Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #R4today

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Greek authorities’ story has changed again.
This is what refugee pushbacks & passing the buck inevitably leads to.

Finally the world is looking at Greece’s deadly migration policies. But as @minnierahman says, these are also UK policies, enacted on a different coastline #r4today
The UK has learned all the wrong lessons from Greece.

Their brutal response has led directly to more deaths.

There is no way to make people who have nothing left, only hope, disappear. If we don’t offer alternatives, they will risk the crossing & smugglers will profit. #r4today
“I’m not afraid: I’m starving.”

The quote that tells you everything about the migrants hoping to cross to Europe. Absolutely everything. #r4today
Read 4 tweets
.@BBCr4today The significant reduction in road transport #AirPollution and its associated #health impacts that #ElectricCars enable should reduce #NHS demand lowering government spending that will partly offset lost fuel duty revenue. #r4today ImageImageImageImage
.@BBCr4today Toxic air pollution particles found in lungs and brains of unborn babies

Particles breathed by mothers pass to their vulnerable foetuses, with potentially lifelong consequences theguardian.com/environment/20… #r4today
Read 6 tweets
What shall we do about mental health services?

First, look at prevalence of mental health problems.
They increase with increasing inequality in society:

equalitytrust.org.uk/mental-health #r4today Image
Germany, Spain and Italy may be doing something right, because their incidence of mental health problems is lower than the trend. We should take a closer look at mental health in those countries
After WWII, demand for mental health services far exceeded supply, due to huge numbers affected by PTSD.

Group psychotherapy was used to meet this need.

We should look at this approach again
Read 7 tweets
@BBCr4today asks “How can we have a grown up conversation about migration?”

You do this by putting the subject its context.

Migration is a worldwide phenomenon.
UK is in the middle range of comparable countries.
Then you look at the causes of migration #r4today Image
.@BBCr4today The four causes of migration are clear:
1 War
2 Oppressive authoritarian governments
3 Relative poverty
4 Increasingly, climate change.

It’s absurd to imagine that UK can stop migration without addressing these global problems. They can be addressed, in many ways
War can be reduced by the UN giving attention to separatism, which is behind about one half of current wars

greenerblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/separa…
Read 6 tweets
If ‘almost everyone seeking a private diagnosis is getting one’, do we not also think it’s possible that only people who think very strongly that they have ADHD are going down the route of coughing up £££ to do so? #r4today
I really hope tonight's Panorama programme offers solutions as well as problems. Children as well as adults are subject to 3+ year waiting lists for ADHD assessments on the NHS. There just aren't enough clinicians or specialist care.
Any private clinician you seek assessment with should also be working in the NHS (that goes for everything, not just for ADHD!) but what was a £450 assessment for me in 2020 is now £795 – and that's before the cost of follow-ups, further tests, meds etc.
Read 9 tweets
As @M_Sumption said on #r4today just now, wait for the actual numbers rather than paying any attention to the CPS's wild guesses here.

We at @UKandEU and @MigObs will be analysing the data & holding a briefing when released on May 25.

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/…
@M_Sumption @UKandEU @MigObs The key trends discussed by @M_Sumption are analysed in our joint report here:

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
This graph, mislabelled, misleadingly sourced, and not crediting its so-called "estimates" to @CPSThinkTank, is an embarrassment even by the standards of the Telegraph. Image
Read 4 tweets
High net immigration figures will be built up into a frenzy in the next weeks. A couple things to remember:

- the rise is driven by people on visas, not asylum seekers, who remain a tiny proportion

- the immigrants are people who bring huge positives to our communities #r4today
- The immigrants being from India & china “instead” of the EU is a neutral.
The only thing that matters is what rights they have on their visas

- More people’s visas now are short-term & highly restrictive, that do not have a pathway to settlement.
That’s not positive #r4today
- Research from @Praxis_Projects has shown how these visa restrictions force many migrants into poverty: in the cost of living crisis, migrants in low income families have ‘no recourse to public funds’ so they can’t access any of the support keeping others going. #r4today
Read 9 tweets
Today is Truth Tellers - the 1st Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism
set up by @TinaBrownLM in memory of her late husband, a manc lad who made it in NY & who many consider to be the best editor of the post-war period

#SirHarrySummit
You can hear Tina Brown talking about the inaugural Sir Harry Evans Global Summit in Investigative Journalism "Championing the work of today’s most dogged and diverse truth tellers"
on #R4Today



#SirHarrySummit #TruthTellers
If you don't know who Harold Evans was, there's a good obituary here taking you from his working-class roots through becoming a victim of the Thatcher-Murdoch pact that derailed his career as canny & respected editor of the Sunday Times

