Lorraine Smart 🦋💚

Socialist, GTTO Retired Child & Family Worker. Worked within a front line Local Authority Social Care Team.

[Nathan J Robinson @NathanJRobinson]

Instead of discussing how Elon Musk is now the world's first trillionaire, we should talk about how he killed hundreds of thousands of people through his dismantling of food and medical aid to poor countries
https://t.co/8kY171r5w1

[Simon Harris @SimonHarrisMBD]

Wishing Maysum Abdullah a speedy recovery! He is the heroic teacher who tackled the schoolgirl with a knife at the Co-op Academy in Higher Blackley, Manchester earlier this week.

While protecting other students, the father of one sustained injuries to his neck and hand. His wife Samia posted, ‘My husband entered teaching to make a positive difference in young people’s lives and he is truly a hero for protecting and safeguarding those children.’

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

In other words, I can't bear to be questioned about my dodgy finances so I'm never going to speak to a real journalist again.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

when your boss's income has risen 947% since 1978 and yours has increased by only 5.8%, it's time to stop blaming minorities for your woės.

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

🚨 BOMBSHELL: Amnesty International officially warns the UK is setting a terrifying precedent by sentencing Palestine activists as terrorists.

The British establishment is criminalizing moral convictions and destroying the right to protest just to protect the Zionist regime.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Only Labour can be led by a former Human Right's Lawyer, Keir Starmer, and be ok with people not convicted of terrorism offences, being sentenced as though their actions were terrorism-related

Criminal damage and attacking the police are serious wrongs that deserve firm punishment. But deliberately conflating them with terrorism sets a dangerous precedent

When the state blurs the line between thuggish disorder and terrorism, it undermines public trust, invites accusations of two-tier justice, and weakens the very safeguards the former human rights barrister once championed

This is the legacy of Keir Starmer, who leads the party, of Yvette Cooper, whose proscription of a protest group was ruled unlawful by the High Court, and Shabana Mahmood, who continues this divisive narrative

I'm very much aligned to the views expressed by Baron Hain in the House of Lords, rightly calling out criminal behaviour while criticising this conflation. His words are true now, as they were back then. And like him, I too am deeply ashamed,

"Treating young people as terrorists because they feel frustrated about the failure to stop mass killings and bombings of civilians in Gaza"

"I've never supported their activity, but there's a great difference between what they did and terrorism"

"And if you start labelling people willy nilly terrorists right across the board, you're going down a very dangerous route"

"Al Qaeda's attack on New Yorks twin towers killing 2,753 people - real terrorism"

"ISIS - real terrorism"

"This Labour government is treating Palestine Action as equivalent to ISIS or Al Qaeda, which is intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled, and morally wrong"

"Frankly I'm deeply ashamed"

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

Musk as a trillionaire- anyone as a trillionaire- is a grotesque economic, moral and political problem. We cannot have individuals with that level of power, whatever they might have achieved.

[Jenni @hashjenni]

Capitalism is better than socialism because one man gets to be a trillionaire instead of everyone having healthcare

[Zoe Gardner @ZoeJardiniere]

This sickens me 😔

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

The same man who cut children's cancer research and dismantled the organization that feeds the poorest children on earth is now a trillionaire.

Elon Musk’s dismantling of USAID has already killed more children than in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine combined.

Silent massacres.

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

Nigel doesn’t want you to know this.

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

This is so disturbing.

@matthewstadlen is the grandson of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis.

@beverleyturner denied the Belfast pogrom - where Black and migrants were burned out of their homes - was even a riot.

She then says:

"His paternal Grandparents were Central European émigré intellectuals who brought Marxist, anti-fascist and Continental philosophical traditions to Britain."

"Central European émigré intellectuals"

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

What kind of dogwhistle is this!

And what's the implication here about "anti-fascist philosophical traditions", as if it's a negative, alien import?

What the hell is being normalised in this country? What now qualifies as too extreme?

And where do you think this will lead?

[Richard Burgon MP @RichardBurgon]

The sentences handed to four young activists for taking direct action at an Israeli arms factory are completely disproportionate and wrong.

They've been sentenced for a "terrorist connection" they were never charged with.

A clear miscarriage of justice and dangerous precedent.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

Apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany needed compliant judges to provide a legal veneer to their darkest crimes.

Judge Johnson joins their wretched company. He overturned a jury's conviction of four anti-genocide activists for criminal damage and sentenced them as terrorists instead.

As one their barristers pointed out, the four defendants were initially arrested by police on suspicion of involvement in an act of terrorism. But the prosecution decided not to charge them with terrorism offences because it knew no jury would ever convict them based on the evidence.

Instead the Crown held two trials: a sham one for the jury, and the real one conducted in secret by the judge. That is not justice. It is a show trial worthy of the worst tyrannical regimes.

[Good Law Project @GoodLawProject]

A judge has sentenced the Filton 4 as terrorists, behind the back of the jury, who only ever considered charges of criminal damage.

This grotesque distortion of the law tightens the screws on the public’s right to protest, placing more limits on our freedom to fight injustice.

[🇯🇲𝕋𝕒𝕟𝕪𝕒 𝔻𝕒 𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖🫡 @ICtrlUMankylol]

So just to get my head straight and so I’m clear: the first pic is an act of terrorism and the second is an act of protest…… Have I got that correct??🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Sentenced and imprisoned on grounds of “terrorism” that no jury ever convicted them of.

Meanwhile, the British government continues to aid and abet the greatest crime of our time.

A historic miscarriage of justice — and a truly dark day for civil liberties in this country.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Gut wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel.

Years in prison for protesting to save lives in Gaza, with 'terrorism' used despite no jury convicting them of it.

A truly dangerous attack on the right to protest.

[Alex Tiffin @RespectIsVital]

You can vehemently disagree with Palestine Action activists goals, whilst simultaneously be horrified a judge can decide AFTER a conviction if it was terrorism related amd double a sentence.

Being able to class an offense as terrorism AFTER conviction without charging them with terrorism should bother everyone.

Any protest action that is now determined as trying to "change government policy" can have this applied.

So today it's Palestine Action, but next it'll be immigration protests, farmers protests, NHS, tax etc etc.