Michael Hallihane @michael_hal Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Michael Hallihane

@michael_hal

3,785

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4,678

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730

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Bookish. Sapere aude.

London, England

Joined February 2013

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

The liberal consensus is cohered around an outdated paradigm of anti-racism, anti-fascism. It doesn't know how to deal with intolerance, religious fundamentalism and sectarianism which are the real challenges to societal cohesion today. We're in a spiral with a clueless elite.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

The middle class want lockdowns. More leisure time. Salaries covered. That's why the demand for more restrictions is largely coming from the professional and managerial class. Lockdown faster, harder but keep essential services running which is where the plebs come in.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

Mirza is from Oldham and did her A levels at FE College. Father was a factory worker. Gopal is from Delhi, father international diplomat, attended elite school in Vienna. But, Mirza is elite, Gopal is oppressed. This is the upside down world inhabited by elite academics.

@PriyamvadaGopal

Priyamvada Gopal ©

@PriyamvadaGopal

4 years

Like any good, South Asian, I parse surnames for context. 'Mirza' is outright 'ashraf' or nobility. Derived from the Farsi, 'mir-zadeh', son of a prince. This matters in discussing where people are situated culturally in oppressive systems.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

There is no such thing as 'working class grammar'. There is only grammar. This is an insult to the working class. Rayner is a parody of working class aspiration. Angela Rayner: I won’t let Parliament correct my working-class grammar

Tweet card media

Angela Rayner: I won’t let Parliament correct my working-class grammar

Deputy Labour leader says ‘Hansard have a bit of a nightmare’ with her speeches, but argues against ‘the professionalisation of politics’

www.telegraph.co.uk

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

It's the toxic masses again. First it was Brexit. We were responsible for economic Armageddon by voting leave. Then after the George Floyd tragedy we were all incorrigible racists in need of reprogramming. Now we are untrustworthy virus spreaders. Time to reject this narrative.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 months

The inquest into the largely forgotten murders of three men in a Reading park by a jihadist opened this week. It shines a light on a country that is unrecognisable, that prioritses the welfare of foreign extremists over its own citizens.

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Salman Rushdie puts his life on the line for free speech. Left is silent in wake of his attempted murder. Couple of days later Graeme Souness is hounded for using the oft-used term 'It's a man's game' in relation to Chelsea v Spurs match. Left is in uproar. Tells us everything.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Suella Braverman is right to call diversity training 'downright dangerous'. The more of this training, the more policing we have of cultural boundaries, the more racial division it produces. The purveyors of this 'woke crap' know that it's limitless.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

If Leavers ever doubted the significance of their vote the fact that the media and political class haven't got over it 6 years later should leave us in no doubt. It's what Brexit represented they hate. People power and the rejection of experts.

@TobyonTV

Toby Earle 🇺🇦 Threads tobyontv

2 years

Emily Maitlis calls out the Brexit elephant in the newsroom & in government

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@PaulEmbery The Left embraced identity politics whereas the working class didn't. There is no organic relationship between the Left and the working class now. There isn't even a dialogue.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@AllisonPearson Never again must scientists have the defining say in deciding what road society as a whole must take. Their cold, clinical stats defined a policy that was inhuman and immoral. And now we discover their reasoning was purely hypothetical. The social cost has been catastrophic.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Volodymyr Zelensky is holding a mirror up to the West. Ukraine now embodies traditional Western ideals that have been largely discredited in the West itself. Concepts of honour, heroism, self-sacrifice and of nationhood, patriotism and sovereignty.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

5 months

If there is no difference, no distinction between a British citizen and a refugee or asylum seeker then there is no such thing as the nation, there is no social contract, no rights and obligations. Just a free for all. Maybe this is what our 'elites' want?

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

Leo Varadkar typifies the West's 'hollow men', bereft of a moral compass, bobbing along in a sea of technocratic managerialism. With bloated egos, clever but shallow. Lacking moral judgement, wisdom and empathy. Empty vessels make the most noise. This is our ruling class now.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

'Woke' activists have created an edifice of rules, regulations and institutional and societal pressure but the truth is people don't believe in the ideology. And the more figures like @rickygervais ridicule its absurdities the sooner the woke edifice will come tumbling down.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

8 months

Even if GBN was a "poundland Fox News channel" which it isn't what gives self-styled 'elite journalists' like Boulton and Yelland the right to 'shut it down'? This is a travesty of journalism. The demand for censorship should never be uttered by any self-respecting journalist.

