Scientist. Londoner. Rejoiner. #FBPE
London
Joined June 2016
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Jo P retweeted
Russia has learned that weakening a democracy from within can be more effective than attacking it from across a border.
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán discredited independent journalists, portrayed critical reporting as foreign propaganda, weakened judicial independence and filled state institutions with loyalists. Political opponents became enemies of the nation. Corruption flourished, democratic accountability declined and billions in EU funding were frozen.
In Slovakia, Robert Fico attacked journalists, accused independent media of spreading lies, dismantled anti-corruption institutions and portrayed political opponents as threats to national security. Meanwhile, his government maintained friendly relations with Moscow.
In the United States, Donald Trump brands critical journalism “fake news,” attacks judges, targets universities, demands institutional loyalty and portrays political opponents as enemies of the country. His administration has weakened international alliances while repeatedly advancing positions advantageous to Moscow.
In Georgia, the ruling party accused independent organisations of serving foreign interests, restricted media freedoms, suppressed demonstrations and used legislation to silence critics. Democratic institutions deteriorated as the country’s European integration stalled.
In Moldova, Russian-backed networks spread fabricated news, financed political movements, manipulated public opinion and attempted to undermine elections.
Different countries. The same destructive patterns.
Discredit the press. Attack the courts. Replace independent officials with loyalists. Demonise opponents. Undermine elections. Turn allies into enemies.
The Kremlin does not need to conquer every democracy. It benefits when democracies destroy themselves from within.
Jo P retweeted
THIS IS NOT PATRIOTISM. THIS IS AUTHORITARIANISM DRESSED UP AS PATRIOTISM.
Let’s examine what is actually being demanded here.
1. “Proscribe the far left.”
In Britain, proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 concerns organisations involved in terrorism. It is not a convenient mechanism for outlawing people whose politics you dislike.
Political disagreement is not terrorism. Peaceful protest is not terrorism. Democracy does not mean banning your opponents.
2. “Reverse demographic replacement.”
This language echoes the thoroughly documented Great Replacement conspiracy theory, a narrative promoted by far-right extremist movements.
Demographic change is real. An organised conspiracy to replace an ethnic population is an entirely different claim, requiring evidence that has not been established.
British citizens are British citizens, regardless of their ancestry, ethnicity or religion.
3. Exploiting France’s protests.
Hundreds of thousands of French citizens demonstrated over living costs, education and public services on 31 October.
Most demonstrated peacefully. Some committed serious acts of violence, which deserve investigation and prosecution.
Neither fact justifies outlawing entire political movements or promoting racial conspiracy theories.
4. A message to our French neighbours.
Britain and France are sovereign democracies. We can support public order, condemn violence and respect France’s right to determine its own affairs without importing extremist rhetoric.
France does not need self-appointed British political agitators using its domestic difficulties to promote division back home.
Patriotism means defending your country’s democratic principles, not dismantling them whenever someone disagrees with you.
Sources:
afp.com/en/clashes-break-out…
gov.uk/government/publicatio…
isdglobal.org/isd-explainer/…
Jo P retweeted
The British government would like you to keep three litres of water per person per day, food that needs no fridge or cooker, a torch, a wind-up radio, a power bank and a drawer of small notes in case the cards stop working.
It presented this with the cheerful tone of a council reminding you about bin day, and the Prime Minister added that nobody should hoard, merely be alert but not alarmed, which is the phrase Whitehall reaches for when it has decided you can handle the list but not the reason for it.
So do the government's job for it and read the list backwards. The water means the pumps have stopped. The cooker-free food means the gas has gone with the electricity. The radio means your phone is a paperweight. The cash means the banks are too. Nobody writes that list for a storm. You write it for a week in which the state has already worked out it cannot reach you.
Two days later the Defence Secretary gave the country a thousand days to prepare to fight. Three days after that the Pentagon told its bases to survive ninety days without the civilian grid. Ninety for the generals, three for you, and a leaflet asking you not to worry about the difference.
Jo P retweeted
I'm 40 years old, and graduated from university in the summer of 2008. Throughout my entire adult life the prevailing narrative has been about cuts, "painful" years, and ever-increasing inequality.
