Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Austerity

@mike4evolution

🧵 The republicans agree to raise the debt ceiling by 19$ trillion, from 31$ trillion, to be 50$ trillion, over the next 10 years.
In exchange for a budget cuts proposal, which is about cutting EVERYTHING, EXCEPT the defense budget! Actually, they want to raise that while;

— Claw Back Unspent Covid-19 Funds.
— Cancel Student Debt Relief.
— Cancel Biden's plan to raise the taxes on the billionaires.
— Cut Green Tax Incentives for renewable Energy, which will cripple US competitiveness in EV & battery Techs compared to China.
thefiscaltimes.com/newsletter/202…

— Cut Medicaid.
— Cut Medicare.
— Cut Social Security.
— Increase Incentives to Oil & Gas Companies.
— Increase defense budget by 3% to 5% annually. That's something both parties agreed upon #bipartisanship.

https://twitter.com/GRDecter/status/1643947285951180800

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Nabil Abdo

@abdo_nabil86

In #springmeetings2023 we launched a paper looking at @IMFNews main instrument to protect spending on social protection, education & health in their loans, called "social spending floors".

They are powerless in the face of harmful IMF-driven austerity.

Here's what we found🧵

https://twitter.com/abdo_nabil86/status/1647968917002805248

We looked at all @IMFNews loan programs signed with low-and-middle income countries (LMICS) in 2020 & 2021.

This is happening in a context of strong return of #austerity: By 2024, 50% of LMICs are set to spend less than during the 2010s, exposing 2 bn people to harmful austerity

Social spending floors are meant to set a minimum amount of social spending when countries implement IMF loan programs.

They are not new, @IMFNews have been using them for more than 20 yrs. Their implementation has been weak: b/w 2000 and 2019 only 57% were implemented.

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

The MET is STILL institutionally racist. In February a UN working group wrote to the UK Govt to express “very extreme concern” about its failure to address “structural, institutional & systemic racism” against people of African descent in Britain.
theguardian.com/world/2023/jan…

The UN working group of experts on people of African descent called for an immediate & unconditional moratorium on the use of joint enterprise, warning it was leading to the disproportionate imprisonment of black adolescents.

#ToryBritain

ohchr.org/en/press-relea…

In the damning interim findings that concluded a 10-day fact-finding mission, the experts also called for an immediate moratorium on the use of strip searches during stop & searches by police.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1530945182530666496?s=20

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

The MET police - which Sunak, Braverman & other Tory MPs & the entire right-wing media, absurdly claim is "woke" - is riddled with deep-seated racism, sexism & homophobia & has failed to change despite numerous official reviews urging it to do so, says the Casey report.

The MET commissioned the report in 2021 after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, Wayne Couzens. The report will consider whether Met failings result at least in part from institutional misogyny, homophobia and racism.

Lady Casey will criticise the force for failing to tackle its problems despite decades of warnings from previous official reports, and she will illustrate her findings with damning new case studies.

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Thiemo Fetzer 🇪🇺🇺🇦 - same handle elsewhere

@fetzert

And yes... Eat-out-to-help-out was being defended. But on what grounds? What was the welfare analysis behind it? Who were the experts consulted? What was their incentive structure? I must admit, I did feel attacked for doing what I think I should as an academic: research. #EOTHO

@jdportes @peterjukes @BylineTimes @guardian In all of this we have to question why this stuff is coming out now. I am just observing but it does seem to me the WhatsApp messages are being used to dismantle the competition and the EOTHO story is being "buried" with Johnsons' party stories dominating. Its super interesting

@jdportes @peterjukes @BylineTimes @guardian as there could have been a "cooperative" equilibrium of "silence". But that was not enforceable. And so its a "free for all" that will damage the public trust even further. All of this is eroding state capacity. After it has been hollowed out by #austerity. I have a few thoughts

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

New, interesting, & timely free to read research article: "‘The jobs all go to foreigners’: a critical discourse analysis of the Labour Party's ‘left-wing’ case for immigration controls."

