The same dangerously divisive free-market US billionaires who have been shovelling money into #TuftonStreet & #Spiked, also shovelled money into Charlie Kirk's toxic far-right Turning Point USA & it's bastard far-right offshoot - supported by Jacob Rees-Mogg - Turning Point UK.
Jeremy Hunt co-authored a 2005 policy book calling for our #NHS to be replaced by health insurance:
“Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private & public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.”
The book was put together by free-market Brextremist UKIPer Douglas Carswell, & in addition to Jeremy Hunt, the book’s other authors also included Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, and, of course, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Carswell moved to the USA, to become President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, a free-market, conservative "think tank" which advocates for lower taxes, fewer government regulations, 'religious liberty', 'educational freedom', & free-market healthcare reforms.
A full or partial switch from agricultural land to solar farms in some places would allow the land to recover. A 2016 paper found that solar farms tended to have more species of plant, insect and bird than equivalent farm fields.
Earlier research from 2013 compared land used for solar to the surrounding farmland, which the solar farm used to be a part of, & found greater numbers of butterflies & bees on the site. Butterflies & bees are worth around £400 million/year to the UK economy as pollinators.
So Boris Johnson is facing questions over whether he followed rules on paid employment after leaving No 10 after receiving $150,000 (£135,000) for a speech to a group in the US called the 'Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers'... 🤔
The 'Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers', HQ'd in Washington DC, is a global lobbying organization, representing leading insurance agencies & brokerage firms. I'm sure Johnson's chat has got NOTHING to do with the UK's private health insurance boom. 😬
The Council serves as an advocacy group to represent the interests of insurance companies before US state & federal Govts, as well as international Govts. Its political action committee works to support candidates who agree with its views & lobby Congress & international Govts.
The UK has one of the largest prison populations in western Europe - approximately 87,550 people - & a broken criminal justice system, meaning some people will be wrongfully convicted, yet the press no longer seem interested - why not?
The British media has a history of doggedly investigating miscarriages of justice. However, as Jon Robins, a Lecturer at University of Brighton shows, there has been a major – and critical – disengagement in the media’s coverage of such cases over the last 30 years.
Research shows that UK national press coverage of miscarriages of justice has notably decreased.
Between 1992 and 2007, it dropped by as much as 18%.
Below is a #THREAD on just one of the articles in the journal 'Discourse & Society' from their new Special Issue on The Normalisation of Far-Right Populism & Nativist Authoritarianism: Discursive Practices in Media, Journalism & the wider Public Sphere/s.
The introductory article postulates broadening as well as deepening the agenda for critical research on the role of discursive practices in media, journalism & the wider public sphere/s in normalization of far-right populism & nativist authoritarianism.
The authors' argument is that, on the rise since the early 2000s & especially from the 2010s onwards, authoritarian & nativist populism has posed some very significant challenges to contemporary media & journalism.
Interesting new article deconstructing the so-called ‘anti-woke’ culture war, in which the appropriation of the #neofascist culture war discourse by the mainstream right in the UK is analysed discursively.
The anti-woke culture war by the British conservative party as well as right-wing media will serve to analyse how social justice struggles like anti-racism, anti-sexism and pro-LGBTQ rights are being abnormalised and positioned as extreme deviant political positions.
So-called ‘cancel culture’ is strategically deployed to neutralise contestations against a range of bigoted views. Freedom of speech & the right to offend is weaponised to protect racist & discriminatory language, positioning idea’s as valid opinions worthy of democratic debate.