Oakeshott gave evidence + statement to Sunday Times in Nov 2017.
This is letter from editor Martin Ivens. He’s left but @ShippersUnbound is still there. Does he know what happened? Can new editor @EmmaTuckerST find out?
Did Oakeshott change mind? Did govt ministers intervene?
Theresa May got it. She tried to warn us. Listen to this speech again. She said it all here.
She called Putin’s invasion of Crimea what it was. She calls out ‘election meddling’. And its attacks on our information space.
Her cabinet colleagues - Johnson & Williamson - didn’t.
Johnson was asked about Russian interference by @RhonddaBryant just 2 weeks earlier. ‘Not a sausage,’ he replied.
This is not true. Theresa May isn’t just calling out Putin in that speech. She’s calling out her own foreign minister.
Johnson’s failure to take action against Russian £ even now is a national security risk & we need to know what happened in Nov 2017 when FBI revealed London investigation, when Theresa May warned us, when Sun Times spiked explosive scoop.
Where was NCA? Where was MI5/6?
Britain’s national security apparatus was paralysed by a failure of leadership. The Russia Report told us that explicitly. And our political leadership was paralysed by Brexit.
I think @theresa_may got it. And I suspect she has answers.
The evidence suggests Johnson directly involved in covering up Russian interference. New docs I published yesterday reveal Williamson’s involvement.
This is photo of Johnson in Congress with Mifsud who head of FBI called ‘a Russian agent of influence’
Will Sunday Times tell us why it spiked its story? I hope so. It had explosive story about Brexit funder as 'Russian agent of influence' 3 days after Theresa May's speech on Russia dominated the front pages.
We know Johnson had already tried to bury the story once. Did he again?
Why did Arron Banks state on oath that Wigmore gave emails to Sunday Times in June 2018? When ST editor confirms he has them in Nov 2017?
Nov 14, 2017: Theresa May dominates front pages with speech saying Russia has attacked our elections.
Nov 17, 2017: Sunday Times indemnifies Oakeshott over explosive story of Brexit funder as "Russian agent of influence"
Nov 19, 2017: This is Sunday Times front page.
To be clear, I am not trying to lay blame with Sunday Times or even Oakeshott. I don't know what happened. There were other forces at work here at highest levels of govt.
But I do think @ShippersUnbound & others can help expose what happened here. And hope they will.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
NEW: The great Trump-Musk crackdown is coming. And it will hit hard & fast. Journalists will be first. But everyone else is next.
I urge you to read my 20 lessons in How to Survive the Broligarchy, inspired by & featuring the great @TimothyDSnyder. 1/ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Lesson 1: When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
This week, Trump told us who he is. Believe him. If his adminstration picks look like a plan to destroy America from within, it likely is. 2/
2. Journalists will be first. But everyone else is next.
How do we know this? Because it always is. It's the authoritarian playbook.
Lawsuits are first. Prosecutions are next. America needs to learn these moves fast. It's already later than you think. 3/
Please read this. It's literally been 8 years in the writing.
The first wave of tech disruption of democracy 2016-2024 is over. What starts now is something much, much worse: the age of information chaos. 1/ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
It's exactly 8 years since I published this on Nov 6, 2016. My first step down the rabbit hole that became Facebook/Cambridge Analytica. And if you still think that's a 'conspiracy', I have a social media platform to sell you. 2/ theguardian.com/technology/201…
Oh no, that's right. The world's richest man already bought it. Remember Marshall McLuhan, 'the medium is the message'? Well the medium now is Musk. And he's the shadow head of state of the world's greatest superpower. That’s the message. Have you got it yet?
3/
Many people have asked me what is going on at @guardian & @observer. The answer is a lot. To be clear, this isn’t an ‘internal dispute’ between 700+ journalists & their management it’s a struggle for the soul & future of UK journalism.
Democracy *will* die in darkness. If a journalist isn’t telling you what’s happening...who will?
Crisis has hit @washingtonpost. Its journalists are in revolt. But here's what you don't know: it directly links to another journo crisis...at @guardian 1/ theguardian.com/us-news/2024/o…
The @washingtonpost has refused to endorse a presidential candidate. Legendary ex-editor @PostBaron calls it an act of profound 'cowardice'. The paper, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos & led by ex-Murdoch man, Will Lewis, is now, in effect, a Trump collaborator.
2/
WaPo journalists are appalled. It’s a moment of profound shock. Meanwhile @guardian journalists in same WTF shock after discovering management is seeking to sell off a chunk of org…..to Will Lewis’s old friend & Murdoch stablemate, James Harding
Journalists are meant to speak truth to power. That's our job. But what do you do when that power is your own news org?
This thread (professional suicide note?) is about @guardian & @ObserverUK's future. Because it turns out you can’t believe everything you read on a poster.. 1/
Since 1993, @ObserverUK has been owned by @guardian. Which is owned in turn by the Scott Trust set up in 1936 to preserve the financial & editorial independence of @guardian "in perpetuity"
But perpetuity ain't what it used to be. And 2 weeks ago, a bombshell lands: Tortoise Media is in talks to buy @ObserverUK. 2/ news.sky.com/story/guardian…
If you don't know, @tortoise is a plucky media start-up founded in 2019 by James Harding, an ex-ed of @thetimes & a big beast of UK news.
But the thing is...it's like @guardian says, 'Thanks to reader funding, we're not for sale'.
I noticed Charlotte Owen, the junior aide Boris Johnson controversially ennobled, has a new gig with - shock! - Boris Johnson. But that’s only the start. There’s also uranium, Iran, Steve Bannon..& a LOT of qs
Boris Johnson has gone into business with this chap - Amir Adnani. He’s a uranium entrepreneur. And the photo he’s shared is the VP of his company meeting Johnson in parliament when he was still prime minister. 🧐
At some point - 4 days before he left office to put a number on it - Boris Johnson got *very* bullish on nuclear energy & committed £700m to the endlessly controversial Sizewell C reactor
You’ll remember from your science lessons that nuclear reactors run on…uranium