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

This paper critically examines how senior figures in the @UKLabour Party & wider labour movement discussed the topic of immigration in the immediate aftermath of the UK's vote to leave the European Union in 2016.

Influenced by the Discourse Historical Approach, the paper is based on an analysis of 86 public interventions by Labour figures, over a 6-month period, delivered in speeches, articles and essays.

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

The #PREVENT Review was announced in 2019. Like the controversial Race Report, the Social Mobility Commission, & so much else, it's an ideological stitch up, headed by ex-director of the hard-right anti-Muslim Henry Jackson Society, William Shawcross.

And now this:

https://twitter.com/Britain_People/status/1618566166535933952

A draft of the "independent" #PREVENT review, led by William Shawcross, made the dangerously irresponsible claim that 'The Govt’s counter-terrorism programme has been too focused on right-wing extremism & should now crack down on Islamist extremism'.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1563856862679818246?s=20&t=eVHXyRmDL-KeCv7swpIxIw

In 1992, Old Etonian William Shawcross wrote an "admiring" biography of Rupert Murdoch, & in 2011 was appointed a member of the board of directors of the grotesque trans-Atlantic UK-based neoliberal/free-market 'think tank', the Henry Jackson Society.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1603168492768792578?s=20&t=zuWXLzl9mOVrQUOLcUBqmQ

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

The tax-avoiding Tory-supporting billionaire-owned Mail ALWAYS blames the poor.

While the top 10% of earners pay 53% of all INCOME tax (£208bn of £393bn), the HMRC collected £714.8bn in taxes in 2021/22, & the UK's top 10% own 43% of ALL wealth, the bottom 50% just 9%.

A better way to 'get tough on welfare spending' would be to get tough on the CAUSES of welfare spending. 75% of working-age benefits are spent on: income top-ups for low-paid workers; benefits to help pay rent; & disability, sickness & incapacity benefits.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1577262730977120256?s=20&t=WmRKfINC30jDEnLYp6d6ow

You wouldn't know it from the billionaire-owned "news" media, but the UK Govt spends significantly LESS than the EU average on economic affairs, education, general public services, recreation facilities, & public protection.

The UK is now one of THE most unequal OECD societies.

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@docrussjackson

THREAD

#Austerity isn't an 'economic necessity', it's a cruel political choice.

Austerity policies since 2010 haven't been substantially reversed or retracted in recent years. In fact, they've often been levelled at the most marginalised social groups.
theconversation.com/austerity-has-…

In 2019, cuts in total expenditure on welfare & benefit payments alone were expected to total £37 billion a year by 2020. Millions are struggling with the #CostOfLivingCrises, & a further £28 billion of cuts to public funding were announced in the Govt’s November 2022 budget.

Perpetual cumulative cuts to welfare, education, social & healthcare services have caused 330,000 deaths & shape daily lives & social relationships. The effects continue, across time & generations, worsening existing inequalities relating to gender, race, class, age & disability.

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

The number of UK billionaires has increased by a fifth - from 147 in 2020, to 177 now - since the onset of the Covid pandemic, according to a report calling for a progressive wealth tax to tackle rising inequality amid the #CostofLivingCrisis.

equalitytrust.org.uk/sites/default/…

“The sudden explosion in extreme wealth was in large part due to measures aimed at lessening the impact of COVID on the economy, as central banks pumped TRILLIONS of pounds into financial markets, leading to a stock market boom which effectively lined the pockets of shareholders”

“While Covid-19 saw billionaire wealth rise to levels never seen before, the construction of the economic infrastructure that has enabled this mass accumulation stretches back over the last four decades.”

