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@docrussjackson
Feb 4, 2023 • 9 tweets • 8 min read • Read on X
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Who is Alan Mabbutt?

A new Tory website paints union donations to @UKLabour, collected from workers in every sector, as some kind of problem.

In 2017, @Conservatives received 10 TIMES MORE in donations than Labour, much of it from dodgy Russians & non-dom tax-avoiders! Image
The website is "Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative Party".

In 2021 he was (still is) the Conservative Party DG & Registered Treasurer, & was named by the Electoral Commission in this damning report into Johnson's #wallpapergate lies.

electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and… Image
In 2015, the Tories were embroiled in a scandal under Cameron when it was revealed they were spending £100,000/month on Facebook ads, the bulk spent on collecting email addresses - back then a new method of bombarding voters with political messaging...

theguardian.com/politics/2015/…
The Tories had several non-party branded websites aimed at sucking in data - registered to Tory HQ - one confronting reader with a map of Labour figures criticising Ed Miliband, inviting users to hand over their contact details, in tiny writing saying "promoted by Alan Mabbutt". Image
In 2019, Mabbutt made the world news for pushing lies & blatant antidemocratic #disinformation when the @CCHQPress twitter account changed its name to "factcheckUK" & set up fake ‘fact-checking service’ to endorse Boris Johnson during election debate.

theguardian.com/politics/2019/… ImageImageImageImage
A Tory disinformation website promoted by propagandist Mabbutt pushed the LIE that "the overall #CostOfCorbyn remains at least £1.2TRILLION over the course of the next Parliament, meaning hardworking taxpayers would be hit with an additional £2,400 tax bill on average each year." ImageImageImageImage
In 2019 ex-Labour MP Ian Austin wrote to thousands of voters in @UKLabour marginal seats urging them to vote for Johnson over Corbyn: "We should lend the Tories our votes & stop Jeremy Corbyn!"

The strapline at the bottom of the letter states “Promoted by Alan Mabbutt” (CCHQ DG) ImageImageImage
Also in 2019, the @Conservatives published & delivered to marginal constituencies more #propaganda, this time disguised as a newspaper being delivered by Royal Mail.

Minuscule print at the bottom states: ‘Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative & Unionist Party’. ImageImage
It's hard to get any information on the Tory Party Director General, its Registered Treasurer, & largely hidden shadowy propagandist Alan Mabbutt - he's not a household name (I could only find 1 photo of him) but in the name of democracy & transparency, maybe we can make him one! Image

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More from @docrussjackson

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Jun 10
🧵

Some MPs who have been in parliament for many years NEVER appear on any of the @BBC's "flagship" politics shows - but Reform's privately educated shit-stirring 'anti-elite' former Tory Sarah Pochin - an MP for FIVE WEEKS - gets her own special introduction on #PoliticsLive. Image
Politicians using dangerously irresponsible anti-Muslim rhetoric know their comments are normalising Islamophobia and endanger British Muslim women. Islamophobic incidents rose by 375% in the week after Boris Johnson called veiled Muslim women “letterboxes” in 2018.
#PolitcsLive Image
Britain prides itself in NOT being the sort of country that tells women how to dress. States that do dictate women’s clothing (eg Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia) are vilified as misogynistic & ultra-controlling: the antithesis of the enlightened, liberal west.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read 11 tweets
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Jun 2
🧵

"Foreigners" DO NOT claim £1BILLION/month in benefits.

This disgusting anti-migrant dogwhistle by shameless liar and former Head of Policy Exchange, Neil O'Brien MP, is just one of several recent dispicable divisive Telegraph front page lies.

WTAF @IpsoNews? @HoCStandards? Image
The claims that the UK spends £1bn/month "on UC benefits for overseas nationals" (O'Brien) and "Foreigners claim £1bn a month in benefits" (Telegraph) are revealed to be lies in the article: the£1bn relates to "Benefits claims by HOUSEHOLDS with AT LEAST ONE FOREIGN NATIONAL." Image
The Telegraph claims that (unnamed) "experts suggested the increase reflected a SURGE in the number of asylum seekers being granted refugee status and in net migration."

To evaluate/make sense of this sensational unsourced claim, additional context is needed (but not provided). Image
Read 57 tweets
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May 30
🧵

Chase Herro, co-founder of Trump’s main crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, on crypto:

“You can literally sell shit in a can, wrapped in piss, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it.”

theguardian.com/technology/202…
Despite crypto being bullshit, & memecoins being consciously bullshit, many – especially angry young gullible men – still invest: 42% of men & 17% of women aged 18-29 have invested in, traded or used crypto (2024 Pew Research), compared to only 11% of men & 5% of women over 50. Image
“It’s no accident that memecoins are such a phenomenon among young people who have grown immensely frustrated with a financial system that, I think it’s fair to say, has failed them” - Sander Lutz, the first crypto-focused White House correspondent.

theguardian.com/technology/202…
Read 16 tweets
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May 14
🧵In January, Farage said Musk was justified in calling Starmer complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs: “In 2008 Keir Starmer had just been appointed as DPP & there was a case brought before them of alleged mass rape of young girls that did not lead to a prosecution.” Image
The allegation that Starmer was complicit in failures to prosecute grooming gangs is often repeated. But how true is it?

Two Facebook posts, originally appearing in April/May 2020, claimed Starmer told police when he was working for the CPS not to pursue cases against Muslim men accused of rape due to fears it would stir up anti-Islamic sentiment.
In 2022 the posts and allegations saw a resurgence online with hundreds of new shares. They said: “From 2004 onwards the director of public prosecutions told the police not to prosecute Muslim rape gangs to prevent ‘Islamophobia’.

Then, in January, Elon Musk joined in.
Read 40 tweets
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May 13
🧵

Decades of research shows that parroting or appeasing the far-right simply legitimises their framing, and further normalises illiberal exclusionary discourse and politics.

Starmer's speech is more evidence that the far-right has been mainstreamed.

The mainstream right-wing consider social inequalities natural or beneficial, but support liberal democracy’s core institutions & values.

The far-right rejects liberal democracy & is rooted in nativism (xenophobic nationalism) & authoritarianism (emphasizing order & discipline).
Liberal democracy upholds minority rights via rule of law & independent institutions, ensuring equal treatment & freedoms for all.

The far-right opposes it, & instead prefer illiberal democracy, which favours majority rule, curbs minority rights, & erodes checks on power.
Read 22 tweets
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May 10
🧵

Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist who focuses on political extremism and populism in Europe and the US, is, imho, one of the most important voices on the Left today.

Allow me to briefly summarise some of his work.

Image
In a 2023 lecture, Mudde emphasizes the importance of precise terminology in discussing the far-right, distinguishing between extreme right (anti-democracy) and radical right (accepts elections but rejects liberal democratic principles like minority rights and rule of law).
He argues we're in a "fourth wave" of postwar far-right politics, characterized by the mainstreaming & normalization of the far-right - what Linguist Prof Ruth Wodak in a related concept refers to as the 'shameless normalization of far-right discourse'.

Read 49 tweets

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