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May 20 7 tweets 3 min read
#THREAD

When the Trojan Horse story broke in 2014 it did so on a narrative wave characterized by terrifying headlines of a ‘plot to Islamicise British schools’. But it was a based on a fake letter, & reveals a complete failure of government & journalism.

transformingsociety.co.uk/2022/05/19/the…
In January 2022, The New York Times released an investigative podcast about the Trojan Horse scandal which characterized it as an "Islamophobic hoax" and compared it to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a historical antisemitic hoax.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The Trojan Horse Affair, sparked by a fake letter, had massive long term, national implications. The controversy led to the development of a new phase in the Prevent agenda & the affair & the letter were used by Govt to back the implementation of a Counter Extremism Strategy.
The fake letter gave rise to a ‘National Curriculum’ in ‘fundamental British values’, in other words an education policy - like every previous antidemocratic authoritarian regime in history - developed through the lens of nationalism & national security.
The fake letter also led to great personal injustices – to the poor, marginalised, mainly Muslim communities of East Birmingham, to the governors and teachers against whom misconduct cases were held, though ultimately dropped, and to the schools named and the pupils they served.
“What you realise is, sadly, it takes an enormous amount of effort and time to rectify an injustice perpetrated by a government in Britain – be that the Birmingham Six, #Hillsborough or the Trojan Horse Affair.”
“False narratives that divide communities & misrepresent British Muslims as self-segregating involve the scapegoating of some for political advantage. They are dangerous for democracy & demoralising for communities.”

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More from @docrussjackson

May 21
#THREAD

According to the Sunday Times Rich List - which ranks the net wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people - the 2008 financial crash meant that by April 2009, the number of billionaires fell for the first time since the Rich List started in 1989.

web.archive.org/web/2009050210…
In 2009, the number of billionaires in Britain fell from 75 to 43, the combined wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 people adding up to £258 billion.

Despite Lakshmi Mittal losing £16.9 billion, making his net worth £10.8 billion in 2009, he remained Britain's richest person.
Roman Abramovich was the second richest person in Britain in 2009, despite losing £4.7 billion, with a net worth of £7 billion.

The Duke of Westminster was the richest Briton & continued to occupy third position overall, with a fortune of £6.5 billion.
Read 12 tweets
May 19
So why have the @BBC invited yet another unhinged hard-right crank - Emily Carver - from the divisive, opaquely funded libertarian-right free-market fundamentalist think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs #IEA - YET AGAIN - to spout their reactionary nonsense?
@bbcqt
Read 6 tweets
May 19
Most Americans are decent, honest people, who abhor racism, think that workers have the right to be in a union, & that the failure to adequately address safety & #racism concerns at #TESLA simply isn't good enough.

Only an immature spoilt baby would react the way @elonmusk has.
TESLA requests racism lawsuit be paused. In one of the many cases a single mum was excited to land a job at Tesla, but about 3 years in, she was fired, she said, after complaining that Black workers were frequently called the N-word on the assembly line.

latimes.com/business/story…
#Tesla has asked a California judge to pause a lawsuit against the company alleging widespread racial discrimination at its flagship assembly plant.

theguardian.com/technology/202…
Read 4 tweets
May 16
Maybe Culture War crank & Govt Social Mobility Tsar Katharine Birbalsingh would prefer this REAL quote from her hero Winston Churchill in her school - it's much more in keeping with her nationalist values & her reactionary view that there is too much emphasis on ‘diversity’.
"The children who attend (Birbalsingh's school) Michaela come from a wide variety of different cultural backgrounds, in many cases with a very rich cultural heritage. Yet it as if they & their families have no culture at all..."

davidbuckingham.net/2020/12/12/the…
"Their lives outside are apparently an endless wasteland of violent rap music & vacuous social media - things to be kept out of classrooms. The job of teachers is to inculcate them in ‘our’ British culture, a culture defined in terms of a stultifying, authoritarian nationalism."
Read 4 tweets
May 16
Not content with reforms that could see UK journalists jailed for 14 years for printing stories embarrassing the Govt, Priti Patel now wants to silence Police Chiefs from speaking out on issues deemed 'politically sensitive'.

This is dangerous antidemocratic #authoritarianism.🇬🇧
Parts of the plan have been labelled “profoundly dangerous” & “power grab threatening operational independence” by one chief constable. Police & crime commissioners described some of the Govt proposals as going beyond the home secretary’s legal authority.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/m…
Don't forget that the UK Govt is removing the independence of the Electoral Commission, which is responsible for overseeing free & fair elections: any other country doing what OUR Govt is doing IN PLAIN SIGHT, would correctly be accused of corrupt antidemocratic #totalitarianism.
Read 6 tweets
May 15
#THREAD

Experts have warned for years that advocates of the 'Great Replacement' & 'White Genocide' theories are driving the increasing number of far-right terrorist attacks.

The #BuffaloTerroristAttack is the latest tragic consequence of this dangerously irresponsible rhetoric.
Many academics, terrorism experts, & charities have been screaming out for action to be taken against proponents of the dangerous conspiracy theories of 'The Great Replacement/White Genocide' & 'Cultural Marxism', which inspired Anders Breivik, the NZ mosque attack & now Buffalo.
Some of these debunked conspiracies - eg 'cultural Marxism' - have been amplified & pushed in the UK & USA by both the mainstream media & by mainstream Government politicians.

Let me be crystal clear: imho, evidence is growing that dangerously divisive rhetoric makes terrorists.
Read 23 tweets

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