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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden
, 10 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Astounding - it's Friday, local election results day, before bank holiday, and the Home Office has quietly dropped announcement on its website that it extended G4S's contract to run Brook House and another immigration removal centre for two more years

gov.uk/government/new…
Let's remind ourselves of how well G4S has been doing running Brook House, shall we? In September, Panorama aired horrific undercover footage showing guards mocking and choking detainees

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Nine staff were suspended, and G4S assured everyone that 'such behaviour is not representative of the many G4S colleagues who do a great job'

independent.co.uk/news/business/…
But Samim Bigzad, an Afghan asylum seeker, told me the abuse continued even after the exposé

One G4S guard told him “f*** off, get out of my face” after he asked for toilet paper, and another ordered detainees to cells by saying:“Go to your rooms, dogs”

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
G4S bosses were hauled before the Home Affairs Committee, claiming that "if we were in any way aware of any of that behaviour we would have taken action", despite migrants' representatives and campaigners raising the alarm for years

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Days after that, the director of Brook House, Ben Saunders, resigned.

G4S said it had commissioned an independent inquiry and was assisting a police investigation into the abuse

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
No news on whether anyone will be prosecuted yet, but the bad news just keeps on coming.

As @maybulman reported exclusively, Brook House detainees launched a High Court challenge after being locked up for more than 13 hours a day

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Of course, Home Office says immigration removal centres are not a prison but to detainees they feel like it, or even worse - at least in jail you have an idea of when you're getting out

A report this week showed the use of force in Brook House is up 160%

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
G4S' contract for Brook House and Tinsley House was due to expire this month and had been put out for tender in Nov2016

HO: 'With 2 significant reviews [Shaw and Lampard] currently in train, we have concluded that it would be premature to enter into a new contract at this stage'
All the latest here independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
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More from @lizziedearden see all

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If you are hearing about the 'yellow vests' who have been intimidating MPs, journalists and Remain protesters outside Parliament for the first time, here's a history of the group

It's mostly made up of Tommy Robinson supporters, ex-EDL, Britain First and Pegida UK supporters
Some 'yellow vest' protesters were heckling @OwenJones84 and other journalists outside Parliament early in December, before starting wearing the jackets that have become a symbol of sometimes violent anti-government protests in France

On 9 December, several protesters at the 'Brexit Betrayal' march led by Tommy Robinson and Ukip leader Gerard Batten wore yellow vests, including this charming fellow . Pic from @BlewettSam
Read 20 tweets
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The far right “is not a working-class movement anymore”, a former neo-Nazi has said as groups capitalise on public concern over terrorism, grooming gangs and Brexit

A conscious shift in tactics by new image-conscious breed of extremists is paying off

ind.pn/2s1eiF2
While the BNP and EDL have melted away, the groups gaining traction are appealing to the public outside their traditional recruitment pool

Ethno-nationalists Generation Identity specifically target students and ask for rally attendees to be 'well-groomed'
Even Tommy Robinson has started wearing suits at publicity stunts and asked supporters not to drink at protests

As one former neo-Nazi put it, they have “wised up to the fact they need to be more respectable” to get support from the mainstream
Read 6 tweets
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Protesters in yellow vests on Westminster Bridge are a group of far-right Brexiteers led by a guy called James Goddard - a sort of wannabe Tommy Robinson who tries to fund his activities through PayPal
The same group went on to bother Tower Bridge - clearly inspired by Extinction Rebellion tactics to cause disruption

Another participant in the 'yellow vest' Brexit protest today was Tim Scott, who was a short-term leader of Pegida UK - started by Tommy Robinson and Anne Marie Waters

