Mark Fraser

You can’t defeat the far right by giving them what they claim to want, bc that isn’t what they really want. What they really want- as they occasionally make clear- is racial purity. That’s why measures aimed at reducing migration are not only cruel & self-harming but pointless on their own terms

There's far more that needs to be done to ensure the benefits of economic wealth are felt by everyone. There's also a limit to what can be achieved on that score at present without further devolution - in particular around fiscal powers.

Greater Manchester is doing some things right, especially on transport and green investment, but we shouldn't kid ourselves by looking at a shiny city centre that that wealth trickles down to the 2.5m who live in the area.
fairerhealthacademy.gmtableau.nhs.uk/file/gmca-imd

Concerns about wealth inequality warrant one sentence in the BBC's coverage of Greater Manchester's 'economic miracle' yet deprivation has worsened in Manchester in the last 6 years and near 1/4 of GM residents live in the 10% of most deprived wards. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tweet from Keir Starmer in 2018 responds to a story about asylum seekers' 20 year ways for refugee status saying "Completely unacceptable. Either make speedy decisions (i.e. under 6 month) or let asylum seekers work. To do neither is a denial of human diginity.

Remember when Keir Starmer thought trapping people for two decades in poverty was "a denial of human dignity"?

It's common sense, and our leaders know it. Let people work, make decisions quickly and let people settle.

On the Responsibility of Citizens Ordinary resistance and ordinary responsibility falls on all of us, whatever our jobs, positions, or roles in society.

Yvette Cooper must have fully understood that her unlawful proscription of Palestine Action was an attack on the fundamental freedoms of a democratic society. She did it anyway.

After today’s High Court ruling, she should no longer remain as a minister.

www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-re...

I asked the Defence minister today to examine whether the £4 million donation to Labour in 2024 by Quadrature. a hedge fund with sizeable investments in Palentir, a client of Mandelson’s company, had any influence on the award of contracts to Palentir, some without competition.

The Times calls Keir Starmer's decision to hire Peter Mandelson an "egregious error" which deserves an "inquiry into the appointment process."

Not included is any demand for an inquiry into their own appointment of him, long after his post-conviction relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was exposed

Screen shot of article text: Jason Stockwood, the Labour government’s new investment minister, recently said that a UBI may be a necessary tool to manage the disruption of AI. Higher structural unemployment, higher taxes on those of us who remain in work, and a universal basic income for everyone else is one possible future in a world where AI turns out to be an engine of pure, rather than creative, job destruction. But there is another option, which is to say that if the choice is between extreme limits on what uses we can put AI to and most of us being paid to sit around and do nothing, then we should choose a world without UBI and AI.

I appreciate the response. You characterized UBI as “being paid to sit around and do nothing.”

I generally agree with much of what you wrote: Jobs are more than a salary.

You don’t need to portray UBI as an obstacle to make that case.

I don't think here is a great place for you to try to clarify what you were aiming to say in your article. Maybe a revised article that sets out your position/arguments on AI/UBI would be best? For me, a guaranteed living income is needed now in the real world, not in some extreme imagined dystopia.

I thought you implied that people getting UBI would choose to sit around doing nothing, rather than find meaning in activity beyond the paid jobs that AI would have destroyed?

Depends what you mean by "jobs" - being employed by another person or organisation? spending more time being a parent/carer? doing something creative and personally satisfying? joining movements for change? growing food?

"if the choice is between extreme limits on what uses we can put AI to and most of us being paid to sit around and do nothing, then we should choose a world without UBI and AI."
The basic flaw here is assuming that without "jobs" people choose to do nothing. All UBI evidence is to the contrary.

What is it about being a highly educated person working at a place like the Financial Times that makes one think Arbeit Macht Frei? What is it about the thought of work being voluntary that makes one think we all will choose not to do anything? It's so frustrating to see them think they're so wise.

Last year we spotlighted Mayday Saxonvale's inspirational story, when they secured the sale from Somerset Council after a five-year effort: www.platformplaces.com/inspiration/...

