Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

In March 2021, the Govt's 'Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities' claimed that there was "no evidence" of institutional racism in the UK.

In light of the #Casey report, which confirms its continued presence in the MET police, this was an absurd & misleading claim.

This thread is about how the UK Govt systematically misleads voters. The Race Commission is just one example of how the @Conservatives, supported by the billionaire-owned press, deliberately & irresponsibly deploy a political strategy of misleading voters in order to divide us.

Stephen Lawrence was murdered on 22 April 1993. The 1999 inquiry by William Macpherson found the MET Police to be institutionally racist.

30 years after Stephen's murder, the Casey report finds the MET institutionally racist, misogynistic, & homophobic.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…

Imho, the @Conservatives are engaged in industrial-scale psychological warfare on the British people.

The UK Govt’s response to clear evidence of systemic racism, the rise of far-right extremism, & the decline in social mobility, has been to announce "independent" Commissions.

These so-called "independent Commissions" are anything but independent.

There is a consistent pattern which entails appointing ideological extremists to lead these “independent” Commissions, who the Govt know will produce a report either playing down or flat denying the problem.

Highly selective evidence is mobilized in a manner which means truth & reality are deliberately distorted & misrepresented, & amplified by the right-wing media, with the aims of misleading voters, & dividing the British people on moral & cultural issues.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1637919490426937346?s=20

The deliberate misrepresentation of reality - amplified in the billionaire-owned press & right across the ‘news’ media, which rarely challenges the initial framing - means discussion will inevitably follow the initial misleading framing of any issue.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1621848019506282509?s=20

In the words of Albert Einstein, this misleading media framing makes it “extremely difficult, & indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions & to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1521045678058876928?s=20

Before discussing in detail the alarming denial of institutional & structural (or 'systemic') racism in Britain, two other examples of the process of distortion & obfuscation are the Govt's responses to the recent rise in far-right extremism, & the decline of social mobility.

Until January, the Government's Social Mobility Commission was headed by controversial & contrarian right-wing 'anti-woke' ideological extremist Katharine Birbalsingh, who was appointed in October 2021.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1447332985066434565?s=20

The Social Mobility Commission was formerly the Social Mobility & Child Poverty Commission (2012–16) & originally the Child Poverty Commission (2010–12). Originally, it was to monitor child poverty, but Iain Duncan-Smith's Welfare Reform & Work Act 2016 changed its emphasis.

Under Birbalsingh's lead - supported by controversial Commissioner Matt Goodwin - the Commission downplayed the negative role of poverty & inequality in social mobility, instead emphasising the importance of strict education & individual responsibility.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1534864233866854400?s=20

The issue of rising far-right extremism & terrorism provides two more examples of how the Govt appoints ideological extremists to lead reviews.

Firstly, the Govt's PREVENT review was headed by ex-director of the hard-right anti-Muslim Henry Jackson Society, William Shawcross.

The #PREVENT Review downplayed the growing problem of far-right radicalisation, helping to normalise the Govt's & right-wing media's use of far-right 'invasion' rhetoric, which fuels the polarising culture war rhetoric around the wedge issue of migration.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1623331933143945217?s=20

Predictably, instead of highlighting the growing problem of far-right radicalisation, on its release in December, Shawcross's partisan #PREVENT review was on the front page of both The Times & The Telegraph, & used to attack & demonise Islam, minorities, & the "woke" left.

In another example, the "temporary" contract for the role of UK Head of the 'Commission on Countering Extremism' made in March 2021, was extended for the Heritage Foundation's hard-right extremist Robin Simcox, who is well known for his reactionary views.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1563856832132694021?s=20

And so to the controversial 'Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities', which predictably found there was "no evidence" of institutional racism in the UK, despite an already existing abundance of expert evidence demonstrating institutional & structural - or ‘systemic’ – racism.

The Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities was a UK Govt commission, supported by the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office. It was established in 2020 in the wake of #BlackLivesMatter protests following the murder of George Floyd, & was another Govt #propaganda opportunity.

Boris Johnson gave it the brief of investigating race & ethnic disparities in the UK. Publicly, Johnson argued the need for a thorough examination of why so many disparities in different opportunities & outcomes persist, & what was needed to be done to eliminate or mitigate them.

Commission members were recruited by controversial & back then largely unknown political adviser & another ideological extremist, Munira Mirza, who had previously flat denied the existence of structural & institutional racism.

theguardian.com/world/2020/jun…

The focus of this 2019 article was the new generation of SPADS in Downing St, brought in by Boris Johnson, including Munira Mirza - part of the cabal of former Revolutionary Communist Party supporters who morphed into #Spiked's libertarian provocateurs.

theguardian.com/politics/2019/…

Mirza said she hoped to recruit Trevor Phillips as part of the commission, who had previously said 'Muslims are not like us, & had referred to UK Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”, which was amplified by far-right extremist, ‘Tommy Robinson’.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1593379087296434178?s=20

The differences between New Labour & the @Conservatives were not so great in this regard, & the links & continuities between successive Governments over the last thirty years are of interest - exemplified by the fact that Trevor Phillips was integral to Tony Blair’s New Labour.

