Robert Hunter

They're abandoning even the pretence to be the party of law and order...

Liberalism has betrayed the working class, but illiberali... If we fail to uphold equality and democracy, where will our society be?

On the dangers of the critique of liberalism descending into illiberalism: My ‪@theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

@news.sky.com Fact check Anna Soubry on the difference between Palestine Action and Palestine Solidarity Campaign - she's ignorant of it.

Police urged to seek clarity on whether hate crime fire at mosque was terrorism The Green Party has called on police to seek clarity over the motives of the hate crime fire at Peacehaven’s mosque.

It's a miracle nobody was hurt. Sending solidarity to the Muslim community in Sussex and across the UK, as well as the Jewish community who are still grieving from the appalling attack in Manchester. No one should EVER feel unsafe in their place of worship
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

What an admirably clear statement from the Jewish Leadership Council, especially when all of those involved must surely have been dealing with so many other urgent challenges in safety, security and grief + shock today before having this further divisive and distracting intervention to address too.

And how did this work out for the Tories?

According to the Israeli far right the Board of Deputies is pro-Palestinian. Absolute lunatics

A country that tolerates this baloney emanating from its head of state and government for a day, let alone another four and a half years, has surely lost its mind.

Unhinged crackpot stuff anyone remotely connected with reality would be ashamed and embarrassed to say out loud.

I also strenuously reject the idea that any pop music is “not aimed at me”. I doubt that, say, Chappell Roan or Billie Eilish are gunning for my demographic but a good song is a good song. Pop music isn’t some mysterious language that only people under 30 can comprehend

Cable Street battle, Jewish London East End #OnThisDay 4 Oct 1936 with banner explicitly adapting antifascist slogan of defence of Madrid "NO PASARÁN." They shall not pass. Remember Olympia refers to 1934 British Union of Fascists meeting where they set on antifascist protesters

Not for the first time Netanyahu prefers the global far right to the Jewish diaspora

It's good to be on a platform where people express normal human empathy and dismay at the horrific synagogue attack rather than on one where they weaponise it for their grubby, divisive purposes and try to turn a tragedy into an opportunity

Zack Polanski saying what every politician should be saying,

"It's problematic to weaponise the synagogue attack to silence protest in this country against the genocide in Gaza"

"These are separate things and we should condemn them both"

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

I remember when Keir Starmer visited us at Bristol Refugee Rights in 2016. Would that Keir Starmer have been shocked at what this Keir Starmer is doing? I suppose I'm no longer shocked. Ministers will also demand that refugees do more to "integrate" while making it harder for them to do so

As MAGA shows us, all the modern right knows how to do is destroy

A simple rule of the right is that it is more egregious to call someone a racist than to be a racist. The latter is understandable, the former unforgivably rude.

Tony Harrison saw Britain’s “dreadful schism” The poet, who has died at 88, was the people’s poet that too few people knew about.

Tony Harrison saw Britain’s “dreadful schism”

The poet, who has died at 88, was the people’s poet that too few people knew about.

🖊️ Blake Morrison

Graphic on a blue and purple gradient background Title: Carla Denyer MP publishes report on leasehold 'horror stories' Quotes: "Every single time our costs are over our agreed service charge..." "Service charge has escalated in recent years, while service has in no way improved... there are considerable security issues. At times the front door isn't working."

Image of a stack of papers on a blue and purple background. Quote reading: "It's clear that the feudal leasehold system needs to be abolished as soon as possible, and action is needed from government to protect those who are already living in leasehold homes and suffering hugely as a result."

Today along with @sianberry.bsky.social I've published a report on our constituents' appalling experiences of the leasehold system. From extortionate fees to poor treatment at the hands of management companies, residents are being held to ransom in their own homes. Govt must act fast.

If a future Reform government starts a Trump-style mass deportation programme, you can be sure that they will also follow Starmer’s lead by designating any organised resistance as “terrorism”

Just fuck off with this. How about start the conversation by highlighting how much immigrants contribute to the UK - not least by propping up the NHS and social care system!

Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.

Brilliant, timely programming from #BBCradio4. Serialisation of my favourite Philip Roth #novel about a fascist take-over of The #USA: ‘The Plot Against #America’. Set in the 1940s, with a right-wing coup & a racist President. Well-narrated, too, by Richard Schiff. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I'm speaking about the planet, design, imagination, and the future at the Forest of Imagination in Bath on Tuesday. Sign up if you're in the neighbourhood! www.ticketsource.co.uk/cccibathspa/...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

This is superb, giving lie to the idea that the rise of the far right is simply a problem of bad/mis-information.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row ‘Brit card’ already facing opposition from privacy campaigners as government looks for ways to tackle illegal immigration

This Labour government seems to determined to create all the tools necessary for a future government of the far-right to control, surveille, and discipline the entire population.

I hope there will come a day soon where it dawns on someone in Starmer’s team that their strategy of communicating “Nigel Farage is right about everything but please vote for us instead” is fuelling these disastrous figures rather than mitigating them, but today is not that day

Royal Parks say no evidence to back Nigel Farage’s claim that migrants are eating their swans – UK politics live Reform UK leader claimed swans and carp being eaten from parks by ‘people from different cultures’

Farage the Fascist doing his Demented Donald act...
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

You look at this stuff and think, Where does it go next? Clearly, there will be new depths of mad nastiness as yet unimagined. But here are, deep into a nightmare that we'd have thought was insane satire 20 years ago

No. 10 spokesperson responding to a far right idea: "lol how will you pay for Dachau?"

No. 10 spokesperson three days later: "On reflection, Dachau is bad"

Reform UK’s immigration plans have ‘no basis in reality’, say Labour – politics live Nigel Farage claims his party would save £234bn by scrapping indefinite leave to remain

Labour, just once, how about describing Reform's plans as "disgusting and morally reprehensible" instead of "unworkable, unrealistic and unfunded".
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...