Now they've secured £1.2M and are launching a community share offer to take the next steps ✨

Find out more ⬇️

At some point, @johnharris1969.bsky.social 's focus will shift from the misery of Labour to the hopefulness of the Greens. Might be time to cheer up.

Let's see if Middleton Co-operative Mayoral Development Corporation can do things differently.

Councils urgently need to be enabled to borrow to build.
“If you invest in council homes, you save massive amounts on the housing benefit bill. You make savings on people’s health because people are living in homes that are warm, safe and dry. You provide space for children to do their homework.”

Three errors here. First, in confusing some kind of SEND classification (20%) with EHCPs (5.5%).

Secondly in assuming it gives automatic right to DLA. Though there is a strong ECHP/DLA overlap.

Third in assuming that those moving to DLA to PIP never work (it's not an out of work benefit).

Socialism in One City The ultimate test for Mamdani’s vision will be successful governance—and so far, it appears to be working.

In 1966 MLK went head to head with Chicago’s liberal mayor, speaking before thousands: “Let us be dissatisfied until every socially oppressive ghetto and rat-infested slum is plunged into the junk heaps of our nation and Negroes and whites live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.”

Everyone should see this. Watch it, share it - these are the voices we need to hear that are so often ignored in the poisonous debate about hotels.

5 reasons why Facebook should be in (global, cooperative) public ownership Just like the railway, Facebook is a private monopoly running a public service. We, the public, don't have real competition and consumer choice, but we don't have a democratic say as citizens either.

If x/twitter is a town square, why don't we who live in this online town get any say over the rules?

We could all be members and get a vote if it was a coop

I wrote this back in 2018 about facebook but it's relevant to x/bluesky and it's relevant to now

weownit.org.uk/blog/5-reaso...

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.

Venezuela latest: Explosions heard as smoke rises in Caracas Footage appears to show smoke rising in multiple locations in the Venezuelan capital.

Trump’s America is a rogue state.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5...

Don’t leave refugees in limbo: Scrap the 20-year wait Imagine living in limbo for 20 years, not knowing if you’ll be allowed to stay in the only home your children have ever known. That is the reality facing refugees under new government proposals. A gr...

Refugees shouldn't have to wait 20 years to know if they are safe. New rules are leaving families separated and lives in limbo.

Join the campaign calling on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to scrap the 20-year wait. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/do...

Man who bought up 33,000 acres of farmland to avoid tax and moved his business to Singapore after the Brexit he voted for wants your sympathy.

Brummie letter to Shabana Mahmood - the Home Secretary - Asylum Matters On 27th October we asked people and organisations to sign an open letter to the newly elected Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, a Birmingham MP to say how we were worried...Continue reading

Disappointing to see the Home Secretary refuse to have a cuppa with constituents who wrote to remind her of the proud Brummie welcome that's conspicuously missing from her policies.
The Government must stop ignoring those of us who choose community over hostility
asylummatters.org/2025/12/17/b...

Denied bail for minor criminal damage (spraying paint on aircraft used in a genocide), 8 courageous prisoners are on hunger strike & close to death. Is the UK gvt willing to sacrifice Britain's reputation for liberalism to aid and abet Israel's genocide? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Palestine activists conducting a historic hunger strike in Britain need our international solidarity Eight people detained for allegedly protesting in support of Palestine are currently undertaking the largest hunger strike in UK prisons in over 40 years. The strikers need international solidarity to...

Eight people detained for allegedly protesting in support of Palestine are currently undertaking the largest hunger strike in UK prisons in over 40 years. The strikers need international solidarity to show the world they are not alone. mondoweiss.net/2025/12/pale...

The fact is no presenter has ever had to leave the BBC for expressing conservative views, or even explicitly endorsing a right-wing party.

Was never a problem for Jeremy Clarkson. Was never a problem for Andrew Neil. Was never a problem for Alan Sugar