@BBCNewsnight

BBC Newsnight

8 months

"These are poundland Fox News channels" Podcast host and former Sun editor David Yelland gives his opinion on GB News and claims the Fox/Wootton fracas is just 'the tip of the iceberg' #Newsnight |

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

Why is Naz Shah's experience of racism more valid than Priti Patel's? Who decides? Is it because Patel is Hindu and Shah Muslim? No, the greatest intolerance today is aimed at dissenters from cultural orthodoxy. Follow the cultural script or face internal exile and banishment.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 month

@ori_goldberg 4 grandchildren killed, 3 girls, one boy according to the latest information. The point stands. The child shall not be held accountable for the sins of the father is a basic tenet of civilisation. Israel claims to be fighting barbarism yet engages in it.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@KonstantinKisin As a philosopher said the West has been characterised by 'luxury beliefs'. Those with harder lives cling to tradition and are practical more than ideological. We are witnessing the consequences of the clash between 'luxury beliefs' and 'old world' realpolitik. #Ukraine

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

The definition of privilege. A middle class BBC radio presenter, good job, good salary, nice life, has nothing to worry about except how many white colleagues he has. Echoes of the bourgeois MeToo movement. If you really want an insight into privilege look no further.

@Telegraph

The Telegraph

6 months

🎙BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake has said an overwhelmingly “white” working environment is affecting his mental health ⤵

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

Defending the right of Charlie Hebdo or any other outlet to publish satirical cartoons is neither a right wing nor a left wing view. It is a question of freedom vs intolerance, it is the difference between civilisation and barbarism. #CharlieHebdo #IStandWithFrance

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@DerbyChrisW Putin could end the bloodshed by withdrawing his forces and recognising Ukraine's right to self-determination. If you are seeking to build an anti-imperialist movement that should be your starting point.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

Britain isn't a safe haven for asylum seekers and refugees, it's a dumping ground for foreign criminals and predators. Our ruling class have ruined the country with their mad ideas and narcissistic politics of self.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@JamesMelville The Left hate the working class. That's the problem. They focus on identities and dismiss most working class people as 'gammon'. It's too late to mend that relationship. It's gone.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Cancelling sporting fixtures this weekend is unnecessary. Nothing is happening. Yes, cancel on the days around the funeral itself. But this smacks of lockdown type decision making. Tributes would have been heartfelt and stirring at events. Celebrate life, not mortality. #Queen

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

Trump isn't a Nazi, leaving the EU isn't racism, having a book on Hitler doesn't mean you're a crypto-fascist. Celebrating VE Day isn't bigoted. History reveals to us the value of freedom of speech and liberty. And the dangers of authoritarianism and intolerance. #VEDay #VEDay75

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

In the Victorian era the elites were worried about the spread of literacy among the working class. They didn't want the plebs getting ideas above their station. The elites are still worried about what the little people are reading. Different elites, same contempt.

@Tpopularfront

Wolfie. 💙🧡💚

4 years

Extinction Rebellion 1 Establishment 0

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 year

@ExploreWellcome It seems the point is self-flagellation in your case. The rest of us appreciate museums as sites of historical knowledge and as repositories of our collective past.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@visegrad24 Ukraine should realise that this is the EU. It isn't interested in their sovereignty or independence. The EU mimicks the Kremlin in wanting the peripheries to bow to the will of the autocratic centre.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 year

One of the myths of Brexit is the idea that Brexit and the Tories are synonymous. Or that it's a right-wing thing. It was the Red Wall that made Brexit happen. That inconvenient fact is skirted over. It's time to fight back against the gaslighting of leave voters.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@JuliaHB1 No one shares the Government's enthusiasm for Net Zero beyond a narrow band of elite opinion formers. Their opinions are validated within their social circles but no one has consulted or considered the public. Brexit hasn't made technocracy disappear, it's just changed format.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

