Live in West Dorset, UK. Green/Left/Woke and proud! My views are my own, not representing any particular group.
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The body of evidence showing that when centrist parties adopt the priorities and talking points of the far right, they torpedo themselves is vast and powerful. Yet Keir Starmer's Labour Party seems determined to ignore it. A few examples in đ§”: theconversation.com/how-should-l...
Reform UK, the right leaning think tank Policy Exchange, and some Labour grandees, are all pushing for us to either leave the ECHR, or disapply parts of it temporarily or permanently. This puts me, you and everyone at risk, not just those seeking sanctuary.
Britain has been multicultural for the last 2000 years. That's why we have the Roman alphabet, a Middle East religion, Arabic numerals, a Syrian patron saint, an aristocracy with French ancestry and a German royal family.
đđđđ These are the people I want to share my country with - not right wing goons.
"Sorry small child fleeing a war zone. I'm afraid you can't join your parent here in safety because your English grammar isn't up to scratch."
I grew up a few miles from Epping, which has become the flashpoint for this anti-immigrant protest. There was always a local Neofascist element but it was never dominant. Musk needs to piss off with his â everywhere is Eppingâ crap and UK politicians should stop pandering to the racist minority.
is it only asylum seekers our Labour Prime Minister would object to living next to or would the sentiment apply to black and brown people in general? if merely the former, would he like to explain how he knows people he sees, say, in the street, actually are asylum seekers and not citizens?
To assert the UK has taken enough action in the face of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza is frankly outrageous. We must impose a full arms embargo, halt all military cooperation, ban settlement goods, ramp up sanctions, and ensure an immediate ceasefire & accountability for war crimes.
Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition was not under oath. She was not video taped, which is very unusual for a deposition. And there are many cuts where they stopped the audio tapes so lawyers could confer with her off-the-record. None of that stuff is the way you do a deposition.
In 30 pages, the Good Friday Agreement cites the ECHR seven times as an essential safeguard www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Google developer #1: "That's it. Our search engine is simple, efficient, and reliable. It's perfect. We're done." Google developer #2, presumably: "But wouldn't it be *more* perfect if the first search result was always a robot who mansplained your search results to you incorrectly?"
Correction: it's not "our" oil and gas once it's been drilled. It will belong to oil companies and they will sell it on the international market. It is, however, "our" climate" and "our" future that will be harmed if this policy to ignore clear scientific facts and urgent warnings is implemented.
Imagine the message it would send if Gary Lineker won 'Presenter of the Year' at this year's National Television Awards Standing up for compassion & the right to speak out And, the feathers it would ruffle My lovely followers, you know what to do: nationaltvawards.com/vote đïž Deadline: 12th Sep
There is a lot of sophistry in the Policy Exchange GFA report, especially parsing sources to give an inaccurate impression. Here I'm cited discussing the impact of the the GFA on the NI legal order as a whole and it is presented as authority for the commitments only binding NI's devolved bodies:
You can't selectively cite work to attempt to present it as saying the very opposite of what it says and retain academic credibility. But we have such a skewed media landscape that Policy Exchange can still get this mess of claims injected into the political mainstream.
Yvette Copper as HASC chair has said numerous times on the record how important family reunification is. How she has children and itâs what every family would want. The mind boggles at how much of a coward she is now.
It does seem that every action the government takes on this issue is specifically designed to A) not work; B) make the issue worse, and C) say NIGEL FARAGE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. Labour just don't seem interested in avoiding tripping over their own dicks. It's baffling.
The main issue facing any UK government isn't actually the number of people seeking asylum, in the grand scheme, proportionally, we aren't talking about huge figures, especially when compared per capita to countries such as France, but the constant images we see in the media. 1/
You are doing gods' work.
Starmer et al have repeatedly said that national security is the government's first responsibility. Last year's racist riots prove that the "dark turn" described below represents a clear, physical threat to minority communities. So why aren't they defending us now? Are they not our government too?
"entirely groundless" This is how public discourse is being is being debased. The GFA expressly requires access to court in Northern Ireland for ECHR. But what Straw says is not tested, just repeated, and so a "both sides" "debate" is created. The actualité drowns. Sad to watch in real time.
It's fascinating watching the same cycle of f%„£ing around and finding out happening. Some anti-ECHR lawyers in Britain might say this, but Irish and EU politicians think differently, and politics will determine their reaction, not law alone. archive.ph/BpWNN
I wouldnât have thought many Labour MPs came into politics to strip the rights of torture survivors to be reunited with the spouses & children. They need to take a long hard look in the mirror & ask whether Starmer, Cooper & Reeves are really the leadership their careers should be remembered with.
