Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #bbcaq

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#THREAD

A small densely inter-connected homophily of political actors who share media platforms & cooperate with think-tanks, campaign groups & ‘educational charities’ wage the 'war on woke'.

#Spiked is #1 & #GBNews the #2 'anti-woke' media outlets.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…
Recently, a group of academics and cultural commentators have framed wokeness as a pseudo-religion.

Hayek, in 1973, foreshadowed this by calling social justice a ‘quasi-religious superstition’ that ‘has no meaningful place in a social order organised around a market economy’. Image
This framing was resurrected by controversial American academic John McWhorter & developed into a full ‘taxonomy’ of ‘woke religion’ by ex-PR Michael Shellenberger, & acadmic Peter Boghossian who "violated ethical guidelines on human-subjects research".

boghossian.substack.com/p/woke-religio… Image
Read 25 tweets
#THREAD

I've been researching twenty-first century UK non-broadcast 'news' articles featuring #TuftonStreet's ideologically extreme (deregulatory, anti-welfare, anti-union, low tax, free-market) 'think tank' (lobbyist) the 'Institute for Economic Affairs' (#IEA).
Counting articles is a relatively crude measure, but it's clear that the overwhelming majority present the the #IEA as disinterested/neutral, often using IEA reports & spokespeople to help frame or initiate stories. With very few exceptions, the IEA's funders are never revealed.
From 2000-2023, across all print & online non-broadcast UK news outlets, the #IEA is mentioned a staggering 9,175 times - predictably, mainly in Murdoch's, Barclay's, & Harmsworth's "newspapers":

The Times: 1,278
Sunday Times: 424
Times online: 457

The Sun: 379
Sun online: 133
Read 8 tweets
I am a 72 year old Jewish pensioner. My German parents came here as refugees (on a boat) in the 1940s to escape Nazi Germany. My grandparents remained in the country and were deported to Auschwitz where they were murdered. (ctd)

#lineker #braverman #bbcaq
I grew up on stories of the run-up to the Final Solution I heard about the rhetoric used to depict us as vermin, criminals, rapists The othering of Jews, made to wear distinctive stars. The propaganda in the popular press, the finger pointing and intimidation
#braverman #jewish
.. the refusal to condemn the perpetrators when Jews were beaten up in the street or their homes attacked.
I do not see anything in the current state of this country nor in the words or actions of his government that does not make me agree with @GaryLineker.
#Refugees #jews
Read 4 tweets
Thread on misleading think tank spiel by @ce_pickles, the Director of the right-leaning @ReformThinkTank. I gave her the chance below (to correct/clarify) what she said on #bbcaq ("NHS is 46% of day to day public spending by 2025") at 38.30 - 39.00 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… 1/17
What she said had ALREADY been debunked TWICE last yearr by fact-checkers @FullFact.
See fullfact.org/economy/health… (when The S*n used Ms Pickles' wording) & then fullfact.org/health/health-… (when the Mail still used it regardless). But @ce_pickles went even further to mislead. 2/17
The true figure for NHS spend share is *only 20%*.
This is when ALL public spending (eg on welfare, & pensions) is included. Ie including "annual managed public expenditure" (AME) not just "departmental expenditure limits" (DEL - but what she chose to call "day-to-day") 3/17
Read 17 tweets
Whoever is made Tory leader, expect a rush to introduce deeper austerity to 'fund' tax cuts for corporations & income tax cuts that primarily help the wealthiest

The Tory debt mountain will grow massively all while they fill their own & their mates' wallets

#C4News #bbcaq
So predictable

Javid claims his cut in corpn tax is "fully funded" & "if we don't get the tax cuts, we won't get the growth"

Tell that to every country in the EU that has higher taxes than the UK, higher economic growth, AND better public services
#SundayMorning #Toryleadership ImageImageImageImage
Read 10 tweets
FOURTEEN DAYS of wasted Daily Mail front page headlines

Paul Dacre must be proud.

@LBC #bbcaq
@LBC Please do take a moment to think of Dan Hodges on this most difficult of days

@LBC #bbcaq #Beergate

*Actually, it was almost two weeks' worth of Daily Mail front pages and a Mail on Sunday, but you get the point.

#bbcaq #BeerGate
Read 4 tweets
I voted Green yesterday, and I'm happy with my decision.

Gains made by @LibDems & @TheGreenParty, while @UKLabour massively underperformed, sends a strong message that Starmer needs a #ProgressiveAlliance to be PM.

He won't listen though.