Whatever you thought of Margaret Thatcher (I wasn't a fan) she dusted herself down after the Brighton bombing and appeared at the Tory conference just a few hours after many of her colleagues were pulled from the rubble dead or injured. That kind of resilience is missing today.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Rishi Sunak currently 5/4 favourite to win the Tory leadership election. In other words the hot favourite, no one else comes near. Badenoch 14/1 outsider, Braverman 20/1 long shot. Are we really going to face a choice between Sunak and Starmer at the next GE? Two technocrats.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

@RachelCBoyle1 Fox is privileged because he comes from a wealthy background, because he had an elite education, but the idea he is privileged because of his skin colour is fundamentally wrong. That's like saying there's no difference between Fox and a homeless white male sleeping on the streets

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

This is a typically elitist response from Cameron to populism. Populism isn't pathological, it isn't an illness that has infected the body politic. It is the rejection of a failed status quo and a demand for greater democracy. This reveals how cut-off mainstream politicos are.

@jamesjohnson252

James Johnson

@jamesjohnson252

3 months

Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron at @MunSecConf : we must address root causes of populism if we want to tackle the symptoms #MSC2024

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Michael Hallihane

1 year

Nicola Sturgeon's resignation reveals what happens when elitist politics meets popular opinion or the wisdom of crowds. It's why democracy is so important. It's the last bulwark against detached elites imposing their mad ideas and policies on the rest of society.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

10 months

@Nigel_Farage @Chopshop2011 And that's all fine. She is entitled to her political beliefs. However, when she makes business and professional decisions based on personal prejudice she reveals herself to be no more than a bigot.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

The anti-Semitic cultural elites have firmly nailed their colours to the mast. They are Hamas apologists. It was a pro-Hamas march seeking the liquidation of Israel. Hatred of Israel is the motivating factor. The common theme. I notice Channel 4 has now deleted this tweet.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

The dilemma for Freeman, Rifkind, Schama and many prominent Jewish voices is that the bourgeois bohemian circles they inhabit is where most anti-Semitism originates. It's on campuses, in academia. It's not coming from 'the plebs'. And their cris de coeur fall on deaf ears.

@HadleyFreeman

Hadley Freeman

3 months

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Just Stop Oil comparing themselves to the French Resistance and to people who gave refuge to Jewish people during the Holocaust. The problem is they really believe this. Where does that leave the rest of us in their eyes?

@JustStop_Oil

Just Stop Oil

2 years

The people who hid Anne Frank during WW2 were criminals, Henry. So were the French Resistance. Obeying the law does not give you the moral highground — not when it's still legal for our Government to greenlight enough oil and gas to kill millions. Good people break bad laws.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

It's got sod all to do with accents. Trust Labour and Rayner in particular to settle on the most superficial aspect of class relations. If Labour wanted to be the voice of the masses it would have backed Brexit. It didn't so pull the other one. It's got bells on.

@AngelaRayner

Angela Rayner 🌹

4 years

I am proud to stand up for every working class kid and working class woman with an accent who has been told that they aren't good enough and don't belong....

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@Ayaan The Queen oversaw a period of British decolonisation. Not the expansion of Empire, but its reverse. The woke left are trying to use the late Queen's passing as another opportunity to traduce the past and the values associated with it. It's part of their ongoing Culture War.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@afneil Trump may have gone but the deep fractures in American society remain. They were never the result of one man. Both Trump and his opponents engaged in the Culture Wars. The rhetoric coming from the new administration does not bode well.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 year

Kate Forbes is pilloried for her religious beliefs yet four pupils from a school in Wakefield are suspended after accidental damage to a copy of the Qur'an. Certain views are deemed offensive others are ring-fenced. This isn't just double standards, it's moral cowardice.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 year

Compassion without wisdom is not virtuous. Miriam Cates on Justin Welby's false piety.

Tweet card media

It's not un-Christian to control migration

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke in the House of Lords this afternoon during the second reading of the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, a policy he referred to as “morally...

