Economic power has resulted in feedback loops of political power, in which elites make rules that bolster further concentration
Wealth distribution is vastly more unequal, yet economic growth is slower & more chaotic than during the era of managed capitalism
Daily life has become more of a struggle for hundreds of millions of ordinary decent people
The economic collapse of 2008 was the result of the deregulation of finance, costing the US economy upwards of $15 TRILLION (vastly more globally)
Free-market theory presumes that innovation is necessarily benign. But much of the financial engineering of the deregulatory era was self-serving, opaque, & corrupt—the opposite of an efficient & transparent market
The existential threat of global climate change reflects the incompetence of markets to accurately price carbon & the escalating costs of pollution
The entrenched political power of extractive industries & their political allies influences the rules & the market price of carbon
The grand neoliberal experiment of the past 40 years has demonstrated that markets in fact do not regulate themselves
Democracy itself is under threat: increasingly authoritarian & antidemocratic legislation is being introduced in supposedly democratic countries like Britain.
It's not simply the neoliberalism of outsourcing, privatization, & shrinking the state. The US Libertarian-right billionaire project, now playing out in the UK as well as the US, is nothing less than a permanent alteration power relations: dismantle democracy & install #oligarchy
🚨How did Britain get here?
🚨What has been the true cost to British people?
🚨And most importantly, WTAF are we going to do about it?
🚨If we don't take decisive action NOW, it may well be too late.
🧵 @Rylan Asylum seekers coming here aren’t technically "illegal." International law (the 1951 Refugee Convention) allows people to seek asylum in any country regardless of how they arrive or how many countries they pass through, as long as they're fleeing persecution or danger.
Allow me to explain why asylum seekers aren’t “illegal”, and how misinformation and nasty demonising and scapegoating rhetoric by certain politicians and media, including news media, has made some British people less welcoming of asylum seeekers.
@Rylan
People fleeing war, torture, or persecution have the legal right to seek asylum.
The 1951 Refugee Convention, which the UK helped write, says anyone escaping danger can apply for asylum in another country no matter how they arrive: claiming asylum isn't a crime.
Farage's illiberal, immoral, & unworkable authoritarian plan involves ripping up human rights laws forged after WWII, which protect British people, & wasting £billions of UK taxpayers' money, giving some of it to corrupt misogynistic totalitarian regimes. theguardian.com/politics/2025/…
Leaving the #ECHR, repealing the Human Rights Act and disapplying international conventions
The UK would be an outlier among European democracies, in the company of only Russia and Belarus, if it were to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Opting out of treaties such as the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the UN Convention against torture and the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention would also be likely to do serious harm to the UK’s international reputation.
It could also undermine current return deals, including with France, and other cooperation agreements on people-smuggling with European nations such as Germany.
The Society of Labour Lawyers said the plan would “in all likelihood preclude further cooperation and law enforcement in dealing with small boats coming from the continent and so increase, rather than reduce, the numbers reaching our shores”.
Farage said he would legislate to remove the “Hardial Singh” safeguards – a reference to a legal precedent that sets limits on the Home Office’s immigration detention powers – to allow indefinite detention for immigration purposes. This would be highly vulnerable to legal challenge.
Many of the rights protected by the ECHR and the Human Rights Act are rooted in British case law, so judges would still be able to prevent deportations, even without international conventions.
Reform UK’s grotesque far-right mass deportation plan is not just economically and socially illiterate (Britain an ageing population and low birth rate) rely on striking “returns agreements” with countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea and Sudan, offering financial incentives to secure these deals, alongside visa restrictions and potential sanctions on countries that refuse.
These are countries where the Home Office’s risk reports warn of widespread torture and persecution.
It would risk the scenario of making payments to countries such as Iran, whose regime the UK government has accused of plotting terror attacks on British soil.
The Liberal Democrats called the payments “a Taliban tax”, saying the plan would entail sending billions “to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat”. They said: “Not a penny of taxpayers’ money should go to a group so closely linked to terrorist organisations proscribed by the UK.”
A reminder of the one, viewed 310,000 times, for which she was jailed, which urged people to burn down asylum seeker hotels after the #Southport attack - which had nothing to do with asylum seekers.
While all these tweets of Connolly's were made before her incendiary post, they don't say which year they were posted.
They can be accessed here, via The Wayback Machine, which has archived more than 916 billion web pages.
Connolly's tweet (top right) was in response to the tweet on the left, which criticised Laurence Fox for posting an upskirt photograph of Narinder Kaur.
The next one (right centre) was Connolly asking Kaur if she had 'flashed her gash'.
Aided by the billionaire-owned UK news media (Mail, Sun, Times, Metro, TalkTV and GB "News"), populist politicians push a cynical, divisive, and dangerously irresponsible false narrative that Britain is 'lawless'.
Founded in 2021 and srongly linked to Nigel Farage's "friend", billionaire Palantir CEO Peter Thiel, US VP JD Vance, and a constellation of conservative media and political figures, Rockbridge presents itself as a vehicle for advancing conservative causes.
The NYT reported in 2022 that Thiel is one of the major donors to the Rockbridge Network, alongside Rebekah Mercer. It planned to spend over $30M on conservative media, legal, policy, and voter registration projects. Thiel’s financial support is a clue.
'Flag Force UK': The “Grassroots” Group With Hidden Think Tank Ties.
Flag Force UK presents itself as a patriotic, grassroots movement “built by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.” But closer inspection suggests it may be a coordinated #astroturf operation...
Supposedly based in York, 'Flag Force UK' self-identifies as a "grass roots" campaign set up by three men who 'just wanted to put England and Union flags up', and which already brands itself as "the UK's premier community network tracking flag raisings across the nation."
Rapid Growth, Opaque Origins
Flag Force UK appeared suddenly in August 2025, yet within weeks, its account on @X had amassed a suspicious 12,000 followers — unusually rapid growth for a new, 'volunteer-led' group with little media coverage or on-the-ground activity.