Lara Brown
@lara_e_brown
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Policy researcher & @civic_future fellow 2023-24/ Retired president @Cambridgeunion . Articles in @TheCriticMag , @spectator , @Telegraph and @unherd . Views my own
Joined March 2020
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The IOC have just forced this woman, Angela Carini, to box against a biological male, Imane Khelif.
Calini abandoned the fight after just 45 seconds.
She should never have been made to enter the ring with a man.
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Sometimes I wonder if economic decline in the UK has been because almost no one understands the concept of an investment..
✨🚨NEW: Taylor Swift's Edinburgh concerts cost taxpayers an 'outrageous' £40,000
The council was not recouped for providing extra toilets, security, CCTV and over 1,000 hours of overtime worked by staff, new figures show
Full story to follow
@EdinburghLive_
#LDReporter
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The claim Heathcliff was "one of the most famous people of colour in literature" is a fundamentally absurd misreading of Wuthering Heights.
It emerges from a misunderstanding of the Victorian use of the descriptor "dark"
🧵thread on what Brontë (and other writers) meant.
film studios will say “we are committed to diverse casting” and then cast Jacob Elordi to play Heathcliff, one of the more famous people of color in literature, whose race is crucial to both his character and the story
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The National Gallery have taken the decision to brand John Constable's Hay Wain as a "contested" landscape due to his "conservative" attitudes and "privileged" position.
🧵on why we should oppose this sort of politicised curation from a museum funded by the taxpayer
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Oasis aren't a public service.
It's not the job of the government to help you get concert tickets.
For what it's worth, they're almost certainly getting back together for the money. In a world where Labour control pricing, there would probably be no Oasis tour anyway..
.
@lisanandy
told ITV News 'it's deeply depressing to have had this incredible moment' finding out Oasis were reuniting, only for many to spend hours queueing and discovering they couldn't afford tickets
She says the government will consult on changes needed around ticketing
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I'm actually baffled trying to understand Ed Miliband's ideology.
A week after Labour got into power, Miliband announced no new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea - an action surely designed to cripple the oil industry.
So why is he now mourning the loss of an Oil Refinery?
1/ It is deeply disappointing that Petroineos have confirmed their previous decision to close Grangemouth oil refinery.
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Are Deliveroo offering illegal migrants a backdoor to the UK economy?
Short 🧵on why the Deliveroo business model seems to be dependent on illegal migrants working for less than half of minimum wage.
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Hope Not Hate regularly supply intelligence to the police.
And yet here is their CEO celebrating the spread of misinformation because it suits his agenda.
How can the charity, which received £141,380 in government grants (2019-20) ever be trusted?
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If Miliband cancels the planned Wylfa Nuclear Power Station then he will win the admittedly stiff competition for most harmful decision made by this government so far….
Future generations made unimaginably poorer in service of one man’s ideology.
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Reminds me of this gem from a computer scientist trying to explain to the police that it would only take one hour to identify the moment a bike was stolen using binary search - even if they had footage dating to the dawn of humanity..
Just found out that, unless you know exactly the half hour when a theft occurs, it’s effectively legal
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11/ This isn't to say that Heathcliff being mixed race isn't something one couldn't read into the text, or that films shouldn't cast ethnic minority actors to play him.
But it's fundamentally untrue to say he's definitely canonically "not white" without evidence in the text.
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Royal Parks have branded the Albert Memorial as “offensive” as it “reflects a “Victorian view of European supremacy”.
This decision does not meet the rigorous standards set by the Government’s “Retain and Explain Guidance” or Policy Exchange’s “Principles for Change”. Why? 🧵
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1/ To start with - it's pretty clear that Linton Heathcliff is probably not a "person of colour".
He is described in Ch. 19 as a "pale, delicate, effeminate boy"
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2/ Earlier, in ch. 3 Brontë claims his face is "as white as the wall behind him"
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3/ So why does this claim keep popping up?
Heathcliffe is described as a "dark-skinned gipsy in aspect"
(aspect here almost certainly referencing his appearance - not a known fact about his origins, which are a mystery over the course of the novel)
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10/ Probably most importantly - claims that Heathcliff was a "person of colour" forget how stratified Victorian society was.
Heathcliff marries Isabella Linton -a woman from a wealth and respectable society -18th c. Yorkshire was not a place that would have allowed such a union
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6/ Describing a character as "dark skinned" is a clear Victorian shorthand for the Byronic Hero.
