"... Labour's defences against Polanski's eco-populism are so many chocolate fireguards. The Greens stand on the threshold of an historic opportunity, and every sign points towards their readiness to capitalise on it."
Does political sociology @DerbyUni | Blogger | Author: 'The Party's Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak' | Bylines @Tribune & @Jacobin | Bits of SF too | Writes things: http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk
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"... Labour's defences against Polanski's eco-populism are so many chocolate fireguards. The Greens stand on the threshold of an historic opportunity, and every sign points towards their readiness to capitalise on it."
Interesting!
Unfortunately, his views on trans issues are not great.
Not yet!
Zack Polanski has smashed it
Will be interested in your take on Grass. I'm reading it at the moment and I'm quite taken with it.
This is a strong recommend - excellent novel.
About sums it up!
Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...
An adventure in applying baseless right wing spin.
FWIW
A bit more here:
AI is an apparatus of capture, a tool for deskilling workers.
Go back 30 years and you’ll find the same headline, only then the Mail was whipping up hate against teenage mums.
Excellent stuff. Hothouse and Greybeard have been on the tbr for yonks.
Don't take their "misapprehensions" as honest arguments!
Many mainstream commentators are getting very close to acknowledging the systemic issues at the roots of the far-right resurgence and the role played by the mainstream media and politicians through their agenda setting power And yet, they still fail to take the logical leap and call it out
The chances of Starmer telling Musk to back off are somewhere between never gonna happen and zero.
SPECIAL REPORT: We take a look at who is funding Reform UK and what do they want?
Twitter-brained Tories
this whole thread
It's BBC Four on Friday nights. Usually 7pm-8pm it's two consecutive shows. We're now up to May 1998. And then after they often put another couple on from the 70s and 80s.
It's great
As I'm blogging again, it means occasionally indulging relatively obscure retro gems. Like this.
Local council by-elections August 2025 CON 14% (-4 cllrs) LAB 21% (-5) LDEM 15% (+2) REF 26% (+5) GRN 9% (+2)
Local council by-elections August 2025 CON 14% (-4 cllrs) LAB 21% (-5) LDEM 15% (+2) REF 26% (+5) GRN 9% (+2)
Where's their bulldog spirit?
Both are probably the most Welsh pop tunes ever
Ray of Light didn't warrant a play on this #totp? Outrageous.
This came 2nd in Eurovision 1998. Ah, the days when we were contenders. #totp
Remember how if a kid choked on a little plastic toy they used to stop selling the toy
#OtD 29 Aug 1867 Karl Ulrichs became the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out publicly for gay rights when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1007...
The only time I've been thankful that Boyzone made number one. #totp
Road Rage or Mulder and Scully? #totp
Road Rage - what a tune. #totp
Following Tori Amos with Steps is a bold move. #totp
For me, The Mavericks were one of those "who is buying this rubbish?" moments. #totp
Thought this was pretty sacrilegious at the time. Now? Well, it's a bit of a grate. #totp
The reaction of fans to Hangman Page overcoming trauma and alienation via solidarity shows that what hundreds of thousands of fans and people worldwide crave is not just success, but connection and togetherness. Read Tom Williams on the politics of wrestling.
She’s out today! The remarkable and unfairly forgotten Duchess of Atholl, Scotland’s first woman MP and the Conservatives’ first woman minister, turned the most unlikely rebel in British politics.
No idea. Could be just some concerned randoms. I don't recognise any of the people who've endorsed it on the Twitters.
Straight up told my parents they will be voting me out of a job. Something I will repeat every time I see them these next four years.
🤔
That rarest of things ... a new blog post.
It's hard to understand what Starmer was apologising for on his 'island of strangers' comments when he's now apparently perfectly happy putting out obvious racist bait like this
It's me and queering ecology !!! This episode was an absolute joy to record ! 🦋🪲🧡
True!
As Blair's a "pretty straight guy" I'm sure we, his critics, are at fault somewhere.
Thanks Jonny. Starting to feel it a bit again :)
Farage can shrug off criticism. His lackeys? Not so much.
That rarest of things ... a new blog post.
"You can build the condos here."
That rarest of things ... a new blog post.
Bah
This is not a serious question. You can't be that naive. TV follows the agenda set by the rightwing press. Those newspapers push a reactionary line in which the general population is held to be at threat from grasping foreigners, in order to cultivate sympathy for the rich at threat from taxation.