#EnoughIsEnough

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1359445197113950208?s=20&t=fUJRofl170caWR2U-__kzw

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Paul Gilbert

@paulrgilbert

On 23 November, staff and parents at Bright Start Council-run Nursery in #Brighton, were suddenly told the nursery was closing, so @BrightonHoveCC could make cuts and 'protect and support the city's most vulnerable'. A🧵on #austerity, local govt & the #SaveBrightStart campaign:

The initial reaction of parents and staff was bewilderment. As the council's own equalities assessment shows, 38% of Bright Start kids have special educational needs or disabilities #SEND. Those kids *are* vulnerable; private nurseries often turn them away because of cost of care

We were too late to get any questions in to @BrightonHoveCC's Policy & Resources Cmttee, but spent the week emailing councillors, some of whom answered by pointing to Tory #austerity impacting council budgets, while others had no idea Bright Start was tabled for closure at all

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

Are dangerously irresponsible free-market extremists deliberately colluding to manufacture ANOTHER global economic crash?

The 2008 crash was caused by reckless deregulation of the financial sector, & resulted in a decade of brutal #austerity.

theguardian.com/business/2022/…

The 2008 global economic crash was catastrophic, sparking another Great Recession which resulted in increases in unemployment, suicide, far-right extremism & dangerous levels of societal polarisation, & decreases in institutional trust & fertility.

In Britain, it led to a decade of catastrophic #austerity which cost 330,000 lives & meant cuts to essential public services & various benefits, wage stagnation,
massive bail-outs of financial institutions, & new policies designed to prevent collapse of Global financial system.

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD on Sunak's "radical new plan" to "cut down on bureaucracy" (& further privatise the #NHS).

This "radical new plan has been around since at least the 1960s, when private landowners complained of "NHS bureaucracy" during Hospital site acquisition transactions....

The 2005 '#NHS Management & Administration Staffing & Expenditure in a National & International Context' report made clear that "Expenditure on management & administration, in the NHS & all other health care systems, is a means to an end: its purpose is to improve patient care."

"Relatively ill-informed & superficial debates around whole system ‘bureaucracy’ make little attempt to assess the value of management & administration in particular activities, or accept that some such expenditure is essential to ensure the appropriate & efficient care delivery"

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

Considering reducing the number of international students who choose to pay a fortune to study at our universities - worth £28.8 billion to the UK - is stupid: every part of the UK is financially better off, on average by £390/person, because of international students.🇬🇧

The net economic benefit of £25.9 billion is spread across every part of the UK. The contribution to the UK economy of international students in 2018/19 for Sheffield Central was £290M, Nottingham South £261M, Newcastle East £240M & Glasgow Central £171M.
hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…

In historic terms, concern about immigration remains relatively low - remarkable given that net migration to the UK is at a record high of more than half a million in the year to June 2022. Ipsos MORI has charted the change in degree of concern over time.

ft.com/content/a6a2a0…

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Thiemo Fetzer 🇪🇺🇺🇦

@fetzert

After 5 months of intense work the @FT published this piece that involved a ton of hands-on work. Check it out ➡️ ig.ft.com/uk-energy-effi…. It looks sleek but I do want to raise a few further points that I think could be discussed differently
#EnergyCrisis #EnergyBills #energy

Point 1: We provided bill estimates under multiple price scenarios. Treating the #EnergyPriceGuarantee as the "price" I find problematic. The EPG implies a #EnergySubsidy benefitting mostly the well off that we all need to fund through #austerity and/or higher #taxation. So this

does not represent the full economic cost. It also ignores carbon prices which we all need should be MUCH higher. Using estimates based on the Oct 2022 Ofgem price cap ~ £3500 per year which is inline with predictions for most of 2023 (see forecasts from @CornwallInsight).

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Thiemo Fetzer 🇪🇺🇺🇦

@fetzert

So, @Jeremy_Hunt now did a full and welcome u-turn on the #minibudget2022. And they are starting to tackle another policy that needs fixing, the #EnergyPriceguarantee #EPG. Why should this happen? This is a story that can ultimately be summarised in these two pictures.... 1/..

On the left, we have a classic end-terrace house. On the right, well, you have a mansion. The big difference: energy consumption. The left needs around 15,000 kWh per year, the right one, at least 70,000 kWh. How does this compare to the average UK household? Well: 2/..

