Tim

YouTube video by Owen Jones Why I'm Standing As Green Party Leader - w/. Zack Polanski

Zack Polanski & Owen Jones, here they directly reference the attacks on trans people:
youtu.be/UfdfeTXvi6I?...

You are right, they don't talk about it all the time, every time. And neither should they. There are a lot of wrongs to right.

But they do talk about it unprompted and supportively.

As a lifelong hate-watcher of #BBCQT it's been incredible to see the tone shift in last night's prog with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on. It should have never been that hard to call for common sense - and actually popular - policies. Someone is actually doing it.

Quick 🧵

That's an interesting example, thank you. What was her name and constituency so I can read up on it?

I imagine Jones gets many comments and reads few. People only have so many hours in the day.

It seems more reasonable to criticise people for things they do, not things they don't.

What points?

You don't like them because...what?

What specifically have they done?

I asked for something, and I got vague protests about supporting a party which has just elected a vocally pro-trans-rights LGBT man with an overwhelming majority.

If that's your threshold, then it's unachievable.

Suppose you want to talk about wasting time. In that case, I'm amazed that trans people - who are under constant attack from people who loathe and want to exterminate them - are spending their time attacking allies for not allying perfectly enough.

That's how you end up with no allies at all.

A stonker of a night for us. Three huge wins, Reform nowhere near us and the Tories down to ten percent in Mel Stride’s own seat.

We are the only party taking Farage on and the only party beating him.

All my comics have happy endings!

So you'd rather abandon all political parties than fight to reclaim one from transphobes?

What has he done to "piss on trans women and girls"? Is there something I missed?

Zack has spoken up in support of trans people vocally and passionately many times.

I've seen him doing it in interviews and videos repeatedly just in the last few months since I started following his work.

In fairness, he's consistently supported trans people.

It's just that right now he's been very focused on the Gaza genocide.

We all have a limited number of hours in the day.

Truly we live in the most Trump-brained timeline. Maybe, just maybe the Nobel Prize committee gave María Corina Machado the peace prize on her own merits, rather than so as not to give Trump the award while making it impossible for him to criticise their choice.

I do wonder if Labour might look at the sorts of people dominating the discourse and dominating the content wars and maybe, just maybe, rethink the sorts of grey figures they routinely put up for interviews, instructed at that to be as cautious as possible. Things have changed. Their comms hasn’t.

🧵 In case you are still wondering why so many of us in the academy are still so very angry about That Column

Ok, @zackpolanski.bsky.social

You convinced me.

I joined. 🫣

Meh, you can expect things to be disorganised at first.

The shitshow with the membership portal, etc, is a much bigger concern for me.

Also, why the fuck do we need yet another left-wing party to split the FPTP vote?!?

This is truly brilliant. Such a way to communicate,
#USDemocracy #Voices4Victory

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

If we never give anyone a chance, then yes, they can't disappoint us. But they also can't rise to the occasion.

He's definitely growing on me.

YouTube video by Green Party of England & Wales Let's Make Hope Normal Again - Green Party Political Broadcast

Zack has been making great videos for a while, but this is perfection.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxt4...

Many of us know only too well the family member who's always been BNP-adjacent. The ex-Tory who votes Farage, these aren't nice, amenable people. They aren't people you want to live around and try to convince.
@flyingrodent.bsky.social summed this up well
bsky.app/profile/flyi...

Labour's current messaging:

"Farage is right about everything, but vote for us anyway".

It's so monumentally stupid that everyone involved with it should never be allowed to run anything, ever.

And instead, we're stuck with spineless idiots while racists and bootlickers take over the country.

No. They're offering Reform-lite, not full-fat Reform. They aren't going to strip ILR... but they are going to do a speech demonising people with it.

Well, guess what. Those people who want Reform will just vote Reform.

And decent people who don't want any flabour of Reform will find alternatives.

Erm. We've all watched Labour do it, Marlowe.

Why do you think Labour support is diminishing by the day?

It's nice to see someone stick to their principles. 🙂

Reading this thread might be instructive to some of your fellow Guardian reporters.

I used to pay money to support The Guardian every month, and I had to stop since I won't fund blatant transphobia.

🤣

You could try apologising and learn instead of doubling down. 🤣

I'm very concerned about all the #GlobalSumudFlotilla detainees, but especially Hannah Schafer, who seems likely to be held in extended detention in Israel. Israeli armed forces have committed grave and multiple breaches of international law in attacking the flotilla and mistreating its crew.

To be clear @peterwalker99.bsky.social no one cheers an awful policy announcement that makes anyone in our community feel less welcome or at risk of deportation.

What is true is that the Tory party is dead and that the Lib Dems will always stand up for our incredible immigrant communities.