UsForThem - “opaque lobbyists” with links to the far right?

[LacyEdge]

Prof Alice Roberts started an interesting Twitter thread discussing this, linking to Nafeez Ahmed’s article about U4T in Byline Times. Replies suggest UsForThem aren’t a concerned parents’ group at all and are linked with a far right funded group.

Well I never.

twitter.com/theAliceRoberts/status/1352993581414424576

I think it's telling that you've reduced noble's repeated arguments for safe schools to = closed schools.

And when I’ve said I want them open, it has been a stealth campaign to close schools.

And wanting schools safer is a way of closing them because schools can’t be made safe.

Using people’s fears about schools closing to stop them reading about implementing mitigation measures.

@mrshoho

Whilst spouting the mantra schools need to be unlocked, usforthem are busily removing references to their original demands of no masks, social distancing, ventilation measures, in our schools from their sites. Back peddling but we can easily find.

That's interesting.

I don't know anyone who doesn't want schools open. Even those (like me) supporting their current closure to all but those in most need.

I know plenty of people who wanted them open with measures from September which didn't happen.

Plenty of people who saw the resulting consequence and transmission and knew it wasn't safe for community transmission to reopen as normal in January.

Plenty of people who want them open ASAP with measures such as rotas, blended learning etc.

That's because most people can see the clear evidence that community transmission can remain low and dropping with schools open on a limited basis.

The no measures was always total madness when every other industry was only allowed to open with covid secure measures. And ironically even with these measures where forced to repeatedly close due to transmission.

Johnson can at least thank some of his backbenchers and lobby groups such as UsForThem (what a crass boybandesque name that is by the way) for one thing, which is making him appear a model of common sense and compassion by comparison.

I'd also like to try and surpress the virus as much as possible and I'd feel extremely angry by only setting foot outside 3 times since the beginning of January to then have dc forced into maskless crowds every day again!

Especially dd in secondary school, what's the point!then we go through this painful roller coaster all over again, because some people can't see past their nose they can't see short term pain for longer term gain!!

It’s this weird binary in group/out group thinking some people are keen to reduce us all to:

Noble says she wants safe schools, reader thinks closed schools.

Criticise the Conservative party, someone automatically assumes they vote Labour.

Say something negative about Trump, poster thinks you are a big Biden fan.

Flag up the lies of the Brexit Leave campaign, accusations of wanting to subvert the will of the people.

@TheGreatWave

You claim that you don't want schools to remain closed, but that is the impression you have always given over.

A blatant lie. A search of NG's posts easily proves the lie. Her argument has constantly been for safe schools and for schools to be open. Lies are never convincing arguments to people who know the truth.

You should be ashamed. Ignore the klaxon next time to avoid looking foolish.

Everyone wants schools to fully reopen but safely. Why would anyone want any other approach?
Covid isn’t just an illness affecting the elderly. The average age of a Covid patient in intensive care is late 50’s.

The same myths keep being aired:

• Lockdown is to protect the 80+ people, so we’re sacrificing the young for them

No, it’s to prevent community transmission and collapse of the health service. And there are almost no 80+ people in ICU. It’s not about protecting one group.

• People should be allowed to do their own risk assessment. I would happily take the risk for the kiddies

No, it’s about preventing community transmission. See above.

Can I just point out that quite a lot of Tories and disaster capitalists would like the NHS to collapse.
Then it can be sold off to the chumocracy and they can all make a packet. Like all the other dodgy deals done during this pandemic that coincidentally always seem to have a Tory donor/family member connection...

The far right group theory does make perfect sense.

The logical approach to the pandemic is to pour money into health and education, this is what society actually needs.

We need hospitals to function and to be well staffed.

We need schools to provide the best education they can in the circumstances, to be open as far as possible, to be safe, to give children education and hope. This takes resources.

The far right don't want to put money in those things.

So the cue for the far right is to minimise. It won't happen, it's not really happening, it's magically gone away and won't come back.

It affects other people, who don't matter or don't deserve help.

It doesn't affect children so badly [thank God] so pretend it isn't happening in schools, then we don't need to resource them further.

If a load of bankers were saying this is what we need to do to crack on with what appeals to the political forces of the right, we would say they were disgusting.

So they have a load of mums and a gullible gran or two (looking at the cast list of Us 4 Them) saying, Won't you think of the poor little children, don't make them wear masks, of course they need school.

And of course, it would be LOVELY if we didn't have a pandemic, and we could wake up and have 2019 back and that idea must to appeal to a lot of people. But unfortunately it's not where we are.

In the news today - influencing DofE, very worrying: www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/26/group-campaigning-for-uk-schools-to-reopen-wins-backing-of-17-tory-mps

@Temptashun

Just what do people think the odds of dying from coronavirus are?

You've all gone mad, I tell you. I thought people would be fighting tooth and nail to get the kids back into school without damaging measures that the kids don't need.

Wanting to shove stuff up their noses regularly and covering up their breathing holes and stopping them from playing properly.

