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Jun 14 • 6 tweets • 6 min read
Today I've seen a number of trending hashtags with a common theme: the UK Government's increasingly obvious #Fascist tendencies.

Know your history.

#TomHunt #PeterBone #LizTruss
#Rwanfda #RwandaNotInMyName #RwandaDeportation #ToryFascist
#ToryFascistDictatorship #PritiPatel
#THREAD about the fascist-supporting Daily Mail:

#THREAD on what Linguist Ruth Wodak calls 'shameless normalisation', which explicitly refers to ‘impolite or shameless behaviour’ manifested in "the far-right populists’ agendas (& related rhetoric)... which have already reached the political mainstream."

If you want to better understand why right-wing politicians, media, think tanks & the UK Government so often use divisive, misleading & inflammatory #neofascist rhetoric around the "migrant crisis", a #THREAD on the invaluable work of linguist Ruth Wodak:

Context #THREAD on the threat of the return of #neofascism coming from the US billionaire-funded Libertarian/Neoliberal/Paleoconservative Right & their global network of think tanks & institutions, driven in part by James McGill Buchanan's philosophy:

In the UK, #neofascist tendencies are amplified & largely driven by the daily drip-feed of divisive, dangerously irresponsible, jingoistic populist national culture war rhetoric in our foreign/non-dom billionaire-owned & funded press & broadcast media:

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More from @docrussjackson

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Jun 15
Short #THREAD

The population of the #USA is 332,915,073, & it has around 790 (0.00023%) billionaires. 🇺🇸

The #UK population is 68,580,309, & it has around 177 (0.00026%) billionaires. 🇬🇧

#ThePeopleVsTheOnePercent #WealthTaxNow Image
Estimates suggest that a progressive UK net #WealthTax that only taxes the top 1% wealthiest households - those with net wealth above £3.4 million - would raise roughly £70-130 billion a year.

gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/3381…
Introducing a #WealthTax for UK households with net wealth above £3.4million (the top 1%) taxed at a marginal rate of 1%, above £5.7million (the top 0.5%) at a marginal rate of 5%, & above £18.2million (the top 0.1%) at a marginal rate of 10%, would raise £70-130 billion a year. Image
Read 5 tweets
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Jun 15
#THREAD

#LifeChangingLibraries’ is Children's Laureate @CressidaCowell’s flagship project. All the research shows that encouraging #readingforpleasure from an early age is one of THE most important ways parents & teachers can help improve social mobility.
booktrust.org.uk/lifechangingli…
Over the course of a year, six primary schools across England are being helped to develop a #readingforpleasure culture, with the support of the @Booktrust & @CressidaCowell.

#LifeChangingLibraries

Cressida Cowell has called on the UK government to fund primary school libraries so that all children across the country don’t miss out on the opportunity to read for pleasure & all the vital benefits this chance brings.

#LifeChangingLibraries
Read 12 tweets
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Jun 15
“Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?" Harold Lasswell, 1948.

“The study of transitivity is concerned with how actions are represented; what kind of actions appear in a text, who does them, & to whom they are done - who does what to whom?” - Sara Mills, 1995. Image
Transitivity shows the relationship between the participants (people, objects, organisations etc) & their role in a process/event. In newspaper headlines, the choices made by editors represent reality in particular ways, even when they talk about the same event eg the #RwandaPlan Image
Any process/event involves: participants; the process itself; & the circumstances. In headlines, the 'agent' is sometimes emphasised, & sometimes deleted, creating a passive or an active process, thus framing the focus & fault/cause/blame in specific ways.

Who does what to whom? Image
Read 4 tweets
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Jun 14
The rise of Freedom of Information has been one of the big democratic success stories of the late 20th century. 

The MPs’ expenses scandal was triggered in part by a series of FOIs. Any well-functioning FOI system should make politicians upset & nervous.
The Institute for Government found that just under half of FOI requests to UK central government in 2019 were not answered, compared with 15% when the law first arrived.
The existence of ‘Orwellian’ bodies such as the Cabinet Office ‘Clearing House’ that vets ‘sensitive’ requests, hint at half-hidden systems to quietly manage FOI. There has also been an attempt to change FOI law, normally for the worse, once a year.
Read 8 tweets
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Jun 14
#THREAD

Some people have asked me why I describe the UK Government as #neofascist, rather than just straightforwardly #fascist.

While of course there are many similarities, there are some crucial differences.

Like their fascist predecessors, #neofascists embrace populist nationalism & authoritarian values, attack Marxist & other left-wing ideologies, indulge in racist & xenophobic scapegoating, & portray themselves as protectors of traditional national culture & religion.
Whereas fascists assigned much of the blame for their countries’ economic problems to the machinations of bolsheviks, liberals, & Jews, British neofascists tend to focus on non-European immigrants, arriving in increasing numbers from the 1990s.
Read 34 tweets
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Jun 14
#THREAD

Interesting new book: 'All the News That’s Fit to Click: How Metrics Are Transforming the Work of Journalists', by Caitlin Petre.

Journalists today are inundated with data about which stories attract the most clicks, likes, comments, & shares....
press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…
These metrics influence what stories are written, how news is promoted, & even which journalists get hired & fired.

Do metrics make journalists more accountable to the public? Or do they worsen newsroom working conditions & journalism quality?
In All the News That’s Fit to Click, Caitlin Petre takes readers behind the scenes at the New York Times, Gawker, and the prominent news analytics company Chartbeat to explore how performance metrics are transforming the work of journalism.
Read 14 tweets

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