Marc Stears @mds49 Twitter profile

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Marc Stears

4 months

After hours of intense Zoom interviews, library visits and walking tours round the country, England, my book with @TomBaldwin66 , is finally published today! Available at all good places … Thanks to Nalan Cabi for the perfect photo.

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Last Seen Profiles

@StateCGAC

@Lindsay_capuano

@IamRWR2

@uneedtocumdown

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@POCHI_SCIENCE

@LavilleMartine

@ktbksk

@kalahasty

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@ONZEAIR

@CatIQ_Inc

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@ParidetN

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@MEANYUNKl

Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Australia’s second largest city is now set to be the city with the longest period on lockdown in the whole world. That this is not a public policy success should surely be clear to everyone.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

@Peston Do you question the ethics of your method, Robert? “Revealing” such enormous public policy decisions selectively on the basis of your conversations with nameless “sources”. Dubious at the best of times. Hideous now.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

Want to know why Theresa May’s deal won’t die? One reason is that Labour refuses to back a second referendum and says it wants to find “consensus in the House”.

Peston

@itvpeston

5 years

. @AngelaRayner says it would be disastrous to go back to the people now on Brexit #Peston

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 months

Sadiq Khan just won a third term - and won by a bigger margin than in either of his two other victories. That’s all there is to be said.

The Spectator

@spectator

4 months

‘Khan has certainly suffered some loss of support, and almost certainly thanks in large part due to Ulez.’ ✍️ Ross Clark

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Marc Stears

@mds49

6 years

In a world of British political awfulness, this is up there with the worst. The idea that Britain will be more prosperous, less London-centric, more capable of dealing with the challenges facing post-industrial communities, by leaving the EU is totally absurd.

Channel 4 News

@Channel4News

6 years

"The breakdown of trust in politics if we try to turn this over by a second referendum will be hard to repair." Labour MP Caroline Flint says she wants "to get beyond" Brexit so "we can get to deal with some of those more pressing, everyday issues".

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

With @MarkMcGowanMP ’s late night announcement, Australian citizens - including family members - living in different states are still legally denied from seeing each other. That should be a national outrage.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

Of only local interest, but the Australian media's general unwillingness to call out Trump's dangerous and anti-democratic politics is deeply embarrassing. American Fox News currently braver than the Australian ABC.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

Congratulations to @maitlis for this fabulous introduction. It is the message everyone needs to hear right now.

Benjamin Butterworth

@benjaminbutter

4 years

Emily @Maitlis is absolutley right: coronavirus is not the great leveller. Yes, everyone is vulnerable, but some are far more exposed to that vulnerability than others, and they are often our lowest paid workers.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Within minutes of variant stress people who genuinely think of themselves as “progressives” are on here demanding border closures … there is something very, very strange at work in Australian political culture.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Let’s be clear: epidemiologists should not be calling for “troops on the street”. Society rightly values their expertise in pandemic control. They have no training whatsoever in the impact of militarising our neighbourhoods. It is more than outrageous overreach. It is dangerous.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

If hugely influential modellers are consistently predicting that omicron is of the same severity as delta, and it turns out not to be the case, then public faith in science is going to take a very serious blow.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Schools closed. Life events missed or put on hold. Businesses shattered. The strategy has not worked and its long term consequences will be appalling.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

This won’t make many friends but … the self-absorption of journalists who are now outraged at the loss of their 11am pressers but who were largely silent when Parliaments were closed at the whim of Premiers is really something to see.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

No-one who is fully vaccinated is in ICU in NSW. This pandemic won’t be stopped by moral purity or harsher restrictions. It will be stopped by vaccination. It is not complicated.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

At what point does the Australian media switch from arguing about the tiny details of lockdowns to asking our politicians for a real roadmap out of this mess?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Let us be clear: the Sydney lockdown is a direct consequence of the failure to vaccinate. If Australia had the levels of vaccination in the rest of the democratic world right now, there would be no lockdown.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

6 years

The Brexiteers have gone from “global Britain” to “totally self-reliant Britain” in an effort to save their utterly impossible vision. Who needs imports and exports anyway?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

He wouldn’t let a vaccinated couple collect the son they lost to suicide, but hey, border closures are a great joke aren’t they?