#SirHarrySummit

theguardian.com/media/2020/sep…
Read 6 tweets
Thread. As the #RefugeeBanBill faces scrutiny from the Lords today the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary have taken one of their pet papers to spread yet more misinformation. 1/ #r4today
thetimes.co.uk/article/b37b29… Image
First things first. Asylum and refugees are only mentioned once in the Conservative 2019 Manifesto. As opposed to being a "manifesto commitment, the #RefugeeBanBill would directly contravene the only one they made. 2/
conservatives.com/our-plan/conse… ImageImage
The Home and Justice Secretaries appear to be deliberately misleading people by conflating the immigration and asylum systems. None of this is exactly correct. Costs involved have been inflated by this government, not number of people seeking asylum, which it's legal to do so. 3/ Image
Read 14 tweets
Today, the government’s “stop the boats” #RefugeeBanBill debated in the Lords

The Bill means when people come to us asking for help, we will no longer assess whether they are refugees or not- We’ll simply lock all of them up, regardless

Only traffickers will welcome it #r4today
People will always try to seek safety in the UK.
We are one of the richest, safest countries on Earth & we colonised a third of it, leaving ties of language & community behind.
We abandoned Afghans, we are abandoning the Sudanese. They won’t give up because of this Bill #r4today
The Bill essentially says the tiny trickle of migrants seeking to rebuild a life by reaching the UK should just go somewhere else

But the international refugee protection system is based on solidarity. If we say “not here” why on Earth would the French not say the same?
#r4today
Read 7 tweets
We have already seen the high levels of mental and physical health issues, including suicides, which existing substandard accommodation cause. The use of a cramped, rusting, barge will only increase these issues and put more people's lives at risk. #r4today 1/
Rather than continuing to waste money on cruel and inhumane policies, this government needs to start investing in the asylum system to process claims faster, and into communities to ensure everyone is supported, locals and asylum seekers alike. 2/
At some point this government, or the next, needs to recognise that policies of "deterrence" have been conclusively proven not to work, and in fact escalate exploitation. That means they are going to have to start actually putting money into the system to make it work. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Somewhere a Home Office official is flipping a coin for whether Albanians or Indians will be this year's scapegoat. 1/ #r4today

thetimes.co.uk/article/15de3a… ImageImage
These numbers are very low. The bigger issue is how they show that even when the government has resettlement routes on paper they are so inadequate people are forced to use irregular means to seek asylum in the UK. 2/ Image
This government is desperate to create the idea that UK has a problem with people seeking asylum. It's scraping the barrel to do so though. What is guaranteed is the #RefugeeBanBill will make things worse by denying people the only option many have to seek asylum in the UK. 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
So #r4today are talking about excess deaths. Anything But Covid of course 🙄

Perhaps they should read their own BBC articles Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
2 minutes on Newsnight last night to say:

The government has deliberately created a crisis as a campaign tool

They have stopped processing asylum claims, letting numbers build up, in barges or hotels, just so at the next election they can say they’re the ones to fix it #r4today
Of course, we all know how they’ll claim to fix it, don’t we?

They’ll say the only way to fix the crisis they’ve made is to follow Putin out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

Brexit take two- the only way the Conservatives know how to campaign. #r4today
Actually they could fix this thing tomorrow.

Just process asylum claims.

Other governments have done it, and they’ve done it when numbers of applications were far higher too.

This is a cynical, manufactured, unnecessary theatre of cruelty & refugees pay the price. #r4today
Read 3 tweets
Nick Robinson leads by blaming the NHS for the problems with the NHS.

NO

The root cause of #NHS problems is 13 years of managed decline by @Conservatives

A significant contributory factor is #Brexit

You are #fakenews

We see you

@bbcnickrobinson @BBCRadio4Today5
Coming later at 8.10 Robinson will groom @DominicRaab live on @BBCRadio4

#bullying #raab #ToryFacistsOut

p.s. why is #SHARP
still in post?

And #Braverman ???
Oh BREX Ship !!!

Video answers to putting #migrants on #slave ships for #SuellaBraverman here

Read 5 tweets
@bbcnickrobinson on #r4today did very little to actually examine the government's pay offer
@MaryBoustedNEU explained that while it's a real terms cut to wages it's also not fully funded so will mean cuts to school budgets
Robinson "government says it is fully funded"

Well...
You'd hope presenters on the BBCs flagship news programme would go beyond simply repeating the gov line
Details of the offer are available, the BBC could crunch the numbers themselves and inform the public with accurate information

This is the official offer in full
Original offer wasn't fully funded and this was before energy costs increased massively, a reduction in predicted energy costs isn't enough to square the circle

No additional funding has been made for the original offer,
Read 15 tweets
Not only has the government been housing Afghan refugees in inadequate temporary hotel accommodation for years.

