Let’s take a closer look at some of the foundational ideological positions that the @Conservatives publicly claim to support, & how their actions & policies all too often run in complete & total contradiction to them.
They claim to support free speech - but criminalise protest & control what charities can say & do publicly in the 12-month run-up to elections.
They claim to be against ‘red tape’ - but gave Ukrainian asylum seekers a 100-page form to complete.
They claim to support a 'free press' - but support, appease & fear foreign billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who owns swathes of the UK right-wing media, non-dom billionaire Jonathan Harmsworth, who owns the Daily Mail, & non-dom billionaire Frederick Barclay who owns the Telegraph.
They claim to support democracy - but removed the independence of the Electoral Commission, introduced Voter ID, disenfranchising up to 3 million voters despite just 8 cases of in-person voter fraud & place donors into roles leading some of Britain’s institutions such as the BBC.
They claim to support the rule of law - but unlawfully prorogued parliament, introduced legislation enabling the Govt to overrule judicial review findings that challenge their agenda, unlawfully broke the COVID rules & unlawfully sent untested people into care homes.
They claim to support human rights - but have announced plans to radically undermine them.
They claim to support the #NHS - but they have strong links to private healthcare providers & in 2019/20 NHS commissioners spent £9.7 billion on services delivered by the private sector.
They claim that free-market capitalism drives standards up - but since Brexit, food, animal welfare, & safety standards have fallen.
They claim to represent the ‘will of the people’ - but go against the wishes of 96% of respondents to a consultation about the future of Channel4.
They claim to believe in mutual respect & tolerance of others - but relentlessly demonise as “woke”, ‘activist lawyers’, academics, Doctors, teachers, the BBC, the RNLI, the National Trust, & anyone offering a balanced view of the British Empire or treating asylum seekers fairly.
They claim to believe in social mobility & ‘levelling up’ - but they disproportionately cut funding to non-Tory Councils & local authorities & allowed the wealth of Britain’s richest 1,000 people to increase by half a trillion pounds since 2009.
They claim to be the party of low taxation – but announced tax rises worth 2% of GDP in just two years – the same as Tony Blair & Gordon Brown did in ten.
They claim to be patriotic - but refused to condemn supporters booing the England team.
They claim Britain is a kind & welcoming country - but go against international refugee conventions & international law to unlawfully & immorally send asylum seekers to one of the most authoritarian & antidemocratic countries on earth.
They claim to be against ‘cancel culture’ - but banned charities from publicly criticising Government in the 12-month run-up to elections & introduced legislation which means journalists can be jailed for up to 14 years for stories embarrassing the Government.
They claim to be about decency & integrity - but constantly lie to the British people, demonise non-Tory politicians & public figures with grotesque smears, knowing mislead parliament often & are serial breakers of the Ministerial Code.
Finally, they claim to - & are supposed to - act in the interests of all the British people - but they prioritise the interests of their wealthy - often Russian oligarch - donors & focus almost exclusively on appeasing the 29% of the UK electorate who voted for them in 2019.
Forget to mention they claim to be the party of family values - but they're led by a serial sexist cheat with who-knows how many children, have multiple MPs embroiled in sexual harrassment allegations, & now we hear No10 had a 'sexist of the year' award at an unlawful xmas party.
They also claim to be 'tough' on drugs & drug users, often announcing 'crackdowns' - but senior Tories have themselves used drugs: Boris Johnson has tried cocaine & cannabis; Hunt, Leadsom, Raab, Hancock & McVey all smoked cannabis; Rory Stewart, opium; & Michael Gove - cocaine.
Thank you so much for reading, & for all the wonderful feedback, which I really appreciate. 🙏
Here's a few more of my #threads on the same theme:
Why doesn't Emma Watson offer a balanced view of Zero Hour contracts?
Because she's a free-market fundamentalist - a Common Sense Society Director, co-founder of Save Our Statues, also of the neoliberal Henry Jackson Society & #TuftonSt's CIVITAS & New Culture Forum...
The main argument in support of Zero Hour contracts is flexibility: if you're asked to work & it's not worth your while, you could turn it down. But employers don’t have to offer you future shifts, & if you turn down work, you may find you’re offered fewer opportunities or none.
While some companies *might* reward hard-working zero-hour contract workers with permanent or fixed contracts, many employers imply this in order to make you work hard & exploit you, and won't offer you a decent contract.
There are many disadvantages of zero-hour contracts...
There have been attacks on the @nationaltrust since at least 2017. Since 2020, The Spectator has published at least 25.
In 2020, a former Bullingdon Clubber asked "When will the Trust get it into its thick skull that it’s supposed to look after buildings & landscapes?"
Four days later, the Eton-educated trustee of the climate-sceptic GWPF, former Chair of the right-wing Policy Exchange, & former editor of The Daily & Sunday Telegraph & The Spectator, Charles Moore, followed up with this infantile attack on the "woke" NT: desmog.com/charles-moore/
On 9th November 2020, a letter in The Telegraph, signed by 28 Tory (Common Sense Group) MPs accused the NT of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'". 'Cultural Marxism is the antisemitic conspiracy theory that inspired Anders Breivik.
Andrew Neil criticises others for making 'Nazi analogies', but here he is, referring to an article in the Mail, amplified by Toby Young, suggesting a proposed boycott by a 'Pro-Palestine group' of venues showing #eurovision24 is "straight out of the early Nazi playbook".
The 'early Nazi playbook' involves propaganda, which like contemporary political & media propaganda works primarily not by lies, but rather by selective representation of information, distortion, fearmongering, demonisation of minority groups & misleading partisan misinformation.
The Mail's claim, amplified by Young & compared to "the early Nazi playbook" by Neil is 'Venues across the country have been forced to close their doors as they fear for their staff's safety after Pro-Palestine groups instructed their followers to hound pubs showing the contest'.
Divisive far-right extremist grifter Steve Laws is dangerous: he has a long & well documented history of using racist & Islamophobic rhetoric, harassing people, & trying to get decent people sacked. Laws' hateful rhetoric was even too toxic for Richard Tice's Reform UK.
Former UKIP candidate & far-right extremist Laws is a prominent so-called 'migrant hunter' who gets off on filming boats arriving in Dover. He constantly uses grotesque 1930s-style dehumanising rhetoric, & pushes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
For decades, Big Tobacco cast doubt on the link between cancer & smoking. Today, doubts about climate science is fuelled by misinformation spread by politicians, news media & think tanks, invariably funded by those who benefit from fossil fuels.
The phrase "the spawn of communism" derives from early twentieth century US #nativism - the political strategy of promoting the interests of "native-born" inhabitants over those of immigrants.
But where does it come from, & what might it tell us about Jacob Rees-Mogg?
This thread is about how nativist ideology gave rise to the first US 'Red Scare', & how, long before TalkRadio or Fox & GB "News" existed, populist Christian broadcaster 'Father' Coughlin stoked the fears & prejudices of millions of his listeners using divisive nativist rhetoric.
The phrase "spawn of Communism" is now used by 'anti-woke' alt- & far-right nativists to describe everything from Democrats & socialists, through LGBTQ+ rights, CRT, & feminism, to 'identity politics' & 'environmentalism' - anyone, or anything, perceived by them to pose a threat.