For most of recorded history humans have been ruled by despots. Democracy is precious and must be defended.
Aug 16, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I am sick & tired of Corbyn supporters whining that Labour can't oppose the government on #Brexit. If Labour can't oppose a bitterly divided minority government pursuing an utterly bankrupt policy then Labour should dissolve itself and let others do the opposing. #FBPE
And of course these particular Corbynistas are wrong about the facts. Labour has shown that when it is willing and it is joined by Tory defectors it can force the government into desperately close Commons votes on #Brexit.
Aug 15, 2018 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
1/ It has gone largely unnoticed that #Brexit is closely tied to climate change denial.
55 Tufton Street in Westminister is home to 8 right-of-centre organisations combining support for #Brexit and climate change denial independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… #55TuftonSt#PeoplesVote2/ Another article on the pro-Brexit and climate change denial organisations based at 55 & 57 Tufton St, including Vote Leave, the TPA & the IEA (linked to Raab) and some familiar names - Matthew Elliot, Owen Paterson, Nigel Lawson, Hintze & Gove. desmog.co.uk/55-tufton-stre…
Aug 13, 2018 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
1/ One reason for #Brexit:
Within living memory the English ruled the greatest empire the world had ever seen. The English were the master race, to which even the least of Englishmen belonged, making him superior to all others. And then in around 20 years it all vanished.
2/ So a child coming to awareness in the glow of imperial glory, reached young adulthood in a broken, dejected Britain crawling, for want of better, into the embrace of the EEC, a supplicant begging for entry into a club run by powers England had once comprehensively defeated.
Jul 30, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
1/ They have attacked the Electoral Commission & the Civil Service & from Theresa May downwards they attacked the Article 50 case courts and those taking the case to court - The Tory right has been attacking the institutions which underpin our democracy. #Brexit#PeoplesVote2/ By ranting about the "Will of the People" the Tory Brexiters and their press allies have demonised opponents of #Brexit as "enemies of the people" and so as saboteurs, plotters, traitors and subversives, thus undermining the core democratic right to oppose.
Jul 28, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ I'm more worried by the politics of #Brexit than the economics; the democracy-weakening torrent of lies, the rage against the rule of law over A50, the attacks on the civil service & electoral commission, the fascistic invocations of the "Will of the People" etc.. #StopBrexit2/ As with Trump, the #Brexit right from the PM downwards is attacking the practices, rights and institutions that ground democracy - basic honesty, the right to oppose, legal checks on government, and the impartiality of the civil services & electoral commission.
Jul 21, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1/ #Brexit and Trump are instances of a primitive tribalist politics, in which the strength of the tribe is the supreme value, overriding other values such as truthfulness, reason, human rights and lawfulness. #PeoplesVote#StopBrexit2/ This tribalist politics has been ruthlessly whipped up by right-wing politicians and media who have exploited the natural human tendency to seek safety in a group when afraid. Their long term campaign of fear-raising has been the real project fear.
Jul 14, 2018 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
1/ A short thread on Liam Fox and his transatlantic connections:
Atlantic Bridge: desmog.co.uk/atlantic-bridge.
This links with climate denying billionaire & Tory donor Michael Hintze. Koch bros funded ALEC and Heritage Foundation in the USA, & Gove & Johnson #TrumpProtest#Brexit2/ Fox has held repeated meetings with the Heritage Foundation, funded by the Koch Brothers & known for supporting climate science denial and being highly influential in shaping the new Trump administration. It also has many other ties with Tory Brexiters. desmog.co.uk/liam-fox
Jul 9, 2018 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Thread on our new #Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab:
Raab was a member of a closed Facebook group that called for privatising healthcare and the return of workhouses for debtors buzzfeed.com/alexspence/the… #StopBrexit#FBPE2/ Raab was one of a group of Tory MPs including Liz Truss & Priti Patel who described British workers as "among the worst idlers in the world" and called for the emulation of the work ethic (long unregulated hours) and low tax (for the rich) culture to be found in parts of Asia.
Jul 5, 2018 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Rees-Mogg's father co-authored a book outlining the idea of a world ruled by 'Sovereign Individuals', the super-rich wholly freed from state control and taxes; an outcome I believe to be the ultimate objective of Trump-Brexit politics theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/… #StopBrexit#Brexit
Obscured by Trump and #Brexit the super-rich continue to rapidly increase their wealth relative to the rest of us, and are funnelling vast sums into tax-havens. This offers them the prospect of great power, but also threatens them with a clampdown by nation-states.
Jun 3, 2018 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
1/ Vitally need foreign investment has come to the UK because it has been the "gateway to Europe". What happens when the UK becomes a "gateway to nowhere"? The answer is we'll have to slash taxes on business & the rich, and scrap many regulations & workplace rights. #Brexit2/ This is why the Tory Brextremists crave the hardest Brexit possible, because the harder the #Brexit the more Britain will be pushed towards becoming a #BrexitTaxHaven, the low tax, low regulation, low workplace rights, low welfare state Brextremists have been dreaming of.
Apr 9, 2018 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
1/ The government and senior Tories speak of the "Will of the People", not the will of the majority (though even that would be pushing the truth). And who then are political opponents? 2/ The Daily Mail makes it clear who the opponents of the "Will of the People" are. They are the "enemies of the people". And with that the floodgates are opened to a tide of hate directed against opponents of #Brexit, saboteurs, plotters, mutineers etc.
Mar 12, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
A Russian TV presenter mocks the British government for a number of deaths in Britain (graphic). Now read this article on 14 Russian linked deaths the UK authorities have failed to investigate. buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/fro… @J_amesp@carolecadwalla #StopBrexit#Brexit#FBPE
Russian TV is Putin's mouthpiece, his regime operates like a Mafia gang. When a presenter jibes that "traitors" are not safe in England, this is very likely a Mafia style claim of responsibility and a threat to others.
Feb 15, 2018 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
2/ Consider Ukraine. In September 2013, before the overthrow of Yanukovych one of Putin's adviser's Glazyev threatened a Russian attack on Ukraine if it signed an Association agreement with the EU - an utterly unacceptable stance in modern Europe. theguardian.com/world/2013/sep…3/ This, is of course exactly what happened after the overthrow of Yanokovych. But here is Corbyn in April 2014 faithfully parroting the Kremlin account that Putin's actions were a response to a far-right coup in Kiev and NATO expansionism. morningstaronline.co.uk/a-972b-Nato-be…
Feb 2, 2018 • 12 tweets • 7 min read
The Tory #Brextremist attack on the Civil Service parallels Trump's attack on the FBI. It comes after the Tory & press attack on judicial oversight of government in the Article 50 case, and in a context dominated by right-wing press disinformation. #StopBrexit#FBPE#WATON /1
What we appear to be witnessing is a concerted attack to undermine the institutions and practices that underpin democracy. Democracy relies on a basic degree of truthfulness, without it there can be no meaningful debate. The Right is relentlessly attacking truth. #FBPE /2
Oct 26, 2017 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
The Daily Mail's campaign against "Our Remainer Universities" is straight out the the totalitarian fascist-communist manual. #Brexit /1
Let us be entirely clear, the Daily Mail is attacking democracy, the rule of law and the pursuit of truth in universities. /2