Where has this ludicrous ECHR "debate" even come from. I've never once met an ordinary member of the public who's said to me, "Do you know what? We REALLY need to leave the ECHR." It's just a new right wing talking point because every other shit idea they've foisted on us has run out of steam.
Apparently this is "all my fault" and I should have known that this would be the consequences of my actions when I started medical transition 2 decades ago. Perhaps you can now appreciate why we are upset? (13/13)
I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset. In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia. In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)
The children outside are taught to hate. While the children inside learn to fear. What a better England we'd have if the children on the outside were taught empathy and the refugee children on the inside were embraced by them, forging bonds of friendship that would shape our future for the better.
How âRacistâ Became the Dirtiest Word in Britain Call someone a racist and suddenly youâre the problem. A look at how the word has been twisted, softened, weaponised - and why naming racism for what it is still matters. www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/how-racist...
The year is 2025. You're living in one of the most prosperous nations in the history of humanity. You can freely acquire any kind of bread without even leaving your house. Delivery people will bring it right to your door! But you're a conservative and sourdough exists, so you're blind with rage.
Scholars have spent a lot of time discussing whether law exists when a statute, court opinion, ordinance, etc. is not enforced. But we didn't adequately consider whether law exists when people comply with wholly illegal orders from a mad king.
Ports across the country were planning to become economic hubs for the growing offshore wind industry. The Trump administration is cancelling grants to build the infrastructure for it.
It was never about the legality or otherwise of asylum seekers, really. It was a very effective way to enable and legitimise hatred of Muslims. By which they mean anyone brown, actually.
Leaving the ECHR wonât âTake Back Controlâ â it will hand your rights to politicians âThe myths are seductive, the reality is very different â without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpyâ eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/jus...
The lies' laughable implausibility is a feature, not a bug. They're not trying to convince discerning, skeptical, fact-based people. They're trying to give supporters a fantasy that validates their feelings and creates a sort of loyalty test, while flaunting the absurdity in everyone else's faces.
For godâs sake someone remind the bbc.
Once upon a time, it seemed open and free links to reliable legal information would undermine such flights of political-media fantasy, but no. The links are there, un-clicked. People don't care what the actual law is and what judges actually said. They want to believe.
Both the Lucy Connolly and the Epping hotel cases have now taken on a political-media existence of their own, unconnected with what actually happened in court. It doesn't matter there were published sentencing remarks in one and a judge-prepared summary in the other. People want stories instead.
Bad Enoch & Farageriots: "We need to take another look at the ECHR" Labour's response, rather than, "yes we do", should be, "Don't be so fucking ridiculous, you tedious fascist cunts".
I tell you now, if this is repealed the effects will be fucking titanic. Forget the effects on immigration, it will alter the public/private space for everyone. The ECHR keeps us safe from the state, regardless of what the far right think. Undoing it will take us down the path to authoritarianism.
If Israel did annex the West Bank that effectively means the palestinians living there become citizens of Israel. Hard to then see how Israel could remain a jewish state for long, as those palestinans must eventually be given voting rights (South Africa style bantustans would fail, if tried)
Israel went from being respected to being hated. Same as the US.
This is blatant racism, and there is no âvalid concernâ that can sanitise it. Iâm sick to death of the minimising of behaviour like this.
An excellent point by @zoejardiniere.bsky.social: the asylum seekers in hotels are here legally - thatâs why they are given accommodation if they need it - yet they canât legally work, contrary to what most UK citizens want. Thatâs one reason they canât pay for their own accommodation.
The "role in parliamentary democracy" of these dinner party Tommy Robinsons has been to spread bigotry and fear, attack human rights and promote climate misinformation on behalf of shadowy corporate influences. They, not protesters, are the outrageous attack on democracy
Obviously they prefer an Indian curry or an Italian pizza, maybe a Persian kababâŠ..oh, wait a moment, that doesnât work either! Note to the racist âFlag-shaggersââŠ..donât bother going to A&E, youâll be mortified!! WâïžâsâŠ..all of them! Please follow the advice below. #FarageRiots #PlasticPatriots
Todayâs news from Belfast. An actual proscribed terror group supposedly on ceasefire and enjoying the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement, doing actual terror. m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/...
