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Peri Hankey Profile picture
Peri Hankey
@PeriHankey
Thinking aloud. Follow, retweet, or refer does not mean endorse. Show this thread? Click it. I use threads. Caution: may contain satire.
Aug 7, 2020 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
Today at 5pm is the deadline for evidence to the Forde Inquiry into the #LabourLeaks. But the mainstream media didn't want us, the voters, to know what was being done to nobble the one chance that we had of defeating the #Tories. Why? Because so many of them had that objective. That thread shows that if @guardian's journalists had been doing their job, they could have discovered & told us what @JoeRRyle & others had found: "Not only did they not want Labour to win under Corbyn, they seemed to be actively trying to lose." opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
Jul 20, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I tried in this reply to @socialistsunday to identify some problems that stand in the way of any attempt to create an effective political movement on the left. We need a political language that works. It's sad, but 'progressive values' won't be enough. The UK has harmed #Iraq, #Libya, #Syria & other countries in the name of our 'values'. Even if we can say what those 'values' were & how they applied to these wars, our intentions cannot excuse or undo the harm that we did.
Jun 21, 2020 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
On 11 Jun 2020 the Jewish Chronicle told its readers that Tzipi Hotovely as a "Likud politician has been a vocal advocate of the West Bank annexation plan". Image Who? What has she said? Here in @guardian on 22 May 2015 is what Tzipi Hotovely said when she became Deputy Foreign Minister of #Israel: "This land is ours. All of it is ours." Her religion tells her that #Palestinians have no claim to land in which they had lived until 1948. Image
Apr 30, 2020 • 28 tweets • 8 min read
On 22 May 2012, nearly 8 years ago, Eben Moglen (Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, Founder @sflc & President of the Board of @FreedomBoxFndn) gave a long talk about ‘Innovation under Austerity’. He spoke among friends. Eben Moglen had little explaining to to do. He knew his audience would recognise his “little thug in a hooded sweatshirt” as the founder of Facebook. He knew that many of them knew about or were active in the Free Software movement that began in 1983 but remains little known.
Apr 27, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Freedom of speech amounts to freedom of thought. Speech carries thought; to control human communication is to control the spread of ideas. Censorship aims to control the thoughts people think in their heads. Speech control is mind control. As @caitoz says: medium.com/@caityjohnston… 'Outrage porn' @caitoz calls it, an article "packed full of extensively sourced information about the way Silicon Valley tech giants are collaborating with western governments to censor speech." Image
Apr 13, 2020 • 17 tweets • 13 min read
"Trust has never mattered more!" In 2019, in the battle for trust & for truth, @guardian was on the wrong side: they didn't let @davidgraeber explain the war inside @UKLabour against @jeremycorbyn, battles for the Cable Streets of our minds: @FWWTMurals …blingsthoughtsandfiction.blogspot.com/2016/10/battle… What did @davidgraeber see? "The apparently endless campaign [for control of @UKLabour] by politicians like Margaret Hodge, Wes Streeting, & Tom Watson to weaponize antisemitism accusations against the [then] leadership of the Labour party...a form of antisemitism in itself."
Jan 20, 2020 • 13 tweets • 11 min read
One day after #GE2019, @guardian let Kenneth Stern (who drafted the #IHRA definition of Antisemitism) say if "[Jared] Kushner or I had been born into a Palestinian family displaced in 1948, we might have a different view of Zionism, & that need not be because we vilify Jews." Kenneth Stern wrote in @guardian with readers in the #US in mind. He explained that @ZOA_National sees the #IHRA definition as stopping @NationalSJP from calling for ‘#intifada’. But he says @NationalSJP has the right to make “calls” he doesn't like. "That’s called free speech."
Jan 5, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
See @CraigMurrayOrg: craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/…

Illegal thoughts of Bethlehem,
How well we see them fly!
Above your deep & dreamless sleep
Our stealthy drones go by;
Yes, on those dark wings we send
An everlasting fright;
The rage & fears of all our years
Are ‘imminent’ tonight. That word is useful, ‘imminent’,
To powers that be above.
Mere mortals sleep, their masters keep
Close watch for murder’s dove.
So morning press, so Twitter feeds,
Proclaim that all is well!
Let praise resound, let cash be found,
The key to peace is Hell.
Nov 19, 2019 • 12 tweets • 15 min read
#GE2019 #GeneralElection2019

Are you still #undecided?
Are you thinking of voting #LibDem? Think very hard: your vote may get you a very bad #Brexit. You want to #Remain & that's why you're voting #LibDem?
But the #LibDems can't #RevokeArticle50 unless they win the election. In 2017 they won 12 seats. They need 326 MPs to win. How many do they need to claim a mandate to #Revoke?
May 1, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
"We are fleshing out the [#Brexit] details to see how far the government can move towards us & then we will be able to ascertain how far we are able to move towards them...There are certain issues... We want to take a view on the whole package, the whole deal... " (@RLong_Bailey) We don't want this bloody Brexit!
We don't want this bloody Brexit!
We don't want this bloody Brexit!
The thing goes on & on.
