Steve Barron

Teacher and Author, project management, motorcycle tourer. People need to learn how to work together, or we’re in big trouble

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

If Palantir’s technology is so useful that the NHS, the MOD, the Met and other depts need it, shouldn’t the British state just build its own version of it?

Why would we put something so vital to our national security and our democracy in the hands of a private US company?

This makes no sense.

[REJOIN CAMPAIGN @sonofr]

WE GET THE POLITICIANS WE DESERVE.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors".

Plato’s words have more than a ring of truth about them. Yes, we have ourselves to blame up to a point, but the system is against us. We have the trappings of a democracy, we most certainly don’t have a democracy. Right now we have an elective dictatorship, a dysfunctional system and a total disconnect between elected politicians and the electorate.

A true democracy exists when there is representation AND participation.

So, how do we get there? Without a revolution can a true democracy ever happen? The answer maybe that it might well take a revolution - or the annihilation of the party or parties which have dominated our politics and prevented change. The duopoly which has governed Britain for the last eighty years is crumbling. That offers some exciting opportunities for change. We need to put our brains in gear. If we want a true democracy we have to drive that change and that means getting our hands dirty and getting involved.

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

Repost if you’d like me to represent the UK at #Eurovision 2027.

[HG2G Scrapbook @HG2G_Covers]

Sad anniversary today. Douglas Adams died on this day, 25 years ago, in 2001.

[Labour🌹Unions @labourunionsuk]

𝗝𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗟𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗥'𝗦 𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦

Labour’s affiliated unions are deeply concerned by the Party’s catastrophic election results. They show a stark disconnect between this Labour Government and the working people and communities that it was elected to represent.

Voters right across the country have sent a clear message: that this Government are not delivering on the promised change they so desperately want to see.

This cannot continue. Voters want to see a radical new direction from Labour, that stems the tide of division and unites workers and communities in every part of the country. TULO unions are united in calling for a fundamental change of direction on economic policy and political strategy, so that Labour do what it was elected to do: govern in the interests of workers.
Labour must also deliver the rebalancing of power in the workplace promised in the New Deal for Working People, in full, without any carve-outs or loopholes.

The stakes are too high to continue on this path. Labour’s unions have a responsibility to the Party that we created, and as a result TULO have demanded a meeting with the Prime Minister and Party Leadership to discuss the urgent change in direction that we all know is needed.

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

It's staggering that there's thought to be over £30bn of lost pensions out there. Please share this especially with people who've had multiple jobs. Lets help people reconnect with their cash.

[Canary @TheCanaryUK]

If you're watching Question Time, the Canary drilled into last week's show to find evidence of bias. Here's what we found from Bristol on 12 February... #bbcqt #questiontime

Q1: How long did each person speak?

Luke Pollard (Lab): 9m 56s
Nadine Dorries (RefUK): 9m 48s
@EllieChowns (Green): 9m 13s
Ben Spencer (Con): 8m 5s

Q2: How often did the host interrupt each guest?

Ellie Chowns: 21
Luke Pollard: 12
Ben Spencer: 11
Nadine Dorries: 7

Q3: Who received the most applause?

Luke Pollard: 2 instances (13s)
Ben Spencer: 2 instance (8s)
Ellie Chowns: 1 instance (9s)

Nadine Dorries received no applause.

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

I want to say something many will hate but it needs to be said. I have met Nigel Farage. I do not know him well but I know the world he moves in. We move in similar circles sometimes. The kind of private rooms and members clubs that most people in Britain will never see. I know how the rich speak about ordinary people. They laugh. They joke about how easy it is to wind you up. They know exactly which buttons to press. They know you are angry and tired and struggling and they know you want someone to blame. That is why they point at boats while they pick your pockets.

I did not grow up rich. I did not grow up in privilege. I understand struggle and the real world. But my life changed and now I see both sides. I sit with billionaires and politicians and decision makers and I hear conversations you never will. I know the truth. They do not care about you. They do not care about your future. They care about profit and control. They see ordinary people as tools or distractions. I am telling you this because I am tired of watching good people being manipulated.