Heathcliff is a typical Byronic Hero (as first exemplified in 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage').
He is at arms length from polite society, wild, and unsettling.
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9/ It's also worth noting that if Heathcliff was discernibly Irish - then Emily Brontë may not have regarded his as "white". Victorian attitudes on this question are worlds apart from modern conceptions.
Heathcliff probably simply had recognisably Mediterranean features.
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@AngusHayes3
It's just absurd! Running for 2 x nights with a capacity of 67,144 and every seat sold, that's 134,288 people visiting Edinburgh.
If they all even spent just £15 in local shops that's still over £2 million extra spent in the city in two nights.
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7/ Descriptions of Heathcliff as a "gipsy" also centre around status - another way to denigrate a character as an outcast.
George Elliot's Maggie Tulliver is described repeatedly as "like a gipsy". This is not a comment on her race - but her wild instincts and lower status.
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4/ Mr Linton also hypothesises Heathcliff might be "a little Lascar, or American or Spanish castaway"
This is a derision of his character - based on Heathcliff's apparent back story as a foundling adopted from the streets of Liverpool
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8/ It is feasible that Heathcliff's mother may have been a gipsy (we don't know who she is!) - but here it's worth noting that Victorian traveller communities were usually English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish (or possibly descended from Romanies in Europe)
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9/ The Hay Wain is the nation's favourite painting - and it's mine - I look forward to the opening of the exhibition and I hope that it's intelligently and fairly curated by the usually excellent art historians at the National Gallery.
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6/ Constable draws Suffolk as it really is (even the sky is meteorologically accurate).
The focal point is not ruins, or nymphs - its agricultural workers.
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In 2022, 12,148 doctors with a foreign nationality joined the NHS.
This year, 1,00 UK trained doctors haven’t been given placements for junior doctor training.
The current immigration rules prevent the NHS prioritising doctors from our universities over those from abroad.
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8/ Good curation acknowledges these factors - but it focuses on interpreting the painting in its context - not on crowbarring politics of privilege into the art.
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The devolved Welsh Government has just spent £135,000 of taxpayer money on a guide to "anti-racist libraries".
Short 🧵on this ludicrous report and the chilling impact it may have on freedom of speech in Welsh library collections.
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The below slack message about Beira's Place -
@jk_rowling
's sexual violence support service - was sent by a staff member at Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.
Disgusting that someone working for a rape crisis centre was angered by female victims being offered same sex care.
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2/The Hay Wain is being depicted as a painting produced"conservative" attitudes. In reality - it's a radical artwork.
The portrait was produced in 1821 at the height of the academic hierarchy of artistic genres - with history painting at the top and landscapes much further down.
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1/ The National Gallery is a non-departmental body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The collection is free to view and in 2023 the gallery received £30.7 million from the taxpayer.
Their curatorial decisions are therefore in the public interest.
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3/ The Hay Wain represented Constable's rejection of this hierarchy.
Consequently, it was not well received. When it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy it failed to find a buyer - possibly due to the perceived 'low status' of the subject matter
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If Dawn Butler thinks that Raygun got lots of "praise for doing the smallest thing" then she was watching a different Olympics to me...
They literally took breakdancing out of the Olympics because she was so bad
Structural discrimination
is a form of institutional discrimination against individuals which restricts their opportunities. It may be intentional or unintentional.
As we reclaim narratives this
#BlackHistoryMonth
we must be intentional in our desire to change said structures.
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4/ However, the landscape was awarded a gold medal by Charles X of France and ultimately attracted the attention of Henry Vaughan who bequeathed it to the National Gallery.
Many art historians view the Hay Wain as a pivotal moment in the evolution of English Romanticism
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5/ The painting represents a break from a long tradition of English landscape drawing.
Its subject matter is fundamentally ordinary.
By contrast the typical English landscape was drawn in the style of Lorraine - littered with classical ruins and satyrs.
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7/ The painting was produced in a politically difficult time - the Corn Laws were brought in 6 years before (which would have favoured Constable's milling family) and the Napoleonic Wars had left their scar on the country.
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2/ The answer: those who don't have a legal right to work in the UK.
42% of riders stopped by the police have been found to be working illegally.
That's nearly half the whole workforce.
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Given that we only have 15 MPs under 30 this doesn't seem all that shocking.
I do find it strange that I was the only Black candidate under 30, for any of the mainstream political parties at the last general election. Something needs to change.
