Let's have a quick #THREAD on troubled Johnson-brown-nosing robotic hard-right Tory MP Jonathan Gullis - a controversial member of the European Research Group, & a parliamentary backer of FREER, an initiative run by the opaquely funded neoliberal Institute of Economic Affairs.
He stood in Washington & Sunderland West at #GE2017, losing to the incumbent Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, but somehow was elected as the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North at #GE2019, unseating Labour's Ruth Smeeth & becoming the first Conservative to represent the constituency.
At the time of his election, Gullis was employed as a school teacher & head of year at an Academy in Sutton Coldfield, & somewhat bizarrely for a Tory MP, served as the school's trade union representative, but he's spent his time as an MP railing against the Left & the 'woke'.
In 2020, Gullis moaned about the media's SICK OBSESSION with the number of deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, describing comparisons with the number of deaths in other countries as 'lazy' in a now deleted tweet. He's since closed his Twitter account, thus avoiding scrutiny.
Never one to miss an opportunity to fuel the divisive culture war, show off his fake patriotism, or call for draconian antidemocratic measures, in June 2020, Gullis introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill which would jail for up to 14 years those who desecrate war memorials. 😬
In October 2020, after voting against extending free school meals until Easter 2021, the cruel, insensitive & heartless Gullis said that he would not address a "baying mob" in response to an alleged planned protest during his visit to a church foodbank.
In yet another bizarre episode, in October 2020, Gullis posted what he termed a “CULTURE WAR ALERT” on his Facebook page, claiming that research by the National Maritime Museum into the Royal Navy's links to slavery was "left-wing ideological nonsense".
In November 2020, Gullis was one of the frothing "Common Sense Group" Tory MPs signing a letter to The Telegraph, accusing the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma" - 'cultural Marxism' is the antisemitic conspiracy theory that inspired Anders Breivik.
In May 2021, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ordered tight-arse Gullis to return £253.78 & apologise after breaking parliamentary rules by using "pre-paid House-provided stationery in a way that was contrary to the published rules", breaching the code of conduct.
In September 2021, Gullis signalled support for a campaign against the government’s proposal to ban the sale of new petrol cars from 2030. The campaign group is funded by by the Road Haulage Association & trade organisation Logistics UK. theguardian.com/money/2021/sep…
In October 2021, Gullis made further bizarre claims at a Tory Party conference fringe meeting, suggesting people using the term "white privilege" should be reported to the Home Office as extremists, & that teachers found criticising the Conservative Party should be sacked.
In January 2022 Gullis drew attention due to his lack of a face covering by "bellowing with his mouth wide open & appearing to rock backwards & forwards" in the Commons during #PMQs.
Gullis has a history of mental health issues. If MPs need help, they should get it.
Gullis once again demonstrated his lack of nuance & sensitivity when he said people with Down syndrome should get a job, maybe at McDonalds “I know it sounds crude to talk about money terms” but it could save £2million!
Gullis defended fellow Tory MP who also uses dangerous far-right rhetoric, Brendan Clarke-Smith, when he compared England players taking the knee at the Euro 2021 tournament to those who performed the Nazi salute in a 1938 match against Germany in Berlin.
Gullis also claimed constituents were "flabbergasted that the woke, wet & wobbly lot opposite are on the side of their lefty woke warriors... making sure these rapists & paedophiles remain in this UK, rather than standing up for the British people".
In March 2020, as part of a mental health awareness campaign, divorcee Gullis said he has suffered with depression, self-harm & suicidal thoughts during periods of his life.
That someone with his history is rewarded for being so offensive & so insensitive, is deeply concerning.
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To spell out why, we need to unpack both the underlying implication of Andrew Doyle's argument and the reasons why it fails to adequately account for contemporary political dangers.
Andrew Doyle asserts that the term "fascism" is misused to the point of recklessness, echoing George Orwell’s 1944 observation that the word had been rendered meaningless. Doyle’s concern is not uncommon—but imho, it’s ultimately misplaced, especially in today’s context.
While it’s true that “fascism” is sometimes deployed rhetorically or hyperbolically (eg by Trump), Doyle’s framing dangerously downplays the genuine resurgence of fascist-adjacent movements across the Western world and undermines the analytical clarity necessary to confront them.
Boris Johnson appears to have had a secret meeting with billionaire Peter Thiel - perhaps the most fanatical of the libertarian Oligarchs and co-founder of the controversial US data firm Palantir, the year before it was given a role at the heart of the UK’s pandemic response.
The hour-long afternoon meeting on 28 August 2019 was marked “private” in a log of Johnson’s activities that day and was not subsequently disclosed on the government’s public log of meetings.
Elon Musk has been amplifying far-right accounts again, including Tommy Robinson, Rupert Lowe, and numerous anonynmous known #disinformation superspreader accounts like 'End Wokeness'.
Let's examine the context for yesterday's march in Richard Tice's constituency, #Skegness.
After decades of neglect, Skegness (pop 20K), stands out on key socio-economic markers on national averages: residents are older; whiter; lower full-time employment; higher rates of few/no qualifications; and concentrated deprivation - it's far-more deprived than most of England.
History repeatedly teaches us that burdening already struggling communities is a recipe for disaster.
These communities have been crying out for help for DECADES, but successive UK Govts have largely ignored their pleas, and continued to increase inequality, which harms us all.
🧵 @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'.