He's best-known for this memorable interview independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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Here's what the Judd Legums of the world, in all their "investigative reporting" about #NC09, won't tell you: That there have been complaints about ballot milling in counties in that district that pre-date 2018, and even 2016. Sit back for a bit let me tell you a story. #ncpol 1/
In the fall of 2010, Wilmington-based WWAY TV station did a series on "GOTV" activities in Bladen County - the county which is in the center of the *current* #NC09 storm. Here's the link to that story, which I'll be quoting from extensively: wwaytv3.com/2010/10/01/man… #ncpol 2/
From that 2010 story: 'We received a number of calls in response to [our series] saying we never mentioned the biggest player of all in the Bladen GOTV arena. It’s called the Bladen County Improvement Association, and it’s been operating for at least 30 years.' #NC09 #ncpol 3/
Read 44 tweets
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10/28/2018 thread #PittsburghShooting.

This sounds like actual Neo-Nazi. Referring to the #PittsburghSynagogue shooter:

“This guy just blew out the kneecaps of the movement in order to kill some no name Jews.”

Payoff, motive, timing don’t add up.

nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/…
2) My working theory is that George Soros bankrolls both sides in order to set them against each other.
3) “Screw your OPTICS, I’m going in” is an odd thing to say. This is how DC bureaucrats talk. It is not how Nazis talk.
Read 160 tweets
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Looking at my #Gucci, it's about that time. It's #Cancer time. (Older heads will know, I likely don't literally have a Gucci. But a stroll down hip-hop memory lane is apt for this sign, no?)
And this is special for me since there might be folks of a particular sign, either by Sun, moon or rising, who are your Ride-or-die folks. Well, #Cancers are mine. I don't have to go looking for them or that. It just happens. Consistently. So, they're dear people for me.
Once consciousness has explored dimensions of risk & curiosity in #Gemini, it seeks out safety, responsibility, containment & renewal in #Cancer
Read 92 tweets
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Thread 1/5 On Friday a judge ruled that the destruction of ballots in @Tim_Canova race was illegal. The judge said that #BrendaSnipes the #BrowardCounty Supervisor of Elections' defenses were “without substance in fact or law." hollerbackfilm.com/blog/canovawin…
2/5 @MarcACaputo @politico is reporting that @FLGovScott says he will have #BrendaSnipes the #BrowardCounty Supervisor of Elections' office monitored. politico.com/states/florida…
3/5 The winning case is built around multiple public records requests that I did & one that @Tim_Canova and I filed together. I wanted to examine #ballots in his race due to statistical irregularities a #data team I led found in the #election results hollerbackfilm.com/blog/wass-can
Read 5 tweets
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I'm listening to some pretty shocking evidence on immigration detention centres at the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

1/
2/
Inspectors have told MPs they are still waiting for detention centres to draw up improvement plans going as far back as December 2016.
3/
 At one centre, inspectors found 23 detainees who'd been there at least a year. Hindpal Singh Bhui, Inspection Team Leader, says the uncertainty leaves people in a “deep level of emotional distress” and deaths in detention including self-inflicted “have risen very markedly”.
Read 31 tweets
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It’s encouraging how the definition of failure has changed in just a year.
After the 2017 local elections, failure for Corbyn meant "leading Labour to oblivion".
This year, failure for Corbyn means leading Labour to it's best results in London since 1971 etc.
In the general election Corbyn was particularly successful at mobilising the young & previous non-voters (Labour won 60% of the under-30s; a whopping 2 million of its voters hadn’t voted in 2015). These groups remain least likely to vote in a local election, but they still exist.
The local election results are in line with last year’s general election. That’s a decent position for Labour to be in, given that turnout in the locals is about half that of a general election and those that vote are older. The result understates Labour’s potential.
Read 10 tweets

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#opendata #beertraining #smatcities #LilRobespierre #tratovip #PittsburghSynagogueShooting #holiday #weed #Capricorn #njea #SouthernCharm #mm #president #EastTurkestan #MarchForOurLives #hospitality #postofficetrial #MOAB #PolicingInCollapse #phillymarathon #trump #bigdat #FridayThoughts #D #FLGov

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