Phillips has a long-standing friendship with Peter Mandelson (who worked with him at London Weekend TV & was best man at his first wedding), & with Keir Starmer too. Being friends doesn't mean one's ideologies align, but it does show the incestuous nature of the UK establishment.

In a Times interview in 2004, Phillips said the Govt should stop supporting multiculturalism, claiming it was out of date & legitimised "separateness" between communities, & instead should "assert a core of Britishness".

It's clear why Mirza wanted Phillips on the Commission.

Phillips was appointed head of the Commission for Racial Equality by Tony Blair in 2003 & was the Equality & Human Rights Commission Chairman from 2007-2012. He was roundly denounced in 2016 for saying Muslims are 'not like us' & we should just accept they will never integrate.

In March 2020 Philips was suspended by @UKLabour over allegations of Islamophobia, & went on to describe the decision by Labour to adopt the definition of Islamophobia agreed by an all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims as "nonsense", as Muslims were "not a race".

At the time, the Muslim Council of Britain accused Phillips of making "incendiary statements about Muslims that would be unacceptable for any other minority".

https://twitter.com/SayeedaWarsi/status/1477617572061327369?s=20

In the end, Phillips was not appointed to the Race Commission, & Tony Sewell was appointed to lead it.

Sewell had previously worked with Boris Johnson during his mayorship of London. The @BBC described him as a "longstanding commentator on racial issues and education".

Sewell had previously attracted criticism for his controversial comments, including that school lessons were too "feminised", that Afro-Caribbean culture was "anti-intellectual", & that "much of the supposed evidence of institutional racism is flimsy".

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

As this article makes clear, & from which I'll quote extensively from later in this thread, Sewell was a known admirer of the Black conservative academic Thomas Sowell – who famously argued disparities cannot solely be linked to discrimination.

longreads.politicshome.com/truth-lies-and…

Sewell's work had been controversial at times, particularly in regard to the issue of institutional racism. In a 2000 interview with the @BBC, Sewell, then a lecturer at Leeds University, was quoted calling “the mantra” of institutional racism “a hurdle”.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education…

As previously mentioned, one of the Commissioners is Matt Goodwin, who leads the Legatum Institute's 'Centre for UK Prosperity'.

Professor Martin Shaw says that Goodwin’s work detoxifies the far-right using a range of pseudoscientific sleights-of-hand.

bylinetimes.com/2021/02/15/gb-…

Other Race Commission members included Aftab Chughtai, the owner of a Birmingham department store & cofounder of the pro-Brexit group 'Muslims for Britain, & free-market ideologue Dambisa Moyo, now Baroness Moyo'.

birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-…

Like so many at the top of the UK establishment. for example UK PM Rishi Sunak & his ex-boss & now @BBC Chairman, Richard Sharp, Dambisa Moyo worked for Goldman Sachs - from 2001 to 2008 she worked mainly in debt capital markets, hedge funds coverage, & global macroeconomics.

Dambisa Moyo has called for an end to Western aid for African countries, & has been a guest of the Adam Smith Society, a chapter-based association of business school students & professionals, established by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1601203849586671616?s=20

Another Commissioner was Martyn Oliver, CEO of the controversial Outwood Grange Academies Trust - a multi-academy trust that operates forty schools across northern England & the East Midlands. Last year Oliver was paid £180,000, & received a knighthood!

The Outwood Grange Academies Trust is an exempt charity, & has been strongly criticised for its zero tolerance discipline policy, which echoes Katharine Birbalsingh's ideology, with children internally isolated or excluded & sent home for any minor breach of the uniform code.

In September 2018, an article criticised the use of isolation booths within schools, describing them as a form of internal exclusion (where exclusion is a policy by which pupils are forbidden from attending school for a period of time as a punishment).

theguardian.com/education/2018…

Another extremely controversial Race Commissioner is Mercy Muroki, who was, at 25, the youngest of the commissioners & had already made a name for herself as an "anti-woke” commentator. She was employed by GB “News” immediately after the Report’s publication.

Muroki was a researcher at the free-market ‘think tank’ the Centre for Social Justice 'think tank', which is part of a network of free-market propagandist lobbying organisations guaranteed coverage in the billionaire-owned press.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1588599253328625665?s=20

The CSJ was co-founded by Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, & Philippa Stroud.

Following #BLM protests, Muroki wrote in The Times that Black UK communities were being encouraged to “import the anarchic racial hysteria we have seen in some US cities”.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1472255138219843590?s=20

The findings of the Race Commission were rushed out on 31st March 2021. Few were briefed in advance about its findings, leaving those wishing to promptly respond little time to sift through the report’s contents.

longreads.politicshome.com/truth-lies-and…

As stated in The House magazine, which is written primarily by Parliamentarians, with a cross-party editorial board, "The main organisations briefed appeared to be those friendly to government, such as The Telegraph" which revealed recommendations days before it was published.

