I find the endless discourse about “is x party/politician/movement truly left wing or now” so boring and non productive. Partly because some people seem to believe that left wing is a synonym for good, which it isn’t, and I say this as a left wing person.

He didn't kick him out. He let him resign. Same with McSsweeney. He let them resign. And then there's Lord Doyle, another phenomenally bad appointment.

'soft on russia' says keir starmer as he rolls back lgbt+ rights on behalf of russia.

Finally got a reply to my 19th October letter to my MP about trans rights and the EHRC, but unfortunately I've been sent the ECHR answer! It is very party line and weasely, and goes on to say that sometimes human rights protect criminals rather than the vulnerable. Not encouraging.

stop asking ppl what they think of labour. it's making labour look bad.

Before anyone asks: no, it's not fair that Labour won a landslide in 2024 on 34% of the vote. That's evidence of a system that's badly malfunctioning & a reason to act before things get worse. It's not an argument for keeping an injustice in place till everyone's had the chance of a crazy outcome.

Parliament, in 90s-10s, made various laws that no one, including transphobes, may discriminate against trans people. The Supreme Court says, actually, that transphobes can discriminate and also demand that others discriminate. The High Court says, actually, no, there are simply no laws.

The AI bubble RAM crisis is caused for non-existent problems by non-existent money for a non-existent infrastructure to meet non-existent demand to make non-existent business and will utterly destroy real business based on real demand and real infrastructure built with real money for real problems.

"Don't think about being 'low-skilled', think about being 'low-paid', and having to suck it up, forever, because if you can't see how all the money is shooting to the top of the tree these days, are you really looking?"

This is true, but because I've been paying attention I note that Greens For HS2 won its battles in the internal party democracy and changed the policy in that regard, while the Labour party, who James Ball supports and is writing in support of here, got into power and didn't undo any of the damage.

proving yet again that the ppl behind ai lack an understanding of humanity. nobody wants this. the very idea is horrifying. you have to be devoid of humanity to think that this is something ppl would want.

I think he’s pretty much what he looks like: a reliable and not overly curious One Of The Lads with odd ideas about what is right and proper for public officials, and the level of respect and deference they should automatically receive. Basically a balloon on a stick, with a face drawn on it.

The Starmer Method: > Propose Idea > It's unpopular > Do it anyway because "it's necessary and we're willing to make hard choices" > Create disruption and uncertainty while starting to do Idea > Incur all the political costs of doing Idea > U-turn on Idea and waste the benefits > Repeat forever

Fash

When reading the endless hatred of trans people who dare to exist in public it does help to remember that a trans woman won Big Brother 22 years ago to huge media reception and 9m viewers and there was nothing—*nothing*—like this happening. Trans people are not new but the outrage entirely is.

I have such a dim view of Zionism and I can’t defend it but I wish non-Jews could understand the visceral anxiety of seeing it bandied about in a way that could easily mean “I hate Jews” even if that isn’t the intent of the individual- until recently it was a decent proxy for antisemitism

Reform's candidate Matthew Goodwin challenged for calling it "insane" to prosecute a man for "start the slaughter. Violence & murder is the only way now. Start off burning every migrant hotel then head to MPs’ houses & Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE’ www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

And, because humans love a good scapegoat, the forced‑into‑moneylending thing somehow morphed into “Jews love money,” a stereotype built entirely by the same societies that created the conditions. 3/5

Medieval Europe said: “Christians can’t charge interest, Jews can’t own land, join most guilds, or do half the jobs in town… so let’s force them into moneylending and then get mad about it.” It was peak policy genius. 1/5

History made it. Prejudice and antisemitism kept it. We are still cleaning up the mess and dealing with the impact. It is something to acknowledge when opining on antisemitism as a form of racism. 5/5

Centuries later, the stereotype lives on, brought to you by bad laws and worse history lessons. Centuries later, the trope is still hanging around like that one medieval law no one bothered to repeal. 4/5

Despite being an anti-Zionist, I am therefore a member of a Zionist body, albeit one which is horrified by the actions of the state of Israel towards Palestinians and prays for a just peace. This motion states that Zionism is racism and should be treated as equivalent by any party structures.

I do think those people who are using Zionism in a loose and fluffy way are deluding themselves about what it means today. However I take your point that there are better dividing lines to draw: support for / denial of genocide, support for apartheid practice, denial of the right of return etc.