10 News First Perth

@10NewsFirstPER

3 years

#BREAKING Santa’s Coming To Town Premier Mark McGowan has confirmed that Santa Claus will still be granted a travel exemption to visit all the good girls' and boys' homes on Christmas Eve. “Santa’s a very special person and I think he has an exemption for basically everything.”

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

A whole @abcnews article about one expert with one, controversial, perspective. No attempt at balance, no investigation, no hard questions. This is just terrible journalism.

ABC News

@abcnews

3 years

Leading epidemiologist weighs in as Victoria awaits roadmap out of sixth lockdown

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

With WA today announcing their border reopening, zero Covid as a policy in Australia is over. It was always a pipe dream and great damage was done pursuing it.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

So excited about this!

UCL Social & Historical Sciences

@UCLSocHistSci

3 years

We're delighted to welcome Professor Marc Stears @mds49 to @UCL where he has been appointed the first Director of the soon to launch UCL Policy Lab! Full announcement: @uclnews @uclspp @EconUCL

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

What went wrong with Australia’s zero Covid strategy? @timsout and I set out the case against Fortress Australia: :

How failure on Covid-19 has exposed the dangerous delusion of “Fortress Australia”

The country’s complacency on vaccines reflected the false belief that it could cut itself off from the world.

www.newstatesman.com

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Sydney is one of the most vaccinated cities in the world. You can go to the office to work, the pub, restaurants, stadium events. But you can’t go to watch your Year One daughter at her public school sports carnival. Bizarre.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

The debate shouldn’t be about whether the exemption should have been granted but whether it should have been asked for in the first place. Morrison should never have sought to exempt himself from the rules applied to everyone else. It’s not what a real leader does in a democracy.

9News Australia

@9NewsAUS

3 years

YOUR SAY: Do you think Scott Morrison should have been granted an exemption? It has been revealed the Prime Minister was granted an exemption to fly to Sydney from Canberra on a private jet to spend Father's Day with his family. STORY: #9News

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Is there any other democratic country in the world that holds its citizens overseas in such disdain as Australia?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

Today we launch the @UCLPolicyLab . Super exciting!

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Australia has one of the world’s worst vaccination programs. The plan outlined by @ScottMorrisonMP yesterday is dependent on it becoming the world’s best, outstripping Israel, the US, the UK. How is that going to happen? By when?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

7 years

It's a deceptively simple message but it is one that almost all of our politicians seem to have forgotten right now.

CBS News

@CBSNews

7 years

Obama: "If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you're not going to be able to govern them. You won't be able to unite them later"

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

In the history of democracies, there are all kinds of policies that people support in huge numbers at the time and then spend years after insisting that they opposed. The restrictions on leaving and entering Australia in the name of public health will be one such policy.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

8 years

The President-elect of the USA is openly trying to undermine the Prime Minister of the UK. That can't have happened since 19th century.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

@DrJBhattacharya This is just wrong. The Labor state Premiers were far more pro-lockdown than the federal government under Morrison. The most pro-lockdown leader, was the Labor state premier in Western Australia and Labor won there by the biggest amount for years.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

It is a time when the country needs its leaders to lay out a long term plan. That’s the only way to ensure this is the last lockdown and that people can start doing what they need to rebuild.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

@Kevin_Maguire Nothing is compulsory about the mourning, Kevin. It is a voluntary choice as the Cabinet Office papers make clear. But you know that already.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Just how - psychologically how - did Boris Johnson actually stand up in the Commons and claim to have been outraged about parties?

Laura Kuenssberg

@bbclaurak

3 years

Source who was at Johnson birthday event in 2020 says there was gathering of up to 30 people of around half an hour in Cabinet room that day, as per @PaulBrandITV story tonight - Carrie Johnson brought a cake, and the designer Lulu Lytle who was in No 10 that day

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Wonderful to see this little boy and his mum reunited but they never should have been kept apart. Nowhere else in the democratic world is dividing children from their families across internal borders like this. Australia has much to be proud of, but of this it should be ashamed.

Aaron O'Brien

@Aaron_OBrien9

3 years

If this isn’t the best thing I’ve seen all week. Memphis is reunited with his mother. @9NewsQueensland

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Marc Stears

@mds49

11 months

What a beautiful speech this is from @Keir_Starmer . Respecting working people is the heart of its message - and it is a message that has not been heard for a very long time.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

1 year

How does a government come back from “let them eat turnips”?

