValentinesDay #valentines
3/. During these 12 days in the countryside, the PM - who admitted he doesn’t read the scientific papers - missed two COBRA meetings

Instead of planning for the impact of #COVID19 he was trying to finalise his divorce

When he came back to London, the PM was winging it as usual
4/. #ValentinesDay, 2022 was two weeks after @WHO had declared #COVID19 a "public health emergency of intn’l concern”

It was 6 weeks after he had been told about #COVID

Hancock claims he’d been “sounding the alarm”

And it was 2 weeks after the PM had made his #GreenwichSpeech!
5/. We know now that the govt weren’t doing anything to prepare for #COVID19 because doing nothing was their “strategy”

The PM had indicated as much in his #GreenwichSpeech where he hinted that lockdowns would be “medically irrational”

He also talked of Britain as “Superman”
6/. Could this idea of the UK emerging into a post-COVID world as a “super-charged superman” refer to a wider long-term plan to obtain population-wide genomic data & to put genomics at the heart of the programme for govt & the economy

Isn’t this the dream of Cummings & Thiel etc

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Feb 12
“If you’re cold, take one
If you can help, leave one.”

Brighton’s #TakeOneLeaveOne rail is on the corner of Ship St & North Rd

If you’re in need of warm clothes, come down & help yourself

If you can help, drop off some warm clothes

They also need volunteers

See #TOLOBrighton
“This is a brilliant thing!”

Music legend @guypratt who had played with the likes of @pinkfloyd @davidgilmour @Madonna @IggyPop @bryanferry @Icehouseband @nickmasondrums etc, came down to the Brighton #TakeOneLeaveOne rail today to drop off some warm clothes for those in need.
To set up a #TakeOneLeaveOne rail where you are:

1. Get a rail

2. Find good location (ideally covered)

3. Get permission of locals/shopkeepers

4. Make a sign, ask us for a free one or order one 4 £30

5. Hang up warm clothes @BoyGeorge @MassiveAttackUK
Read 4 tweets
Feb 10
1/. The biggest story I ever “broke” (coverage-wise) was a piece about Malawi’s plan to ban farting in public

I was researching an article about homophobia in Africa & stumbled on the story in the @NyasaTimess

I wrote it up for a tabloid & it went global
2/. The story I wrote for the @DailyMailUK - I was a freelancer...don’t judge me - was packed with fart gags: “The winds of change blowing through Africa” etc

The next day @DailyMirror picked it up

By the end of the week, it was the top story on the BBC website & was EVERYWHERE ImageImageImageImage
3/. A week after the story ‘broke’ I was guest on Bluff The Listener - a radio show on @NPR

Broadcast to 30 million listeners, it’s a bit like BBC’s ‘Would I Lie To You’ (@WILTY_TV) where guests have to work out the fake story

None of them got it right👇
npr.org/2011/02/05/133… Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 9
If you're free this Sunday, I'm doing a free walking tour tracing London's greatest lost waterway - the River Fleet - from it's two sources on Hampstead Heath as it heads towards the Thames (with my dog Mango)

Meet on top of Parliament Hill at 2pm facebook.com/events/1088672… Image
This 1746 map follows the Fleet from the Thames at Blackfriars along the Fleet Ditch, up Fleet Market (now New Bridge St) along Saffron Hill, past Clerk’s Well (now Clerkenwell) past Black Mary’s Hole & Battle Bridge (now Kings Cross) towards its source on the Heath #FreeTheFleet
The River Fleet has two main sources

The source in the Vale of Heath forms the Hampstead Brook running down Fleet Road

The source in Kenwood👇forms the Highgate Brook running down Tufnell Park Road

The two brooks meet in Kentish Town & flow together to the Thames & the ocean.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 9
1/. HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD:

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

In 2020, Denmark changed its laws to recognise the simple fact that sex without consent is rape

This didn't happen by chance

It resulted from years of campaigning & advocacy by survivor groups & campaigners.
#LetsTalkAboutYes
2/. Shockingly, in 2020 only 7 out of 31 countries in Europe had laws that recognised sex without consent is rape

That figure has almost doubled to 13...but there is still along way to go

But back to the lessons from Denmark, & their successful campaign for a consent-based law
3/. Working with survivors groups, research was done to identify key barriers to justice for rape survivors

Why were so many rapes committed?

Why were so few rapes reported?

Why did so few reports of rape lead to prosecution?

Why did so few prosecutions lead to convictions?
Read 10 tweets
Feb 9
“The gate to the groin for Yannick Bertrand and you could hear it. And if you’re a man, you could feel it…The boys took a beating on that one” #Olympics2022 #WinterOlympics #Olympics #OlympicGames
I’m finding the #WinterOlympics painful to watch

It isn’t just men’s genitalia getting pummelled, it’s women’s too

For matters of good taste, I’m not going to post the clip of the couple’s figure skating, but instead leave it to Robin Williams to explain
The #WinterOlympics can also lead to injury when viewers decide to give sports a go in their own homes

Inspired by the #Olympic figure skating, this kid ended up with a blister on the sole of his foot the size of a golf ball.
(Video via @DoggerlandMan)
Read 5 tweets
Feb 8
1/. My TL is full of people listing 5 famous people they've met "or been within a few feet of"(!)

This seems like an flimsy excuse for name-dropping, which is something I would never do

I have met some incorrigible"name-droppers" in my life

By far the worst was Nelson Mandela! ImageImageImageImage
2/. Another notorious name-dropper was FW de Klerk

He even wrote an autobiography which appeared to have the sole purpose of cramming in as many famous names as he could in its 320 turgid pages

I pulled him up on this very publicly - perhaps too publicly - in London in 1999.👇 Image
3/. I’ve never met Tony Blair properly but, hearing that he is an awful name-dropper, me, @brianeno & some others decided to oust him from power at the 2005 General Election

Terry Jones almost stood against him on the platform that: “He’s not a good PM, he’s a very naughty boy!” ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets

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