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 months

@MrEwanMorrison Similar draconian hate speech is planned in Ireland. What is it about the Celtic fringe and its embrace of hyper-progressivism? Peripheral elites want to 'out woke' their metropolitan counterparts in a race to the bottom.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Labour lost the faith and goodwill of millions of working class voters over its inability to represent their demand to leave the EU. Now it is in the process of alienating millions of women because of its inability to defend women's rights or to define womanhood.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

The elites believe only they can be anti-racists. They wear their anti-racism on their sleeves with pride and boastfulness whereas ordinary folk embrace anti-racism as a fact of life. We live it, elites preach it. Their anti-racism is spurious. And they cannot abide dissent.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

The Dublin elite like to portray Ireland as a progressive multicultural nirvana in contrast to Brexit Britain. They are embarrassed by the views of ordinary Irish people. Their solution to this is to shut them up with censorship. New Ireland isn't very different from old Ireland.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

5 years

This is Fiorina Lignier who was struck in the face by a French police grenade earlier this year at a #GiletsJaunes protest and lost an eye. But because she is a #GiletJaune and not a climate change activist she doesn't count in the Left's world view.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

Environmentalism represents the politics of less. Human progress has been built on overcoming not submitting to nature. The eco-activists will never persuade people that poverty is purifying. They cannot win the democratic argument, so they resort to gaslighting the public. #IB

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

Labour loathes Brexit and in particular former Brexit Party MEP's and Labour Brexit renegades. It's personal. The Brexit Party effectively toppled the Red Wall by acting as a stepping stone between Labour and the Tories for huge numbers of formerly Labour voters.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@thelucyjohnston @collateralglbl @relresuk The evidence of the utter catastrophe and inhuman consequences of the prolonged shutdowns of society is slowly beginning to emerge from neglected elders to abused children. Social solidarity isn't engendered by lockdowns but by keeping society open.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@GBNEWS Tony Blair doesn't use public transport. The people making these rules and imposing their diktat live lives cut off from the masses so why are they making decisions on our freedom and autonomy? We acceded to their expertise for over two years and it was a disaster. Never again.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

5 years

@PaulBrandITV People are angry. I know many people who voted in 2016 for the time in decades or for the first time ever in confidence that we lived in a democracy and that their votes would be honoured. This Parliament has trashed the compact between voter and representative.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@Channel4News @cathynewman This kind of activist journalism is self-indulgent. It won't change a thing for a start and emotionalism is no substitute for analysis. We could have asked the same question of British politicians when bombs and bullets were raining down on Iraqi civilians.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

5 years

@DavidLammy What a surprise! Sir Elton Hercules John CBE, multi-millionaire rock star with his own humongous private art collection, backs Remain. Knock me over with a feather. #Brexit

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

It's possible to be anti-lockdown and pro-vaccine. Just saying.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@danwootton Such a misleading title for Ardern's book. Her lockdown mania was driven by a fanatical authoritarianism dressed in a cloak of empathy. It was anything but empathetic.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

Bookshops sell books. Publishers publish them, writers write them and readers read them. If you work in publishing and agitate to get books or authors cancelled or you browse bookstores and are offended by books you don't like you have no business in publishing or bookshops.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@SoniaPoulton It was an act of solidarity with a European nation under siege. That's all. Not part of our culture wars, not a message for us to buy into.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

10 months

I've tried to avoid the Huw Edwards story but now it's being turned into something else. No longer a prurient 'expose' that isn't real news. Edwards is presented as the innocent victim of 'scum media'. The chattering classes are changing the narrative to pursue their culture war.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@Femi_Sorry Anyone who attended private school as Femi did knows all about privilege.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

The problem stems from trying to outlaw 'hatred' in the first place. You are trying to police emotions. And getting bogged down in legalism. Tolerance is built from the bottom up not imposed from the top down.

@KemiBadenoch

Kemi Badenoch

3 months

We use the term “Anti-Muslim hatred”. It makes clear the law protects Muslims. In this country, we have a proud tradition of religious freedom AND the freedom to criticise religion. The definition of “Islamophobia” she uses creates a blasphemy law via the back door if adopted.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@JuliaHB1 Truss has lost the plot. We now have a Remainer government without a mandate.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

Being a former lefty myself and still putting myself on that side of the fence I sometimes question my political trajectory and wonder if maybe I have strayed too far from my youthful idealism. Then I read guff like this and understand completely why the Left is terminally lost.