Jason Groves

@JasonGroves1

1 year

Environment Sec Therese Coffey suggests people complaining about the tomato shortage should consider eating turnips instead, saying it's 'important we cherish the specialisms we have in this country'

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Whatever your view on the policy, this is simply a lie. What’s happened to WA politics that makes it think this is ok?

10 News First

@10NewsFirst

3 years

"We have, in all but name, lockdowns over east": WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson has defended the delayed border reopening, saying supply chains and the health sector are being 'crippled' in other states. #auspol

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

Anyone trying to make sense of this breathtaking British election should go back and read the coverage and analysis from @johnharris1969 @lewis_goodall @drjennings @election_data over the last year. They all spotted these trends in a way that Corbyn entirely missed.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

Barack Obama has many glories as an orator. One is that he always takes the grandest of ideas and makes them feel tangible and real. As Shakespare said, he gives to “airy nothingness a local habitation and a form”.

Barack Obama - @BarackObama

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

One thing that is clear: @BethRigby is one of the very best political interviewers that I have ever seen. She completely floors the PM here.

BBC Politics

@BBCPolitics

3 years

Boris Johnson says he wants to apologise for "the misjudgements that I've made, we may have made... whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic" "Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules," he says

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

Great universities are really worth having. Who knew?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

The Australian federation must be one of the most broken in the democratic world right now. Where else do state premiers or equivalent talk about “incursions”? We are a long way from “all in it together” now, aren’t we?

Dan Andrews

@DanielAndrewsMP

3 years

NSW remains a high risk to Victoria, so we are taking further steps to protect our border from incursions. Cross-border residents will now be required to obtain a permit to cross between Victoria and NSW from 6pm, Friday 13 August. More information at

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

Publication day is here! I am so excited that my book is now out. I hope people like it. At least there aren’t many other books that go from Dylan Thomas to Barbara Jones to Ed Miliband, and many places in between.

Out of the Ordinary: How Everyday Life Inspired a Nation and How It Can Again a book by Marc Stears.

From a major British political thinker and activist, a passionate case that both the left and right have lost their faith in ordinary people and must learn to find it again.This is an age of polari...

uk.bookshop.org

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

This is quite literally the opposite of the the truth. It is the obsession with zero that has got us into this mess. It is unscientific gibberish.

Prof Brendan Crabb

@CrabbBrendan

3 years

Now we begin, zero the goal. Ambition crucial. Alternative is longterm lockdown, a nation on edge, much suffering & pressure on HCW. No guarantee that 80% adults vax will prevent lockdown, esp starting off a high base, nor that it will be easily reached. Time to reset. #covidnsw

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Marc Stears

@mds49

6 months

Tonight we are launching Ordinary Hope, a collaboration between @UCLPolicyLab and @jrf_uk , which argues that communities right across the country have the skills and talent needed to change Britain for the better. Super exciting!

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Marc Stears

@mds49

1 year

Hackney Downs wildflowers are extraordinary this year. Amazing work @hackneycouncil !

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Vaccination is the route out of this. It always has been. The belief that borders and lockdown can save Australia from Covid is what has got us into this mess in the first place. It is time we recognised that.

David Speers

@David_Speers

3 years

. @GladysB says priority is "first jabs in arms as quickly as possible" in hotspot areas. Seems to be saying Govt can't do any more to stop workplace & household spread in those parts of Sydney.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

6 years

Delighted to be starting today as first Director of the @SydneyPolicyLab We are going to be building unique collaborations with policy-makers, academics and community campaigns, from across Australia and the world.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

7 months

So excited by this news. Thanks to all my wonderful colleagues at @ucl and our partners for all we have been able to achieve already. Looking forward to lots more policy action to come.

UCL Policy Lab

@UCLPolicyLab

7 months

We’re thrilled our director @mds49 has been appointed @UCL Pro-Provost (Policy Engagement). The new role creates a senior champion for UCL work to inform and engage with policy in the UK and globally. The new role alongside his directorship @UCLPolicyLab

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

The government has gone from refusing to give us advice on how to save energy because it is paternalistic to telling us to take no risks because they can’t manage industrial relations in the NHS. A truly bizarre - and worrying - state of affairs.