#BHM2024
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I'm not sure we could run a country with a more broken incentives structure if we tried..
Excl: Prisoners should "jump the queue" for housing to stop them reoffending, Sadiq Khan has said.
The mayor of London told
@thetimes
Crime & Justice Commission that while there is “a big shortage of housing in London", there needs to be an "honest conversation" about the need
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University students seem to have lost all grasp on the meaning of safety.
208 students are calling upon Christ's college to consider its students' "safety" by cancelling the Conservative Association's dinner booking.
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I hope that the XL Bully crisis serves as a warning to future policymakers. The exclusion of the breed from the Dangerous Dogs Act was a direct result of lobbying by charities including the RSPCA. Activist written policy is never good.
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This must be devastating news for the Treasury who have received over £539,766 in legal costs from the Good Law Project since 2017...
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Prof. Alexis Jay's independent inquiry found 1,400 girls as young as 11 who had fallen victim to grooming gangs in Rotherham.
Tom Crowther KC found 1,000 girls who had been groomed in Telford
I dare anyone who thinks this is a 'moral panic' to read one of the harrowing reports
🚨 Wikipedia has changed the name of the 'Muslim grooming gangs in the UK' page to 'Grooming gang moral panic in the UK'.
This is political interference.
1 in 73 Muslim men who live in Rotherham have been prosecuted for grooming gang-related crimes in the past two decades.
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14/ Deliveroo profit from illegal workers. The current incentive structure gives them no reason to improve their right to work checks.
If the company was slapped with a £60,000 fine when a driver was found using the app without permission, the problem would stop pretty fast.
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3/ These claims are no longer available on the Royal Parks website and seem to have been removed. Do Royal Parks no longer stand by their comments? If so, who made this decision and why has there been no statement retracting the claims?
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4/ such denigration of the monument is not consistent with the Government’s ‘Retain and Explain’ guidance for custodians.
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1/ Deliveroo drivers are paid as little as £2.90 per food delivery.
Drivers report earning around £5.80 an hour.
9.7% of businesses are experiencing labour shortages. So when there's a surplus of minimum wage jobs - who wants to work for deliveroo?
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13/ As a matter of urgency, the government must ban the substitute system, require Deliveroo to do right to work checks on all their drives, and issue huge fines when riders are found to be working without documentation.
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@HarryNSkinner
Consumer protection from what, not getting tickets to an Oasis concert?
If people don't like the market price of a ticket, don't buy, and prices will fall.
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13/ The public deserve transparency about the decision making process at Royal Parks. What historical analysis was undergone before the decision was made to denigrate the memorial?”
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Two events I organised at Cambridge - with
@Docstockk
and Dan Meridor needed private security and police protection due to protest.
If we hadn’t had the funds, these events couldn’t have gone ahead. Without the free speech bill similar talks won’t happen.
Whoever from
@bphillipsonMP
's office briefed this (re university freedom of speech bill) needs a long sit-down with a cold towel. The legislation refers again and again to freedom of speech *within the law*.
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7/ If the police raid a nail salon and discover the owner is employing illegal workers, they're subject to an unlimited fine and potential jail time.
But because of their unique working agreement, Deliveroo seem to get off scot free when substitutes work illegally
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10/ Deliveroo (and other apps) know this practice is enabling illegal working. They are complicit in the huge harm is causes society and they've been told to stop.
Yet, nothing has changed.
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The grown ups are back in charge and the era of the culture wars is over..
🚨 NEW: Rachel Reeves plans to replace all paintings in No 11 Downing Street with artworks by or of women to celebrate becoming the first female Chancellor
[
@guardian
]
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The practice of 'renting' accounts from drivers with a right to work in the UK is commonplace.
You're right, substitution should be banned.
Deliveroo should also face huge fines when they're found to be employing undocumented migrant workers.
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3/ Why is this number so high? Because Deliveroo have created a system absurdly easy to abuse.
When registering for an account, new riders are required to complete relatively detailed right to work checks.
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8/ Unsurprisingly, there is a massive black market for access to accounts.
Riders with a right to work in the UK set up an account, and then rent it out to illegal migrant workers, typically for £50 a week or a cut of earnings.
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5/The government guidance requires that custodians present “a full and rigorous review of the historical evidence available including .. peer assessment of the evidence and conclusions”
It is not clear this bar was met. There’s no evidence on the Royal Parks website of a review
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9/ Because of the substitution system, Deliveroo don't bear responsibility when the police catch riders without documentation.
