billybraggofficial 2 hours ago Keir MY PLEDGES TO YOU Starmer ANOTHER FUTURE IS POSSIBLE My promise to you is that I will maintain our radical values and work tirelessly to get Labour in to power - so that we can advance the interests of the people our Party was created to serve. Based on the moral case for socialism, here is where I stand. 1. Economic justice Increase income tax for the top 5% of earners, reverse the Tories' cuts in corporation tax and clamp down on tax avoidance, particularly of large corporations. No stepping back from our core principles. 2. Social justice Abolish Universal Credit and end the Tories' cruel sanctions regime. Set a national goal for wellbeing to make health as important as GDP; invest in services that help shift to a preventative approach. Stand up for universal services and defend our NHS. Support the abolition of tuition fees and invest in lifelong learning. 3. Climate justice Put the Green New Deal at the heart of everything we do. There is no issue more important to our future than the climate emergency. A Clean Air Act to tackle pollution locally. Demand international action on climate rights. 4. Promote peace and human rights No more illegal wars. Introduce a Prevention of Military Intervention Act and put human rights at the heart of foreign policy. Review all UK arms sales and make us a force for international peace and justice. 5. Common ownership Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders. Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing out NHS, local government and justice system. 6. Defend migrants' rights Full voting rights for EU nationals. Defend free movement as we leave the EU. An immigration system based on compassion and dignity. End indefinite detention and call for the closure of centres such as Yarl's Wood.

A good reminder from @billybragg.bsky.social about what Starmer once pretended to be - always worth remembering he threw this all away and managed to get fewer votes than Corbyn

Democracy dies in oligarchy.

Peter Mandelson is fleeing the House of Lords: now let’s throw out all the other rogues and idlers | Jenny Jones The disgraced politician throws all that is wrong with our present system into sharp focus. We need a second chamber the public can trust, says Jenny Jones, a Green party peer

"Politics and business are bound together in the Lords, with peers able to book plush rooms to pursue their private interests."

Martin Scorsese and his daughter Francesca read Letterboxd reviews and guessed which Scorsese movie they were about.

Mandelson’s Fifth Column The British government’s business department exists to undermine democracy.

1. In 2009 I wrote this. I argued that Peter Mandelson's department “functions as a fifth column within government, working for corporations to undermine democracy and the public interest.”
This thread explains what I saw, and reaches a startling conclusion.🧵
www.monbiot.com/2009/05/04/m...

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

ICE's $100M ad campaign is using the same playbook as the Gestapo & Stasi. The goal? To make repression sound reasonable and patriotic.

REFORM; FARAGE:
* supports Putin,
* elevates Russian-bribery pal, * neglects Constituents,
* bad-mouths UK to US far-right,
* ‘forgets’ to declare £380,000, & £800,000 house purchase,
* recruits shady lawbreakers & now the nastiest Tories.
TOTALLY unfit for ANY high office.

The Legislation Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will: 1) Leave the ECHR 2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. 3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill: This Bill will: Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act." The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years: Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT) Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order. These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR. Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds. If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight. Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence Re-entry after deportation will be…

The Operational Plan We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property. Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000 Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes. This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Initial Voluntary Return Window A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this. The Deportation Flights The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…

The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions.

It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Latest cartoon for the lovely @bylinetimes.bsky.social

2026 Masters snooker: full draw, match previews, schedule & how to watch - SnookerHQ.com Full preview of the 2026 Masters snooker draw, including first-round matchups, start times, prize money and how to watch worldwide.

A look at the L16 matches as the Masters gets under way today in London.

Read here 👇
snookerhq.com/2026/01/11/2...

Which potential coalitions have the most support from Britons?

LD + Lab, Davey PM: 36% support
Lab + Grn, Starmer PM: 33%
Lab + LD, Starmer PM: 31%
Grn + Lab, Polanski PM: 30%
Ref + Con, Farage PM: 29%
LD + Con, Davey PM: 26%
Con + Ref, Badenoch PM: 25%

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

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The PM and Foreign Secretary should be condemning this illegal strike and breach of international human rights law.

After years of arming a genocide and worshipping the “special relationship”, Trump now believes he can act with impunity.

The US attack on Venezuela is rampantly and shamelessly illegal.

Donald Trump has repeatedly made it clear that the US wants to steal Venezuela's resources.

This gangsterism, trashing anything left of the 'international order', will pave the way for global violent mayhem.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s tweets were wrong, but he is no ‘anti-white Islamist’. Why does the British right want you to believe he is? | Naomi Klein I have no interest in defending his social media posts, but calls to strip the newly freed activist of British citizenship pile torment on top of torture, says Naomi Klein, Guardian US columnist and c...

Calls to strip pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah of his British citizenship pile torment on top of torture.

New piece by me on a dangerous and manufactured storm:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

No.

Coming up: the top 10 most read film reviews on the
@sightsoundmag.bsky.social site in 2025, a 🧵

This is the small open boat Team Hegseth bombed and then bombed again. It's almost 1700 miles by sea from Trinidad to Miami. There is no way this boat was headed for the US.

Reform in Lancashire threatens closing five day centres and five care homes, with “reprovision” forcing disabled or older adults (including a 106-year-old) into alternative support. 

🧵1/3

inspired by this, I have done a free extract of this section of the book here. it is about understanding that *with all its problems* the BBC is as important for our intellectual health as the NHS is for our physical health:

naomialderman.substack.com/p/the-bbc-an...

The UK’s £1 billion Thank You to Uncle Sam The UK is set to buy a fleet of US fighter jets that can drop nuclear bombs. The purchase is purely political, say watchdogs

The UK is set to buy a fleet of US fighter jets that can drop nuclear bombs. It will cost about £1 billion.

The purchase is purely political, say Nuclear Information Service and Nukewatch UK.

www.declassifieduk.org/the-uks-1-bi...

1. In the wake on Mamdani’s win, we’ll see a lot more far right anti-urban sentiment. Here’s a thread on its roots and evolution.

The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵

Let this be a lesson for us all.

These are the voters’ “legitimate concerns” that we’ve been told to take seriously for decades.

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

“If you do not agree at this point, two years in, that the state that needs to be demilitarized–and deradicalized frankly–is the state that is committing genocide, then you’re part of the problem.”

The Labour Party is the genocide party.