Sky News

@SkyNews

2 years

'The public needs to exercise common sense in terms of what activities they do' says Health Secretary Steve Barclay MP, as thousand of ambulance workers go on strike - adding we need to "be mindful" of pressures on the system. 📺 Sky 501 and YouTube

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Many of the responses to @ScottMorrisonMP ’s acknowledgement of the death of British MP David Amess are shameful. Can’t people let political rivalry go just to pay tribute to a hard working, much loved politician who was killed while serving his constituents?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

This is simply untrue and @drkerrynphelps should apologise. The public policy settings in NSW have extraordinarily little resemblance to those in the UK.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

President Carter has been an inspiration to everyone who believes that politics should be a force for good in the world.

The Carter Center

@CarterCenter

2 years

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

Such a bizarre argument. We’re in the middle of a global conflict for liberal democratic values, so we have to stick with the PM who is guilty of breaking the rules he imposed on a whole nation.

Lewis Goodall

@lewis_goodall

2 years

Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross says "the public are rightly furious at what happened in Downing St during the pandemic" and says PM needs to respond. But then says "As I've made clear, in the middle of war in Europe...it wouldn't be right to remove the PM at this time."

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Marc Stears

@mds49

7 years

Is someone who can be out-negotiated by Jeremy Hunt really going to get a great Brexit deal?

Laura Kuenssberg

@bbclaurak

7 years

Understand Hunt 'argued passionately' to stay at Health and take on reponsibility for sorting out social care (which had been under Damian Green) His arguments persuaded the PM to leave him in place

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Here’s the key message for Australia:

Eric Topol

@EricTopol

3 years

As the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) becomes dominant throughout the world, there are 2 patterns emerging: —Countries w/ low vaccination rates are seeing both case and fatality rates increase —Countries w/ high vaccination rate: some case increase and minimal to no fatality increase

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

This is one of those statements that just makes everything worse. Like Prince Andrew being interviewed by Emily Maitlis.

Chelsea FC

@ChelseaFC

2 years

Club statement on the conflict in Ukraine.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

My dog arrived in London from Australia yesterday. Now I have a jet-lagged pet who falls asleep at 6pm and is bolt upright wanting to go for a walk at 4am …

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Djokovic was not deported for being unvaccinated, or a health risk, or even because he was accused of lying on his forms. He was deported because the government said that he might provoke debate. This is no cause for celebration.

Financial Times

@FT

3 years

Novak Djokovic to be deported from Australia after court upholds visa cancellation

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

@LaTrioli This is utterly absurd and insulting.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

My colleagues and I tried to start this planning a few months ago. Some of our ideas still have currency today. Have a look:

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

What can UK Labour learn from Albanese’s victory in Australia? A short thread …

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

Astonished that Labour MPs still put up with this but they do and all the signs so far is that they will continue to do so. And the mess just goes on and on.

Patrick Wintour

@patrickwintour

5 years

Corbyn makes no mention of a second referendum as one of the options he wishes now to pursue. Focus instead is Brexit with a negotiated customs union and access to the single market. "Labour Source" back in control of policy.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

8 months

Terribly sad news. Bill Granger was one of the people who made Sydney so wonderful. We used to eat at the first of his neighbourhood restaurants all the time. His whole ethos was to create places that were fun, friendly and designed for the whole family. An inspiration.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Congratulations to NSW for helping Australia open back up to the world. Wonderful to see.

casey briggs

@CaseyBriggs

3 years

BREAKING: there will be *no quarantine requirements or arrival caps* for fully vaccinated arrivals to NSW from November 1. Sounds like there will be testing requirements on arrivals. Unvaccinated arrivals will still be required to go into hotel quarantine

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

The @SydneyPolicyLab believes that real change after COVID-19 will only come when people connect across difference, not when we remain hostile and separate from one another. Read about how we're trying to achieve that here:

Our approach

The Sydney Policy Lab takes a community-centred, multidisciplinary, exploratory and applied approach to developing and delivering policy solutions.

www.sydney.edu.au

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@mds49

4 years

My five-year old said she wasn’t feeling well yesterday. So following the advice we took her for her COVID test. She was seen instantly, for free and we have just got her (negative) result back, in under 24 hours. Amazing service @NSWHealth ! Thank you.

