Luke Cooper

British politics is basically a doom spiral of increasingly unhinged hostile policies.

Reform says something unhinged
⬇️
Labour counters with their own unhinged policy
⬇️
Tories shout from back they'll be even more unhinged
⬇️
Reform announces different unhinged proposal in response
⬇️
And repeat...🔁

YouTube video by Owen Jones They Kicked Me Out For THIS? Owen Jones Visits LABOUR CONFERENCE

It’s shocking that @owenjones.bsky.social got kicked out of the Labour conference for this.

It’s combative and - yes - tabloid style journalism. Some of the MPs like Chris Bryant and Yvette Cooper handled it pretty well.

John Mann and Luke Akehurst not so much 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂

youtu.be/RLApab1L1-E?...

‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’...

🔴NEW🔴

Thread 🧵

@bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12

2 million rally in Italy for Gaza as general strike halts key services Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

“Labeling the nearly 250,000 people currently trapped in #Gaza City & the north as “terrorists or terror supporters” by the Government of #Israel is a statement suggesting planned large-scale massacres”

— UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini

www.unrwa.org/newsroom/off...

not a serious person

Manchester synagogue attack: What we know so far Three people have died including the suspect in a car and stabbing attack on the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.

Horrified by the deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur 💔 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What happened when I met my Islamophobic troll The long read: In 2017, I started getting regular messages from an anonymous Twitter user telling me my religion was ‘evil’. Eventually I responded – and he agreed to meet face to face

This was one of the themes that came out of Hussein Kesvani’s hugely important 2019 long read, “what happened when I met my Islamophobia troll”. Genuinely one of the most remarkable and brave pieces of journalism I’ve ever come across.

ICYMI

www.theguardian.com/news/2019/ma...

Loneliness is an under discussed factor in far right radicalisation online

We are heartbroken to emerge from Yom Kippur into news of the attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester. No one should face violence for attending synagogue services and our hearts are with the victims and their families at this terrible time. For many in our community, this news may only just be reaching you after a day spent in prayer, reflection, and fasting. To be confronted with such awfulness in this moment is particularly painful: please know that you are not alone.

In moments like this, it is vital that our communities - Jewish and non-Jewish alike hold one another close. Our safety and liberation depend on solidarity between all those who are marginalised and targeted, and we must not allow those who seek to divide us to succeed. Every person deserves to live, gather, and worship in safety and dignity. We condemn this act of violence unequivocally, and restate our commitment to building a world where this kind of horror is no longer possible.

Our hearts are with the victims and their families at this terrible time.

500 drones and 40 missiles last night. At least four dead in Kyiv including a 12 year old.

Please get word out widely. AND something you can do: please contribute to our fundraiser for a unit that intercepts drones and missiles: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/VWE0qk3...

What a clear and impressive answer

BREAKING: Whip restored to Apsana Begum and John McDonnell – LabourList MPs John McDonnell and Apsana Begum have had the Labour whip restored following a conversation with new Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds. The whip was removed…

🌹 BREAKING: Apsana Begum and John McDonnell - the last of the Labour two child benefit cap rebels have the whip restored on the eve of Labour Party Conference.

An image of text describing the event.

Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Join us at #Lab25 to understand this challenge & build a movement to resist.

@labourlewis.bsky.social, @minnierahman.bsky.social, Shabna Begum, Amna Abdullatif, @maybulman.bsky.social (@lighthousereports.com) & @joemulhall.bsky.social (@hopenothate.org.uk).

It’s not ideal but seems pretty manageable in the scheme of things. It’s also clearly his intention, otherwise what would be the point of declaring war on the Labour leadership? If he was planning to stay in post for three more years would make more sense to lie low for now.

He can it “just” forces a mayoral by-election.

Good on Andy Burnham for putting an alternative vision for a transformative Labour government. But I really hope he’s nailed down someone to resign their seat pronto so he can fight his way back into Westminster. Otherwise he’s going to look a bit silly declaring war without an army.

I just do not understand in what world a Labour advisor is suggesting it would be a good idea to write in the Telegraph. Even if you buy that they need the 'hero' voters and to win them from Reform they are not the type of Reform voter reading the Telegraph.

Keir Starmer writes in the Telegraph (where else!?) that Labour “did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration.” Perhaps I was living in a parallel universe when I wrote this for @politicalquarterly.bsky.social in 2014? (Free to read version here: qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstr...)

“a grimly Weimar like quality to Britain’s predicament: a mass of citizens disorientated and disillusioned with its political institutions. The risk is the next crisis acts as a tipping point propelling the far right even further”

Interesting

It's alarming how many people need to hear this: racism is not the natural and inevitable response to the presence of (the wrong number of) racialised Others. It is a learned response, and as such it is contestable and replaceable.

This is anti-racism 101. Entry level stuff.

Nicolas Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy The former French president was accused of using funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy re Gaddafi funds www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reform’s radical gamble on Indefinite Leave to Remain may backfire - UK in a changing Europe This week, Reform UK proposed abolishing the Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status for migrants coming to the UK. Rob Ford explains that this proposal of permanent exclusion is not at all popular wi...

A short piece for @ukandeu.bsky.social looking at Reform’s proposal to end ILR - a gamble that may backfire as it is way out of line with public opinion. Just 3% of voters back permanently excluding migrants from access to the welfare state as Farage proposes to do ukandeu.ac.uk/reforms-radi...

How do we resist the rise of oligarch backed far right and extreme nationalism? @lukecooper100.bsky.social writes for the US magazine @thenation.com on Britain’s local MAGA movement and the strategic questions it poses.

What is to be done? Well I conclude with a thought on that but you’ll have to read the article 😊 /ends www.thenation.com/article/worl...

This whole situation gives a grimly Weimar like quality to Britain’s predicament: a mass of citizens disorientated and disillusioned with its political institutions. The risk is the next crisis acts as a tipping point propelling the far right even further fwd /8 www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Farage doesn’t need to convince many more people of his positive programme but only that he’s the lesser evil to the divided parties of the liberal left; and the electoral system cd easily turn out a freak result handing his party a majority on 30% of the vote /7 www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Even among the left of labour parties a fierce battle between three candidates is under way for who will lead the progressive alternative, while Labour mimic Reform’s narrative and the Tories privately discuss a merger /6

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

As you can see from the More in Common polling , there is still a large democratic majority standing against Farage and especially Robinson. But this majority is bitterly divided and politically fragmented /5

www.thenation.com/article/worl...