Ben Phillips

Police to get broader powers to crack down on repeated protests Officers will be able to tell organisers to move demonstrations if protests have caused "repeated disorder".

and they’ll apply this to the asylum hotel protests and flag shaggers too right? right?

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Settling down in front of the telly to watch Chelsea do some competent defending, can't wait

An embroidery hoop with hand embroidery of hawthorn with berries, held against a background of a hawthorn hedge covered in berries

It is the last day of my autumn sale, if you want to pick up a bargain! #embroidery www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Comm...

I think @tom-phillips.com may have coined the term (during the JC era, from memory), although others have used it since.

Also feels like another example of the cargo cult Blairism you discussed in the emergency pod last week.

First day of term and I just tried to sign into the office printer with my British Library readers ticket. Start as you mean to go on.

An empty, ruined church on a sunny day with blue skies. The church is filled with weeds.

'I was glad it was a very hot, sunny day with bright blue skies, because otherwise the deserted, ruined church with legends connected to it of fiends and black dogs breathing fire might have spooked me a little.'
open.substack.com/pub/deepdown...

Church Going A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies. - Philip Larkin

I've written about Church Going (in the Larkin sense) and tenuous literary connections in Devon and beyond.
Warning: contains pictures of churches open.substack.com/pub/deepdown...

This isn't to minimise legitimate grievances with JC (both when he was Labour leader and since), or to claim that Zarah, Polanski etc couldn't develop similar reach, given the chance. But at the moment Corbyn does have to be there in some capacity for the thing to be halfway viable.

I'm not sure I fully agree with this but it does raise an important point: a) there are a lot of people, mostly very disengaged politically, who would be up for voting for a Corbyn-branded party (but would not be actively engaged otherwise); b) any new left party needs to mobilise these people.

еб*ла жаба гадюку

I might start a @tom-phillips.com style 'cricket's going well then' monothread for Chelsea this season

Great stuff, love to see it

didn't know Ruben Amorim was managing the Fed

If anyone following me wants to start a new left wing political party just hmu, we can definitely do better than this

FFS lads

Ange proving like a nice sourdough

I think Chelsea might do better than expected in Europe this season, mostly because of the new CL format, but dearie me they've a long way to go both mentally and technically. All way too dependent on Palmer and half of them still think they're playing in the Conference League

A) Nobody has to work in politics
B) if you do work in politics your behaviour should derive from your values
C) If your values allow you to make sexual assault jokes you probably shouldn’t be in the Labour Party
D) Unless this is what Labour really is now: a lads-only Thick of It tribute act.

Eh?

This argument does not make sense, since he's apparently quite capable of speaking out when it's a question of endorsing migrant hotel protesters' allegedly legitimate concerns (and pretty much any other time he gets to echo right-wing talking points).

Every normal person in this country knows exactly who these guys are, just as they know exactly what England flags mean when displayed outside of sports tournaments.

breaking news: in response to a chant of “shoot keir starmer” at the fascist parade in london, the government has announced plans to shoot keir starmer

It does feel like this would be a good moment for Starmer to display the authoritarian streak that he normally reserves for undocumented migrants, pro-Palestinian activists and members of the Labour Party to his left.

Loath though he is to alienate floating racists, perhaps Starmer could rouse himself to condemn a violent fascist rally teeming with people who want him overthrown and/or killed

Ange is pivoting from not proving himself to proving himself

Seconded.

Yes but also you have to ask why McSweeney was so fixated on keeping Mandelson - it doesn't further his project or his faction's interests in any obvious way? Was it just embarrassment because he was the one who pushed for the appointment in the first place?

Lmao