Look at your life before Brexit and look at it now. Look at your shopping bills. Look at what food costs in Europe right now. Look at how much tax you pay on imports. Look at your wages and energy prices and mortgages. Look at the 10,000 NHS staff we lost when freedom of movement ended. Look at the ambulances that do not arrive. Look at nurses and teachers using food banks. Tell me honestly. Are you better off?

Nigel helped build the crisis you are living in. Then he pointed at immigrants and told you to blame them. That is the con. He pulled the UK out of the Dublin III agreement which means we cannot return asylum seekers to Europe anymore. He created the boat chaos then told you to panic about it. Someone who worked in immigration for more than ten years told me they saw it coming. It was planned. It is a strategy. And you are falling for it.

Now he wants austerity again. He wants to cut wages for young people. He wants to rip up workers rights. He wants private health insurance and a French style NHS where the rich get treated first and the poor get nothing. He wants you fighting each other so you never see who is robbing you. If you vote for him you are voting to destroy your own life. Not mine. Yours.

None of this affects me personally. I drink champagne with the people who control the money. I will be fine no matter what. Reform will not hurt me. Reform will hurt you. It will hurt your children. Your parents. Your future. I am telling you because I care. If I did not care I would stay silent and watch you suffer.

You think I am your enemy because I make you uncomfortable. I am not. Your enemy is the one who lies to you and blames the vulnerable while he empties your pockets.

Reform will not save you. Reform will finish you.

Think. Before they take everything.

💷🇬🇧☕️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🫖

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

@SoLInTheWild I had a lot of explicit instruction when I was at school. Sometimes I listened. Sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I understood. Sometimes I didn't. Mostly, the only time the teachers found out whether it 'stuck' was a few months later in an exam, by which time it was too late.

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Why do we so easily believe in superstition but doubt evidence?✍️

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

EXCL: A trove of leaked data from Boris Johnson’s private office reveals how the former PM has been profiting from contacts and influence he gained in office in a possible breach of ethics and lobbying rules. All the details here 👇🏼
https://t.co/e6NNDaXLHy

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

Listening to David Lammy on @BBCr4today attempting to justify abolishing trial by jury, it is increasingly and terrifyingly clear that he simply does not understand the issues.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Susanna Reid, "What did Nigel Farage say to you when you were both at Dulwich college together?"

Peter Ettedgui, "He regularly would come up to me and say Hitler was right, and he's also come up to me and go, gas them"

Susanna Reid, "Are you Jewish?"

Peter Ettedgui, "Yes"

Susanna Reid, "So he was specifically targeting you because you were Jewish, with the most hurtful comment?"

Peter Ettedgui, "Yeah, absolutely"

"My German Jewish grandparents had escaped Nazi Germany in 1937, so I kind of grew up knowing about the Holocaust and everything that had happened"

"This was the first time I had ever been targeted for antisemitic abuse in my life"

"I have to say it was also the last time. I have since never remotely had anyone say anything like that to me"

Susanna Reid, "How old were you at the time?"

Peter Ettedgui, "Between the ages of 13 and 14"

"When I was first approached to talk about this back in 2013, I felt that it was an unfair thing to do. And it was only after Nigel Farage denied it, that I had to say something, because there's no way he couldn't remember"

"I was really worried that it was one person's word against another, but what has come up in the more recent reporting there's a large number of people who not only corroborate my experience but have their own experience"

Ed Balls, "Nigel Farage has at times said this is untrue. At other times said it's playground banter. That it was a long time ago. That there was no intent to cause harm"

*GMB play the clip of Farage denying antisemitism"

Ed Balls, "He's never directly racially abused anybody"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "That's not true"

"Peter and I were good friends at school, and I've heard it live"

Susanna Reid, "So you weren't the target of Nigel Farage's comments but you witnessed them. Were there any others?"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Yeah, anybody who wasn't white would likely to have a comment"

"That was for many years. We're talking 13-14, all the way up to senior school"

Susanna Reid, "So what else did you witness?"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Anybody who was not white, Nigel Farage would go up to and say useless, or, send them home"

"Nigel Farage used to draw NF (National Front) all over his schoolbooks, with pride"

