simonreynell.bsky.social

Thanks for speaking out so clearly on this, Sunder. I wish more journalists would.

And it's doubly annoying that they are spending all their time attacking the Greens rather than Reform in Gorton, a byelection which they could well have won if they hadn't blocked Burnham from standing. They always prioritise short-term factional gain ahead of developing a progressive strategy

what are you basing that on, @sundersays.bsky.social ?

Sadly, judging from Gorton, Labour seem to be 'taking the fight' to the Greens rather than to Reform - punching left yet again. But Starmer 2.0 won't last beyond the disaster of the May elections.

bsky.app/profile/gree...

yes, and very depressing that Labour are spending much more time attacking the Greens than Reform. It's as though Reform were a marginal threat rather than well-placed to win the next election. Desperate & misguided.

Lots of voters are looking for clarity on how to defeat Reform, and if this helps, that's great because beating Reform is the main thing. (Tbh from my time in Gorton in the past 2 weeks, I'm surprised Labour are polling this high, but we'll see...)

Yes, and their problem is that replacing Starmer with any existing Labour MP is only likely to give a small & temporary uptick. With UK politics so fluid, they *might* recover at some point in the future, but it's also possible that we're seeing the end of Labour as a major political force.

The Guardian glosses over its own complicity in this. Some of their political journalists are far too close to factions in the Labour right & were repeating their smears uncritically during throughout the Corbyn period.

The Guardian's role in this is poor - and complicit with what Labour Together were up to (& is obfuscated at the end of what is otherwise a good article). I hope it leads to more self-critical reflections on the paper's closeness to the Labour right, and to a review of Paul Holden's 'The Fraud'.

Having canvassed in Gorton,I'm not sure whether Reform or Greens will win, but one thing is certain: Labour will be significantly behind the Greens.

Interesting. My fear is that Labour will respond to this (& the Gorton by-election) by ceding ground on policy to the right & ramping up attacks on the Greens. They urgently need a less factional / more progressive leadership.

good article, but it (understandably) omits The Guardian's own complicity in Labour Together's attempt to deflect & smear awkward journalists' enquiries.

on the other hand, the more people see them appointing ex-Tory failures to their top posts, the harder it is for them to hold on to their 'Red wall' supporters

I'm concerned by The Guardian's (or at least Pippa Crerar's) closeness to / complicity with the attempted smearing of the journalists.

Just back from a day in Gorton. It's hard to generalise but 2 things seem clear: 1, it's going to be close between Reform & Green. 2, Labour will come third.

Yes, and the tendency to focus only on the Times journalists, and not on the other journalists in the dossier is also alarming. Do left-wing writers not count & not deserve protection or redress too?

More significantly it's a test of just how much the Labour vote has collapsed. The cliche is that UK elections are won from the centre. That may no longer apply.

I'm jumping at least 2 guns here, but Labour will be desperate to protect Simons because the last thing they need is to lose in quick succession a safe seat in Manchester to the Greens, followed by a safe seat in Wigan to Reform. So he may leave the cabinet, but I doubt he'll resign as an MP.

Brace yourself because if 💚 do win the by-election, the Labour Party & the mainstream media are going to launch a massive campaign of ferocious (and often ungrounded) attacks on the Green Party, and on Polanski in particular, reminiscent of the assault on Corbyn.

Goodwin is weird in ways that don't win him support easily in Manchester. They'd have been better off choosing a flawed local & hoping their flaws didn't become evident till after the election (cf Runcorn)

No, Reform certainly won't walk it. The Greens will at the very least push them close. It depends how many Labour supporters vote tactically.

different wards - Levenshulme (overwhelmingly Green), and Denton (split between Reform & Green)

to be honest, as Home Secretary both Yvette Cooper and Shaban Mahmood seem to be trying their very best to push society backwards on racism as well.

Having canvassed there a couple of times, I doubt Reform will win, but they'll be well ahead of Labour. It's difficult to know for sure because on the doorstep very few people admit to supporting Reform; there's still some shame attached to it. (btw, the election date is 26 Feb, not 27)

We're in the early stages with desperate, feeble attempts to knock Zack as being weird. But the press will continue until they find something that resonates a little. Then they'll repeat it again & again to try to demonise him, as they did with Corbyn.

so rare for the mainstream media to broadcast excellent, factual coverage of the climate crisis

I agree, but authoritarianism is fundamental to this government. They came to power on the back of a dishonest takeover & purge of the Labour Party, and that is the only way they know how to conduct politics, as the country has found to its cost.

will @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social now apologise for her lies and insinuations about Palestine Action? (Spoiler: the answer is 'no'. Authoritarianism runs deep through this government)

Isn't it just yet another tiresome piece along the lines of 'the left is illegitimate, and is to blame for everything' (even though it hasn't been in power for decades)? Quite a few journalists make a good living from this stuff, so never tire of re-hashing it endlessly.