"The fact a preview of the report was sent out to lobby journalists only at 5pm the day before publication, with the caveat that journalists were not permitted to reach out to relevant groups & experts for comment before publication attracted the ire of some."

"A senior Tory source told The House Number 10 didn’t intentionally choose to provoke the lobby, but were following guidance from figures including former Downing St Director of Communications Robbie Gibb", who founded GB "News" & sits on the @BBC Board.

bylinetimes.com/2021/02/10/gb-…

According to The House magazine, "The report did not say institutional racism does not exist in Britain. Rather, it suggested there was no evidence of it – according to the new definition – in CRED’s four areas of focus: education, employment, crime & policing, & health."

Of course, this was demonstrably false, misleading, & for many, untenable.

The excellent @RunnymedeTrust called it “frankly disturbing”, & the University & College Union @ucu called it “an insult to all those in Britain who experience racism”.

The UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent called the Race Commission's report an “attempt to normalize white supremacy”, & Historians listed as report stakeholders spoke of their outrage of being “attached to such a shameful document”.

Prof Sir Michael Marmot, a report stakeholder and Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity, wrote of his surprise that the Commission was “so ready to dismiss structural racism” & emphasised that “structural racism can be one cause of the social determinants of health”.

The report concluded that despite overwhelming evidence, the "claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence". Speaking on @BBCr4today just after the publication, Sewell said there was no proof that there was "institutional racism" in Britain.

"No-one denies & no-one is saying racism doesn't exist... (did we find) evidence of actual institutional racism? No, that WASN'T THERE." "Institutional racism" is "sometimes wrongly applied" as a "sort of a catch-all phrase for micro-aggressions or acts of racial abuse" - Sewell

Sewell's grotesquely misleading report stated: “Put simply, we no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities. The impediments & disparities do exist, they are varied, & ironically very few of them are directly to do with racism.”

The Report had fulfilled its real purpose; the message splashed across the news headlines, amplified by TV news bulletins, was the LIE that apart from a handful of abhorrent racists, tolerant, welcoming Britain was devoid of institutional, systemic, or structural racism.

It took almost a year for the Govt to formally respond to the report.

It quietly published 'Inclusive Britain: government response to the Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities' on 17th March, 2022, signed off by ideological extremists Kemi Badenoch, Michael Gove, & Liz Truss.

The Ministerial Forward, by culture war gaslighter Kemi Badenoch, stated the Report “lived up to the maxim of the author and economist Thomas Sowell that ‘when you want to help people, you tell them the truth…When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.’

In a #propaganda statement that would make even Joseph Goebbels blush, brass-knecked gaslighter Kemi Badenoch claimed “The evidence is free from politicisation or distortion, with findings presented in an unvarnished fashion.”

In a particularly grotesque section of the Govt's official response, a Recommended Action titled 'Strengthen bonds of trust between people & their police force', states that "while confidence in the police remains high" it had fallen notably among the "black ethnic group".

“The Commission found that this lack of confidence appeared to stem from the types of experiences & the intergenerational memory that members of the black Caribbean group in particular have of the unfair & excessive policing that took place in the past.”

Note: "THE PAST".

Badenoch breezily signs off by stating that “We’re already one of the fairest countries in the world. But we continue to strive to go even further to give people the best chance of success in life. Inclusive Britain will take us that step closer.”

Stephen Lawrence was murdered on 22 April 1993.

The 1999 inquiry by William Macpherson found the MET Police to be institutionally racist.

Almost exactly 30 years after Stephen's murder, the Casey report finds the MET is STILL institutionally racist.

theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…

I'll end by returning to what Albert Einstein observed in his May 1949 article, "Why Socialism?"

Imho, it goes to the heart of what is wrong with Britain, namely that our Govt & "news" media are prepared to lie, to mislead, & divide voters, to protect their own interests.

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, & partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones."

"The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society."

"This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature."

"The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population."

"Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education)."

"It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."

As I said at the top of this #thread, the Race Commission is just one example of how the @Conservatives, supported by the billionaire-owned press, deliberately & irresponsibly deploy a political strategy of misleading voters in order to divide us.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1637783378647830529?t=2l0vNubmgytl4MSA3kZLOg&s=19

Here's another example example of how the @Conservatives, supported by the billionaire-owned press, deliberately & irresponsibly deploy a political strategy of misleading voters in order to divide us.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1522144149843156993?t=2l0vNubmgytl4MSA3kZLOg&s=19

Given the findings of the Casey report, &so many other reports into police racism, here's an article from May 2022 explaining why the police won't acknowledge institutional racism in their race action plan, & why that matters.

theconversation.com/the-police-won…