@RichardJMurphy

Richard Murphy

@RichardJMurphy

2 years

What is the carbon footprint of the Queen’s funeral? And can it be justified? We’re not seeing much sign of a sustainable monarchy right now.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

6 months

Gary Lineker epitomises the 'liquid elites'. Superficial, transient, despite his attempts at cultivating gravitas. The cultural elite are in the ascendancy because the political and economic elites have abdicated. The result is unserious politics in serious times.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

2 years

@MarinaPurkiss I didn't realise ethnic minorities had to conform to a certain world view in order to be accepted as genuine. Imagine thinking they were the same as everyone else with agency, subjectivity and the freedom to exercise their own judgement. Back into the box they go.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@Fox_Claire The government is prioritising existing over living. This is bad for society as we lose sight of what makes life worth living. Devaluing freedom, agency and moral autonomy will have deleterious long term consequences. It will create a society of automatons rather than citizens.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

@GoodwinMJ @jonworth Imagine contacting someone's employer about their employee's political opinions. That really is the bottom of the barrel. Why is it Brexit provoked such a low, self-righteous and entitled response among large sections of the middle class? Snitches and sneaks are beyond contempt.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

GB News will be boosted by SFH's campaign of censorship. Ordinary folk don't like bullies and don't like to be told what they can or cannot watch.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

The Twitter Left can be counted among today's Labour supporters. When they are not laughing at and deriding 'gammon' they are telling the same people to vote Labour for their own good. Guess what? They didn't. It may turn out that the 'gammons' have the last laugh. #Hartlepool

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

8 months

The word "populism" strikes fear into the chattering classes. Sunak is making some belated moves that are popular. When the cultural elites disparagingly talk about populism they really mean democracy.

@TheNewsAgents

The News Agents

8 months

“Populist authoritarian leaders will be looking around the room saying 'Great, Rishi Sunak’s laid a blueprint for this.'” @maitlis and @jonsopel ask if the Prime Minister is a lot more populist than he’s being credited with… Coming to @GlobalPlayer

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Michael Hallihane

2 years

The BBC makes the assumption that all its viewers share the same prejudices as its presenters. Out of touch doesn't even come near.

@sw1a0aa

Gareth Milner

2 years

Someone seems happy that Boris Johnson pulled out of the Tory leadership race.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

4 years

@JuliaHB1 As an ex-Labour voter I sometimes had second thoughts on my rejection of the party. This demonstrates perfectly along with the photo of Starmer on his knees yesterday, why I will never vote Labour again. It's a repulsive exhibition of moralising hypocrisy.

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Michael Hallihane

1 year

Oscar Wilde was an outlier and a rebel. Stephen Fry is neither. He's a conformist. Parroting the latest woke shibboleths. Directing his ire at predictable targets. Culture was once a site of genuine rebelliousness. The avant-garde. Now it is dominated by narcissists.

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Michael Hallihane

2 years

More MPs, journalists, commentators and members of our cultural elite need to come out and say this.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 months

Labour's 'citizens assembly' plan is their antidote to Brexit which was a demand for greater political accountability. It represents a dilution of democracy. It removes the public from the source of political authority while encouraging us to believe the reverse. Gaslighting.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

3 years

When Hancock falls on his sword, it's just a matter of time, the petty and vindictive rules he championed should go with him. Hancock out, social distancing and facemasks out. No more lockdowns. Covid19 is history. We have vaccines now. It's time to live again.

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

7 months

Badenoch is an individual with agency. Her identity doesn't define her. Her ideas do, her character. All of us are more than our identities. The obsession with race or identity is the true psychosis. #PsychosisofIdentity

@kehinde_andrews

Kehinde Andrews

@kehinde_andrews

7 months

"Britain is the best country in the world to be black...if you spout racist ideas" I fixed it for you @KemiBadenoch Beware, she must be odds on favourite to be the nation's first black prime minister and the wicked irony will be it is because of her colour #PsychosisOfWhiteness

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@michael_hal

Michael Hallihane

1 year

The reason the majority of the working class reject policies and ideas that are woke is not because they are racists or sexists or trans or homophobic. It's because 'wokeness' is anti-working class. Its advocates elevate the question of identity to relegate the question of class.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

No, it's reckless to keep restrictions which amount to a kind of permanent state of emergency, continuing the disruption to children's education and socialisation, the negative effect on mental health, the economy and the devaluing of freedom and moral autonomy. We need to live.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

There was no great rush back to pubs and restaurants last week. Maybe it's the weather. But also the danger that people have become used to not going out, they have adapted to lockdown. Our way of life has changed. Maybe this is short-term. But lockdowns are demoralising.

