The Chartwells/Compass free school meals package scandal is a teachable moment about capitalism. 1/ Why do so many families need free school meals? Because real wages have stagnated while profits soared...

2/ Why packages and not vouchers? Because the big outsourcers like Compass *lobbied the government* against vouchers, claiming they could use their scale to provide cheaper food...

3/ Here's the business model in a single graphic. Buy food as cheap as possible. Achieve growth by replacing/acquiring smaller, higher-quality providers, hire the cheapest possible labour...("we focus relentlessly on costs")... but it's not done to make huge bottom line profits

4/ If you look at a normal year, Compass and other big outsourcers make relatively meagre profits... they grow, and drive dividends, by acquisition - not by innovation... (except in ways to cut costs)...

5/ Businesses like this were created by the state. They're not the product of the market, or consumer choice, but of regulation. They survive on wafer thin margins because that's how the govt structured the market...

I was a radical trans person before I detransitioned and got into transphobic radical feminism. Hung out with radical queer and trans people, went to Camp Trans, read plenty of books by trans people, knew all the counter-arguments to transphobic feminist beliefs, etc.

Before I become one, I used to think transphobic rad fems were totally out of touch with reality. Couldn't understand why they thought trans people were in league with the patriarchy. I used to hate read rad fems for years because I found them so ridiculous.

Transphobic feminism only became compelling after I went through several disruptive events in my life and it started to seem like it could fulfill my needs. A huge factor was that conflict had ripped through my personal community and I no longer felt like I could trust people.

My old community no longer felt safe, so I was on the look out for a new one that could meet my needs. I was questioning my gender and unsure of how to live as a woman after living for years as a trans dude. I also was quitting drugs and trying to work through old trauma.

Basically I was going through a lot, in an emotionally vulnerable place, my old community/support system had been disrupted and I was pissed about it, I wanted to detransition but didn't know what that would look like.

Ian Wright of Food and Drink Federation says transport will get worse - trucks corssing short straits now about 2,000 - normally 10,000. Also Irish sea volumes very light, system not stressed but will be

Was Covid crisis a dress rehearsal for Brexit? Supply chais for food and medicines kept running. No, says Ian Wright, because there was no paperwork. Says Covid health checks at Dover was more of a dress rehearsal. Says backlog from that was still being cleared on NYE

Andrew Opie says Covid food supply was internal challenge, not external. Learnings from Dover: problem is often empty food lorries going back to Fr, ESP etc - about 1/3rd going back empty - being prioritised to keep food supply going

Stephen Kinnock MP says steel exports subject to quota - above quota tariff of 25% applies. Exports GB to NI count as part of export quota to EU (Port Talbot steel works in his constituency)

Phipson of Make UK says there are easements that could be put in place for steel and other matters but claims EU reluctant to do so for political reasons

AVOID NIGHT TRIPS,THEY ARE NOT ONLY UNSAFE, BUT UTTERLY DANGEROUS- OYEYEMI.

Arising from the dangers, the risks and the rising cases of fatalities occasioned by road traffic crashes recorded at night, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has advised fleet operators, other commercial drivers & patronisers of night trips,

including private vehicle owners to desist henceforth from it, emphasising that night trip which is often characterised by poor visibility, fatigue, sleeping on wheels, excessive speed among others is not only unsafe, but utterly dangerous.

According to Bisi Kazeem, the Corps Public Education Officer, Oyeyemi gave the warning while reacting to some reports of fatal crashes recorded at night at the beginning of the year, which led to the death of several road users and left others with different degrees of injuries.

The Corps Marshal while speaking extensively on why night trips should be avoided, lamented that on January 5, 2021 alone, an avoidable fatal crash occurred in Kabba, Kogi State where 2 vehicles were caught up in a head-on collision

Today, I’m announcing the Washtenaw Prosecutor’s Office will no longer prosecute consensual sex work. We'll focus on trafficking, sexual assault, victimization of kids. Our policy will facilitate prosecution of such crimes.

Please read our full policy: https://t.co/lbl5xKfRIR /1

At the outset, I want to make this clear. Declining to prosecute sex work DOES NOT mean we won’t vigorously pursue—& prosecute—human trafficking, pimping, those who engage in sexual/physical assault against sex workers, or those who try to purchase sex from minors.

We will. /2

Indeed, a key reason for today’s policy directive is that the criminalization of sex work *increases* violence & sexual assault—and makes it less likely to be reported.

If you fear that you’d face prosecution if you report an assault to police, you’re less likely to do so. /3

We’re making this policy very public because I want sex workers to know: Please. Report violence. Report sexual assault. Report human trafficking.

We will go after those who engage in those activities. We won’t prosecute you. /4

But there are other reasons for today’s policy directive. First, as a fundamental matter, I do not believe it is appropriate for people to be prosecuted because of what they do with their own bodies.

At bottom, that’s what the criminalization of sex work does. /5

THREAD: Questions to Keir Starmer's spokesperson this afternoon 🧵

Does Keir want an elected head of state? "No." Is he a proud patriot? "Yes." His past support for abolishing monarchy? "We all reflect on what we said when we were in our 20s... Keir has been proud of what the monarchy has done to help the country through the pandemic."