It's time to start asking why Labour won't "go on the attack" on this or any other far right effort that raises the racist temperature.
I guess someone else is feeling the gravitational pull of the coalescing new left party.
We're back! After a short summer break, our editors are back to the task of publishing high-quality peer reviewed original research across political science and the study of politics. @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social
Am I alone in finding annoying the tendency of academic publishers *in particular* of publishing ebooks without page numbers?
Long lost count of this government's most shameful moments.
Another day, another low
This by @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social is essential for anyone wanting the real story of Britain's asylum system and the shameful way the UK now treats the desperate people seeking refuge here. I'll be talking to Nicola about her book on Sept 16. Subscribe here for an invite www.adambienkov.co.uk
Marx pointed out that in capitalism there is the "conversion of things into persons and the conversion of persons into things". Some things don't change.
I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers
It's not an inevitability. This is the path McSweeney et al are actively choosing. They can be forced to do something else, which is where a strong left-green alternative comes in.
That is on the towering tbr!
This is just getting ridiculous. Nothing that has happened (or is reported below the headline to have happened) this weekend remotely justifies talk of an explosion or mass protests. The media are confecting a crisis, and, in some sections of it, hoping to provoke one. 1/3
Out now: THE IMMEASURABLE HEAVEN, @caspargeon.bsky.social 's reality-bending SciFi that reads like a fable from another galaxy, and features an entirely non-human cast! “Fearlessly creative, wildly imaginative” @garethlpowell.bsky.social Buy geni.us/immeasurable
'Is it time for the Government to drown innocent human beings for political advantage?' and other questions now apparently deemed acceptable in the British media
It doesn't have to be this way. They should not be let off the hook for daring to gamble on this.
There's a lot of good stuff in there!
I first read it nearly 30 years ago. Thought best to come back to it for a proper appreciation!
While relatively small gatherings of far-right protesters are reported as the start of some kind of national civil revolt, much larger protests on other issues are routinely ignored at best, and openly demonised at worst www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/anywhere-b...
Straight up Quisling behaviour. No one hates this country more than the extreme right.
This is not trivial either because this is how mediated meaning is created The vast majority of people will not have been on the ground or know people who were and will rely on the media to tell them what happened This is how the far right is hyped and normalised
Times: "Asylum protests swell across the UK " headline, reporting an underwhelming wave. Leeds "draws 70" Cardiff "disorganised + small" Altrincham "*swelled* to around 200" Cheshunt about 250 Chichester: about 100 Portsmouth: about 70 v 70 on each side www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
We need less think pieces on how new media is radicalizing the young and more think pieces on how old media is radicalizing the old
I can't remember it at all!
Post-materialism is very much an expression of material conditions! If you have read my blog as you claim, you would know I've written about this on many occasions.
Love a bit of orientalism set to repetitive beats. And with a Street Fighter II sample no less. #totp
Now here's a tune. #totp
This is very proto-Busted/McFly. #totp
Found a Cure wasn't a bad follow up to Free. #totp
Here is my essay on Video Game Worker Unions and Revolution. Revolution is not a one-time event, it is more a culmination of many, many experiments. So what better way for us to experiment, than with video games? notesfrombelow.org/article/vide...
Confirms "that all-too-many of those who served in the [Conservative government] really were every bit as awful as they seemed from the outside looking in" @timbale.bsky.social reviews 'Ungovernable. The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip', by Simon Hart.
OUT NOW: 'Vigilant Whiteness: Racism, Transphobia and the Mainstreaming of Far-Right Politics in Britain' - by @aleksandralewicki.bsky.social & Maddy Clark @identitiesjournal.bsky.social - a brief summary🧵(2-11) below: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The number one concern in this country right now is the cost of living crisis. Instead, the govt are demonising refugees and Farage is reaping the benefit. The govt could make different choices that would move the dial, but they don't.
You completely underestimate the power of government. It could choose, for instance, to focus on an agenda that raises living standards and repairs public services. Instead it chases Farage's tail. This is a choice they have made, and so they're reinforcing the discourse around it.
🚨 1 in 5 Brits say they’d consider voting for new left wing party - including 1 in 3 aged under 35 🚨 New deep dive polling by @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social looks at how much appeal new Corbyn / Sultana party might have. I think potentially quite a lot but let’s deep dive 🧵
My piece about @emmanewman.bsky.social’s wonderful Planetfall sequence is on now on GCN’s website. Have a read then try the series.
