Alex Mair

Whole careers were made on the back of predicting wonderful things would emerge on the backs on invading Iraq. If you were a middle aged journalist, and you had given up everything you believed in, you could live the life of riley by calling Stop the War coalition Bin Ladenists every week.

Much has been written about Dick Cheney's wickedness, and rightly so, but it's easy to forget just how personally and professionally lucrative the 9/11 wars were for a generation of journalists. Wars which now, of course, they don't even try to defend any more.

A good piece by Mehdi Hasan political editor of New Stateman during 9/11 wars. As a keen young reader of papers from 2001-10, I can tell you opening a posh paper was just basically a public school Trot screaming at you and frothing at the mouth for the US to bomb more black and brown.

The "consensus" in 2010 was that our economy was on the verge of collapse, we were at the mercy of "bond vigilantes", & it would be crazy to borrow money at 0 interest rates. Instead the "consensus" was that we needed austerity.

That "consensus" was wrong & no-one has been held accountable.

The Walton family (who own Walmart) are worth over $400 billion, yet many of their employees are on SNAP.

Bezos is worth over $400 billion, many Amazon employees require SNAP.

The people who need help are not the problem.

It’s corporate greed. It’s an unwillingness to pay a living wage.

The SEND white paper has been kicked back to 2026 because the givernment know it's a crock of shit which will go down like a lorry load of whale shite.

So, when Keith is removed in a Palace coup after the local elections next May, a new labour PM can quietly abandon it.

Has Kemi Badenoch sounded the death knell for one nation Conservatism? The Tory leader’s shift to the right has left its centrist wing wondering if its tradition still has a future

Articles like this reflect no credit on The Graun. The 'one-nation' wing of the Tory party hasn't existed for decades. Under Cameron, cabinet had 1 genuine moderate Tory, Ken Clarke. That's 1 minister since the year 2000. And he was aged about 395.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

One path to a successful career as a columnist is to be repeatedly wrong. Not to have unique takes on matters of opinion, but confident declarations proven wrong by events. If you can condescend to people proven right no matter how often you are wrong, the most prominent media would like to pay you.

HOPE not hate condemn the appalling, violent attack at a synagogue in Manchester which has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Our thoughts are with the Jewish community and all affected.

We laugh at this shit -- I mean, how can you not? -- but it's serious: these guys want to infuse reactionary thinking into AI and then infuse AI into every nook & cranny of American life. They can't win the argument so they are trying to blunt-force their views onto us with money & power.

Also, Keir Starmer is banging the immigration drum because he knows he is doomed. The anti-democratic forces which got him elected have turned on him. Every government back to Margaret Thatcher has done it when they are in trouble. After politics, I predict he will vanish. Not a politician.

Because living in the fantasy of going back to the economy of the mid-2000s, of a growth bonzana with cheap credit and, crucially, without free immigrant labour from Eastern Europe, is a fantasy which allow Blairites to skirt the awkward buisness of doing everything we should have done in 2008/09/10

Here's the thing, there's no way of attacking New Labour's immigration policy without also admitting that New Labour's economic policy didn't work - which it didn't.

So, why is Keir Starmer and the Labour right so obssssed with finding the button back to the late 90s? 1/2.

A short thread on digital ID (cards) just to bear in mind. There are a few myths that I keep hearing about this idea that need clarifying/debunking. 1/10

I've given Rachel Reeves some advice if she wants to rescue her government. Perhaps she'll give me a phone call and invite me in to explain why she's getting everything wrong over a cappucino.

This is how much the price of food has risen in 5 years... 🤯

🥛Milk, eggs and cheese: +47%
🍖 Meat: +35%
🧈 Oil and butter: +60%
🍞 Cereal and bread: +34%
🍓 Fruit: +26%
🥦 Vegetables: +35%

A bit harsh. Politics is more than that. Unfortunately secterianism is the curse of left-wing parties. 'Too many socialist parties and not enough socialists' to quote Tony Benn.

Unilaterally criticising your own party in public only emboldens your party's opponents. Unfortunately, the lesson still hasn't been learned that if you make a public statement that is 99% supportive of your own party and 1% critical - it's the 1% of criticism that will dominate the media cycle.

Just doing a bit of research on the OBR for an article I'm writing. It is the stupidist, most pointless thing ever invented in the history of pointless, stupid things. Rarely has the public had to pay for such an ideologically-driven waste of money. Abolish it.

Charlie Kirk's killer is a 22 year old, white, male Utah native and the son of registered Republicans. Yet Kirk's murder is going to be used to justify more gun violence against blacks, latinos, women, gay people, trans people, Asylum seekers and immigrants.

Prime Minister: Ah Mr Spookley, have a seat. How’s MI5 these days, how’s the wife?

A. Senior-Spy: Great, PM, terrific.

PM: I looked at the file on our new US ambassador (pats comically huge folder bulging with incriminating photos) All in order, I trust?

A. Senior-Spy: Clean as a whistle, boss.

Landmark NHS league tables launched to drive up standards Patients will get better care and value from record investment in the NHS thanks to a pioneering new system of league tables being rolled out across England.

League tables for NHS hospitals are the stupidest idea anyone has ever heard of. School league tables are totally meaningless. Only a minister who has never had a proper job in his life would come up with this.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

When Britain's neoliberal period is over - and it will be one day - Britain needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission where anyone who had their life fucked over from 1979 onwards can hold the ruling elite to account.

Sharon Graham is ripping the bollocks off a guest on the Today programme #Today

New polling confirms that the 'Island of Strangers' speech was a total failure.

Labour lost support and didn't gain any support from the Tories or Reform.

In 24 hours since the reshuffle, it's clear the establishment is terrified of Ed Miliband standing as deputy leader. There have been two articles, one in the Telegraph and one in the Graun, both targeting Miliband.

Two things can be true at once. Rayner was foolish in her conduct and right to resign. It’s also true she was always despised by much of the right wing press because she was a working class powerful woman.

Labour Party deputy leadership candidates in full:

1. Wes Streeting
2. Nigel Farage
3. Sue Gray
4. Oswald Mosley
5. Xenomorph
6. Tony Blair
6. A Tory Lord who was a cabinet minister in the last government.

A lot of the hoopla from The Telegraph, The Tory Party, Kemi Badenoch etc would be more convincing if they hadn't relentlessly supported the party of slum landlords for 15 years and launched a jihad against anyone who suggest the housing system was unfair and rigged.

A quarter of Tory MPs are private landlords Exclusive: ‘Clear conflict of interests’ as 115 MPs earn thousands of pounds by renting out property

Oh.

#AngelaRayner

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...