For me this is very simple. There is widespread, longstanding practice of using "Zionists" as coded slur for Jews, or "Jews I don't like" (regardless how they define themselves). That is sufficient reason to refrain from broad-brush language such as "Zionism=Racism" or "Zionists not welcome".

The grim tragedy of inclusive communities of WI women disbanded due to the destructive power of transphobia promoted so widely and unquestioningly by broadcast and print media. Organisations like the WI have been undermined and attacked under a banner of divisive hate directed at trans people.

Exhibit A

One of the most bizarre things you'll see on a policy level in London is watching influential British figures flaunting myths of UK geopolitical power to EU or US counterparts that are in reality falling apart due to lack of funding and focus

British Museum removes ‘Palestine’ from ancient Middle East displays | The Standard share.google/WEuSrrKL5uim... Guess who

‘The machine did it coldly’ Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants www.theguardian.com/world/2024/a...

I see that some Silicon Valley psychos are developing a chip that streams music straight to your brain. Why? I have music going round inside my head every waking hour of the day and always have. It often bursts out in singing to myself. And then I like to listen to it externally, to match it up.

its also terrible for adult survivors of rape and abuse for essentially the same reason. so much of it is intimate partner violence

For bonus points - the youngest child marriage in Alabama in recent years was 13. Because there are 600 child marriages a year in Alabama. Just in case you're thinking "this must be for young sweethearts who get pregnant", one of them was a 74 year old man with a 14 year old girl.

yeah this is actually bad. i mean the death penalty is just bad in general but this will lead to child murder at higher rates.

Manchester Mill find the small group of Reform activists includes several with v overt prejudices. They fairly note that Goodwin can't be expected to vet them all in advance. To date, the site report he is not willing to criticise ant of it once revealed either manchestermill.co.uk/goodwins-gan...

"I believed what I was told by liars" is one of only a few consistent positions the Labour Party has.

Only 37% of American Jews say they identify as Zionists. Seven percent call themselves anti-Zionist, 8% non-Zionist and 18% aren’t sure. Another 30% say none of the labels offered describe them. www.jta.org/2026/02/11/i...

Meanwhile, a rare recent attempt by pro-Israel Jewish institutions to engage Jewish non-Zionists on their own terms finds the exact opposite - that they are deeply engaged with Judaism, raised in Jewish communities, and simply pained by Israel's actions. cdn.prod.website-files.com/61dbcf7b99a1...

Also not so good the horrible people were given a free ride on the BBC, with no pushback, in virtue of their having horrible ideas

Don't let anyone in Labour get away with pretending their hands are tied by the supreme court's decision in FWS and that parliament cannot change the law

At the same time Nick Fuentes is talking about "breeding gulags" no less. Any journalist with one iota of gumption would ask Farage / Goodwin both why they're echoing the rhetoric of the American extreme right and ask if they are supporters of Fuentes specifically. Make the fuckers deny it. Anyone?

She already contradicted her party! She literally said that “Labour will always stand against transphobia”. Labour literally *is* transphobia. It is a bigoted ideology that has rotted the party to the very core. They literally released school guidance today that is 1000x worse than section 28

what does she think the point of a "lawmaker" is

You probably shouldn't be allowed to run for parliament if you don't understand the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK. Courts cannot overturn legislation. Obviously it's more complex & there's edge cases, but parliament is sovereign

This is entirely wrong from Stogia: The government absolutely could have done something and wringing hands like this? Isn’t standing up against transphobia. Actually? Labour have actively chosen to make it worse.

It seems Angeliki might have not noted that the Conservative candidate is a Trustee at Sex Matters, terf central. Who is doing the homework for Labour, or not?

Of course they can. Their flagship equalities legislation was broken by the Supreme Court and they're too scared of the anti-trans press to legislate to restore it If Labour want to understand why Green, LD and many PC/SNP voters now refuse to lend their votes to stop Reform, stuff like this is why

Hannah Spencer, the Green: I find it funny Matt claims to care so much about women's rights when he wants to tax them more for not having kids

“…they couldn’t just change the Supreme Court ruling” That’s odd? Because Labour were planning to override a SC ruling for this👇if it didn’t go the way they wanted. bsky.app/profile/step...

Labour can just change the supreme court decision though. They have a huge majority in the commons and more than 3 years left in government. They can bring and pass any legislation they want to. They just don't want to.

I only met Matt once and he was on his way to meet Liz Truss's team in No 10 to advise them....