The graph highlights one thing: energy consumption is strongly increasing in household income. But even in the highest income group there is huge variation. 50% of households even in top income group consume less than half as much energy than the top 5% in this group. 3/..

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Isabel Ortiz

@IsabelOrtizUN

Below a summary of "End Austerity: A Global Report on Budget Cuts and Harmful Social Reforms in 2022-25" co-published by @Policy_Dialogue @eurodad @FinTrCo @ActionAid @ituc @awcmena @latindadd @3rdworldnetwork @brettonwoodspr @PSIglobalunion

Download:
bit.ly/3V7H1oa

Analysis of IMF expenditure projections shows that #austerity is expected to impact 143 countries in 2023 in terms of GDP or 85% of the world population, and the trend continues at least until 2025. In red, countries affected by austerity 2022-24 - the whole world is on fire.

Which #austerity measures are being implemented? We reviewed the latest 267 IMF country reports to identify the main austerity measures being considered by Ministries of Finance and the IMF in each country, this is the summary of measures with negative social impacts

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Thiemo Fetzer 🇪🇺🇺🇦

@fetzert

I start sounding like a broken record. The issue of UK is not primarily due to a high level of taxation but due to poor use of public money & the poor quality public goods bought in return. I have documented this across numerous pieces of careful research... here is a short 🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1574687942471479296

Exhibit 1: Most of austerity was a drag on growth. In "Did #Austerity Cause #Brexit?" I show that austerity itself was contractionary and the tax that could have been collected on higher incomes without austerity would have easily saved as much as austerity was projected to save.

Exhibit 2: Housing benefit cuts (FYI: these benefits are only so expensive as the UK's economic model is build on housing shortage)... but there weren't much savings as councils had to deal with the fallout: higher homeless prevention spending and putting up people in privately

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@docrussjackson

#THREAD

Just wanted to share a few lesser-known facts about 1930s Germany which given the #CostOfLivingCrisis & a new PM, seem salient, taken predominantly from The Third Reich Trilogy by British historian Richard J. Evans, hailed as a "masterpiece of historical scholarship."

Evans produced the report into the writings of David Irving who had claimed he'd been defamed as a Holocaust denier. The report proved irrefutable: Irving had deliberately distorted & manipulated historical evidence to bring it in line with his prejudices. Irving lost the case.

Almost every day I see the tired old claim that because the Nazis had 'socialist' in their official party name, they *were* socialists - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including the fact they imprisoned & executed socialists, union organisers & other left-wingers.

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@docrussjackson

Chapter Three of 'Austerity, the media & the UK public', by Mike Berry, reveals how national news media reports had several key impacts on the response to the 2008 financial crash, not least in
increasing public support for #austerity policies.

taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/…

National news media reports:

a) played a key role in establishing the public belief that the deficit was the result of government overspending especially in areas such as welfare and immigration (rather than eg the highly risky deregulation of the financial services)

b) led the public to believe that the deficit was highly dangerous & needed to be dealt with quickly; and

c) limited discussion of responses to the rise in the deficit to minor variations of #austerity policies, which meant that viewers were left unaware of alternatives.

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Age case

@AgeCase

Brexit, a trojan horse to hide the tory mismanagement and theft of over £2 trillion since 2010 only makes up 1.25% of the money lost

#Austerity £1T #Brexit £25B #Cov19 £400B #Debt £500B
#UK #ToryFascists #BackBoris #EU #BrexitLies #DenazifyUkraine #UN #abolishNATO #BrexitChaos

1) Out of nowhere the Brexit referendum was announced and the date set was June 23rd 2016 by David Cameron.

'A once in a generation decision'
'Its your chance to decide if we stay or leave the EU'
'The government will implement what you decide'
'Its just an IN/OUT vote'

2) The government, establishment and most of the media, who should be impartial, sent out leaflets to every house claiming they believe the UK should remain in the EU

The date was set and everyone seemed to be ready, happy with the up-and-coming vote and a friendly vibe about it

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Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Austerity

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Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Austerity

Most recents (24)

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