Share this page!

GET A GRIP Profile picture
Twitter logo
Feb 15 • 5 tweets • 6 min read
#THREAD

A reminder of @Keir_Starmer's Ten Pledges to all @UKLabour members, made during his 2020 leadership bid (the website is still up).

Pledge #10: "Unite our party, promote pluralism, & improve our culture".

Keir Starmer in Rupert Murdoch's Times today: "Back me or leave".
"My promise to you is that I will maintain our #radical values & work tirelessly to get Labour in to power – so that we can advance the interests of the people our party was created to serve. Based on the moral case for #socialism, here is where I stand".

keirstarmer.com/plans/10-pledg…
Keir Starmer's numbers 1 - 4 of his 10 "pledges" made to all @UKLabour members during his 2020 leadership bid:
Keir Starmer's numbers 5 - 8 of his 10 "pledges" made to all @UKLabour members during his 2020 leadership bid:
Keir Starmer's numbers 8 - 10 of his 10 "pledges" made to all @UKLabour members during his 2020 leadership bid.

Part of pledge no.10 reads: "Unite our party, promote pluralism and improve our culture".

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with GET A GRIP

GET A GRIP Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @docrussjackson

GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 17
#THREAD

After last night's appalling episode of #bbcqt, today I've emailed @BBCR4Feedback to express my concerns about Fiona Bruce's inability to properly or fairly chair @bbcquestiontime panels, & about the disproportionate number of right-wing panellists.

Full email below:
"I'm a @BBC supporter & appreciate that @BBCR4Feedback makes an important contribution to society in helping to maintain the BBC's public service ethos & hard-won reputation for providing impartial, high-quality & distinctive output & services which inform, educate, & entertain."
"I'm writing to raise concerns - articulated and shared by thousands on social media - about @bbcquestiontime.

My concerns are twofold:

First, Fiona Bruce's chairing of BBC Question Time is, at best, unacceptably poor."
Read 25 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 16
#THREAD

New, interesting, & timely free to read research article: "‘The jobs all go to foreigners’: a critical discourse analysis of the Labour Party's ‘left-wing’ case for immigration controls."

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
This paper critically examines how senior figures in the @UKLabour Party & wider labour movement discussed the topic of immigration in the immediate aftermath of the UK's vote to leave the European Union in 2016.
Influenced by the Discourse Historical Approach, the paper is based on an analysis of 86 public interventions by Labour figures, over a 6-month period, delivered in speeches, articles and essays.
Read 29 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 16
#Authoritarians dislike novelty, diversity, & complexity.

#Telegraph:

"Don't call us far-right - we are just talking COMMON SENSE!"

'Govt says DOCTORS MUST MAKE SICK PEOPLE WORK!'

'WHITE middle-class TEACHERS are a PROBLEM!'

(This is what far-right common sense looks like). Image
Things that are "common sense" to right-wingers:

Demonise & scapegoat asylum seekers

Cut taxes for very richest people

Allow raw sewage in our rivers

Criminalise protests & strikes

Reintroduce death penalty

Downplay climate change

Sell off #NHS

What right-wing extremists REALLY want: no welfare; no public sector; no taxes; no consumer, worker, or environmental protections; no food or other standards; no limits on Party funding; no lobbying restrictions; no unions; no protest; & no human rights.

Read 4 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 14
#THREAD

Max Weber, the founder of modern sociology, once argued that charismatic politicians are seen by their followers as saviours & heroes.

But they are just as likely to be charlatans & swindlers...

theconversation.com/why-populism-h…
Whether you blame social media or inequality, contemporary citizens seem to want political horse races and big personalities — at least that’s the conventional wisdom. Engage your disgruntled followers with big ideas on TikTok!

journalistsresource.org/politics-and-g…
It would be bad enough if culture war clashes were just so much entertainment. But politicians that include Boris Johnson in the UK & US Sen. Josh Hawley appeal to the working classes — the masses of people without much money who turn out to vote.

michaelignatieff.ca/article/2022/d…
Read 31 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 14
#Threads

The 2021 book, 'The Ideology of Political Reactionaries', will interest anyone concerned about current ideological trends - particularly the disturbing rise in far-right rhetoric, activism, & terrorism in the UK, across Europe, & in America.

routledge.com/The-Ideology-o…
The book offers a new perspective on the beliefs reactionaries share, presenting a theory of reactionary ideology in the process.

Rather than taking self-contradictions in the reactionary imagination as a reason for diminishment, complexity is taken as a challenge.
The book argues that the features that unite reactionaries lie in rhetoric. Reactionaries make three persuasive appeals:

to decadence
to conspiracy
and to indignation.

They also display some recurrent rhetorical styles.
Read 5 tweets
GET A GRIP Profile picture
Feb 14
#THREAD

A US group tied to the influential anti-abortion activist Leonard Leo gave $3 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association in the fourth quarter, the largest contributor to the organization in 2022.

How does this link to Koch's #i360?

exposedbycmd.org/2023/02/02/gro…
The Concord Fund - a dark money group affiliated with the Trump “judge whisperer” and Federalist Society board co-chair - also made a $1-million contribution to RAGA in the first quarter, bringing its total for the year to $4 million.
In 2020, the opaquely funded Concord Fund was described as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary" & is part of the network of organisations associated with Leonard Leo, an executive in the Federalist Society.

Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Send Email!

:(