"This Twitter chap" is a journalist at the Financial Times and is a senior fellow at the London School of Economics. He's not just some rando bashing government...
I'm saying that you shouldn't dismiss what he's saying because he posted it on Twitter and/or because (you feel that) people are bashing the government.
He's a journalist at a well-respected newspaper, who has practical and academic experience using and interpreting data for his journalism, communicating his story in accessible way (both accessible in a pedagogical way and because the FT has a paywall). Engage with what he's posted and evaluate it on its merits, not just dismissing it because it's a Twitter thread containing a viewpoint that you don't want to be true.
Show me the data.
Reputation isn't everything. But it's a useful guide.
I would trust a rando more than a journalist these days
It's putting the source in the proper context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Expertise
https://www.c-span.org/video/?426290-1/tom-nichols-discusses...
Unrelated, but the second link also provides the best definition of fake news I've ever heard.