GET A GRIP Profile picture
Aug 20 5 tweets 3 min read
Short #THREAD

Like so many others, I'm extremely concerned about the future of our country - and of the planet.

A handful of sociopathic mainly US & UK based elites are deliberately stoking polarisation, which is destroying democracy, societies, trust, hope, & the environment.
Democracy is being sorely tested, & while we just about scraped through the 2008 crash, caused directly be under-regulated capitalism, we all know what happened the previous time there was widespread economic turmoil across the western world.

#NeverForget #NeverAgain
I despise the fact that a handful of wealthy sociopathic elites are using the fascist playbook & their global network of billionaire-funded media & think tanks to deliberately undermine our (highly imperfect) democracy, destroy the welfare state, & divide ordinary decent people.
Our priority is to bring the Govt down, but given our antiquated FPTP electoral system, the only feasible route to this is through Labour/LibDem/Green/SNP combining to offer the electorate attractive realistic solutions to the crises we face. But I don't see this happening - yet.
Millions will suffer great hardship this winter. Without strong voices clearly articulating an attractive alternative & educating voters about the dark arts deployed by the well-funded Right, we may not get a sufficient majority to change course at the next GE.
#EnoughIsEnough

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More from @docrussjackson

Aug 21
#THREAD
By the end of her time as Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss had lost the confidence of the entire legal profession & the judiciary. The Lord Chief Justice told the House of Lords Constitution Committee she was “constitutionally absolutely wrong”. Image
In November 2016, Truss was criticised by the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve & the Criminal Bar Association, for failing to support more robustly the judiciary & the principle of judicial independence, after judges came under attack from politicians & from the Daily Mail. Image
Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, who had previously suggested that, like her immediate predecessors Chris Grayling & Michael Gove, Truss lacked the essential legal expertise that the constitution requires, called for her to be sacked. Image
Read 9 tweets
Aug 20
A five-year study published in January confirmed benefit sanctions are counter-productive, & work & pensions secretary Therese Coffey has blocked research assessing their effectiveness – one of many reports on welfare the Govt is accused of concealing.

theguardian.com/society/2018/m…
Recurrent short-term movements between various insecure jobs, interspersed with periods of unemployment, are routine among the minority who were able to obtain some paid work across the period.
Occasional sustained movements off welfare benefits
& into work are extremely rare. Image
For a substantial minority, welfare conditionality regularly initiates & sustains a range of negative behaviour changes & outcomes including:

-counterproductive compliance
-disengagement from the social security system
-increased poverty & destitution
-exacerbated ill health. Image
Read 5 tweets
Aug 20
#THREAD

How did Hitler seize power?

In January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. He led the right-wing Nazi Party which had received just 33% of the vote. Over the next 18 months, Hitler would eliminate nearly all sources of opposition...

bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guide…
Step 1: Gaining control of the Reichstag: January - March 1933.

Hitler needed to gain control of two-thirds of the seats in order to change the constitution, so he called a new election for March 1933. A few days before the election, the Reichstag building was set on fire.
Hitler used the fire as an excuse to claim there was a communist plot to overthrow the Govt, a powerful persuasive trope still applied widely in the billionaire-owned UK media to many situations, from #BlackLivesMatter & Opposition Party Leaders, to Unions & "woke Universities".
Read 24 tweets
Aug 20
#THREAD

John Redwood in Liz Truss's cabinet? He was outed as an idiot THIRTY years ago, miming to the Welsh national anthem. Britain laughed at him & his “barmy army” of supporters. The Sun even printed Vulcan ears for his supporters to cut out & wear!

In 2008, John Redwood, nicknamed 'the Vulcan', & Nikki Page, the ex-model & Sale Of The Century hostess, split up. Their romance withstood a bitter attack from Redwood’s estranged wife, Gail, who branded her former husband ‘arrogant, utterly inhuman & capable of awful cruelty’.
Redwood is on the swivel-eyed ERG loon wing of the increasingly unhinged Tories, & has the role of Chief Global Strategist of investment management company Charles Stanley & Co Ltd, snapped up by US rival Raymond James for £279m last year - so no conflict of interest there then!
Read 6 tweets
Aug 19
#THREAD

I see Britain's supposedly PUBLIC SERVICE broadcaster, the @BBC - now chaired by an ex-Goldman Sachs banker who mentored Rishi Sunak & "gave" the Tories £400,000 - has appointed TWO corporate lobbyists to 'guide editorial policy' as part of an "impartiality plan". Eh?
Michael Prescott, who last year was named as the external interviewer for the next @Ofcom Chief, has since 2017 been MD of corporate & political strategy at Hanover Communications, used as a recruiting ground for Tory SPADS, & whose current clients include Goldman Sachs & Pfizer.
Since 2016, Caroline Daniels has been a partner at Brunswick, which recently represented Nat West bank, McDonalds, Bank of America & Apple computers.

As @PrivateEyeNews speculated: "What this might mean for @BBCNews investigations into Big Tech (&) banks... remains to be seen".
Read 9 tweets
Aug 19
#THREAD comprising extended extracts from @lhfang's 2017 article 'Here's how Atlas Network, a libertarian American think tank, is remaking Latin American politics' - featuring Tufton St's most influential think tank, the climate crisis downplaying IEA...

interc.pt/2uoGhlF
The Atlas model of think tanks focuses less on developing genuinely new policy proposals, & more on establishing political organizations that carry the credibility of academic institutions, making them an effective organ for winning hearts and minds.
Free-market ideas — such as slashing taxes on the wealthy; whittling down the public sector and placing it under the control of private operators; and liberalized trade rules and restrictions on labour unions — have always struggled with a perception problem.
Read 70 tweets

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