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May 29, 2023 20 tweets 9 min read Read on X
#THREAD

Unlike Andrew Neil, I haven't got the luxury of being Chairman of an establishment magazine which represents its billionaire-owner's interests.

Nonetheless, we need to talk about Andrew Neil's climate change stance & history of working for overseas-based billionaires. Image
Here's Andrew Neil in 2013, asking: "Is the whole global warming schtick over?"

Global warming is, as kids know, the long-term heating of Earth’s climate due to human activity, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Image
And here's a testy & revealing exchange following Neil's bizarre question, between journalist Andrew Neil & climate expert Bob Ward, who has served as policy & communications director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment at the LSE since 2008. Image
Here's Numpty Neil repeatedly embarrassing himself in 2014 & 2015, making the oh-so-funny banal joke that every moronic pub bore makes: 'It's snowing - so much for that global warming nonsense!' Ho ho ho. ImageImage
Some of the highly selective 'evidence' Neil cited in 2013/14, including from well known climate sceptic John Christy, is used to imply global warming is a myth.

In 2019 Christy gave a presentation to the #TuftonSt-based climate science denial group, Global Warming Policy Forum. Image
In September 2020, lured by Dubai-based billionaire's & multimillionaire's money, Neil announced his exit from the BBC to become chairman of the toxic ideologically extreme shit-show known as GB News.

I'm sure he felt much more relaxed about writing tweets like this: Image
Within the first week, presenters on the Dubai-based investment firm funded GB News had already interviewed two commentators associated with the UK’s main climate science denial group, #TuftonStreet's Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

desmog.com/2021/06/21/ana…
In his high profile interview with Rishi Sunak, Andrew Neil repeatedly asked the then Chancellor about the “eye-watering” costs of meeting the UK’s net-zero target. In a sign of things to come, Neil must have 'forgotten' to mention or ask about the costs of not reaching net-zero. Image
GB News is of course funded by Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, founded by billionaire Christopher Chandler, who in 2002, along with his brother, were the fourth largest investors in Russian state-controlled gas company Gazprom.

What are the chances?

This 2020 exchange with that equally popular TV presenter, Philip Schofield, showcases all reactionaries' formulaic rhetorical manoeuvre.

Having spent decades mocking climate science, Neil feigns surprise when asked if he's a climate change denier - it was "bizarre" he says. 🧐 Image
In the follow-up tweet he does what every single conspiracy theorist & ideological extremist does - he plays the victim, & falsely accuses the 'MSM' of 'closing down debate', when these fuckers puke out their unhinged toxic bullshit ALL DAY EVERY DAY ON MULTIPLE MSM PLATFORMS. Image
Neil was once the proud face of GB "News", but after leaving he describes its Dubai-based funders as a “quite ideological” “Ukip tribute band”. No shit. 10 of GB News’s 31 hosts made on-air statements in 2022 rejecting/challenging the scientific consensus.
theguardian.com/media/2023/may…
Shortly after “quite ideological” Andrew Neil left GB "News", he said journalists are “basically the PR department of Greenpeace” when it comes to reporting on the climate crisis, & accused the likes of #ExtinctionRebellion of “nonsense scaremongering”.

theguardian.com/media/2021/nov…
In October 2021, a month after announcing he wouldn't be returning to “quite ideological” GB News, Neil was tweeting another “quite ideological” right-wing media platform, Guido Fawkes, who just happened to characterise @SkyNews's climate reporting as "DOOMSDAY" reporting. Image
Last year, rather than celebrating the mixed but welcome news that *some* parts of the Great Barrier Reef had the highest amount of coral cover since monitoring began 36 years ago, the #Spectator predictably attacked the "climate doomsters". ImageImage
Anyway, draw your own conclusions about a man who lives in France, who has worked closely with authoritarian regimes, & has spent much of his life mocking climate science & climate activists while representing the interests of foreign/non-dom billionaires.
And of course, the article Andrew Neil refers to at the top of the thread is by Koch-funded Spiked's Chief Crank & shit-stirrer, Brendan O'Neil.

A truly lovely chap. 😬

ImageImage
#Spiked has always debated the scientific consensus on global warming. In 2013, Rob Lyons of Claire Fox’s Academy of Ideas, told Spiked’s readers that the climate crisis was ‘a myth’ because, there ‘is 50% more ice in the Arctic than last year’.
Years later, like Andrew Neil, Spiked tacitly admitted climate change may be a problem, amending its stance from denial to downplaying outcomes. It recently published an article celebrating the benefits of global warming, while advocating use of more fossil fuels, shale gas coal. Image
Scratch the surface & there's just a relatively small number of well-connected people, who work for a network of linked & influential organisations, & who spend their lives pumping out toxic shit into people's minds in exchange for billionaires' money.

