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It’s all very well Keir Starmer supporters lamenting the toxic impact of right wing media coverage now. But why did he abandon (after promising to follow through) Leveson 2? Why did he run to the Sun and party with Murdoch? Why appoint the Sun managing editor to a Govt job?

Mahmood being appointed as Home Sec for her hard anti-immigrant and, in my opinion, racist views was one of Starmer's most fundamental mistakes. Burnham needs to start his time at No.10 by correcting that mistake.

FYI, they're coming for gay dads. The call for a blanket ban is probably on its way.

Watch out for the Belfast Riots part 2 over Jeffrey Donaldson being a nonce.

Mamdani: When I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m speaking about an organization that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people not just in Palestine but, frankly, throughout much of the region. And it is a status quo of immorality. It is one that I will not accept.

It also misreads how right-wing voters view these issues, which tends to be existentially. As soon as you accept their premise that civilization is crumbling under a tide of non-white invaders, you make any move to the "centre" woefully inadequate as a response.

Brilliant from Fintan O'Toole, as you'd expect. Firstly, key point, 🇪🇺 allowed coloniser and colonised to sit togehter as equals. And note the efforts on the part of the UKG over the years to show respect and make that work. Brexit through that in the bin 1 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So how did we get here, with Starmer on the way out after two years? To some extent, it does go back to the beginning. It was not an enthusiastic victory for Labour. Getting rid of the Tories was the top reason people voted for them in 2024, though with their message of 'Change' also resonating.

Ah yes the "centre-right" party that calls for "pure, cold rage" about discrimination against white people.

Reminder - There are ZERO trans people in prison in Northern Ireland. "TUV pushes ‘common sense’ Justice Bill change to house trans prisoners by biological sex" TUV by far the most trans-obsessed party in NI www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/tuv-pus...

Right. YouGov had a recent poll of Reform voters who did absolutely realize that Labour was trying to appeal to their vote. It just didn't convince them.

You should come back and do a quick, four episode run of Mock the Week, they said. Don’t be ridicolous, I said. What news will there be, in June, during a World Cup? Oh, they said. Something will happen. Anyway, Sunday nights on TLC and available on the TLC YouTube channel afterwards.

Widespread protests in Israel demand Netanyahu’s departure, criticize his policies

Does Farage think that Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick switching parties should have triggered by-elections?

Neil Kinnock has a message for our next Prime Minister, "We after 10 years after loss and cost and decline, must make the argument, incessantly and continually, to rejoin the European Union" "It. Is. Our. Imperative."

My unified theory here is that after a decade of Tory government, people expected a Labor leader with a huge majority in Parliament to govern radically differently in action, tone and focus. Starmer did not. People may have differing reasons for feeling that way, but that's what it comes down to.

Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of child sex abuse charges, including rape www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

Thank goodness we've got a voting system that promotes strong and stable government.

Much coverage of today strikes me as rather odd Yes, replacing another prime minister is incredible - and real question about whether PM job is even possible as constituted But Starmer had no ideology or support base in his party. Which is no way to run anything, and fundamentally why he’s gone

"A Mississippi farmer who paid higher wages and favoured white South African guest workers has been taken to court by five black American workers alleging a pattern of racial and citizenship-based discrimination and 'wage theft'."

I wonder whether Starmer's problem was never cowardice at all, but conviction. McSweeney and the Labour Together crew were his team. They advocated a reactionary-centrist, Hero Voter strategy, and he followed it. In his own mind, he did the "professional" thing. 1/2

An interesting take @mrjamesob.bsky.social @lbc.co.uk #lbc

Disgusting behaviour. No one deserves abuse like this, when posting about their own late father, on father's day. People who behave like this should be ashamed of themselves.

The theory that “electable” means “work to appease right-wing bigots under the assumption that majorities agree with them, at least partially, and they prioritize it when voting” has been tried. It has failed. Try something else.

This basically. Labour has relentlessly increased the salience of the issues Reform prioritises, whilst winning over basically no Reform voters, and simultaneously alienating their own base. It's just terrible politics.