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Michael Hallihane

4 months

The epitome of elite 'luxury belief'. This is the easiest thing in the world for these celebrities to do. They are not in the firing line. You can criticise and protest Israel, but the genocide charge is a bandwagon. When Israel is stigmatised yet Iran isn't you have to ask why?

@incontextmedia

In Context

@incontextmedia

4 months

Game of Thrones stars and other actors read South Africa's case file charging Israel with genocide at the #ICJ

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Michael Hallihane

1 year

@henrywinter @BBCMOTD @BBC @GaryLineker We never knew or heard the political opinions of presenters like Jimmy Hill, Bob Wilson, Harry Carpenter, David Coleman, Des Lynam and we were the better for it. If anyone has damaged the reputation of Match of the Day it is Lineker himself.

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Michael Hallihane

5 years

The Peterloo massacre of 1819 involved a cavalry attack on pro-democracy demonstrators demanding democratic rights which were viscerally opposed by a Parliament of 'rotten boroughs'. Today, it's Parliament vs the people once again. #Brexit #Peterloo #BrexitBetrayal

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Michael Hallihane

2 years

Comparing the industrial annihilation of European Jewry to the issue of present day border control vis-a-vis economic migrants is typical of the moral wasteland inhabited by today's liberal left.

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Michael Hallihane

4 years

'Cancel culture' isn't about empowering the people or the powerless in society. It's aimed at consolidating the status quo and ensuring ordinary folk toe the line. There's a target beyond the target. New McCarthyites want to chill public discussion and undermine public life.

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Michael Hallihane

2 years

Sunak now hot favourite for the Tory leadership. A Sunak v Starmer General Election would barely be a choice at all. Both candidates are technocrats and Blairite. The election would be dominated by talk of honesty and integrity, rather than ideas and principles. We need better.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

@WinterfellT And he's a perfect example of why democracy is essential. That every adult has an equal vote. Otherwise society would be wholly determined by a narrow elite. It already is in many respects but democracy provides some redress for the masses.

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Michael Hallihane

2 years

@toadmeister The U.K. Government Health Security Agency needs to be scrapped. We emerged out of the pandemic through a combination of herd immunity and vaccines and despite lockdowns not because of them. Public health authoritarians were no more than officious busybodies given free rein.

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Michael Hallihane

6 months

Tim Stanley has the measure of Ireland's woke elites.

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Michael Hallihane

4 years

The rich love identity politics because they can appear virtuous and progressive without any threat to their privilege. In fact identity politics obscures the true origins of inequality in society. So much the better. That's why there are so many left wing rich people.

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Michael Hallihane

3 months

The chatterati love celebrating the Todpuddle Martyrs, the Peterloo revolt. Brexit revolt? Absolutely not. Dead plebs are great, living ones not so much.

@thephilippics

Philip Cunliffe

3 months

The Guardian loves the working classes, as long as they're not voting for Brexit and it's a cute heritage event organised by Guardian readers, for Guardian readers

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

@GaryLineker @BBCOne Too many people making this about their feelings. We watch bodies pulled out of rubble in war zones every night. We witness families in distress. We've just experienced a fatal pandemic. More perspective and less snowflakery. The main thing is #christianeriksen is recovering.

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

@Emma_A_Webb Whatever the merits of the initial lockdown and the myriad restrictions thereafter most people trusted the Government's motives. They were acting for the common good. However we've stepped beyond that. To what looks like a social experiment and authoritarianism for the sake of it

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Michael Hallihane

3 years

@GBNEWS Inaya is right. A truly multicultural society would be underpinned by robust disagreement and debate but above all tolerance of those disagreements. How can we say we have a multicultural society if death threats are the response to critical views or discussion?

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Michael Hallihane

1 year

There is a concerted campaign afoot to demoralise leave voters with elite narratives blaming Brexit for present multiple crises. It's gaslighting. Don't fall for it, don't accept it. It's a false narrative designed to sow doubt and despair.

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Michael Hallihane

4 months

@TonyDowson5 It's time he came out of hiding, returned home with the state ensuring his safety making it clear any abuse, attacks on him or his family would be treated with the utmost severity. Or else what is the state for? He cannot hide forever. It's a national scandal. Yet another one.

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Michael Hallihane

3 months

Sherelle Jacobs 🎯

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