A Molecular Biologist who fights misinformation. All views are my own https://t.co/Wvd4yZ7Kby https://t.co/HOpi813rSK
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Sep 27 ⢠14 tweets ⢠5 min read
There seems to be some *confusion*
amongst Reform supporters over Nathan Gill being one of them.
āBut, but, Reform didnāt exist when he took his Russian bribesā
āBut, but he was in UKIP thenā
āBut, but it has nothing to do with Farage, he barely knew the guyā
So hereās a little history lesson šš¼š§µ
1/14
In the 2014 European Elections, UKIP won 24 seats
By the end of that parliament in 2019, they had 3 left!
5 had become Independents
1 had moved to SDP
1 had moved to Conservatives
14 were Brexit Party!
In 2019, UKIP won 0 seats.
Brexit Party won 29
2/14
Sep 26 ⢠25 tweets ⢠8 min read
It was suggested I took a look at this tweet.
Then we all got sidetracked by š¦¢sš¤·š¼āāļøš¤¦š¼āāļø
So, a couple of days late, here you go!
š§µ1/25
This is less of a ādebunkā and more an explainer to dampen down the pearl clutching and lower the temperature of the rhetoric against asylum seekers.
NONE of this is on them!
2/25
Sep 14 ⢠25 tweets ⢠8 min read
Last week the @Daily_Express ran with the following front page.
So obviously I had to take a look!
Is it true?
How does it compare to other professions?
Because anyone familiar with British RW media discourse knows they reserve a special venom for civil servantsā¦š¤·š¼āāļø
š§µ
1/25
The article contains a whole section from @the_tpa referring to:
āA simply unbelievable 1.6 million sick days over 3 yearsā
āParticularly a problem in our tax collectorā
āLow-standards cultureā
āStaff arenāt expected to turn up to workā
2/25
Sep 7 ⢠21 tweets ⢠6 min read
Following Farageās announcement that he plans to make āserious cuts to the welfare budgetsā if he wins the next election, Iāve seen this claim being repeated from last yearās headlines again.
So letās take a look at the the reality rather than the weaponised version
š§µ
1/20
The stat comes from an ONS report published last December, which found that:
āThe proportion of people living in households receiving more in benefits than they paid in taxes decreased from 53.6% to 52.6%ā
Cool. Job done šš¼
The headlines are correct, right?
Not exactlyā¦
2/20
Sep 4 ⢠10 tweets ⢠4 min read
This is getting absolutely ridiculous now.
Headline: Raynerās family home was valued at almost twice the amount of other recently sold properties on her street.
Article: Behind a paywall so most people will take that insinuation at face value
The reality?
š§µ1/10
The house was valued in 2023, by a third party, independent, professional valuer who would have visited the house, taken in all the information and gone away and found local comparables.
It was valued at £650,000.
So is it only actually worth Ā£325K as the headline suggests?! š±
2/10
Aug 29 ⢠17 tweets ⢠5 min read
The desperation by those on the Right to smear Angela Rayner is wearing thinš
And no - donāt bother replying UNTIL youāve read the thread!
Iāve trawled through multiple versions of this āstoryā in the Telegraph and Daily Mail to try and piece together whatās going on!
š§µ1/17
So letās lay out the facts.
It is complicated, which is why the Right Wing media can have such a field day throwing around claims and insinuations to make you believe something dodgy has gone on.
To be clear - there is no suggestion she has broken any laws or failed to pay what she needed to pay - and they know that!
2/17
Aug 15 ⢠24 tweets ⢠11 min read
Ok, You've GOT to be kidding me!
The Conservatives - who oversaw every single thing on this list, who are responsible for all of it - are trying to claim that only the Conservatives would "stop the madness" - that they created...?
1/24
šHousing and food provided
directly by the Stateš
Yes, the state has a legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone claiming asylum who has no access to any other place to stay.
And yes, they have a legal obligation not to let them starve.
It's depressing that even needs saying
2/
Aug 8 ⢠8 tweets ⢠3 min read
Oh my God - this has to be THE most obsurd @GuidoFawkes āscoopā in a long time (and they have some truly terrible ones!)
šØCivil Servants Handed Taxpayer- Funded Free Ice Cream for No ReasonšØ
It was neither taxpayer-funded NOR for no reasonš
Quick š§µ
1/7
This is what theyāre referring to.
Theyāre being encouraged to sign up to DigiGov 2025 with a fun little marketing campaign that offers you an ice cream on a warm Summerās day.
So - thatās the reason ā
2/7
Aug 5 ⢠27 tweets ⢠12 min read
Oh my wordā¦.
The click bait merchants at the Telegraph are having an absolute field day right now! š
Shall we take a look at the *reality* behind this sensationalist article?
Go on, you know you want to! š
š§µ
1/25
So, we begin with Samuel - not his real name - who travelled to the UK last year, was warned about London, and was then pickpocketed at Euston station.
