another bloody mess

Who are these self-appointed, self-proclaimed ‘fact’ checkers?

Here’s several quantifiable genuine facts you should be aware of, and share widely...

David Miller, a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol who studies British government propaganda and public relations, said that it [77th Brigade] is "involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles".

■ '.. The Brigade uses social media such as Twitter and Facebook as well as psyop techniques to influence populations and behaviour.’

■ On 22 April 2020, during the UK government's daily coronavirus briefing, General Nick Carter confirmed that 77th Brigade are working with the Home Office Rapid Response Unit "helping to quash rumours from misinformation, but also to counter disinformation”.

■ On 7 May 2020, The Economist interviewed Carter on the role of 77th Brigade in fighting coronavirus disinformation.[33] The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit was used to monitor the internet for content on COVID-19 and to look for evidence of disinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines.

■ The 77th Brigade is a British Army formation, created in January 2015 by renaming the Security Assistance Group which was created under the Army 2020 concept. It is based at Denison Barracks in Hermitage, Berkshire and became operational in April 2015.

■ On 7 May 2020, The Economist interviewed Carter on the role of 77th Brigade in fighting coronavirus disinformation. The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit was used to monitor the internet for content on COVID-19 and to look for evidence of disinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines.

■ Sources

- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/.../77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)

Disable Blank Tabs in Safari

Bothered by those about:blank empty windows on Safari. They are not just annoying, but also pose a security risk [https://mathiasbynens.github.io/rel-noopener/]. Regrettably this solution will not mitigate the security implications as set out in the above link, but will prevent those pesky empty about:blank tabs from spawning each time you click on a link with a _blank target. It also prevents those nasty OnMouseDown events that trigger popunders et al. Add your comments/tweaks below. You'll need two things. 1/ Userscripts Safari by Justin Wasack An open-source userscript editor for Safari. Of which, quite frankly, you ought to be using already. 2/ Disable Targets UserScript by Jared Breland Cannot find a direct link to the script, not even on Jared's site. Luckily I have it archived, and currently use it with Pale Moon for mac [https://forum.palemoon.org/viewforum.php?f=41]. You should also be using Pale Moon for mac. It gives one unrivalled control, and privacy. <code>

// ==UserScript== // @name        _default - Disable Targets // @description Disable target/onclick for any link. http://www.legroom.net/software // @match       *://*.* // ==/UserScript== /* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- /* (function() {     // Find links w/ designated targets     // target='Detail' is for teamtrack links     linksToFix = document.evaluate(         ".//a[translate(@onclick, '_BLANK ', '_blank')='_blank']" +         " | .//a[translate(@onclick, '_NEW ', '_new')='_new']" +         " | .//a[translate(@target, '_BLANK ', '_blank')='_blank']" +         " | .//a[translate(@target, '_NEW ', '_new')='_new']" +         " | .//a[translate(@rel, 'EXTERNAL ', 'external')='external']" +         " | .//a[@target='Detail']",         document.body, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);     // Disable target     for (var i = 0; i < linksToFix.snapshotLength; i++) {         a = linksToFix.snapshotItem(i);         a.setAttribute("target", "");         a.setAttribute("onclick", "");     } })();

During one of the biggest health and economic crises of our time, polluting companies in the UK are asking for huge government bailouts. They want taxpayers’ money – our money – to keep them going.

Billionaire Richard Branson hasn’t paid UK tax for 14 years but he’s asking for a £500 million taxpayer bailout for his airline – Virgin Atlantic. [1] Meanwhile, EasyJet is set to receive £600 million in government loans – while refusing to cancel a £170 million payout made to shareholders just weeks ago. [2] And here’s the thing: they want the money with no-strings-attached, no promises to clean up their businesses or protect the climate, and no commitments to put their employees before shareholders and bonuses. It’s just not on. That's why we've written an open letter to the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak, asking him to make sure that if he gives airlines a bailout then they must protect their workers and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We need as many people as possible to sign this letter so the Chancellor can see the British public don’t want airlines to get a free ride from this crisis. Will you add your name?

A whistleblower at Southmead Hospital claims hundreds of its zero-hour contract staff are struggling to get any work.