We know this is a problem. In 2023
@RobertJenrick
, as immigration minister, wrote to Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat about the substitution system.
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6/ The guidance also requires that “custodians consult stakeholders and the community”.
There is no evidence of any consultation carried out by Royal Parks of either the taxpayer or users of the parks.
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6/ As self-employed contractors, drivers are allowed to 'appoint' someone else to complete orders for them.
All responsibility for ensuring that a substitute has the right to work in the UK is then shifted on to the driver (not Deliveroo)
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4/ This seems fair - any other employer is required to check their employee's documents.
But as
@echetus
pointed out yesterday, Deliveroo have created a workaround which allows thousands of illegal workers on to the app - 'substitution'
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2/ The Royal Parks website claims that the statue reflects a “Victorian view of the world that differs from mainstream views held today … though the Empire has traditionally been celebrated as a symbol of British supremacy, many today consider this view as problematic”.
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Two biological men have won gold in two women's boxing categories - and now IOC chief Thomas Bach is stepping down.
It's vital that he's succeeded by a sensible candidate, like Seb Coe.
As I wrote for
@TheCriticMag
, gender is one of the defining stories of this Olympic Games.
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12/ Royal Parks is a charity accountable to the taxpayer. It is disappointing that they did not follow due process when choosing to denigrate the memorial.
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5/ Deliveroo recently won a case in the Supreme Court which found that drivers are not 'employed' by them.
Drivers were found to be 'self-employed independent contractors'.
Deliveroo's defence rested having on their 'substitution' model.
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7/ Principle 1: Any decision-making body must be identified clearly, with its composition and powers set out publicly and unambiguously.
We do not know who made the decision that the memorial was “offensive” or to whom they are accountable.
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12/ The substitution system is definitely allowing Deliveroo to keep wages low - illegal migrant workers can't afford to be fussy and will work for far less the minimum wage.
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6/ In 2021 Policy Exchange published “History Matters” by
@TrevorPTweet
. The report proposed three “Principles for Change” applicable to any institution seeking to re-interpret history. Royal Parks’ recent decision does not pass this test.
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11/ In April 2024 Deliveroo and other food delivery services committed to enhancing their security checks to prevent illegal working.
And yet, Deliveroo's site still instructs drivers that it's their responsibility to check a substitute has the right to work in the UK.
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9/Royal Parks’ charitable purpose is: “to manage, protect and improve the parks in an exemplary and sustainable manner so that everyone, now and in the future, has the opportunity to enjoy their natural and historic environments.” It is not clear how the decision supports this.
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11/ Royal Parks is a charity which receives around one fifth of its funding from the taxpayer. The rest is raised through donations and commercial activities. There is no evidence of a consultation of the general public or Royal Parks donors.
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The APPG report proposing an Islamophobia definition described the following things as Islamophobic:
- Ofsted asking primary school girls why they wear hijabs
- Muslim students failing to secure entry to Russel Group Universities
The definition is blasphemy law by the back door
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8/ Principle 2: Any change must be lawful and consistent with the stated aims and purpose of the institution
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“History, we’re told, is written by the victors. But nowadays, it seems it’s museum curators who really have the final word”
Reflecting on
@Policy_Exchange
’s History Matters Compendium, I wrote for the
@spectator
on museums captured by ideology.
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The worst change in Westminster over the course of my lifetime has been the gradual depoliticisation of difficult issues.
Handing power over net migration decisions to a quango is cowardice.
Politics should be for politicians.
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This seems to be a pretty clear breach of The Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
Labour love to call for the regulator to throw the book at the broadcaster when it's GB News. I wonder if they'll feel the same about a softball interview by a government minister's husband?
Amidst one of the UK's biggest civil crises in years, GMB thinks that it's a good idea to have Home Secretary Yvette Cooper interviewed by Ed Balls - her husband.
This only fuels the idea that the British press walks in lock-step with the political establishment. Unwise!
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Libraries are wonderful places that foster education for free, for anyone that wants it.
They should contain a diversity of thought and viewpoints, and should not be politicised.
This guide poses yes another profound threat to freedom of speech in Wales.
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10/ Principle 3: Any individual or board making a decision about change in a public institution must be accountable to those who support the institution, including the taxpayer.
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New polling from
@Policy_Exchange
reveals that 75% of people believe that companies should prioritise hiring on merit, regardless of race or gender.
The public do not want businesses to take up woke causes.
