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@docrussjackson

Aug 31

Another #THREAD about the sinister & shadowy network of opaquely funded right-wing free-market think tanks (lobbying groups), funded by US Libertarian billionaires, that have infiltrated & threaten our democracy.

This one concerns Policy Exchange's current attack on our Police.

The Policy Exchange report says the Home Office should use its powers to reform "failing" police forces, replacing chief constables if necessary, as some common offences are "in essence almost entirely decriminalised" because policing has "lost its way".

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-627323…

Using divisive culture war rhetoric imported from the US far-right, the report states that the public feels police officers are "more interested in being woke than solving crimes". While this may be true for a radicalised minority of the public, it is a dangerous & absurd claim.

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@docrussjackson

Aug 30

When 'economic logic' was more powerful than geopolitical rivalry, nations sought cheapness & efficiency, prioritising 'free-trade'.

But now that international rivalries are growing, questions around safety, stability & ethicality are making a comeback - which the Tories hate.

Did globalisation mean that western democracies naively sponsored the rise of hostile rivals such as Russia or China? Left-wing critics correctly associate the “neoliberal” era of globalisation with widening inequality & environmental degradation.

'There is truth in both of these critiques. But the pressure to cut trade and investment ties is not simply a product of rising nationalism & economic stress — it can also contributes to both processes.' - Gideon Rachman in the FT.

ft.com/content/b03290…

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@docrussjackson

Aug 30

@BBCNews

#THREAD

In January this year, Deborah Turness was appointed CEO of @BBCNews. What most people are unaware of - either by accident or design - is that she is married to little-known John Toker - the UK Govt Cabinet Office's Director of Communications for Security & Intelligence.

@g_johnjtoker

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Toker's role as Director of Comm for Security & Intelligence, there is next to nothing about him online, & while I cannot verify if @g_johnjtoker (dormant since 2017) is actually the same John Toker, if it is, his political views are pretty clear:

One thing we do know is that in 2012, days before former executives at Murdoch’s News International were to testify at the #Leveson Inquiry, the Govt was granted special 'core participant' status that gives advance access to witness statements & the ability to question testimony.

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@docrussjackson

Aug 30

#ESSENTIAL article by Sang Hun Lim: drawing on Karl Polanyi’s writing on fascism during the inter-war period.

It help us better understand & diagnose contemporary radical right-wing populism AND recommends how we might prevent the collapse of democracy.

globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/articles/why-l…

Radical right-wing politics is widely regarded as a populist movement for social protection against economic globalisation. Critics often suggest reforming left-wing parties to reorient populist movements from the right to the left by building a broad non-capitalist coalition.

However, through a close reading of Karl Polanyi’s works, Sang Hun Lim's article offers an alternative diagnosis & prescription for preventing radical right-wing empowerment.

Polanyi notes that fascists gained political power through support from capitalist elites.

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@docrussjackson

Aug 29

#THREAD

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on #democracy, with over 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2021.

Involving over 3,700 scholars & other country experts, V-Dem measures hundreds of different attributes of democracy.

The V-Dem Democracy Report 2022 contributes a greater understanding of the global challenges to
democracy.

This year's report makes for grim reading. Like many other observers around the world, the authors are deeply concerned about the decline of democracy over the past decade.

The intensifying wave of autocratization around the world highlights the need for new initiatives to defend
democracy.

The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global
citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels & the last 30 years of democratic advances are now eradicated.

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@docrussjackson

Aug 29

https://twitter.com/i/status/1488479968342552576/video/1

In July 2019, Mail & Sunday Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer - who in 2012 had written in the Spectator the first draft of a grotesque attack on Liverpudlians, often attributed to Boris Johnson - accused Jeremy Corbyn of 'wanting to reopen Auschwitz'.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1488479968342552576/video/1

Heffer said in 2012 that he wrote the first draft of a Spectator editorial in 2004, regarding the death of Kenneth Bigley, which said in part:

"An excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians."

"They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it... They cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it..."

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