#r4today #bbcaq #LE2022
@LibDems @TheGreenParty @UKLabour This is what happens when you provide no meaningful opposition, have no policies, & no personality.

What is the point of @UKLabour?

#LE2022 #r4today #bbcaq

Read 5 tweets
I hate to say it, but it really feels like this is going to be a good night for Boris Johnson.

#LocalElections2022 #bbcaq
I've never been more delighted to be wrong, but at least I was taking a punt in the middle of the night based on evidence.

This extraordinary gaslighting from @Daily_Express, a rag that actually dares to call itself a "newspaper" really ought to be illegal.

#bbcaq #Leveson Image
@Daily_Express I mean, even the Daily Boris understands that the Tories have taken a real punishment beating at the polls.

*Nonetheless, the morons on @LBC are still making the story about the opposition leader being *investigated* over a clearly legal curry in the office.

#bbcaq Image
Read 5 tweets
Religious fundamentalists in the US are morally no different to the fascist fundamentalists of Islam.

The antediluvian and misogynist views of both are an affront to decency and liberal democracy.

#RoeVsWade #RoeVWade #ReproRights
"I don't care if you're a Christian. In fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty & practice your Christianity... I don't believe in Christianity which means that you don't get to dictate how I live my life based on your religion"
#RoeVsWade #RoevWade #ReproRights
Read 8 tweets
@ChrisMasonBBC @BBCRadio4 @BBCPolitics #bbcaq #bbcaa
Surely you must know Chris Mason, that the nub of the issue about sex and gender is the demand by @StonewallUK and their allies, for instant sex SELF-ID with no process, and no questions asked.
Providing the opportunity for ANY man for ANY reason to get immediate access to women's spaces. That's where sex really must not be superceded by gender.

#sexnotgender

Women can't identify out of our oppression as a sex class, and men cannot identify into our spaces.
It's happening already without any change in legislation, in courts, in prisons and in hospital wards.

The innocuous question about whether gender supercedes sex, allowed the panel to talk about it being right to allow those with gender dysphoria to live the life they wish...
Read 5 tweets
Oh dear, BBC Any Answers is inviting callers to talk about GP access.

Happily not GP-bashing so far...
Oh dear, I spoke too soon. Ignorant non GP medic talking about how few hours GPs work, and about dreadful GPs who work part time.

Pass me the stemetil...

He needs to read @mancunianmedic bmj.com/content/375/bm… in @bmj_latest
@mancunianmedic @bmj_latest "I'm a retired teaching hospital consultant and I worked damn hard… BMA is run by the GPs"

I'm finding it hard not to swear.

@BBCRadio4 #bbcaq #bbcaa
Read 8 tweets
Cut to picture of #KyleRittenhouse posing with white supremacist proud boys and doing the white power hand signal

"Shame" on someone, certainly, but it ain't Joe Biden

#bbcaq Image
Sickening to see the far right in the UK & US celebrating this guy - he took a military rifle to a protest in a different state and shot three people, killing two

#KyleRittenhouse

#bbcaq #c4news
Read 10 tweets
Free speech hypocrisy #THREAD

The Right on:

Critical Race Theory: 'Has NO place in Universities!'

Anti-Capitalism - 'Has NO place in schools!'

Pro-Palestine - 'Has NO place in Universities!'

Gender Critical feminism - 'These views MUST be heard in Universities!'

#bbcaq
Free speech is obviously extremely important. But it requires intelligence, context & nuance - not culture war rhetoric.

Would *anyone* support giving a public platform to paedophiles promoting child rape? Or terrorists promoting murder? Or neo-Nazis promoting another holocaust?
Please don't assume that I'm saying there isn't a problem with discussion of some issues. The debate around Kathleen Stock makes it crystal clear that there is: some claim she's transphobic & should be sacked, while others passionately disagree & insist her views should be heard.
Read 17 tweets
Matt Goodwin is a lobbyist for the libertarian tax-dodgers of the Legatum Institute. They love doing culture war BS.

Legatum represent US Libertarian billionaires, fund GB News, & downplay climate change.

I do wish #bbcaq would let their listeners know.

li.com/bio/professor-…
"Goodwin’s Bore: Pretending that the right-wing press isn’t obsessed with the culture war is ludicrous... but being ludicrous is Professor Matthew Goodwin's greatest professional strength. And he'll eat a book of your choice to prove it."

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/goodwins-bor…
Read 4 tweets
I do wish #bbcaq would let their listeners know what an outsider shit-stirring culture wars crank Matthew Goodwin is before unleasheing his divisive rhetoric on us.
Matt Goodwin is a lobbyist for the libertarian tax-dodgers of the Legatum Institute. They love doing culture war BS.