So Starmer has finally accepted the inevitable and announced his departure. His government did some good (e.g. strengthening workers' and renters' rights). The problem is that most Labour leaders would have delivered the good stuff without making so many mistakes. 1/2

Then came a new flashpoint: the "islands of strangers" speech. Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters reacted strongly against it, with Starmer losing net positive favourability among 2024 Labour voters for the first time, while receiving absolutely no credit from voters on the right.

“I carry with me a photo of a Muslim child who, during my visit to Lebanon, was standing there holding a sign that said ‘Welcome, Pope Leo,’ and in this latest phase of the war, he was killed. “As a Church, I say again: as a pastor, I cannot be in favor of war.” — Pope Leo XIV

So Starmer has finally accepted the inevitable and announced his departure. His government did some good (e.g. strengthening workers' and renters' rights). The problem is that most Labour leaders would have delivered the good stuff without making so many mistakes. 1/2

Good news for summer: you can swim safely across Europe! 🌊85% of bathing sites are rated ‘excellent‘ 🌊96% meet at least the minimum quality standards Cyprus leads with all its bathing waters rated excellent. Well done!

The BBC speaking at length to Paul Ovenden this morning about Keir Starmer and the Labour party without at any point even mentioning, let alone questioning him, about his abusive behaviour that cost him his job

I think Keir Starmer may just have blown his last chance to leave office with dignity. Taking responsibility for the LE losses and resigning would have appeared noble. But now, he'll end up being forced out by opponents or brought down by scandal revelations. Maybe both.

there's a Allan Bloom book on the "American religion" and one thing i think Bloom was basically right on is that 95% of the time, whatever American evangelicals *think* they're doing is in practice basically a form of Gnosticism

5 Muslim's were injured yesterday in a racist attack by a man wielding an axe It has barely been mentioned A couple of months ago 4 empty ambulances were burned, no one was injured but they talked about it for weeks and had a COBR meeting. The racism in the UK is systematic

the best part about Prager U putting this out is that Dennis Prager is... not Christian.

We are now at a point where hands down France24 and RFI are Europe's pre-eminent news broadcasters

Cape Verde score their first World Cup goal ever and it’s a 30 yard bomb!

Sorry if it's a bit 'Hitler my part in his downfall' but as Starmer seems set to resign found myself reflecting on the (very unlikely) role that my humble newsletter, Democracy for Sale, has played in the end of British prime ministership (short 🧵) democracyforsale.substack.com

In addition, one for the “banning anonymity would make social media less toxic” crowd to ponder. These are all adults posting under their own names!

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1/3 I am a simple seafarer - not a diplomat or a statesman or high-ranking official... But even I know that going into negotiations stating that the other side is looking to break international conventions and laws and saying you will do it instead if they don't agree, seems like a poor tactic...

The great irony is that most climate change deniers are scared of climate change. They’re so afraid of climate change that they’re cosying up to fossil fuel companies who pay them enough that they can be in a wage bracket where they will be some of the last to feel the effects of climate change.

One the one hand, we should be nicer to people. On the other, Keir Starmer's government has banned me from public toilets.

True but it’s also a country where Jeremy Clarkson gets paid a fortune to describe Gordon Brown as a ‘one-eyed Scottish idiot’ or fantasise about a crowd of thugs hurling excrement at a naked Duchess of Sussex. And where Dick Littlejohn gets called out for cruelty by a coroner at a suicide inquest.

It's quite impressive that his own failure to do this and the failure of DOGE has not led him to reflect on the viability of this plan at all.

Anti-Muslim attacks. Doesn’t seem to be getting the same attention as when the alleged perpetrator is non-white.

From @politicsjoe.bsky.social interviewing @petergeoghegan.bsky.social . www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojHC... If Simons is anywhere close to Burnham when he becomes PM, nothing will change. The Labour Together organ grinders will just have control over a different dancing monkey.