And mainstream politicians wonder why people are so angry.
"Painful" years ahead, think tanks warn, as living standards set to fall
bbc.in/4k5Vgsz
Jo P retweeted
James Blunts face when he realises he’s somehow just banished himself… #celebritytraitors
Jo P retweeted
Our ruling class are telling us that after fifteen years of wage stagnation and rising prices, we have to have another decade of the same.
We are the fifth largest economy on earth.
If there is no money left, where has it gone?
Jo P retweeted
I'm fucking tired of Russians trying to pretend to be the victims in this war.
Russia invaded Ukraine, bombed its cities, murdered civilians, and destroyed entire cities!
You can't cry victim here
Jo P retweeted
A man who loves Britain so much he travels on an Irish passport, benefiting from the EU citizenship rights he campaigned for Britain to leave behind.
And let's not forget his 2013 prison sentence for using someone else's passport to bypass US immigration controls.
Apparently, borders and immigration laws are sacred, unless Tommy Robinson finds them inconvenient.
irishtimes.com/politics/2024…
the-independent.com/news/uk/…
The Tommy Robinson case is a political hit job.
This trial is the ultimate blueprint for how the system handles people who don't fall in line. You don't even have to like the guy to see exactly how the British courts just exposed themselves.
For years, Robinson has been on the front lines exposing grooming gangs, tracking mass unregulated immigration, and sounding the alarm on the erosion of British culture.
His tireless work to save the UK made him an enemy of an establishment desperate to hide the truth. Because they couldn't silence his journalism, they went after his family.
Mainstream media tracked Robinson's ex-wife and children to a holiday spot in Cyprus and slapped their faces on the front page during peak UK tensions.
That is targeted endangerment, plain and simple. But when the state protects the press, doxxing an activist's young kids is called "journalism."
When Robinson turned the tables, hiring investigators to find the editors and warning them he would make their families famous, the entire establishment panicked.
They couldn't handle the exact same energy they dish out daily. Suddenly, accountability became a "criminal threat."
The prosecution literally admitted in court that Robinson's messages contained zero actual threats of violence. Read that again. No violence. Yet, the British legal system spent weeks of court time and taxpayer money to treat this media dispute like a major national security threat.
While the UK government is actively letting violent criminals out of prison early because their cells are full, they are perfectly happy to reserve a space for a citizen journalist who pushed back against corporate bullies. The priorities are entirely backwards.
This isn't about harassment; it's about a state-backed hit job designed to make an example out of a man who loves his country.
Jo P retweeted
After yesterday’s post about the Russell Brand trial, my inbox was flooded with people claiming this is all just a coordinated media conspiracy.
Well, I hope those same people actually read what came out of Southwark Crown Court today, because Brand took the witness stand and completely shredded his own defense.
Under cross-examination, he openly admitted to "inconsistencies" in his evidence, awkwardly asking the prosecution for forgiveness.
Even more damning, his own barrister asked him if a single friend or colleague from twenty-five years in showbusiness was willing to stand up in that courtroom and speak for his character.
His answer was no. Not a single person would touch him with a barge pole. Think about what that actually means. Decades surrounded by entourages, agents, and industry friends, and not one human being is willing to take an oath on his behalf.
Then look at how he described women to the jury today.
He admitted saving a complainant’s name in his phone labeled with a degrading slur and a sexual act. When asked if a woman expressed reluctance to an encounter, he casually dismissed her hesitation as "coquettishness and coyness."
This is not a misunderstood free-thinker being silenced for his politics. This is an arrogant narcissist who used celebrity status to treat women like disposable commodities, and is now watching his carefully rehearsed narrative crumble under basic legal scrutiny.
Stop falling for the staged internet guru act. The admissions coming out of his own mouth in that courtroom tell you everything you need to know.
Jo P retweeted
24 years in the Marines taught me that being ready for emergencies is always a good idea.
Here is what to include in your kit to get through 3 days.
Everyone's situation is different, so check what you might need 👇
beready.campaign.gov.uk
Jo P retweeted
Anyone defending Tommy Robinson needs to explain exactly what they think he should be allowed to get away with.