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More from @docrussjackson

Oct 10
🧵

Let's not mince words.

A handful of selfish sociopathic billionaires and the populist politicians and media they fund have deliberately divided and radicalised millions of people across the world, solely to protect their wealth and power.
They claim to want to help “save children” while spreading distrust of experts, reputable journalism, climate science, and vaccines — which have saved over 100 million children since 1974.

By dividing the public, they protect their wealth and power.
Rather than justify how their wealth was earned, these elites cultivate scepticism of their critics and of expertise itself.

This deliberate erosion of trust shields their interests while undermining the science that saves lives and protects our planet.

Read 66 tweets
Oct 8
🚨

Robert Jenrick closed his Conference speech with: “Let’s build this NEW ORDER. Let’s TAKE our country back.” Hitler's “New Order” was a vision for an Aryan-led Europe which involved exterminating or enslaving “undesirable” minorities.

Jenrick has a Jewish wife. He knew this. Image
Across mainstream platforms and parliamentary stages, an extremely dangerous rhetorical drift is taking hold.

I've written elsewhere about what Prof Ruth Wodak calls “the shameless normalisation of far-right discourse” in relation to British politics.

In Britain, a group of prominent MPs—including Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman—are normalising far-right discourse through three recurring frames/themes: invasion, scapegoating for cultural destruction, and demographic replacement. Image
Image
Read 31 tweets
Oct 6
🧵

Let's talk about chainsaw enthusiast, Musk buddy, and darling of the global free-market right, Javier Milei.

Let’s look at which UK politicians and news media have been most effusive in their praise for him, and at whats happened to Argentina since he was elected in 2023. Image
Milei’s election as President of Argentina in November 2023 was met with enthusiasm from right-wing news media and populist politicians who praised his libertarian, anti-establishment platform as a model for radical economic reform. Image
Support was often framed in the context of Thatcherite principles, with Milei seen as a disruptor against "socialism".

1. Kemi Badenoch celebrated Milei as a "template" for her own potential Government, aspiring to be "Britain’s version of Javier Milei". Image
Read 38 tweets
Oct 5
🧵

A global evangelical Christian ARMY linked to TPUSA/TPUK, "fighting for the Britain whose church missioned & colonised the dark, demonic, heathen world with light, truth & salvation", founded by a former British boy band member addicted to cocaine until he found God?

WTAF!🤯 Image
'The King's Army' is a non-denominational Christian evangelism and discipleship movement launched in the UK mid-2024 - a "spiritual army" of believers enlisted to combat sin, cultural decay, and "darkness" through aggressive street outreach, prayer marches and public protests. 🤪 Image
Drawing on biblical military metaphors, it emphasises "virtue and valor" among Christians, urging them to "stop living like civilians and start fighting like soldiers!"

It targets young men for recruitment, standing against issues like secularism and "immoral culture"! Image
Read 26 tweets
Oct 2
🧵

Two people have died and three are in a serious condition following a suspected terror attack on a Manchester synagogue. Muslim leaders have condemned the attack. The suspect was shot dead by Police.

Some @X accounts are blaming Starmer. What's this got to do with @elonmusk? Image
Since Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and rebranded it as @X, the platform has transformed from a space for news and debate into a megaphone for hate, disinformation, and extremist ideology.

The consequences are now spilling into the streets.
Musk’s first act as owner was to gut @X’s safety and moderation teams, firing around 80% of staff responsible for enforcing hate-speech and misinformation policies.
Read 39 tweets
Sep 24
🧵

Ellison (~$390bn), Musk (~£385bn), and Zuckerberg (~$260): the three richest men on earth.

Ellison is buying TikTok. He controls nearly 50% of Paramount Skydance and wants Warner Bros Discovery. Carrie Symonds's dad is a director of his Foundation.

Who is Larry Ellsion? Image
For more than a century, some of the richest people on earth have bought up various media in order to shape politics and public opinion in a way that protects their wealth and power from democracy.

Musk, Zuckerberg and Ellison are doing precisely this on steroids. Image
These billionaires are reshaping the world into a dystopia that makes The Handmaids Tale look quaint.

Ellison owns 98% of one of the largest Hawaiian Islands, rolls out his total global surveillance system called 'The Oracle' to ensure 'good behaviour'.

404media.co/larry-ellisons…
Read 31 tweets

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