Why on earth do the Tories want to keep people locked into high energy bills? And, come to that, why is the BBC citing Reform but saying nothing about climate science or renewable alternatives? Complete madness - except for the fossil fuel industry of course
What this idiotic, xenophobic entity is too dumb to notice is that the family are standing in front of Wroxeter... a Roman city that was the very essence of multiculturalism ... established by Thracian legionnaires 2,000 years ago in modern day Shrewsbury
I'm not sure whether the Telegraph & the Tories are actually interested in Angela Rayner's residences or just obsessed with her. Meanwhile Nigel Farage has five houses.. wp.me/p15p2Q-eWu
This is where the empty headed Flag shagging leads. Race hate.
âThey looked like grotesques from a Roald Dahl book. Shrivelled, pinched faces, every bit as nasty as they sounded.â This week: vandalised takeaways, racist pensioners, and the privilege of being a 6â3 white immigrant.
These companies are among the hundreds more that will be exhibiting at DSEI, the UK's largest arms fair, 9-12th September. To find the full list we are compiling: caat.org.uk/data/arms-fa...
We have a decades of scholarship on how pro-democracy forces win in competitive authoritarian systems: they form a united opposition that brings together people with otherwise profound political disagreements.
This is what communities are about. It isn't knuckle dragging morons disrespecting the flag to spread hate, it is people like Crystal Clean Windows. We saw it after the riots last year. The far right are not representative of local communities. H/t to @ottoenglish.bsky.social for the original post.
And as codicil, anyone engaging in the âwe must stop immigrationâ debate is accepting the racist premise. There are other ways to talk about the issues.
âBrown foreigners are always unsafe.â White Australians in Earls Court are great. We love the Swiss coming here. Those Kiwis, eh?
âImmigrationâ is always code for racism is something I regularly bang on about. Badenochâs statement here gets to the heart of it: âStarmer has shown that he puts the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of the British people who just want to feel safe in their towns and communities." 1/2
No one will report negatively on this revolting conduct - of Sarah Phillimore or JK Rowling's - because it aligns with what much of British Institutional life seeks: the elimination of trans people in the UK.
A barrister, Sarah Phillimore, led a campaign of harassment of a trans woman so wicked that she sought to take her own life. Jk Rowling saw the threat of regulatory sanction for that misconduct and offered to pay her legal costs. That's where she now is.
Mass shooters since 2018 who were transgender â 4. Mass shooters since 2018 who were not transgender â 4,193. Hope that helps.
Sen Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who knew *exactly* what RFKjr is about, voted to confirm because heâs a brainless MAGA loyalist. Now heâs pretending to be alarmed that worm-brain has fired the head of the CDC. Cowardice, the defining feature of the modern right. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...
I would be upset if they had hurt someone, but this sort of petty criminal damage to something of no cultural or human value is hardly worth a second thought With all thatâs going on in the world right now THIS what you get aerated about? Really?
Short historical note: in 1988 the UN general assembly held its Palestine debate in Geneva, as the us refused to grant Arafat the necessary visa.
The media across the spectrum did a bad job of context last weekend, by reporting aspirations of a massive wave of protests as a fact. The earlier prediction that the injunction to empty the hotel would see protests grow proved wrong. We don't know if the new verdict will. Don't assume, do report
The only political battle that matters in the world right now is the one against authoritarian nationalism (the word 'fascist' is succinct). Very simply: if *any aspect* of your political platform aids authoritarian nationalism, we must oppose you with everything. *Any* aspect. Reflect on that.
Angry at insinuations that judges who granted or overturned Epping injunction were politically biased. I've known both Cons & Lab lawyers who've become judges. Whatever their previous politics they take seriously their judicial oath to do justice without fear or favour
"Cooper, Phillips, Starmer, Rayner - all of them know exactly why the ECHR is so important, yet theyâre treating it like a hot stove that they dare not touch... [letting] the far right continue to set the framing on this subject."
Old Soviet joke for today: A man walks into a newsstand every day, looks around, and leaves. After a long time of this, the owner says âCan I help you find something?â âIâm looking for the obituaries.â âThe obituaries are in the back of the newspaper, comrade.â âNot the one Iâm looking for.â
I don't think anyone is suggesting Starmer does this. But there is a clear case for strong leadership to counteract the current poisonous narrative and unfortunately it feels like our Government is missing.
Appreciate your point however surely you'd agree that Starmer/Government must counter act the current narrative. Would you not agree that leadership is crucial here?
We all need to be actively campaigning to get Greens elected everywhere to all levels of government.