A short 🧵on our findings:
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This is not just a ridiculous report - it seems to be an attempt at mass censorship across Welsh libraries.
Librarians are instructed to "develop anti-racist acquisition policies". These would appear to radically limit the books libraries purchase - eliminating heterodox views.
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Asda shop workers are suing for £2bn on the basis they should be paid the same as the mainly male warehouse workforce.
The Equality Act mandates equal pay for work of "equal value". If business cannot hire at market rate for different types of work, then they cannot function.
Today, 60,000 workers take on Asda in their fight for equal pay.
It’s the biggest ever private sector equal pay claim.
Will you stand with us? ✊
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EXCLUSIVE: Kemi Badenoch tried to save the taxpayer money.
EXCL: Kemi Badenoch asked officials to pay for holiday flight to United States with taxpayers’ money while in government but was rebuffed by former department’s top civil servant 👇🏼
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Rachel Reeves claims she has just discovered a £22 billion black hole.
She's announced cuts to major public infrastructure projects which could have driven enormous growth and prosperity.
Short 🧵on wasted public money that could be cut.
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The two guides - one on training, another on the collections - contain highly divisive and contested language.
It should not be the place of libraries to "challenge the dominant paradigm of whiteness".
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Something amazing about how the view of Canary Wharf emerges from Greenwich’s Old Royal Navy College
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The letter claims that: "our students have raised concerns about feeling unsafe within their own college due to CUCA’s polarising reputation within the University". It's alarming that students believe they're 'unsafe' when confronted by ideas they disagree with.
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Libraries in Wales are chronically underfunded. Jobs in the sector have been reduced from 1,241 (2010) to 979 today.
Library funding is usually less than 1% of local council budgets.
Rather than address this - the Welsh government has chosen instead to 'decolonise' libraries
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The letter claims: "the college needs to balance its commitment to freedom of speech with its commitment to making our students feel safe, valued and respected"
If a speech must always make everyone feel "safe, valued and respected" then speech is not free.
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The report goes on to recommend evidentially baseless racial bias and anti-racism training.
One of the most bizarre exercises calls for all librarians to be forced to write down their various privileges.
A deliberate attempt to divide staff?
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Despite getting a generous pay offer from the Government, the Aslef train drivers' union is STILL going on strike every weekend for the next 3 months.
We should be thinking about how we can stop these strikes for good.
A short 🧵 on
@Policy_Exchange
's proposals to do just that:
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The advice given to libraries directly contradicts their purpose.
At two different points, librarians are warned about problems with the Dewey Decimal System because it "was created by a white American man"
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At one point the report claims that "the widespread use of Dewey Decimal Classification without critically examining its limitation and biases" is evidence of racism in libraries.
Dewey Decimal Classification makes libraries accessible and their collections easy to navigate.
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Royal Parks have dubbed the Prince Albert memorial as “offensive”. They claim the sculpture “draws on racial stereotypes” and reflects the “Victorian view of European supremacy”.
Hunting for remnants of Empire in order to condemn them is deeply misguided.
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Libraries are also warned that training must never take place in a "venue that represents a racist legacy".
(food provided should also be vegan and vegetarian to support net zero..)
What next? Will libraries with contested pasts be closed down?
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Above all else, the report is extremely condescending towards ethnic minority library users.
It claims that unless libraries showcase materials celebrating "a diverse range of customs and experiences", then ethnic minority visitors may not feel welcome in a library.
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@ornowitza
@jk_rowling
I found this the most unpleasant part of the judgement. That AB chose a male name and then refused to allow other members of staff to clarify (to rape survivors) that they were in fact female
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The Bar Standards Board are consulting on a radical change to their current prohibition on unlawful discrimination.
They are proposing that barristers should be required to "act in a way that advances equality, diversity, and inclusion".
Extremely concerning politicisation.
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Would a librarian following the anti-racist library guide be allowed to purchase a copy of JD Vance's 'Hillbilly Elegy'?
The proposed scheme of "reporting and addressing microagressions" may offer librarians another opportunity to censor certain books.
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There’s a unique cruelty to the marking strike because it affects a party unable to negotiate.
‘it is a hostage situation and we are powerless as to whether the ransom gets paid’
I wrote for the Spectator on the forthcoming marking boycott:
The ‘marking boycott’ is yet another betrayal for students, says Lara Brown 👇
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@QcWynter
Thank you so much! Still very proud of the debate we held at the union and thought the documentary was excellent. I really appreciate your support
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