Great thing about Polanski is that he’s not just critical of the UK government, he states plainly what they’re doing and is not afraid to draw the incredibly obvious historic parallels everyone else seems to think they need to dance around None of that euphemistic crap that invited the far right in

Asked about Tommy Robinson supporting her asylum plans Shabana Mahmood replies that "Tommy Robinson doesn't even think I'm actually English, so he will certainly not be supporting anything I've got to say." But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question

Linus Torvalds being unfathomably based

🚨 SHOCKING 🚨 A HUGE illegal waste dump has appeared between the A34 and River Cherwell, linked to organised crime. Every rainfall risks toxins washing into the river. We’re calling on the Environment Agency & Cherwell Council to act NOW. Our rivers cannot wait. 👇👇

A Government of cowards. Rather than tackle inequality - they've gone for pensioners, disabled people and now it's people fleeing war and persecution. They can't get away with this. Join.greenparty.org.uk

'Al Jazeera has unearthed new evidence... The Al-Majd Europe group worked in accordance with the Israeli government unit tasked with transferring people out of #Gaza, calling it “voluntary migration”.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kz4... #GazaStrip #Israel #News #Palestine #SouthAfrica #WorldNews

Been thinking about how many UK political pundits, academics and commentators have aversions to analyses they perceive as overly cynical (understandably and justifiably!), but how this aversion leads to analytical naiveté in the context of a political system which is, itself, increasingly cynical.

I might say more about this another time but for now: I’ve found one of the most helpful things for understanding what is happening in UK politics for years now is to assume that almost anything said by the principal actors is either lying, significantly misleading or otherwise malicious.

You see, the public overwhelmingly wanting water renationalised shows how ignorant and impractical they are. A xenophobic party polling well however means that no horror can be left off the table.

I said these people were absolutely brutal, wilfully destructive cynics prepared to do and say literally anything in their own interest, no matter how despicable. And they have certainly proved me

And to think, I accused these people of cynically deploying an utterly disingenuous, vexatious, deeply harmful “anti-racism” to fool stupid libs, for entirely self-interested political goals. I now acknowledge they would never do anything so reckless and despicable. Wow, do I feel like a fool.

The only things I can say here are that these frogs have the jobs they do because they came quite thoroughly pre-boiled and, wherever the sanity and decency that is so urgently required is going to come form, it sure as shit will not emerge at the Guardian politics desk.

This week, Pippa and Kiran look at migration crackdown proposals that would uncontroversially have marked out the person proposing them as a fascist lunatic at any point in the last seven decades. They discuss it in tones like they’re chatting over a tricky budget negotiation.

Not even 18 months of the Adults Back In Charge, and still nobody can explain

"Starmer, Mahmood, and McSweeney are testing to destruction the idea that stealing the far right's clothes will win the far right votes. They are about to be disappointed."

Reform and the Tories are roaring their approval and telling each other Mahmood is a star performer, which tells you exactly how afraid they are of her.

In Parliament today I said the asylum announcement scrapes the bottom of the barrel and is a desperate attempt to copy Reform. We should be taking the fight to Reform - not trying to outdo them.

“People have this techno-utopian view of #AI that it will save us from the #climate crisis. We know what will save us from the climate crisis – phasing out #fossil fuels. It’s not AI.” Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity

A very good @ciel.org blog post here on how CCS and AI were absolutely made for each other www.ciel.org/ai-ccs-green...

Plans to leave refugees in a state of perpetual uncertainty about where and if they can rebuild their lives are not just performative cruelty, they are counterproductive to integration and the economy. It doesn’t have to be like this - 1/2

Countering the trend towards fascism can take many shapes and forms but it cannot take the form of a blind faith support in the status quo and mainstream elite as has been argued for too long Some thoughts @reacpolrn.bsky.social on the latest developments in the UK reacpol.net/fascism-no-o...

The UK government continues to do all it can to embolden racists in an attempt to hold onto power. This isn't how you make a society work, this is how you make a society break down. The Terry Pratchett quote "Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things" is very appropriate today.

