GET A GRIP Profile picture
Mar 8, 2022 9 tweets 5 min read Read on X
#THREAD

#Neoliberalism has been a cataclysmic failure:

Taxes for the rich have been cut, & regulation reduced or privatized

Worker, consumer & environmental protections have been removed

Deregulation produces not competition, but market concentration

prospect.org/economy/neolib…
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 Image
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) ImageImage
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 ImageImageImage
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 Image
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. Image
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 Image
🚨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.

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More from @docrussjackson

Dec 16
#THREAD

Shit-stirring hypocritical bigoted playground bullies were once shunned by society, but now they can become MPs.

Is Reform UK's Lee Anderson, who exploits ordinary people with his infantile divisive populism, the thickest & most hypocritical bigot ever to become an MP? Image
#30pLee is on his third party in six years.

He was elected as a Labour councillor in 2015 & suspended by the local branch of the Labour Party in 2018 after receiving a community-protection warning by the council for using boulders to block members of the Traveller community. Image
#30pLee resigned from Labour in 2018 & was elected as a Tory councillor on Mansfield District Council in 2019. He was selected as the Conservative candidate for Ashfield in 2019, and was elected as a Tory MP.

He's long been associated with the far-right.

Read 45 tweets
Dec 14
#THREAD

The Chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, Richard Cooke, has been suspended after he branded racism allegations as "nonsense" on social media after a former chief inspector alleged racism & homophobia were rife within the force.

itv.com/news/central/2…
Policing is hard. The Police Federation of England and Wales is the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors & special constables in the 43 territorial police forces in England & Wales. Cooke is Chair of the West Midlands branch.
Under UK labour law, the police are prohibited from joining ordinary trade unions to defend pay and working conditions, by the Police Act 1996, because of the view that a police strike would pose an exceptional public safety risk.

Cooke is a controversial figure. Image
Read 9 tweets
Dec 11
🧵Trump has assigned Musk a chilling task: To dismantle & destroy large parts of the federal government. Musk wants us to call this project by a humorous & innocent-sounding name: the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).

#Framing is important.

theframelab.org/destruction-of…
First, Musk's project is not an official Dept, so it's not factual to call it one.

Second, the goal of Musk's project is destruction, not "efficiency." Efficiency is when you make something work better. Musk clearly seeks to eliminate, not improve, large parts of government. Image
Finally, Musk has named his project after a meme, DOGE, a crypto scam named for a Shiba Inu dog. He's treating it all as a joke. But the destruction of government is deadly serious, and there's no reason why everyone should automatically participate in Musk's juvenile antics. Image
Read 18 tweets
Dec 10
#THREAD

I've lost count of all the ultrarich privately educated 'anti-elites' in Reform UK!

Dubai World Trade Centre & Nick Candy's Candy Capital have a partnership to develop a “super-prime” real estate development in Dubai - where co-owner of GB "News", Legatum, is based! 🤑 Image
Candy joined the Tory party in 2009 & has donated at least £290,000 to it.

In February he gave an interview saying it was “probably time for a change” & that Keir Starmer was “a decent man with good values and good morals”.

Nick Candy is to become Reform UK's new treasurer! Image
He hopes to raise more than £40M for Reform UK: "This morning, I’ve had millions of pounds worth of donations from people that have never donated to a political party in this country. But it’s not just about getting rich donors & billionaire people or whatever."

"WHATEVER!" 👀 Image
Read 12 tweets
Dec 9
#THREAD

My 2023 Open Letter about @BBCQuestiontime, read by 300,000 people in 144 countries, was widely reported in the media & informed questions asked of @BBC DG Tim Davie at a Parliamentary Select Committee.

Here's my 🧵 analysis of the recent episode of #bbcqt, featuring: Image
My main criticisms of #bbcqt were: poor & biased chairing, including a tolerance of panellists who continually interrupt; ambiguity about the audience political demographic; & the well-evidenced bias toward platforming panellists from right-leaning media.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/an-op…
The @BBC's desire to drive engagement means #bbcqt is now overly dependent on platforming guests known for generating division, soundbites, & polarising controversy, rather than engaging in nuanced, respectful debate, which compromises its duty to 'INFORM & EDUCATE' the public. Image
Read 74 tweets
Dec 8
#THREAD

Farage has defended Reform UK MP James McMurdock, who was jailed for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, & said 'he should be forgiven'.

In 2014, Farage dismissed a Polish MEP's comment that beating women "helps bring wives back to Earth", insisting it was "just a joke". Image
Back in 2014, the Board of Deputies of British Jews criticised Farage - then UKIP Leader - for striking a deal with far-right Polish party Congress of the New Right, whose leader has a history of #Holocaust denial and racist and misogynistic comments.

theguardian.com/politics/2014/…
In October 2014, UKIP, led by Farage, struck a deal with Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz - whose far-right party leader casually uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust - following UKIP's fears that its grouping in Europe would lose millions of pounds in taxpayers’ funds. Image
Read 19 tweets

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