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@mds49

3 years

The fact that many commentators’ response is just to shrug it off, shows just how dysfunctional Australia’s governance has become.

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@mds49

3 years

Australia: we have a lot of work to do on our national discourse. We have epidemiologists who long to be military commanders, media medics who undermine vaccines and Twitter activists who are certain they know better than Kerry Chant. It is a mess.

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@mds49

3 years

I always wondered whether ATAGI might regret basing their vaccination risk calculations on sustained zero community transmission ...

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Marc Stears

@mds49

8 years

If you have interest in philosophy, read this glorious profile of Derek Parfit, who we have just very sadly lost:

How To Be Good

An Oxford philosopher thinks he can distill all morality into a formula. Is he right?

www.newyorker.com

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@mds49

5 years

The instant reaction to UK Labour’s failure in 2015 was that the party had taken too many policy risks. That reaction was soon shown to be wrong. The ALP should take note before it makes up its mind.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Sometimes you think Australia really doesn’t want the pandemic to end.

The Sydney Morning Herald

@smh

3 years

Analysis: Vaccination is necessary, but on its own it is not sufficient to get us to the other end of this pandemic. It is just one tool in our toolbox

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@mds49

4 years

A profoundly important thread from @lewis_goodall at the BBC. The unexpected consequences of policymaking during the pandemic are going to have repercussions across the world for years and years. Vital that we turn our attention to them as fast and as effectively as we can.

Lewis Goodall

@lewis_goodall

4 years

EXC: Newsnight has exclusively seen polling which lays bear the extent of the problem 95% of carers POLLED said that hours they’ve had to put in during pandemic had negatively impacted upon their physical/mental health 69% of carers constantly exhausted 49% were depressed

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@mds49

3 years

The man who said Australia should wait while the rest of the world vaccinated, now thinks vaccination in a pandemic is an “experiment”. If he were a public policy student, he would fail for not having done his basic reading.

News Breakfast

@BreakfastNews

3 years

. @normanswan said Sydney's combination of a lockdown & vaccine push to control their outbreak hasn't been tried anywhere else. "Residents in Greater Sydney are guinea pigs in this, to see whether or not if you can really intensify vaccination, can you bend the curve downwards?"

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@mds49

3 years

Labor’s increasing tendency to reject the Doherty Institute’s evidence-based modelling in favour of scare tactics is both bad policy and bad politics. @AlboMP needs to change tack.

RN Breakfast

@RNBreakfast

3 years

The Doherty Institute says it will still be safe to ease restrictions once vaccine targets of 70 & 80% are reached, even with high numbers of cases. But @Mark_Butler_MP has raised concerns about the impact this could have on contact tracing & healthcare.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

Few will mourn the end of Scott Morrison’s career. From brandishing a chunk of coal in Parliament to telling those protesting against sexism and harassment that they should be pleased not to be shot at, he’s too often traveled the lowest road possible.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

@michaelkoziol Not even trying to hide it. No plan to suppress the virus where it is actually spreading. Just a plan to police the population as everyone screams inside.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

8 years

This is astonishing. An entirely made-up event is legitimising an entirely unconstitutional order.

PublicPolicyPolling

@ppppolls

8 years

By 51/23 margin, Trump voters say the Bowling Green Massacre shows why his Executive Order on immigration is needed:

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

As many others are pointing out, this tweet is not ok. The pandemic has had a terrible impact across the world, but the virus is not a political movement and those who legitimately disagree about how to tackle it best are not Nazis.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

So many thanks and congratulations to everyone at @NSWHealth for the astonishing work in getting Sydney ready for its first reopening day today!

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

I enormously enjoyed giving my @uclspp inaugural lecture last night. Huge thanks to everyone who helped and especially to @J_A_Hudson and @lewis_goodall for hosting the discussion. It was wonderful to see the new, brilliant and diverse community of @UCLPolicyLab together.

