Eddie was locked up at 13, stuck in solitary confinement with a bowl for a toilet and fed through a hatch. Now he has spent almost half his life incarcerated while his family fight for his freedom. Why? Because he has autism & learning disabilities in a country lacking care He is among many victims of a grotesque human rights scandal taking place in the UK that wrecks lives, devastates families and wastes big sums of money. Yet ministers & NHS chiefs have again broken their promise to tackle the scandal - my @theipaper column inews.co.uk/opinion/human-…

African Parks statement in response to my investigation says it became aware of abuse claims in the letter to Prince Harry last May, then accusing @Survival
of not co-operating with inquiries. But as I wrote today, Survival first told them about abuse from their guards in 2013!

https://twitter.com/ianbirrell/status/1751381670849044762

In 2014, the African Parks community manager admitted they knew of problems with corruption, violence and poaching by their own guards in a meeting with Survival but said they needed hard evidence to act against individuals, according to the campaign group’s contemporaneous notes

Four years since Taiwan tipped off the WHO about a new virus causing havoc in Wuhan. Zero evidence has emerged backing claims of zoonotic transmission but there are alarming signs that high risk gain-of-function experiments took place in low level biosafety conditions in the city Yet still there is a conspiracy of silence from most Western politicians and much of the media, which helped a small group of US & UK research funding bodies and a few patsy scientists to push the idea that even discussing the idea of a lab leak was to promote a conspiracy theory

Listening to Sir Patrick Vallance's interview with BBC (bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09…). Asked why his emails discussing the pandemic origins were redacted when I sought them under FOI (dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…), he admits this is a problem for transparency and undermines public trust... He says he would be happy for the emails to be released but claims he could not do so since they were not his emails and he was only attending a meeting organised by others. He insists the details are not exciting...

Redacted documents, part 2

Why is the government redacting documents and refusing to share information it holds on events that might help us grapple with the mystery of the pandemic’s origins after almost five million deaths? Here are the documents behind my MoS article (Part 1) dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

World's most famous medical journal is accused of doing China's dirty work - my Mail on Sunday report on how @TheLancet stifled debate on the lab leak theory while praising Beijing dailymail.co.uk/debate/article… Reveals that cabal behind Peter Daszak's infamous statement trying to close down debate on 'conspiracy theories suggesting Covid-19 does not have a natural origin' and endorsing China's 'rapid, open and transparent sharing of data' is preparing a second statement in the journal

The @WHO investigation into Sars-CoV-2 claims to have conducted systematic & comprehensive research in its Wuhan probe into the pandemic origins. Note how it is a joint study to appease the Chinese dictatorship that covered up the disease with such devastating global consequences Chinese expert using @who platform to push debunked idea that the pandemic started outside its borders by stressing that this investigation into the origins is only ‘the first part’, the ‘China part’, and is not limited by geographical location.

'People have every reason to be confident and calm about all that kind of thing… all the coronavirus, and any threats from disease,' Boris Johnson, Feb 2020. 'We can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country,' Boris Johnson, March 2020

Some quotes from self-declared superforecaster Dominic Cummings that are interesting in light of the PM's refusal to hire anyone that challenges him and this government's shambolic incompetence on everything from protecting people in pandemic to the exam fiasco 1) 'Everyone is discouraged from telling the truth to important people. It isn’t a culture in which you admit mistakes. There’s no grip, no focus.' He was attacking Cameron's coalition but sounds familiar, doesn't it?

If you want to see the damage that Brexit has wrought to Britain, consider the fact that Claire Fox became a regular voice on the BBC, then an MEP and now has been elevated to the House of Lords by Boris Johnson. Over the course of her career as a 'controversialist' she ran a magazine that libelled ITV journalists by alleging they faked evidence when exposing some of the worst atrocities in Europe since WW2. It also opposed gun controls after the Dunblane massacre.

Certain political stories are lethal because they cut through to voters on a personal level while inflaming concerns lurking in people’s minds. The Mirror story about David Cameron’s car taking his shoes to work while he cycled and smiled at the cameras was a prime example This is the danger for the government in defending Cummings. Clearly his actions were hypocritical & wrong. They must have been known to Downing Street. They anger voters locked up, losing jobs, missing their own families & even funerals in these dark times.

Do all deaths count equally? I've been trying to get clarification today after @NHSEngland medical director Steve Powis said: 'I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities; autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals.' 2/ My understanding from the NHS is that it will publish data that has been verified on the deaths of anyone with a learning disability, autism or mental ill health who has died, with confirmed Covid-19, in any NHS setting.

According to @RencapMan (who's been excellent on #coronavirus), Switzerland has the same virus rate as Italy on 4 March implying it should close schools tomorrow & its economy will shut down on 16th March.

Spain follows two days later. France should see schools off by Friday with national lockdown on 19th March.

Germany follows a day later.

The UK is currently like Italy on 26th Feb so economic shut-down date is 23th March.

'That’s western Europe out of the global economic picture within two weeks.'

Today's Times revealed the latest Johnson adviser @AndrewSabisky claims 'eugenics are about selecting for good things' - which is highly repellent, historically inaccurate but typical of the arrogant new wave of eugenicists emerging from the woodwork. Here is the full quote: Several of his tweets on disabilities seem to have disappeared - although The Times referred to one tweet still up as saying 'women’s sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.'

Interesting to see @jameskirkup try to argue that One Nation Conservatism is not yet dead in today's Times thetimes.co.uk/edition/commen…. Yet for all his valiant efforts, the article just refutes its own case as Johnson turns the Tories into hard-right English nationalists He makes 3 key points. First, there will still be some decent moderate MPs. Of course. Few would dispute this. But far fewer since Johnson shows contempt for Remainers & drove out many liberal, pro-Europeans & pro-biz MPs - while all MPs must sign up to his vision of hard Brexit

AT last! @matthancock takes steps to stop the abusive detention of people with autism & learning disabilities by demanding a discharge plan for every case in secure units and removing autism as a mental disorder from the law dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7… Government also publishing data on rates of incarceration that show likes of Lancashire, Black Country & Sussex lock up people at 4 times the rate of Worcestershire, the best-performing region - and will tell health bosses to use statutory powers of intervention to fix the crisis

Some instant thoughts on the @HumanRightsCtte report into abusive detention of young people with autism & learning disabilities 1) This starts from the key position: human rights of many people with autism and learning disabilities are being breached and there needs to be rapid change to end the 'horrific reality' that is 'inflicting terrible suffering on those detained...and their distraught families.'

What ministers said about prorogation before they put their own careers before the interests of the country

1) @NickyMorgan01, culture sec: 'It would lead to a constitutional crisis.' 2) @MattHancock, health sec: 'There is this idea from some people that to deliver Brexit we should suspend our parliamentary democracy, we should prorogue parliament. That goes against everything those men who waded onto those beaches fought & died for - and I will not have it'

Since everyone attending @BorisJohnson's cabinet has signed up to backing No Deal Brexit, here is what some of his ministers said in the recent past. Such flip-flopping as they put personal ambition over national interest underlines why so many people feel dismayed by politics Ben Wallace, defence sec, said in Nov 2018 'we must make a deal for the sake of all our security' since leaving without one would mean being 'locked out of many of the EU security tools that currently help our police, law enforcement and criminal justice department do their job'

A few choice quotes to recall from the Brexiteer leaders:

1) Coming to a free trade agreement with the EU should be "one of the easiest in human history.' Liam Fox, July 2017 2) 'In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way.' Nigel Farage, May 2016.