On use of Union Jack by Labour: "The union flag represents the country that Labour wants to govern and that Keir wants to be the PM of. It’s a symbol of the country we want to lead. You can call that patriotism, you can call it whatever you want, but that’s what we stand for."

Added: "Keir believes in our union of the United Kingdom… The flag represents that union, but also it’s the wider point of how we are better together."

On leaked Labour strategy document: "It's not right to say it was presented as our strategy. That’s not what it was, and to claim otherwise is wrong. It was an external review shared with the party… but we will write our own strategy."

Imagine if, in the midst of the massive BLM riots this summer, the entire tech infrastructure had deplatformed Facebook because some had used that app to plan events devolving into violence. People would rightly have called that an insane act of ideological fascism.

Yet today, media will celebrate Amazon doing exactly that to Parler. The tech bros are making a horrible and dangerous moment significantly more horrible and dangerous. There are no consistent standards being applied. There is reactionary deplatforming in the name of one side.

Private companies are by law free to do what they like. That’s why I have always said that the solution to the censorship of Twitter is alternatives -- which is what Parler was attempting to be, whatever its flaws.

But when the technological instruments necessary for speech are located in essentially three companies, all of which are moving toward like-minded censorship (Amazon controls about half of all public-cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 16%, and Google 4%), that avenue closes.

I am by nature anti-regulation. But even the consumer-based theory of anti-monopoly championed by free market advocates cuts in favor of anti-monopolistic regulation if these companies are acting in de facto collusion to shut all avenues of dissent.

Good morning, Baltimore. A thread on walking and writing. It will be boring but possibly helpful if you wish to walk or write more.

In my pre-pandemic life, there was lots of incidental walking. I averaged 2.4 miles a day, or 5,662 steps.

Pandemic life ended most incidental walking -- not daily walk to school, then coffee shop, fewer errands. In June, after finishing a book, I decided to shoot for 6-7k "deliberate" steps a day.

On December 1, I decided to up my daily mileage to 5 miles. That required more planning -- I couldn't get that done in the pre-dawn hours while my daughter sleeps. I would need to add a second walk, maybe a third.

Then I noticed that I was close to averaging 8k steps a day by year's end. Kind people here on Twitter, using this strange magic called algebra, calculated that I would need to average 10.5k miles a day to up my year average to 8k.

The 11th January edition of BBC Scotland's flagship morning news programme, Good Morning Scotland, was so extreme in terms of anti-SNP propaganda that we decided to analyse key segments to highlight just how bad things were.

This thread deals with untruths.

On January 11th there were several untruths. The clip below is Good Morning Scotland presenter Laura Maxwell as she introduces an interview with Scottish Tory MSP Dean

Maxwell says: "The Deputy First Minister has rejected suggestions that the recovery from the coronavirus crisis should be a greater priority than an independence referendum."

But did John Swinney *really* reject such a

Swinney said: "An independence referendum is an essential priority for Scotland because it gives us the opportunity to choose how we decide to rebuild as a country from Covid."

Swinney's words have been contorted. The interpretation is closer to tabloid caricature than truth.

But there were more untruths and misleading statements to come.

In the interview that followed Laura Maxwell's caricature intro, Scottish Tory MSP Dean Lockhart provided two in a single

I'm posting this paper because poor medical communication this year has resulted in a distrust in science. To improve vaccine uptake we need to understand what works and what doesn't.

Increasing Vaccination: Putting Psychological Science Into

Vaccination is one of the great achievements of the 20th century, yet persistent public-health problems include inadequate, delayed, and unstable vaccination uptake.

Psychology offers three general propositions for understanding and intervening to increase uptake where vaccines are available and affordable. The first proposition is that thoughts and feelings can motivate getting vaccinated.

Hundreds of studies have shown that risk beliefs and anticipated regret about infectious disease correlate reliably with getting vaccinated; low confidence in vaccine effectiveness and concern about safety correlate reliably with not getting vaccinated.

We were surprised to find that few randomized trials have successfully changed what people think and feel about vaccines, and those few that succeeded were minimally effective in increasing uptake. The second proposition is that social processes can motivate getting vaccinated.

The focal S:N501 build has been updated with data from 15 Jan, & includes 164 non-UK, non-South African sequences in 501Y.V1 (B.1.1.7 #b117) & 501Y.V2.

The S:E484 build has also been updated. Includes 501Y.V3 & 20B/S.484K (predominantly in Brazil).

1/16

https://t.co/3bdttjKVl4

There are 161 new, non-UK sequences in 501Y.V1 (B.1.1.7) from the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Spain, Norway, Germany, the USA, & Switzerland, and from Turkey and Ecuador for the first time.

2/16

Turkey has 19 sequences in 501Y.V1 for the first time. These indicate many independent introductions, though a few clusters may indicate local transmission, and pairs with common exposure.

3/16

Ecuador has 4 sequences in 501Y.V1 for the first time, which represent 2 separate introductions (pic 2). 3 are identical, and may represent exposure to a common source (pic 3). The connection to the Spanish sequence may be a common source, or onward transmission.

4/16

Denmark has 66 new sequences (orange). A few are independent introductions, though many link with older sequences, showing continuing local transmission.

5/16