They will also pass the #RefugeeBanBill today that blanket denies protection to ALL Afghans coming & asking for our help & says we’ll send them to Rwanda.
#r4today
I’m not sure how it happened.

How can it be that #r4today has a story on Afghan refugees on THE SAME DAY the government will pass a law through its next stage in parliament that will deny ALL Afghans reaching us protection from now on and not mention it?
How can a Tory MP- WHO VOTED FOR IT be complaining on twitter that:

refusing asylum to Afghans who reach us through desperate means and sending them to Rwanda

Is not what they want? It is EXACTLY what the #RefugeeBanBill does & MPs & the media seem not to have noticed? #r4today
Read 5 tweets
For roughly £20 million the Home Office could've cleared the asylum backlog it created, reducing associated costs such as hotels. Instead it plans to pay nearly £10 billion on a policy which appears specifically designed to fail. #r4today 1/
thetimes.co.uk/article/4c2cf7…
The #IllegalBill, can only put more people at risk, including tens of thousands of children. It denies modern slavery victims protection, boosting gang control, and removes human rights from the most vulnerable, as well as sees children risk deportation 2/
theguardian.com/world/2023/mar…
The government's own figures show that, despite rhetoric of the likes of Braverman, the vast majority of those seeking asylum in the UK, by any means, receive it because they need it. Data also shows how few comparatively to likes of France etc UK takes 3/
Read 7 tweets
"How can the government justify giving tax relief to the top 1% when there are people going to food banks?"

"The people who need it the most help are getting the least." #bbcqt

Now with well over 200,000 reads in over 144 countries but still with no response from @bbcquestiontime

@docrussjackson open letter to the @BBC about widely held concerns about bias on #bbcqt.
yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/an-op…
Open letter to the Today programme

Mike Cashman queries his ejection from the BBC before the Today programme debate.

@BBCr4today @BBCRadio4 @MikeCashman1 #R4Today

centralbylines.co.uk/open-letter-to…
Read 4 tweets
#r4today
It's interesting how the Telegraph's Lockdown Files generated headlines across media, while there barely any mention of an academic paper proving criticism of a herd immunity strategy was disproportionately under represented
2/ Or how leaked messages show government exerted pressure on the BBC
3/ The findings have relevance beyond the periods covered in thr two articles, for instance the recent decision to never offer younger children vaccination while CDC has added it to list of standard immunisations has recieved no scrutiny in most the media
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/media-and-go…
Read 12 tweets
For the Bankof England to sell SVB UK to HSBC it had to have taken SVB over in the first place - last night.

#r4today
"The Bank of England, in consultation with the Prudential Regulation Authority, HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority, has taken the decision to sell Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited, the UK subsidiary of the US bank, to HSBC UK Bank"

bankofengland.co.uk/news/2023/marc…

#r4today
"Today the government and the Bank of England have facilitated a private sale of Silicon Valley Bank UK"

gov.uk/government/new…

#r4today
Read 5 tweets
Not only did @JamesCleverly fail to acknowledge on #r4today the Government's practical inability to remove the people they refuse to admit to the UK asylum system, but he fundamentally misrepresented the powers in the #refugeebanbill to detain tens of thousands of people 1/
He characterised the purpose of this detention as being purely pre-removal i.e. for the shortest possible time in order to effect removal. This could be misunderstanding or political spin but, regardless, it incorrectly represents the number of people & length of detention 2/
3/ the bill gives Government unprecedented powers for automatic & indefinite detention of tens of thousands of people. It's estimated that up to 80k people will arrive by small boat this year. True, not all will be detained at the same time but there will be significant overlap
Read 21 tweets
This is my favourite question 🥰

Let’s be clear: if the Home Secretary cannot say that her Bill respects the fundamental rights of the most vulnerable in society, it. must. be. thrown. out. #r4today

Here are some ways you good folks can help:
1. Write to your MP.

If they’re a Tory, tell them that you want them to throw this Bill out & focus on fixing the NHS & getting sewage out the rivers instead of wasting our money defending its illegal cruelty to refugees in court.

If not, say you expect them to fight it 💪💪
2. Raise your voice!

They justify all this cruelty off of you, you know. They say YOU want this.

If you’re able get your neighbourhood association, faith group, school parents’ association, ANYTHING to write a joint letter to local papers saying your community rejects the bill.
Read 8 tweets

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