A man who claims to be a great British patriot, lives in Spain and spends the majority of the year on holiday at the expense of his “donors” was sitting in a holiday resort in Cyprus while stirring up civil unrest in Britain. Journalists reported on it. That is their job. It was a legitimate national story.
And because Robinson didn’t like the scrutiny, he sent private investigators after the journalists, had them tracked and photographed, exposed their home addresses and their families, and threatened to turn up at their homes, saying “I’m coming to get you”. One journalist needed personal security. Another had to remove his family from their home.
If you believe that is acceptable behaviour, that a man can threaten journalists and expose their families to intimidation simply because he dislikes their reporting, then you aren’t defending free speech. You’re defending intimidation. A jury heard the evidence and convicted him. Stop pretending this was a conspiracy because you don’t like the verdict.
Jo P retweeted
🚨🇬🇧 They say, “Tommy was protecting his family.” “They did it to him first.”
Two excuses. A jury heard and rejected both.
The Mail wrote about a public figure on holiday. Tommy hired private investigators to photograph journalists’ homes, then told a million followers “I will find you.”
That isn’t the same thing. And it isn’t protection.
Here’s what the jury actually heard.
What happened
In August 2024, while England was rioting, Robinson was on holiday in Cyprus, posting about the riots to his followers. The Mail found him there and ran a story: “Stoking riots from his sunbed.”
Over the next three days he went after the two reporters, Jacob Dirnhuber and Andrew Young.
🔺5 August: a direct message to Dirnhuber. “I’ll be knocking at your door.”
🔺5 August: a phone call to Young. Robinson told him he’d be coming to his home and that he’d “have to move house.”
🔺6 August: a post naming Dirnhuber, saying he and the other Mail journalists had “today been located.”
🔺7 August: a video to around a million followers. He said he had details of where they and their families lived. He told them to abide by “men’s rules.” Then: “The men, on the other hand, I will find you.”
He also hired private investigators to photograph their homes. He admitted it in court.
The result: Dirnhuber moved house. Young was given a close protection officer.
The law
The charge was harassment causing fear of violence. The prosecution had to prove a course of conduct that made each man fear violence on at least two occasions, and that Robinson knew or ought to have known it would.
That last part is an objective test. What Robinson says he meant doesn’t decide it. What decides it is what a reasonable person would expect a million followers to do with “I will find you.”
His defence
He said he was protecting his family. That is a real defence in law, if the conduct is reasonable for protecting someone. Police had given him four threat-to-life warnings. The jury heard all of it.
Why it failed
He admitted the aim was pressure. Telling a million people where journalists live doesn’t protect your children. It endangers theirs.
🔺He didn’t dispute that they were frightened. Asked in evidence, he said no.
🔺He never complained to the press regulator. He never asked the Mail to change or remove the story. The legal route was there. He skipped it.
🔺His own words. “Men’s rules” is not the language of protection.
One is journalism, however much you dislike it. The other is a threat.
The jury
He chose this. At the magistrates’ court he was offered a trial there. He opted for a jury instead, saying he wanted 12 members of the British public to hear the evidence.
They did. They convicted on both counts.
Sentencing is on 16 December.
Jo P retweeted
Rupert Lowe and half the right spent weeks calling David Lammy and Kier Starmer corrupt for even looking at the jury system.
Same jury system just convicted Tommy Robinson. Suddenly it’s a stitch-up.
You don’t care about juries. You care about being permanently aggrieved.
Pick a fucking side.
Jo P retweeted
Badenoch has forgotten that Thatcher sold off the family silver, Cameron ruined public services with austerity, Johnson ruined the economy for a generation with his Brexit deal. Then he pissed £billions up the wall with dodgy Covid loans and PPE contracts.
Then we had Mad Lizzy!
Jo P retweeted
The same rape victims that Tommy Robinson piggybacked on to build his empire of wealth.
He has done absolutely fuck all to help survivors of the grooming gang scandal, other than use their suffering to fund his jobless, millionaire lifestyle.
Jo P retweeted
Lucy Connolly thinks the Daily Mail, the paper that has spent decades hammering immigration, the EU and “woke” culture, is a left-leaning rag contributing to a “communist dystopia.”
That’s how far gone she is.👇👇👇
