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

But some us for them act like they exist in a vacuum so perhaps they would be better off going it alone, hiring tutors for groups and doing school that way?

We are all linked and part of a community, and at the moment that aspect is crucial as we all rely on each other to keep each other safe.

It is a matter of helping children and not destroying their lives for the sake of the old and sick. Lots of people want schools to reopen. I would rather my risk of death increased by 100x if we could remove the mandatory covid 19 rules and opened schools etc.

@Xenia

It is a matter of helping children and not destroying their lives for the sake of the old and sick. Lots of people want schools to reopen. I would rather my risk of death increased by 100x if we could remove the mandatory covid 19 rules and opened schools etc.

Watch a bit of Brazil coverage.

That's where Us4Them gets us.

@Justthebeerlighttoguide

But some us for them act like they exist in a vacuum so perhaps they would be better off going it alone, hiring tutors for groups and doing school that way?

We are all linked and part of a community, and at the moment that aspect is crucial as we all rely on each other to keep each other safe.

They are.

The people behind Us4Them don't send their children to school with ours.

This thread is hilarious and so representative of the Guardian reading MN.

Us for them is largely made up of parents utterly gobsmacked at what is happening to their children’s learning and who are pressing for education to be prioritised.

It’s bizarre that any alternative view is now considered “far right”. Is this how we silence debate?!?!

Is that you Jo?

It's not "any alternative view", it's a very specific agenda pushed by people with proven links to far right Tories, and hardline brexiteers.

And don't be fooled by the innocent sounding self-penned descriptions of professions.

Sorry, I don't have got your profile, im not fond of the guardian at all

Xenia, something is very wrong if you value yourself as a mother so very little. Most children would find meaning in life and study very hard after their death of a parent.

This thread is hilarious and so representative of the Guardian reading MN.I

You are missing a key point about MN threads and posters such as the OP generally treat conspiracy theories a right wing issue without any sense of irony.

The critical thinking display on here is laughable

U4T are the reason that we had a chaotic return to school last term and schools being currently shut. They could have used their influence to make schools safer for everyone but their extreme views on Covid screwed over the very people that they claimed to stand for. They aren't concerned about the children who were repeatedly sent home last term or the kids who should have a keyworker place but don't because they only care about themselves.

No masks, no testing, no social distancing and no hand washing is more extreme than an alternative view. No surprise that they are said to be funded and supported by similar entities to Vote Leave.

Boom, there's the klaxon. Don't waste your time folks, let them shout into a void.

@FrippEnos where have they been ? probably voting in an 80 seat majority for a party that would quite happily sell off it's granny to the highest bidder.
As if inequality of opportunity was a new thing, likewise children coming to school hungry and teachers having to provide books etc out of their own pockets, sen funding and cams being cut ......

HalfPastThree
If it is, the NEU has been making (from where I'm standing) extraordinary efforts to close schools, or keep schools closed, since the pandemic started. Check out their archive of press releases. If they were in charge children wouldn't have spent a normal day in school since March.

That is a spin on what the NEUI have actually said and tried to do.

It's a standard tactic of the New Right to find organisations and fund them, boost them, help run them.

It's also a standard tactic of the groups around the old ERG to have a really dispersed network of inter-related individuals involved in a tangle of organisations.

Look at any article about the Tufton Street group.

Better still, read p. 38 of 'Reaganland', which goes into some detail about how this mode of organising arose and was developed.

I'm fed up with these right-wing front groups, who amazingly, despite seeming to be 'grassroots', are somehow gifted enormous lobbying and press access.

Come on, when you were involved in a project to try and get something done about some issue, did you miraculously find you were able to get traction in mainstream media and get face-time with the government?

No.

Because that's not normal.

They are a front.

At the very least, they willingly allowed themselves to be co-opted.

But a front is more likely.

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow

This thread is hilarious and so representative of the Guardian reading MN.

Us for them is largely made up of parents utterly gobsmacked at what is happening to their children’s learning and who are pressing for education to be prioritised.

It’s bizarre that any alternative view is now considered “far right”. Is this how we silence debate?!?!

Ah yes, the martyrdom angle.

It had to happen at some point.

You forget that this is the age of the internet and all the bile, misinformation and lies that have been spread by this group is still there for all to see.

How does wanting state schools back fit with far right?

Wouldn’t a very right org prefer state education to dwindle and private leap ahead

I wonder how many of the Us4Them supporting MPs voted for the free school meals continuing during half term and summer term.... I think that would say an awful lot about how much they genuinely have children's welfare in mind..

How does wanting state schools back fit with far right?

Why are you ignoring the bit about no mitigation measures?

Why are you ignoring the question?

Robert Halfon did, Enemy

One of only 5 Tories to do so. So he at least has some claim to caring about vulnerable kids.

We have a budget of R which could be spent on businesses and private schools

An organisation wants state schools to take up a big chunk of it. Why are they far right

It doesn’t fit

@noblegiraffe

Robert Halfon did, Enemy

One of only 5 Tories to do so. So he at least has some claim to caring about vulnerable kids.

Wow! One of them did! Very pleasantly surprised

U4T are not fighting for public funds for schools. They want no safety measures= no cost to the taxpayer

Marsha while I am not convinced about the ‘far right’ characterisation, it is perfectly clear that Us4Them are not a grassroots parenting organisation set up around some kitchen table who just happen to be so concerned about children’s mental health that they don’t want any mitigation measures in schools and are coincidentally teaming up with anti-lockdown organisations who are in favour of herd immunity and no mitigation measures per the Great Barrington Declaration.