Mark E Thomas @mrmarkethomas.bsky.social Profile picture
Author of 99% (FT Best Books of 2019) and founder of the 99% Organisation. Follow us here: @99organisation.bsky.soc Visiting Professor at IE Business School.
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Nov 30, 2023 23 tweets 5 min read
Thread (1/22)

This thread explores the crisis the NHS is facing, how the crisis came about, why it has not been fixed and what we should do to fix it. (2/22)
There is no question that the NHS is in crisis – the record waiting lists alone are enough to show that.

Now almost 8 million of us are waiting to see a consultant.
Oct 16, 2023 33 tweets 9 min read
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This thread explores the link between Silver Blaze and last week’s Labour Party conference.

In Silver Blaze, Sherlock Holmes has both to solve a killing and find a missing race-horse – and of course he does both.

Colonel Ross is the owner of the Silver Blaze: ... (2/32)

Ross: “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Ross: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
Oct 9, 2023 36 tweets 8 min read
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Last week was the Conservative Party Conference, CPC23. Or perhaps there were two conferences:

· The official conference, to rally the party faithful
· The unofficial conference, to lay the ground for their others' bids for leadership. (2/35)
This thread covers both conferences and explores what that could mean for Britain. Image
Sep 18, 2023 32 tweets 6 min read
Thread 1/32)
Thirteen years of increasingly far-right policies have left the UK visibly broken: we have a cost-of-living crisis; our NHS is on its knees and our schools are crumbling; and we have rivers flowing with sewage and an unaddressed climate emergency. (2/32)
As a result, the Conservatives are now roughly 20 points behind in the polls and seem likely to lose the next election, possibly quite badly.
politico.eu/europe-poll-of…
Sep 2, 2023 49 tweets 13 min read
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The 99% Organisation (@99organisation) came into being four years ago when the book 99% was published.

This thread is a personal look back at why I decided to write the book, and what has happened since publication.

Please forgive the length! (2/48)

While I was a strategy consultant, for reasons explained in the Introduction to 99%, I began to analyse the Arab Spring and came up with the model of country stability set out below.
99-percent.org/doughnuts-for-…
Aug 22, 2023 20 tweets 5 min read
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This thread looks at why (and how) we should expect the Conservative Party to fight dirty from now until (at least) the next General Election.

And at how we can best hope to avoid being manipulated. (2/18)
The Conservative Party today is not the traditional one-nation party: it has been taken over by extremists…
99-percent.org/what-is-the-ma…
Aug 12, 2023 23 tweets 6 min read
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In the last 13 years, the Conservatives have done enormous damage to the UK.

We are now approaching a major opportunity for a return to sanity.

We must not blow it. (2/23)

Economically, Austerity, Brexit, mishandling of COVID and now declinism have caused enormous damage to the country…
99-percent.org/why-we-should-…
Aug 5, 2023 23 tweets 6 min read
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Looking at this government’s track record, it is natural to assume they are incompetent.

This thread argues that, on the contrary, they have been focussed, effective and even innovative … in pushing forward an agenda which is bad for almost everyone in Britain. (2/20)
Economically, in terms of health and environmentally, they have failed (almost all of) the British people.
Jul 31, 2023 21 tweets 6 min read
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This thread explores the gradual dawning of awareness of the damage done by this Conservative Government, and what we can do now that we are aware. (2/20)
Cameron took power just as the Global Financial Crisis was ending. He and Osborne seized on the opportunity to claim (falsely) that there was no choice but to shrink the role of the state via Austerity.
99-percent.org/who-still-beli…
Jul 9, 2023 16 tweets 6 min read
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The far right seized on the 75th Anniversary to claim that it is time to replace the NHS with a privatised, social insurance model.

This thread explains what they want, how they lie to us and what we can do about it. (2/16)
Here, for example, is Javid explaining what he wants to see:

“Javid called for a royal commission to 'break the current deadlock', examine what reforms are needed and what the UK should be learning from other nations.”
msn.com/en-gb/health/o…
May 15, 2023 23 tweets 8 min read
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This thread looks at how far the Conservative Party has shifted to the extreme right, and at what we can do about it. (2/22)
When Theresa May warned that
“Let’s not kid ourselves. There’s a way to go before we can return to government. … You know what some people call us: ‘the nasty party’”
there were already signs that the party had drifted towards brutal amorality.
Apr 17, 2023 22 tweets 6 min read
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After 13 years in power, the Conservatives want us to believe that the UK is safe in their hands.