Legatum represent US Libertarian billionaires, fund GB News, & downplay climate change.

I do wish #bbcaq would let their listeners know.

li.com/bio/professor-…
"Goodwin’s Bore: Pretending that the right-wing press isn’t obsessed with the culture war is ludicrous... but being ludicrous is Professor Matthew Goodwin's greatest professional strength. And he'll eat a book of your choice to prove it."

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/goodwins-bor…
Read 4 tweets
So unhinged shit-stirring free-market culture wars plank Matthew Goodwin is now on #bbcanyquestions spouting his one-sided divisive rhetoric.

Follow the money.

#bbcaq
Matt Goodwin is a lobbyist for the libertarian tax-dodgers of the Legatum Institute. They love doing culture war BS.

Legatum represent US Libertarian billionaires, fund GB News, & downplay climate change.

I do wish #bbcaq would let their listeners know.

li.com/bio/professor-…
"Goodwin’s Bore: Pretending that the right-wing press isn’t obsessed with the culture war is ludicrous... but being ludicrous is Professor Matthew Goodwin's greatest professional strength. And he'll eat a book of your choice to prove it."

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/goodwins-bor…
Read 4 tweets
Shapps told @bbcbbcaq yesterday that "We have doubled the number of places available for HGV drivers to get tested; in other words twice as many tests as before the coronavirus". What did he mean?

#bbcaq

1/5
He plans to change the testing regime so that drivers can qualify to drive a rigid lorry and an articulated lorry in a single test rather than two. Does he assume that enables testing centres to offer twice as many tests?

#bbcaq

2/5
A training company boss points out that moving straight from a Fiat 500 to an articulated lorry will require a longer course, and is almost certain to produce more failures. It will not double the passes.

#bbcaq

3/5
Read 5 tweets
Shapps told @bbcr4today this morning that "We have doubled the number of places available for HGV drivers to get tested; in other words twice as many tests as before the coronavirus". What did he mean?

#bbcaq

1/4
@BBCr4today He plans to change the testing regime so that drivers can qualify to drive a rigid lorry and an articulated lorry in a single test rather than two. Does he assume that enables testing centres to offer twice as many tests?

#bbcaq

2/4
@BBCr4today Or is it that some parts of the tests - reversing, uncoupling/recoupling the trailer - are to be done by the trainer, not the test centre? Will that get him the numbers? It certainly might get him some conflict of interest.

#bbcaq

3/4
Read 4 tweets
If you think the big reason Conservatives hate the BBC is because they can't profit from it, you're hugely mistaken

Of course, there are some juicy assets to carve up & sell at a discount to their friends & family there, but that's not what drives Tory hatred

1/5
#r4today @lbc
The reason they loathe the BBC is because it stands as a bulwark against the essence of their ideology

Whether news or drama, every show the BBC produces shares the same basic principles

Racism: bad
Poverty: bad
Hate: bad
Caring: good
Society: good
Facts: good
..and so on

2/5
But worst of all it's popular.

It's seen as jewel in the national crown, not only by most at home, but globally, & thus very difficult to destroy

In recent decades, foreign billionaire press barons have combined their muscle with secretly funded right wing lobby groups..

3/5
Read 8 tweets
Let's look at Johnson's record since he has been PM:

- illegally porogued parliament
- only appears to announce good news otherwise hides from public scrutiny
- took 2 week holiday during a deadly pandemic
- tried to force herd immunity & untold deaths on us

1/10
@LBC #r4today
- lied about 'following the science' & as a result over 30,000 people died unnecessarily so far
- tried to blame scientists, medical staff and care homes for the deaths he caused

2/10

@LBC #r4today #c4news #newsnight #bbcpm #bbcaq
- apparently got away with funneling trips & public ££ to a woman he was having sex with while married & in public office
- enabled Cummings to break lockdown law & helped to cover up for him
- enabled Jenrick to break lockdown law & helped to cover up for him
3/10
@LBC #r4today
Read 12 tweets
Hey Google, define 'mental decline'.
Dr. Birx's reaction when Trump asks his science advisor to study a COVID19 cure using UV light inside the human body, & injecting disinfectant, is all of us.

#TrumpVirus
#TrumpLiedAmericansDied

@lbc #r4today #c4news #bbcaq #Newsnight

"[Trump is] so attentive to the scientific literature & details & data. I think his ability to analyze & integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit”

Actually, Dr Birx is part of the problem.

@lbc #r4today
Read 9 tweets

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