The A&E healthcare assistant says the hospital has cancelled the vast majority of shifts for staff in her role and many nurses, after scheduled surgeries were suspended and some wards closed due to coronavirus.

She told Bristol Live she normally works full-time but is now struggling to get one shift a week – and has been told she is not eligible for furlough because of her zero-hour contract, though the Government's website says any contract is eligible.

The worker said: “When I rang the staff bank office to ask how we’re meant to support ourselves, they told me we could apply for Universal Credit.

“So much for us being NHS heroes. The people clapping us across the country don’t know what is happening.

“We feel so unsupported by the hospital. I am constantly worried about how I am going to get work. It's a nightmare.

“Shifts are just being cancelled with no warning. I believe we should be furloughed, but they are point-blank refusing to do it.”

'Hardly any patients'

She claims “easily” more than 200 employees are in the same situation, including some nurses.

It comes after Bristol City Council’s new director of adult social care Hugh Evans said the city's hospital bed occupancy was at an “all-time, unforeseeable low”.

British Conservative Government Tragedy Shame And Cover-up

Explosive leaked documents have revealed that officials within the Labour Party worked against Jeremy Corbyn in a bid to lose the 2017 general election.

A dossier drawn up by the party containing a cache of leaked WhatsApp messages and emails shows senior staff from the party’s right wing actively worked to sabotage the campaign in the hope that a bad result would trigger a leadership contest.

They became despondent as Labour climbed in the polls during the election campaign despite their efforts, with Corbyn dramatically slashing the Conservative’s majority in parliament.

AntiSemitism in the party

The unreleased report was drawn up in the last days of Mr Corbyn’s leadership and concerns the conduct of certain officials, including some who were investigating cases of antisemitism in the party.

It claims that “an abnormal intensity of factional opposition to the party leader” had “inhibited the proper functioning of the Labour Party bureaucracy” and contributed to “a litany of mistakes” in dealing with antisemitism, which it admits was a serious problem in the party.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has rubbished the findings, saying the dossier is a “desperate last-ditch attempt to deflect and discredit allegations” and amounted to “an attempt to imagine a vast anti-Corbyn conspiracy”.

But incumbent leader Keir Starmer is likely to now face calls to investigate the behaviour detailed in the report, including “the possible misuse of funds” by officials.

Anti-Corbyn tactics

Among the anti-Corbyn tactics evidenced in the report it was found that resources were channelled to candidates associated with the right wing of the party.

Some staff members were also accused of “coming into the office and doing nothing for a few months” during the election campaign.

The report says hostile staff created a chat so they could pretend to work while actually speaking to each other, with one participant stating that “tap tap tapping away will make us look v busy”.

Election night

An election night chat log shows that 45 minutes after the exit poll revealed that Labour had overturned the Conservative majority, one senior official said the result was the “opposite to what I had been working towards for the last couple of years”, describing themselves and their allies as “silent and grey faced” and in need of counselling.

Another said: “We have to be upbeat and not show it”, while a third told the group that “everyone needs to smile”, describing the result as “awful”.

Another very senior party official said it was going to be “a long night”.

Bullying

The report also details large volumes of abusive discussion by senior officials about colleagues and activists from the party’s left wing.

In one exchange a senior official said a young activist had “mental health issues”, to which another official chimed in: “I hope [name of activist redacted] dies in a fire”.

A third said: “That’s a very bad wish [name redacted]. But if he does I wouldn’t piss on him to put him out.” The second official then adds: “Wish there was a petrol can emoji”.

One exchange shows a senior official described another from the left of the party as “pube head”.  In another months later they called her a “smelly cow” and comment that she “had the exact same clothes on yesterday”.

Leadership election

In 2017 senior officials in the party discussed making preparations for another leadership election, hoping that one might be triggered by the party losing the Copeland and Stoke-on-trent by-elections.

Chat logs show one said “if we lose these elections we could have another leadership election. We should set up at some stage a discrete WG [working group] to go over rules, timetable scenarios and staff servicing the process. Just so we’re prepared”.

A very senior official approved the process, dubbing it “Operation Cupcake” and suggesting that Tom Watson could be interim leader. The leadership election would have been the party’s third in three years.

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Written by Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE).He has contributed articles to The Sunday Telegraph, BBC News and writes for The Big Issue on a weekly basis.Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.