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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Tax-avoiding non-dom billionaire Frederick Barclay's Telegraph: "The suspicion must be that the only real purpose to the Chancellor’s announcements was to distract attention from the #Partygate saga... Taxpayers & investors in energy firms will bear the immediate cost."
Tax-avoiding non-dom billionaire Barclay's #Spectator editor Fraser Nelson, in the Telegraph: "After years banging on about the moral case for low taxation... the Tories have now given up. Handouts are preferred to general tax cuts, allowing the state to choose winners & losers."
Tax-avoiding foreign billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Sun warns of the "danger that a nation kept afloat by borrowing £400billion during Covid, & now bailed out again, starts to believe a Corbyn-style “magic money tree” really CAN cushion them from the harshness of reality."
Another #THREAD about truth, the culture war, money, & our broken news media.
Following eerily similar stories in the Mail & the Express, Nick Robinson's apology is all over @Twitter, posted almost exclusively by culture war warriors - who hate the @BBC - as "proof" of #BBCbias.
The 'outrage' is fuelled by a false claim made by Nick Robinson - a former Chairman of the National Young Conservatives & President of the Oxford University Conservative Association - that a Ministry of Justice cleaner, Mr Gomes, had died 'of Covid' while working in Downing St.
It transpires that Mr Gomes had not been working at Downing St at the time of his death, but at the nearby MoJ. And while colleagues had raised concerns he'd been suffering Covid-like symptoms in the lead up to his death, a coroner's report recorded it as heart hypertension.
According to the Center for Homeland Defense & Security’s K-12 School Shooting Database, there were 222 US school shootings in 2021 - an all-time high.
That’s over 100 more school shootings in 2021 than in 2019 or 2018, respectively the second- & third-worst years on record.
School shootings are considered by many to be an epidemic in the USA, as is gun violence in general.
According to data from Everytown Research, the US averaged just over 87 school shootings each year from 2013 to 2021, resulting in an annual average of 28 dead & 60 wounded.
The #WindfallTax was a tax on "the excess profits of the privatised utilities" introduced by the 'New @UKLabour' government of Tony Blair in 1997, following a manifesto commitment to impose a "windfall levy" on the privatised utilities.
Was it any good?
New Labour's #WindfallTax came after 18 years of Tory rule, which had seen #neoliberal privatisation of many state-owned assets, at prices which many considered too low.
It aimed to "put right the bad deal which customers & taxpayers got from the privatisation of the utilities".
The #WindfallTax produced a one-off income to the Govt of £5 billion, used to fund the New Deal, a questionable 'welfare-to-work' (workfare) program, & capital investment for schools & 'Learndirect', a training provider owned by the private equity firm Queens Park Equity.
1988: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is sacked by the Times for #fabricating a quote.
1995: a recording emerges in which Pfeffel agrees to provide Darius Guppy with the address of a journalist who was investigating him so that he could have him beaten up.
2004: Pfeffel sacked by Michael Howard for #lying about an affair.
2012: Pfeffel apologises for #accusing Liverpudlians of wallowing in "victim status" in a 2004 article.
2016: Pfeffel fails to apologise equates the EU’s efforts to unify Europe with those undertaken by Hitler.
2017 Pfeffel #accused of worsening the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after wrongly claiming she was in the country teaching journalism.
2017: Pfeffel forced to apologise to Parliament for #failing to declare outside earnings totalling more than £50,000 on nine occasions.
“#HostileEnvironment policies have changed the fabric of society. No other policy in living memory has left such a malign mark, a stain like an oil slick. It's racist, xenophobic, immoral, illegal, unfair, punishing, divisive, mean-spirited, discriminatory & counterproductive.”
Shami Chakrabarti, a former shadow attorney general, said: “Ten years of the hostile environment have been a disaster for race relations, community cohesion and national pride. Using starvation and destitution as a means of control led directly to the #Windrush scandal.”