What's the matter with yu all?
You're monsters.

I was reading this thread and wondering about people's views and where I stood. Somewhere in the middle usually. Then I read your post and it helped me make up my mind. Definitely astroturfing and I'll give that group and it's views a hard pass.

Marsha they have removed all this information from their website so you may ask why are they removing their names instead ? This was all on there with photos but now just a few first name only (we're a group of mums). I posted the names just as a reminder of the people who fronted this despicable group.

Yes I can see with the current situation and increase in awareness of group - and attacks they may be getting (I’d say likely) that this would change.

But with your list it’s not possible to take Far Right seriously. Not from googling their work profiles which exist in open. When I google the FB name is still first btw so future employers will see it even if website page has been removed,

I'm really not a conspiracy theorist but looking at it this way U4T are just so convenient to the far right. The people attracted to it might not even conceptualise it like that, they might just be convenient to be used.

@MarshaBradyo but the fact is that they fit very neatly with what a section of far right opinion wants to do, so they literally are in there- not to mention the entree to high level meetings with the Tory political elite, actually Boris, wasn't it?

And 17 Tory MPs, the most hawkish, backing them. This is actually what is happening?

@Frodont

Eh? Are you saying women who breastfeed are more likely to want schools closed?

No Temptashun is saying that we are all sheeple without using the word, because we all know what that means.

@MarshaBradyo you say far right. It's not as simplistic as that. They are probably libertarian which promotes mimimal intervention in a free market and the private lives of its citizens. Hence the obsession with privately or corporately sponsored academies, which are not bound by the same employment conditions, financial restrictions and transparency as ones under the auspices of the local council.
The current tory party massively embraces this philosophy, gone are most of the one nation conservative types. It's right wing certainly, not sure far right though. It wants to reduce state 'interference' and sell it on the open market !

[quote Victoriacres]@MarshaBradyo you say far right. It's not as simplistic as that. They are probably libertarian which promotes mimimal intervention in a free market and the private lives of its citizens. Hence the obsession with privately or corporately sponsored academies, which are not bound by the same employment conditions, financial restrictions and transparency as ones under the auspices of the local council.
The current tory party massively embraces this philosophy, gone are most of the one nation conservative types. It's right wing certainly, not sure far right though. It wants to reduce state 'interference' and sell it on the open market ![/quote]
Yet this group wants to open state schools to all.

And keep them as state

Posted too early ! These people don't want a dictatorship or autocratic style of leadership like EDL or the BNP, far from it ! They worship at the altar of the free market where anything can be up for sale - look at the storming success of the probation service, the former uk blood plasma supplier, certain private prisons ...thatcher is their idol, they just want to carry it further.

Temptashun if you've come on here to perform a public relations role for U4T then I have to say that you've done a terrible job so far. It's your posts that have convinced me that I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot barge pole.

"However, it has lobbied against the use of face masks in schools – pupils and teachers in all English secondary schools have been required to wear face coverings in communal areas and corridors since November – and has also opposed social distancing in education settings. It states on its website that “natural immunity” to Covid should be allowed to build in the population and that the process is being impeded by lockdowns.

But an array of pages on UsForThem’s website, which provides templates for how to lobby MPs by letter and telephone, also appear to have been taken down recently as the organisation came under scrutiny. They included pages directing visitors to “resources” such as articles on a US website claiming that face masks are harmful to the healthy. The same US site hosts articles by conspiracy theorists claiming the pandemic is a hoax and that vaccines are “killing” people.

^^ for goodness sake - its ridiculous - I hope the Unions can counter this utter nonsense!

Opening schools is a middle of the road not far right issue. It is also an issue of preserving women's and children's mental health and ensuring women continue to have careers. It is an issue that can unite left and right and it does not help to push it into one political category. We can unite around school closures - it does not have to divide us.

The other issue for children in not being in schools is they will catch fewer colds which they do need to catch to build up immunity otherwise they become like isolated tribes people who when they first meet outsiders get very very sick as they have not had the usual colds and coughs.

They want all state schools open - is that what you mean ?
Or are you implying they don't want covert privatisation of state schools ? If that's the case look at the advance of academies and free schools.
They have met up with members of the government including johnson.They are advised by a tory lobbyist who is also advising the sceptical Covid recovery group.
They met with johnson as a response to their petition, yet Parents for safe schools had a petition much much larger and they didn't have that access.
17 covid sceptical tory mps support them.

@Xenia Open schools and it will spread like wildfire. To parents, teachers, grandparents, the vulnerable who are not all doddery 90 year olds but productive members of society. Why don't you get this ?

@Xenia

If you think the most hawkish of the Tory MPs (like Ben Bradley) are middle of the road, then your political perspective is significantly different to most people's.

I would agree that there is an element of shared interest over schools, but in the case of U4T I think this is a bit deceptive. They have specific agendas around keeping schools unsafe, and just getting children in, that is counter to the common interest.