This thread explains how, given a just a few more years, they can complete their transformation of the UK into a playground for their donors – at our expense. (2/22)
After WWII, the government of Clement Attlee implemented the recommendations of the Beveridge Report, which set the foundations of the post-war social contract.
99-percent.org/tackling-the-g…
Mar 23, 2023 11 tweets 3 min read
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Most newspapers have reported that Sunak paid 22% tax on his income last year.
And some have pointed out that many ordinary taxpayers pay a far higher percentage than that.

This thread takes a different angle, it asks “Does Sunak really pay 22% tax?” (2/10)
Let us assume that:

1.The facts as generally reported are broadly accurate;
2.They are also reasonably representative of Sunak’s finances in a normal year.
On that basis, we conclude that a realistic tax rate for Sunak in a normal year is under 1%.
Mar 21, 2023 37 tweets 7 min read
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This thread looks at why the government is proposing an illegal, immoral and ineffective legislation on refugees.

And it explains the trap they are setting for the opposition. (2/34)
In 2002, Theresa May famously said to the party faithful,

"Yes, we've made progress, but let's not kid ourselves. There's a way to go before we can return to government. … You know what some people call us: the nasty party."
Mar 13, 2023 19 tweets 6 min read
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This thread explains why we find it hard to get our minds around what the UK government is really doing, what will happen if we let it, and how we can stop it. (2/20)

We are used to politics of left and right, where left means ‘left of centre’ and right means ‘right of centre’ … but we have never had a government as far from the centre as this one.
Feb 9, 2023 14 tweets 4 min read
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This thread looks at why the UK government is failing to protect us from inflation.

And what we should realistically expect them to be able to do instead. (2/14)
The UK has the highest electricity prices in the world.

Not just in the top 10 (out of around 200 countries), which would be embarrassing enough, but the worst in the world.
cityam.com/revealed-brits…
Dec 12, 2022 40 tweets 11 min read
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After 12 years of the Conservatives, the UK faces serious problems on multiple fronts: 1) economically, 2) in terms of the financial, physical and mental health of the population and 3) in human rights and democratic safeguards.
99-percent.org/a-renewed-assa… (2/41)
Last week we showed how the UK economy is falling behind other leading economies and how its population are falling behind economies which were well behind ours: the poorest 10% in the UK are now poorer then the poorest 10% in Slovenia.
99-percent.org/the-debate-we-…
Dec 5, 2022 54 tweets 10 min read
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Our social contract – the ‘deal’ that makes us a civilised country – is under grave threat both practically and philosophically.

And we are not talking about it. (2/43)
Practically, the UK is in a grave situation. A a serious cost-of-living crisis will plunge over half of the UK population into fuel poverty next year. This is on top of 12 years of falling real wages for the median worker and 12 years of under-funding of services …
Nov 26, 2022 35 tweets 9 min read
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Conservative Peer Baroness Michelle Mone and her family received almost £29 million from a firm on whose behalf she had lobbied.

This thread looks at what she did, and whether she is an outlier in such behaviour. (2/28)
Mone helped PPE Medpro win contracts worth over £200m for providing personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic.
“The largest part of the order, about 25m surgical gowns, was ultimately deemed unfit for purpose.”
ft.com/content/147d66…
Nov 19, 2022 18 tweets 5 min read
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This thread looks at what we have been told over the last 12 years, what has actually happened to the UK, and what lies in store if we do not change direction quickly.

And it suggests how to precipitate that change. (2/17)
After the Global Financial Crisis, the Tories told us that because of what they claimed were unprecedented levels of debt, there was no choice but to implement austerity…
99-percent.org/debt-hysteria/
Nov 8, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
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There is quite a bit of fear-mongering about the future costs of healthcare in the UK, from both left and right at the moment.

This thread explains why we should not be panicking about it. (2/7)
It is true that healthcare for the elderly is much higher than for healthy young adults.