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@mds49

5 years

The fantastic @liz_pellicano has won an ARC Future Fellowship to examine "everyday autism: bridging the gap between lab and life". Huge congratulations Lizzy! More desperately needed co-designed and co-produced research.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Taking my six-year old back to school this morning is without doubt the most joyous moment of the year! She was so excited.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

As Australia’s Zero Covid strategy ends, will we learn to recommit to our democratic rights and freedoms? @timsout and I explore the ideological impact of the pandemic:

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

These Labour figures would be frightening for anyone who cares about the party at any time. After the week the Tories have just had, this figure is breathtakingly bad.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Katie Hopkins: not allowed on Twitter but somehow allowed in Australia. A really terrible decision in ordinary times, @ScottMorrisonMP , but incomprehensible now.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

8 years

Whatever your politics, seeing candidates for a party leadership booed and hissed by that party's own members at a hustings is depressing.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

Theresa May’s speech tonight must be the most pointless and self-defeating political address I have ever seen. She’s back to “crush the saboteurs”, months after that was revealed as not only a morally repugnant but also a politically wholly useless strategy.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

The unquestioned hero of this election for me - the amazing @staceyabrams

Q

@atl_q0

4 years

Stacey Abrams played an absolutely ENORMOUS role in Georgia turning blue. She has become one of the biggest civil and voting rights advocates in the country and helped register about 800,000 new voters. Give this Black woman the credit she deserves!

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

According to Stephen Duckett in @theage there is no effort to control the virus in NSW and here in Sydney we have “thrown in the towel”. So should we all just take our kids back to school, head into the office and go to the pub for lunch? Absurd and insulting stuff I am afraid.

The Age

@theage

3 years

The Victorian government could take a more nuanced approach to lockdown restrictions, but it is too early to throw in the towel completely writes Stephen Duckett, Grattan Institute health economist and former health bureaucrat | OPINION

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

This is a really subtle and compelling interview with Tony Blair, much more so than the tweet describes. He’s been calling for massive investment in testing and contact tracing since almost the very beginning as an alternative to repeated lockdowns. Worth a listen.

BBC Radio 5 Live

@bbc5live

4 years

🎙 Could the country afford another national lockdown? 🗣 I don't think so, I think the consequences would be absolutely devastating. Tony Blair tells @EmmaBarnett he's "horrified" by the prospect of economic damage after the pandemic 📻 @BBCSounds

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Marc Stears

@mds49

5 years

Want to know what the great guru of Lexit thinks? Streeck says he’s against “open borders” because Nelson Mandela only ended apartheid because he wasn’t allowed to move to Germany and become a delivery worker. Offensive on so many levels.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

Soon nobody will be prepared to admit they kept fully vaccinated people from holding their new born babies, hugging their dying relatives or even just starting a new life somewhere else.

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

“Enough of mistaking focus groups for listening to people, of passing off professionalised caution as wisdom, of pretending top-down social democracy can fly in an era of polarisation and social impatience.” Genius from @chakrabortty :

Labour will probably ask a focus group why it’s losing – and that’s the problem | Aditya Chakrabo...

The Conservatives are radically reshaping the UK in their image. Keir Starmer urgently needs an alternative vision, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

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Marc Stears

@mds49

3 years

When public policy goes wrong, it looks like this.

The Age

@theage

3 years

Victoria’s “unjust” border permit scheme that locked thousands of people out of the state resulted in some of the most questionable decisions Ombudsman Deborah Glass has seen in her career. | @heyracheddie #covid19vic #springst #vicpol

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

The Sunak bubble has well and truly burst. This absurd refusal to comment on his closest family member’s business dealings will be widely derided and rightly so.

BBC Politics

@BBCPolitics

2 years

"Both Will Smith and me having our wives attacked - at least I didn't get up and slap anybody" Chancellor Rishi Sunak tells @BBCLauraK he finds criticism aimed at his wife over shares she owns in a company operating in Russia "very upsetting" #BBCNewscast

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Marc Stears

@mds49

4 years

If post-budget analysis focuses solely on the scale of the debt, we will miss the questions that are actually vital for Australia. Where does future prosperity come from? How can it be more fairly shared? How do we protect our planet from the ravages of climate change?

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Marc Stears

@mds49

2 years

The Tory membership did such a good job choosing the PM last time, it is clear that they should get a chance to do it again.

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