A horrible thing to happen.
I was pickpocketed in London in the late 90s.
Itās not nice. Itās also nothing new.
2/25
Jul 21 ⢠22 tweets ⢠6 min read
I was asked to take a look into this tweet, cos, well, itās Andrea Jenkyns!š¤·š¼āāļø
So first - the substance of the storyā¦
1/20
Back in May, Anne-Marie Miles posted a video describing how she saw an elderly man having a discussion with a ticket inspector and she went to help.
She recognised him locally. He was homeless, carrying his belongings in a little trolly with his dog.
Right, so I was asked to take a look at this headline and as you can imagine, there is a lot wrong with it! š
This was initially published in @thetimes and then picked up by the usual GB News, DM, Telegraph etc
Letās take a lookā¦.š
š§µ
1/26
Firstly, they state this āanalysisā was done by the Conservative Party.
There is no link to the analysis or any reportā¦
Nice to know a political party can just feed their āanalysesā direct to the Right Wing media who will print it with no scrutiny šš¼š
2/26
Jun 8 ⢠15 tweets ⢠6 min read
What do we think?š¤
Hmmā¦. A Daily Mail headline so clearly designed to make you furious.
Being shared by salivating Tory MPs who love a good rage farming story!
So, whatās going on here?
Letās take a look!š
š§µ
1/13
Itās a story about a young boy who was told he couldnāt be referred to their NHS Occupational Health therapist because he went to private school.
There are a handful of other examples in the article - all children being ādeniedā NHS education related occupational health care
2/
Jun 6 ⢠15 tweets ⢠6 min read
Oh @NeilDotObrienā¦..
Where do we start?
Disingenuous?
Ignorant?
Or just deliberately misleading for political gain?
A quick š§µ to take a look!
1/12
Neil claims that Labour have ABANDONED their pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers *over the course of this parliament* because teacher numbers were down for the 24/25 year.
2/12
Jun 1 ⢠23 tweets ⢠5 min read
Nigel Farage has been making some big populist promises.
But behind the soundbites lies not only a financial black hole, but tells us a lot about the future he sees for Britain:
Letās take a closer look
š§µ
1/23
Last week, the leader of a party with just 5 MPs unveiled plans including:
šReinstating the winter fuel allowance (Ā£1.5bn)
šRemoving the 2-child benefit cap (Ā£3bn)
šRaising the personal allowance to Ā£20k (up to Ā£80bn)
šMore tax breaks for married couples (~Ā£4bn)
2/23
May 21 ⢠14 tweets ⢠4 min read
Well this is grimā¦.
Rotherham Borough Council has a new Mayor.
And the Right are absolutely up in arms about the fact that sheās a Muslim woman.
And they are of course spreading vile lies about her.
So letās just do a little sense check shall we?
š§µ1/13
Rukhsana Ismail was born in Sheffield
In ENGLAND š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ šš¼
All they see is the Hijab.
They donāt care that she started volunteering for a domestic abuse and human trafficking charity while doing her A Levels.
2/13
May 18 ⢠26 tweets ⢠8 min read
Ok - youāve seen the headlines about the āsecretiveā government agency planning on ādimmingā the sun?
Sounds like something out of a Marvel film or a 1960ās James Bond, right?
Hereās a š§µon who the government agency is and what *exactly* it is that theyāre funding
1/
First letās tackle the āsecretiveā agency:
ARIA - Advanced Research and Invention Agency
Set up to be the UK equivalent of DARPA in the US
Japan has Moonshot R&D
Germany has SPRIN-D
Govt agencies that support the most ambitious cutting-edge science and innovation
2/
May 5 ⢠15 tweets ⢠6 min read
No sooner have I debunked one set of headlines about refugees, along comes another oneā¦.š
Letās do a quick fact check on this one so you can choose to be angry (if thatās your thing!) from a place of knowledge rather than media-driven emotional outragešš¼
š§µ
1/15
Firstly - these are REFUGEES - not āillegal immigrantsā (aka asylum seekers).
These are people who have been through the grueling and long drawn out asylum process, have proven their claim and have been granted Refugee status.
2/15
May 3 ⢠16 tweets ⢠4 min read
š FREE DRIVING LESSONS FOR REFUGEES?!
If you've seen those headlines and felt a twinge of outrage, you're not alone.
But let's take a closer look at who's actually getting these lessons and why.
š§µ
1/16
The idea of someone else getting something āfor freeā seems to really trigger a particular sector of the media and online landscape.
Add benefit claimants or refugees into the mix, and the rage machine goes into overdrive.
2/16
Apr 13 ⢠23 tweets ⢠6 min read
Are Muslims really banning dogs in parks? š¤
Letās look at this perfect example of how rage baiting works, and how disinformation spreads, sticks, and fuels division, even years after being debunkedā¦