Timo Betcke @[email protected]

Deleting Twitter now. I don’t like contributing to something owned by the fascist far right. See you again somewhere but not here.

@pmdfoster @FT Restructuring does not help against the tsunami of inflation, frozen tuition fees and declining overseas student numbers, on top of the ongoing reputational damage that Brexit is causing universities.

Universities have a case for asking for more public money, BUT they need to further tighten their belts and manage themselves better, Sir Philip Augar tells me in @ft interview ahead of A-Level results on Thursday ft.com/content/a114b4…

I give it a week before Thames Water start pumping sewage into it

This feels increasingly like a concerted action by Musk, Putin, far right extremists and Farage. All ganging up against a democratic government that still wants to uphold the rule of law and protect its citizens from violent attacks.

@DenisMacShane is committing a typical British mistake, mixing up Freedom of Movement with immigration debates. The public across the EU has no problem with FoM. Immigration debates rarely mention FoM. Discussions are mainly about non EU migration.

Seeing that children are affected by this war, in Israel or Gaza, is soul crushing. I’m heartbroken for every child who is hurt in this war, Israeli or Palestinian it doesn’t matter, a child is a child, they’re always innocent. I’m not playing the blame game, I want the violence to end. To the crowd who justified October 7th as “an act of resistance,” will you justify the retaliation as such? Or maybe, just maybe we stop the eye for eye and condemn all violence, and call for the immediate release of the hostages and end to this war?

Starmer has handled this all perfectly. Imagine the ambiguous messaging we would have had in the previous government. A minister or two would have half-defended the rioters’ ‘legitimate concerns’ and it would take Sunak 3 days to disown them. Grown ups make all the difference.

#THREAD How should concerned citizens respond to the recent riots sweeping the UK and the return of the far-right as a political force? The riots are in no small part the consequence of decades of right-wing populist nationalist and far-right nativist discourse and rhetoric.

Oh Clacton… Here’s what you could have won Instead you got Farage The more I get to know @jovanforclacton, the more I trust how tirelessly he’d work to serve his constituents and help better their lives It wasn’t his time this year But it will come.

While the thugs on the streets end up in court the thugs in charge of the hate papers keep on grifting and earning millions.

Takes a camcorder to a hotel housing asylum seekers & films himself saying they could be Isis fighters. But it’s nothing to do with him when people set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers…

The poisoning of the public discourse on Muslims, migrants and refugees has been consistent and deliberate. An anti Muslim agenda has been pursued by some in politics , the media and some think tanks and we have to be brave enough to call it out. They have created the climate that we now see play out in our towns and cities and they are as much to blame as the thugs on the street.

Dear @Dan4Barnet, in your kind reply to me recently you reiterated the Labour position of not rejoining EU or SM. How do you square this with the havoc that Brexit is causing to the long-term productivity of the UK?

Are you for fucking real? You Tories bear huge responsibility for the mayhem and menace on our streets. The far-right thugs are chanting your slogan ‘Stop the Boats!’ So no, we don’t miss you. And this kind of inappropriately smug idiocy reminds us how glad we are you’re gone.

@mrjamesob I don’t. It is a mixture of indoctrination by offline and online media and decades of underinvestment and deprivation. Many of these people may have grown up to become responsible and articulate citizens in environments that invested in people and not in Tory dystopian UK.

I 'enjoy' the clips of protesters talking utter bilge without the vaguest idea of how stupid they sound. But it's important to remember that many Telegraph, Spectator, Mail etc columnists are just as bigoted, fact-free & ignorant. They just use slightly longer words.

Seeing a lot of accounts now that demand harsh prison sentences for the rioters, many of whom have been indoctrinated online. Prison should be the solution of last resort for the most severe crimes. Community service can be a much better tool to achieve restorative justice.

@mikegalsworthy Agree with catching the hate spreaders. But in 2011 many were sentenced to harsh prison sentences for only minor involvements in the riots. Even for the thuggery encountered now, blanket prison sentences are rarely the right way to achieve justice.

It’s absolutely disgusting behaviour that has been released in this explosion of racism — but now is a perfect time to catch them all, including those online encouraging it, and bang them up.

@PKewes Whether Abu Ghraib or now this, it was journalists that uncovered the crimes, and it was democratically elected government who tried to hide the abuses until they couldn't anymore.

Do you remember when @GaryLineker said some of the dehumanising language used by the last Tory government about migrants and asylum seekers was reminiscent of Germany in the 30s. And the right were furious. Outrageous they screeched. Well, he wasn't wrong was he.