Zarah Sultana MP asked the Home Secretary how it feels to kick away the ladder and introduce anti-migrant policies endorsed by fascist Tommy Robinson.

Labour MP Brian Leishman: "The Government has surrendered to... the vile rhetoric of Reform. Does the Home Secretary not see that removing the legal obligation to support asylum seekers who will be otherwise destitute, is as far away from Labour Party principles and values as we can get?"

I remember us all joking about how the Donald would definitely have Epstein killed, when he was arrested in 2019. And then a month later, he was dead in what we will charitably call unusual but very convenient circumstances.

British liberals 2015-present: "The left defending themselves in any way from my accusations is whataboutery and a clear sign they're even more guilty." British Liberals now: "I have to devote all my time to policing how Labour's racist policies are criticised, it's the only logical choice."

British Liberals 2015-present: "Everyone to my left is a vile antisemite and should be purged from public life." British Liberals now: "Criticising Labour for promising to steal refugee's jewellery is completely unreasonable and only helps the far right."

I mean, it does raise questions about people’s basic ability to put two and two together

But did we not all agree that a bunch of right wing crackpots and party political shitehawks would never mob up with British newspapers to launch an idiotic smear campaign against people they despise and want to wreck? The idea was laughable, as I recall. Insane www.cjr.org/the_media_to...

Labour have already lost the next election. The only question currently is to whom.

So used to the finger-wagging tone that it becomes impossible to snap out of it, I assume

"If we become the fascists ourselves then there's no room for the other fascists. Ha ha! Yes. Take that loser lefties" Brendan really thinks he's cooking here huh

I don’t want to get all galaxy brained here but if the spooks had sat the politicians down and said Look: it’s very important that Britain goes fascist by 2030 and that’s that, what are you going to do about it? They would be doing pretty much all of this, wouldn’t they.

To be clear: Labour are not protecting Britain from our future posh fash rulers. They are actively rehabilitating the politics that will bring them to power and they’re creating the tools that the fancy National Front will sharpen and use, and Reform and other fascists cannot believe their luck.

This excuse would be pretty grim even if Labour were now very popular thanks to their flag-saluting foreigner crackdowns, which they really are not.

I would never have believed we would see a headline like this under a Labour government

Watching the Mahmood announcement and debate. Tory backbencher (Karen Bradley) suggests putting refugees into debt and making them repay during the rest of their lives. Mahmood says she’ll think about it.

“No amount of concessions will be enough for the forces of reaction” By Glyn Robbins I don’t usually share this story. But, on the day the Labour government (“a Labour government”) introduces laws that, when I was growing up in multi-ethnic East London, were the preserve of the National Front, I…

Cruel. Callous. Cowardly. The public are seeing this Labour government for exactly who they are. We all have a responsibility to make them pay at the ballot box. Reject the hate. Reject them. This is not who we are. Let's make hope normal again. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Confiscating the jewelry of refugees should fix this

Rachel Reeves to announce a tax on thinking about how little the richest pay in tax.

We are throwing vulnerable people under the bus to appease the far right. And it won’t even work - all we are doing is fuelling Reform and normalising cruel, divisive policies. It is truly shameful.

Policies like seizing asylum seekers’ jewellery, making refugees wait 20 years for permanent settlement, and deporting families after they’ve resettled here because their country is “deemed safe” are wrong on every level.

So the solution is… to join in? I'm afraid the “dark forces” are calling from inside the house at this point.

I think that Labour MPs must make a stand and call for a leadership election to oust Starmer and his far right cronies from the Labour Party. And we must go to the streets to protest this.

The outrage & shock at a Labour government behaving the way that it is is because we expect this from the Tories & we rightly fear worse from the unabashed fascists that the UK media is desperate to turn into the next government; that a Labour government is doing it is an incomprehensible betrayal.

Inside the Internet Archive, home of the Wayback Machine as they save one trillion web pages and prepare themselves for the future: "Libraries have always been under attack, now more than during my lifetime, but let's go and live up to the moment." www.cnn.com/2025/11/16/t...