"When I came over from Belgium at the time as a ten year old, my father was in the military, my mother was from Germany"

"While I had no conflicts with Nigel Farage, it was odd to come to this big school in London and to have such an obvious thing"

Ed Balls, "Playground banter. We all grew up in the 1970s. It was harsh then. People said things on television about disability which you wouldn't say now"

"But, the Nazi's were right and the hissing of the gas chamber"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "When you think about it its crazy"

"When I used to be called, because I'm from Germany, the K word, but you say, things you couldn't imagine saying now"

"That's the point. When you look online, those things are starting to come out again, and that's the dangerous thing"

Susanna Reid, "Was this a one off?"

Peter Ettedgui, "No. We were in the same class. Neighbouring desks because we were seated in alphabetical order"

"This was, whenever he saw me. It was almost a kind of gut reflex when he saw me"

"I was very struck by an interview a classmate gave to The Guardian the other day, where he said, I don't understand why Peter took it, why he didn't react"

"I think learnt to throw a protective cloak over myself and ignore him"

"I found my own tribe at school, and it wasn't all bad"

"So I kind of got on with my life"

"That experience marked me"

"Antisemitism is often called the oldest hatred, and when I think of the oldest hatred, it's Nigel Farage's face that I see in front of me"

"I'd like to pick up on this thing about it being the 1970s, it was a different time, you're absolutely right"

"But words like, the K word, the Y word, the Jews, the P word, those were being thrown around"

"Nigel Farage was of a completely different order"

"The regularity, the intention with which he did this, to so many pupils of different races"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "The singing of the song: gas them all"

"He used to regularly sing that at school"

"It's horrendous. I don't want to sing it on TV"

Peter Ettedgui, "Another story has come out from another Jewish pupil, younger than me, who remembers Farage and his pals waiting outside Jewish assembly, waiting to taunt the kids coming out"

Ed Balls, "Nigel Farage says he didn't ay any of these things with intent"

"But standing outside the Jewish assembly at Dulwich college to say things about the Nazis, feels like it has some intent"

Peter Ettedgui, "A great deal of intent"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "Regular"

Peter Ettedgui, "Yeah, and the targeting of other students of ethnic minorities waiting at the school gates"

Ed Balls, "Last night Nigel Farage told us that the stories they are telling about him from 50 years ago are not true"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "It said these things also when he was 14, 15, 16, 17, when the issue of the prefect of the nomination came up, it wasn't just 50 years ago when he was 11"

Ed Balls, "He says the two of you are politically motivated"

Jean-Pierre Lihou, "I don't have any political affiliations at all"

Peter Ettedgui, "And neither do I"

"There isn't a political, but a deeply personal motivation"

"I do not want to see a school bully become my prime minister"

"That probably goes for all 20+ people who have spoken out about his behaviour at school"

[Good Law Project @GoodLawProject]

Wes Streeting insists that NHS health records are not for sale.

But handing them to a company like Palantir shatters any chance of public trust ⬇️
https://t.co/nET3kHD2bs

[Prof. Feynman @ProfFeynman]

Make critical thinking a foundational subject in education. Teach students how to think critically, analyze information, and discern fact from fiction using scientific methods, creating a more discerning and informed society.

[Prof Alice Roberts💙 @theAliceRoberts]

Here's a thread - sharing some hard-hitting truth-telling from UCL Prof Anthony Costello...aka @globalhlthtwit

“The Covid Public Inquiry is a devastating critique of medical advisers, civil servants and politicians who led the UK to the worst public health disaster in a century. More than 230,000 deaths.”
1/13
https://t.co/j0eXvbYxRO

[Richard Murphy @RichardJMurphy]

Rachel Reeves' Budget was a damp squib, delivering austerity by stealth. There was no vision, and no investment. There was just fear of the City of London. In this video, I ask why the Chancellor has surrendered economic power to finance and consider what a politics of care and investment would look like instead. https://t.co/wkILaMK5pd

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

My colleagues & I have taken a huge gamble to set up @thenerve_news. We’re trying to build a new independent publication from the ground up. Social media is our only distribution for now.

Sharing this article in your networks would make a huge difference. Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