When word got out that officials from Germany's AfD and CDU were at a far right seminar on "remigration" it triggered protests by millions. Officials from both parties lost their jobs And in the UK?
Particularly sad is the downfall of the BBC. I remember a time when the BBC was genuinely 'agenda-setting'. Now #r4today just leads with the agenda of the right-wing press. #wato
What do politicians go into public service for? Youâd hope - to act responsibly in the best interests of the country. Not to live in fear of the Daily Mail having a wettie. Honest to god, if you donât speak out now, whatâs the fucking point of you?
Labour's cowardice in the face of extremism iandunt.substack.com/p/labours-co...
Meanwhile, weâve been building this âsystem of control and surveillanceâ for a decade. The Immigration Act 2014. The Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The Online Safety Act 2023. Building it brick by brick, and ignoring those of us who warned about what was going on.
And the entire UK political establishment is complicit. The Lib Dems who endorsed the Immigration Act 2014 whilst in coalition. Corbynâs Labour, who waved through the Investigatory Powers Act when in opposition. *Everyone* who passed the Online Safety Act.
Most doctors, most of the time, draw on their years (decades, in my case) of medical training & expertise to do the best we can for you. What distinguishes us from snake oil salesmen - persuasive grifters who prey on human fears to line their pockets - is our expertise & our integrity. Trust⊠1/n
Here is a reminder that already last year 44 experts directed a powerful warning to policy makers about the risk of #AMOC shutdown. What more can we do to get heard? Itâs like the saying that every disaster movie starts with scientists warning and being ignored.
New piece on Carbon Colonialism, net-zero nonsense, and how the UK Government's climate advisors (and many experts) shy away from speaking truth to power. We need a fundamental reboot of climate policy; - physics doesn't care about political sensibilities. theconversation.com/the-uks-year...
Those who think nature has no inherent value, that it's just there to be exploited, also tend to see other people who are different to them in the same way: women, people of colour, Muslims, Jews, gays, trans, indigenous, Palestinians, even children... the list goes on and on. It's *all* connected.
Read the full press release: caat.org.uk/news/cowardl...
After the independent head of the US CDC is fired, Robert Kennedy Jr's loyal deputy, Jim O'Neill, is appointed to take her place.
Why, you might ask, do the BBC and Sky News, casting their editorial guidelines to the wind, keep giving massive airtime to the far right, while shutting out leftwing voices? Don't their bosses understand the likely consequences? Only one explanation now remains. They do. And it is what they want.
Let's hang Farage's "ICE-style enforcement" around his neck like a concrete albatross. Let's show people what that looks like. A majority does not want this.
@zackpolanski.bsky.social : "Zohran Mamdani... really placed the focus of his communication on the inequality, poor people are poorer than they've ever been before, rich people are richer then they've ever been before, & we've got to redistribute that wealth".
The Court of Appeal will decide the Epping hotel injunction appeal today on the basis of [x], and this will be seen as an emphatic victory/defeat for [y], an issue which was not before the court. More news as we get it.
All the trappings of a dictator
Those interested can read the resignation emails of the 3 former CDC leaders (chief medical director, NCIRD, NCEZID directors) here: insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...
It is not just that these employees are risking being put on leave or even fired for standing up for science (see EPA/FEMA officials), they are standing in front of a workplace that was the subject of a terrorist attack a couple of weeks ago, by a man who believes what their boss believes.
I have never seen so many public servants protest the mismanagement of a government. Trumpists will point to this as proof of the deep state, but the reality is that these are professionals who are desperately trying to get the public to understand how bad things are.
Hey MSM, ask RFK Jr to define 'inflammation'. Ask him to define 'mitochondria'. Ask him how, specifically, that he can tell how children have 'mitochondrial challenges'. Ask him what, specifically, about children's faces and body movement indicates inflammation. He won't know. He's making shit up.
This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
She was killed defending the Capitol and democracy, right? Right? Nope. She was storming the Hill as part of the coup: an enemy of the state and the people. Full military honours for a fascist traitor. Says everything you need to know about the US.
They aren't "bureaucrats," they're not civil service employees. They hold an office to which they were all duly appointed by an elected president and confirmed by an elected Senate pursuant to a law passed by an elected Congress.
There are literally dozens of landmark cases where Brits relied on the ECHR: â ïžGay soldiers â ïžChildren beaten in schools â ïžWomen punished for fleeing domestic abuse â ïžJournalists fined for protecting sources â ïžActivists sued by McDonald All defended by the ECHR when Britain failed them.