Apr 9, 2019 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
The philosophy of science seems distant from political & everyday life. But it maps the fuzzy border between faith & rational thought about facts. "When you tell me I'm wrong you prove that I'm right!" Witch-finders & Freudians unite! You have nothing to lose but your brains: An example from @Jonathan_K_Cook: "McCarthyism is not just the hounding of someone because their views are unpopular. It is the creation...of a perfect, self-rationalising system of incrimination...the modern political parallel of the witch hunt." jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-02-2…
Apr 1, 2019 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
"The [#ECJ] has ruled that a revocation should be "unequivocal & unconditional", suggesting that the ECJ would take a dim view of any attempt to [#RevokeArticle50] & then resubmit it..." But @joannaccherry says we can resubmit if we act in good faith. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… Here's a thread with several links to what @joannaccherry has said in the House of Commons about our unilateral sovereign right to #RevokeArticle50 and perhaps to resubmit later if we so choose:
Mar 31, 2019 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
One thing is missing in this brilliant speleological analysis of #Brexit: the important Neolithic flint mining industry that had its HQ in Grime's Graves in Norfolk. These underlie an area of some 37 haha (91 acres) with at least 433 shafts dug into chalk to reach seams of flint. Grime's Graves are near the Great Rees Bogg, a place famous for its 'top hats'. These black cylindrical headgear items extend above the cerebral cortex & are filled with rabbits to protect the skull during underground 'jumping up & down' dances of rage in the 'passages of time'.
Mar 30, 2019 • 12 tweets • 9 min read
We have reached the end of the road with this Tory disaster, this quantum of #Brexit created & destroyed by & for Tories, a Frankenstein Brexit which now should tear to pieces the party that made it. Schrödinger's Brexitstein Monster, the movie. But what should @UKLabour do now? First, it is really important for all of us in every party to know what Brexiters & #TheresaMay hoped we never would know: we were able to trigger this #Brexit attempt to become independent because by the terms of the TEU we were in fact independent & free to use #Article50.
Mar 14, 2019 • 22 tweets • 13 min read
Edmund Burke (1729–97) referred to an 'economy of truth'. That was transmuted by Robert Armstrong (head of the British Civil Service) who spoke of being 'economical with the [valuable] truth'. The genius of our times has been to abandon that cumbersome & limiting truth standard. We have made a surprisingly smooth transition to lies, the lie standard, & an economy of lies. The scarcity value of truth was fool's gold when compared with the wealth & abundance of lies. What a dark & starkly bleak world that now seems, brightened only by flashes of paradox.
Feb 28, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
It is a historical fact, as @Jonathan_K_Cook points out, that in 1975 much of the world broke ranks with the United States and Europe at the United Nations general assembly to declare that Zionism, #Israel’s founding ideology, "is a form of racism and racial discrimination”. Why? "To the global south, the great purges of native Palestinians carried out by European Jews in 1948 & 1967 looked all too reminiscent of white Europeans cleansing indigenous peoples in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa." (@Jonathan_K_Cook)
Feb 3, 2019 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
As I wrote this, I thought "Enough! You have gone far too far. Lies about lies? How can anyone believe anything anyone says?" "Exactly" my other self said, "that's the problem, you see". Then I remembered a paradox: the internet works by assuming that parts of it can & do fail. The internet was designed to deal with the disaster, destruction & loss that a nuclear attack could impose on any widely distributed system of communication. Large parts of a network might vanish. How could the network enable any surviving parts to communicate with each other?
Feb 2, 2019 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
Writing in @guardian about law politics & #Brexit, @prospect_clark refers to stealthy “leave means leave” FB campaigns for a #NoDealBrexit. @AdamRamsay, @paulhilder et al: if poison is found in our veins, do we await the post-mortem? Is there an antidote? theguardian.com/commentisfree/… In that piece @prospect_clark points out (as he must) that the date on which we leave the #EU is set by its law, not ours. A #NoDealBrexit will place us at the mercy of all. Our MPs control UK laws only, But until #Brexit-day we have control of one thing: we can #RevokeArticle50.
Jan 12, 2019 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
Down the rabbit hole & into the kitchen. Something & someone is cooking. Duck soup with too much paranoia? I present my thoughts while transcribing the #InstituteForStatecraft ’s Chris Donelly’s talk about the #IntegrityInitiative: [Talking bloke with kitchen behind him] How to cook...what? Statecraft? Integrity? Whole-food fruitcake? Anyway not vegetarian, heavy stuff, meat: governance, change, disinformation, malign influence, democracy. Malign? A hint of crushed paranoia? Democracy now under threat?
Jul 25, 2018 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
In the near-term prehistory of the #WhiteHelmets controversy, @PiersRobinson1 referred to the UK Conflict Stability & Security Fund's own (CSSF) account of the support it gave to what it misleadingly refers to as the 'Syrian Civil Defence' (SCD): piersrobinson.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/sea… The key document @PiersRobinson1 refers to is the draft 'SYRIA RESILIENCE CSSF PROGRAMME SUMMARY' (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…), for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (lead partner), Department for International Development, Ministry of Defence, National Crime Agency & Home Office.
May 5, 2018 • 25 tweets • 11 min read
I am grateful to @Brian_Whit. In his sneering attack on @VanessaBeeley as a "goddess" of the Syrian war, and his side-swipe at Robert Stuart (@cerumol)’s dissection of @BBCPanorama’s “Saving Syria’s Children”, he picks on a key to understanding what the UK has done in Syrian war. Brian Whitaker claims that in the Syrian war of words, honest reporting and the search for truth have come under attack. He starts, as is typical of establishment writers, by assuming that his reporting is unquestionably honest and true.