One speaker is under investigation for right-wing extremism, others argue the Christchurch mosque shooter 'had legitimate concerns', gay marriage is 'a destructive experiment', & the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory is real!
The far-right ♥️ #NatCon
Who funds it?
The #NatCon2024 Brussels event was sponsored and coordinated by Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a Hungarian 'think tank' funded by oil & gas money, & which received more than £1.3 BILLION in Hungarian state funding in 2020.
Nigel Farage's entirely predictable #NatCon2024 speech was live-streamed on the far-right #propaganda channel GB "News", bankrolled by bigoted evangelical "Christian" billionaire Paul Marshall, whose hedge fund has £1.7 BILLION invested in fossil fuels!
The #NatCon organising committee features Frank Furedi, Exec Director of MCC Brussels, who delivered the 2020 annual lecture at #TuftonStreet's Global Warming Policy Foundation, the UK’s leading climate science denial group, on the subject “eco hysteria”!
British #NatCon2024 speaker, Dr James Orr, linked to unhinged billionaire Peter Thiel, responded to a video of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London, which showed Muslim protestors praying, by stating: “Import the Arab World, become the Arab World”. 😬
#NatCon is a project of a right-wing think tank the Edmund Burke Foundation, which has links to an Israel-based Zionist research organisation, founded in 2019, but it was registered as a private limited company in the UK by Cambridge Uni's James Orr.
A #THREAD from last year on the The Edmund Burke Foundation, which brings together the far-right in Europe & the US, the various brands of the far-right, & gives them a framework, a common language, and a shiny brand to follow: 'National Conservatism'.
In a press release announcing its new UK-EU branch, based in London, Heartland boasted that it is “the world’s most prominent think tank supporting skepticism about man-made climate change”.
Shit-stirring hypocritical bigoted playground bullies were once shunned by society, but now they can become MPs.
Is Reform UK's Lee Anderson, who exploits ordinary people with his infantile divisive populism, the thickest & most hypocritical bigot ever to become an MP?
#30pLee is on his third party in six years.
He was elected as a Labour councillor in 2015 & suspended by the local branch of the Labour Party in 2018 after receiving a community-protection warning by the council for using boulders to block members of the Traveller community.
#30pLee resigned from Labour in 2018 & was elected as a Tory councillor on Mansfield District Council in 2019. He was selected as the Conservative candidate for Ashfield in 2019, and was elected as a Tory MP.
The Chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, Richard Cooke, has been suspended after he branded racism allegations as "nonsense" on social media after a former chief inspector alleged racism & homophobia were rife within the force.
Policing is hard. The Police Federation of England and Wales is the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors & special constables in the 43 territorial police forces in England & Wales. Cooke is Chair of the West Midlands branch.
Under UK labour law, the police are prohibited from joining ordinary trade unions to defend pay and working conditions, by the Police Act 1996, because of the view that a police strike would pose an exceptional public safety risk.
🧵Trump has assigned Musk a chilling task: To dismantle & destroy large parts of the federal government. Musk wants us to call this project by a humorous & innocent-sounding name: the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).
First, Musk's project is not an official Dept, so it's not factual to call it one.
Second, the goal of Musk's project is destruction, not "efficiency." Efficiency is when you make something work better. Musk clearly seeks to eliminate, not improve, large parts of government.
Finally, Musk has named his project after a meme, DOGE, a crypto scam named for a Shiba Inu dog. He's treating it all as a joke. But the destruction of government is deadly serious, and there's no reason why everyone should automatically participate in Musk's juvenile antics.
I've lost count of all the ultrarich privately educated 'anti-elites' in Reform UK!
Dubai World Trade Centre & Nick Candy's Candy Capital have a partnership to develop a “super-prime” real estate development in Dubai - where co-owner of GB "News", Legatum, is based! 🤑
Candy joined the Tory party in 2009 & has donated at least £290,000 to it.
In February he gave an interview saying it was “probably time for a change” & that Keir Starmer was “a decent man with good values and good morals”.
Nick Candy is to become Reform UK's new treasurer!
He hopes to raise more than £40M for Reform UK: "This morning, I’ve had millions of pounds worth of donations from people that have never donated to a political party in this country. But it’s not just about getting rich donors & billionaire people or whatever."
My 2023 Open Letter about @BBCQuestiontime, read by 300,000 people in 144 countries, was widely reported in the media & informed questions asked of @BBC DG Tim Davie at a Parliamentary Select Committee.
Here's my 🧵 analysis of the recent episode of #bbcqt, featuring:
My main criticisms of #bbcqt were: poor & biased chairing, including a tolerance of panellists who continually interrupt; ambiguity about the audience political demographic; & the well-evidenced bias toward platforming panellists from right-leaning media.
The @BBC's desire to drive engagement means #bbcqt is now overly dependent on platforming guests known for generating division, soundbites, & polarising controversy, rather than engaging in nuanced, respectful debate, which compromises its duty to 'INFORM & EDUCATE' the public.