Stuart White

now that's the power of a union

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Jesus H Christ Lads I Just Got Back From A Social With My Local Party And They Want Kier's Head On A Plate And Half Of Them Have Joined The Greens And I Just Saw Our Latest Canvas Returns

MoJ orders deletion of UK’s largest court reporting archive Courtsdesk, which supports the media in monitoring records, is an important tool for journalists and the move raises concerns over open justice

The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the UK’s largest court reporting archive.

This risks undermining open justice, and I believe, undermines the public accountability role of the press by making it harder to see what is going on in the courts.

www.thetimes.com/article/77b0...

There is an implicit disregard for liberal democracy in all these narratives around the super spin doctors (McSweeney, Cummings etc.) who are allegedly running the country. It turns politics into a sport instead of emphasizing what should count in a democracy: transparency, honesty, accountability

this graphs depicts the change in the number of billionaires between 2003 and 2025. With a few small declines, it shows a clear upward rise in both the number of billionaires and their total wealth. In 2005, there were 691 billionaires holding together 2,2 trillion dollars. In 2025, Forbes counted 3028 billionaires, together holding 16,1 Trillion dollars.

The Rise of Oligarchy in one graph.

#OtD 8 Feb 1921 Peter Kropotkin, famous proponent of anarchist-communism, died of pneumonia in Russia. He took part in revolutionary groups in four countries and was a major contributor to anarchist theory. Works by and about him available here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

The Home Office now describes asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants [living in hotels]" with no reference to the reason that these people are in government-funded accommodation is that this government has taken & will process the asylum claim from them in 98-99% of cases of unauthorised entry.

Peter Kropotkin

'[Those] who man the lifeboat do not ask credentials from the crew of a sinking ship; they launch their boats, risk their lives in the raging waves, & sometimes perish, all to save men whom they do not even know. And what need to know them? 'They are human beings...that is enough' (Peter Kropotkin)

In competence and venality of the old political elite is ushering in a class of oligarchic politicians that are backed by unprecedented levels of private wealth and driven by some batshit crazy ideas (that just happen to be good for their wealth…)

Thiel is a prime mover in this

I had to check the date on this three times

‘At home with Peter Mandelson’ in Times magazine *today*

This is how we cover corruption in Britain? Seriously??

I think a lot of politicians & commentators see all this very differently from most of the country. They see it as part of an ongoing story about decision-making, personalities, probity, money etc. For everyone else it’s part of a long series of events: Saville, Huw Edwards, Rotherham & more (1/)

From Gordon Brown's piece in The Guardian today.

Starmer's Labour promised to clean up politics, promised to ban second jobs for MPs. But has done nothing.

This must change. Cap donations. Ban 2nd jobs. Fines for non- and late declarations.

Cabinet office minister used PR firm to investigate journalists' sources Cabinet office minister Josh Simons commissioned APCO Worldwide for the investigation in 2023.

Great to hear a Democracy for Sale story on heads of news on Today on Radio 4

Also very good to see a proper credit for us - as an ‘investigative website’ not ‘a Substack’ - high up in the story

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'For The Greens to Win, They Must Rage Against the Political Machine' Green Party member Adam Ramsay argues that the Greens need to prove to voters that they are a better way to shake up Westminster than the pseudo-radicals of Reform

For Greens to win in Gorton and Denton, they must rage against the political machine. Me for @bylinetimes.bsky.social: www.bylinesupplement.com/p/for-the-gr...

#BBC #Newsnight with Matt Chorley reduces the Mandelson scandal to political process. Typical insider class coverage of a story abt more: the debasement of power & its abuse by an entire cadre of politicians, advisers & courtiers. This is part of the UK's broken politics.

This is the report I spoke of on #bbcaq just now - ministers tried to suppress it, were finally forced to release it after an FoI, but shamefully only published a redacted version. The first duty of Govt is to protect its citizens - that starts with being honest with us about scale of threat we face

For the FES, I wrote a short brief about how mainstream party strategies have fueled far-right success. They move toward more anti-immigration positions to win voters back. This does not work, but shifts public opinion to the right. Parties then react to shifts in public opinion. A vicious cycle.

BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding

Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted

*And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it

Full story:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

UK wealth tax is inevitable says billionaires nemesis

The 50 wealthiest families in the UK own more than 34 million people combined.

That level of inequality is totally unsustainable.

A wealth tax isn’t radical - it’s inevitable. And the Green Party will keep making the case.

The University of Edinburgh has £3.1bn in assets and made a surplus of £43m last year. But the senior management team is still threatening huge staffing cuts while implementing a massively destructive austerity drive.

it’s exciting for people who care about Westminster chess, that they’ll publish the documents about how Mandelson got appointed, but for people who care about the UK, id like them to publish the full details of the deals he negotiated with the US tech & pharma interests on (supposedly) our behalf

Tickets - make hope possible Make hope possible proudly presents: Caroline Lucas in conversation: why Scotland needs another England 10th March 2026- Edinburgh11th March 2026 – Glasgow Caroline Lucas has been prominent in British...

Edinburgh and Glasgow folk! I’ll be speaking to @carolinelucas.bsky.social about her wonderful book “Another England,” come and join us: makehopepossible.org/tickets/

It's not just a physical toll, it's a psychological one. I stayed in my apartment for 40 hours where it was -15. I didn't have electricity or water, you cannot flush the toilet, you cannot take a shower, you cannot make warm food. Everything is dark outside so it feels like the end of the world when you look out your window. You have to put a lot of effort into not going mad.

"You have to put a lot of effort into not going mad." - @rolandoliphant.bsky.social relaying a message from his friend in Kyiv

Have lost most of this morning to searching Epstein files docs at www.justice.gov/epstein/search

The nexus between political power, inherited power and media power laid completely bare

Corruption at the very highest levels, with impunity

The BBC is getting played here: if a contributor gets to flat out deny having his own words quoted to him on television (with the viewer not told the denial is untrue) then post about "dropping truth bombs". The mission to inform & counter misinformation is flailing if the editorial controls so weak

I know many things are happening but please take a minute to read this: we are in full blackout in Kyiv, metro stopped, for the 1st time like this, power outages for the whole Ukraine and even in neighbouring Moldova now too. all because of Russia bombing our power stations , while it’s -19 outside

Hope before hate — neighbours, not enemies.
This is Manchester. This is Gorton and Denton! 💚

The arrests of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lundy are unacceptable and a clear violation of the Constitution.

This is a dangerous abuse of power that threatens the rights of every single American.

They must be released immediately.

Depressing from Philip Augar in the FT on the massive shift in burden from state to student. Aside from his ultimately economistic reduction of value, it’s surely the very definition of the learning experience that you can’t know what it should be in advance. It saps education of critical challenge.

As Eunice says, this is a really insightful essay. @neilwarner.bsky.social shows how anti-oligarchic politics offers social democrats a route past the false dichotomy of either "protecting democracy against the populist right" or "attacking the failures of the neoliberal system"