Robin Fearon

Journalist, MoJo, filmmaker into science, medicine, digital tech and culture. Music freak, media explorer. Founder @w3lovemedia

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

Khiva, an Antique Hub of Learning on the Silk Road. Education from @PaulSalopek Out of Eden Walk across the Earth in the footsteps of All Our Ancestors https://t.co/h4nxpPs39M

[Jason Kint @jason_kint]

woah. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft.
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1

[Harriet Williamson @harriepw]

EXCLUSIVE: Lloyds Bank refused a mortgage to the mum of Palestine Action prisoner Ellie Kamio, citing “adverse media”. Lloyds also debanked Ellie while she was on remand, before she was convicted of any crime.

[Gabriel Pogrund @Gabriel_Pogrund]

A glorious day for opponents of transparency in public life.

MPs have removed the names of their parliamentary staff from a decades-old public register - meaning we do not know who these people are and are left to accept the word of their employer when they say (as in the case of the prime minister, here) that said staff do not have any outside earnings or private interests.

"All staff have confirmed they have no registrable interests": oh, well that's that then.

No way of determining if true; no way of finding out if MPs employing family members; no way for anyone other than MPs themselves to uphold standards or examine who is operating in the Palace of Westminster on their behalf.

The decision was driven by ... you guessed it ... MPs themselves, following behind-closed-door consultations with staff trade union representatives - not media or anti-corruption organisations.

Echoes of the time that decided among themselves - with nil meaningful debate - to exempt themselves from the centuries-old system by which those arrested would be named before the Commons.

Parliament being sovereign it is always free to take such steps without consultation or engagement with the public - the hope is they decide not to abuse their positions and proactively seek criticism or counter-views.

In this instance, sadly, MPs have demonstrated they cannot be trusted to do so - they have put us out of step with comparable democracies without anything approaching scrutiny:

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

https://t.co/I1E8RNOvHs

[Madoc Cairns @MadocCairns]

Ahead of the expected proscription of Palestine Action - the first time a protest group has been legally redefined as terrorist - I went through the Hansard of the 2000 Act they're being banned under. Turns out MPs were assured the law wouldn't be applied this way. Thread 🧵🔽

[Press Gazette @pressgazette]

Warning that the UK is at risk of becoming “a propaganda regime” following interviews with 31 journalists about the state of FOI laws.

They all "expressed frustrations over the increasing restrictions on their information access and the growing government secrecy surrounding it"

[Jess Ralston @jessralston2]

🚨Some major errors & misleading claims from @bbcnickrobinson on @BBCr4today this morning, when discussing British Steel with Treasury Minister James Murray

I hope these are corrected on tomorrow's programme.

Here's what he got wrong... 🧵

https://t.co/7EF11CUQmF

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@HoichiNeedsEars @StephanieKelton Are much richer while public services go down the sh-tter. Meanwhile inflation goes up because people pay more for basic services because now they’re privatised. And the rich gut worker rights so you all work for less. Surprise! /2

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@HoichiNeedsEars @StephanieKelton Sounds similar to promises made about Brexit. We the people will be back in charge of our economy - able to tax who we want and spend what we want with stronger national companies. Guess what? It never materialises. Rich assholes own more of the states assets and /1

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@MarkVipond @JuliaHB1 Bots and sock puppets most likely

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@P4tientZer0 @kbo_coyote @Acyn 😆

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

This Labour government is a disaster. More right wing than the Tories. Prove me wrong

[Paul Lewis @paullewismoney]

Taxing the poor back on the agenda after taxing rich non-doms and landowning farmers has proved so difficult https://t.co/eQAwp5TUdV £5000 a year each from millions on long term sickness benefits would close some of the Chancellor’s fiscal gap

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@revpeterlaws @ScarredForLife2 @Markgatiss My name 😆 kids are quick to give you a new one so ‘Fearon Friday’ it was 😏

[Dave Peasant, Aspiring Lorax @aspiringpeasant]

Not gonna lie - the oligarchy going after individual Wikipedia editors has me really shook up.

They have no intention of allowing anyone to be educated. They will literally do anything to pollute the information environment into meaningless noise amd will come after any signal.

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@pressgazette @OwenPinnell @ReemMakhoul @DailyMirror @MatthewYoung7 @DanJDove @emilyltownsend @HSJnews @TheEconomist @ReachPress @dubasfisher @_CullenWillis @RichardCEAult @FT @alisonkilling @ChristopherJM @peterjandringa @digitalcampbell @sam_learner @samjoiner @MailOnline @stematthews94 @RhodriMorgan__ @amazon @msamandalewis @DailyMailUK @Fhamiltontimes @thetimes @sirin_kale @guardian @YousefHammash @Channel4News @OliverGMarsden @AJEnglish @millmediauk @abi_whist @joshi @pennycenturyy @molssimp @BBCSpotlightNI @Jen_O_Leary @FWAbiKay @FarmersWeekly @mrjoshz @KitGillet @BusinessInsider @BBCPanorama @rianna_croxford @christinalamb @bbclaurak What a joke 🤡

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@LBC @lewis_goodall Haha ffs

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@PamKeithFL And the media simply enabled it all by pandering to Trump and protecting him while denigrating Biden

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

@PamKeithFL Interesting that you label it incompetence. The US system was supposedly designed to deny tyrants the right to hold office but Biden et al singularly failed to use the rules against Trump out of fear of stirring adverse public opinion by appearing too harsh.

[Robin Fearon @robinfearon]

Feudalism alive and well in the UK

[Paul Johnson @paul__johnson]

How the royal family operate
Via ⁦@thetimes⁩