Samuel Barnes 🌹

So proud to be on this slate of amazing candidates!

Please consider nominating us, and Mainstream's candidates for NEC at your next CLP meeting!

Looking forward to seeing my fellow Labour party members at our South West Regional Conference. Only 2 weeks left to sign up

Who else is coming? If you’ve never been to a Labour Conference before, a regional conference is a great introduction!

Rights will be lost, Free thought will be punished and education will be shunned. We're entering a dangerous time in politics, and it feels so many outside of the typically marginalised groups aren't yet ready to see that.

When the people feel the system isn't working for them, of course they're going to build a resentment towards it. Democracy is heading to a breaking point; until we recognise that we MUST boost peoples quality of life and make societal more equitable we will see the populist right continue to rise.

Everything I say here is a result of the failure of mainstream politics from both sides of the political divide to deliver for the people they serve. People don't just lose faith in truth, in democracy, in liberty - they're made to believe they the reasons for life's misgivings.

Safe in the knowledge that, to a now significant population, truth doesn't matter, respect is merely a sign of weakness, and hate is a sign of strength.

We live in a time where mild disagreements result in heinous accusations being made destroying the idea and principle of debate as we know it. Politics has been reduced to sound bites and rage bait, where politicians believe all publicity is good publicity.

Kier Starmer is right. Once we lose the anchor of truth, a very slippery slope exists. Yet, I think it's too late, the anchor has dissolved and we're sliding very quickly down this slippery slope. We're living in a time where people are shamed or distrusted for being knowledgeable on a matter.

An era where the convicted felon can rule the most powerful nation in the western world, where a human trafficker can be allowed to the win the hearts of too many young men; where parties linked to Far-right, violent and nationalist movements have the potential to usurp mainstream established ideas.

FPTP won't save us now, respectful and civil politics has failed and what we have now is a threat from people who no longer care about what people think of them. The era of political polish is over, we now exist amongst an era of politics that is shameless and ruthless.

Extremism and populism is born from desperation. Putin didn’t come to power in Russia because everything was going well, the rise of Viktor Orban was not in response to the great state of the Hungarian economy, the rise of fascism across Europe in the 1930s sure didn't come from mass happiness.

The rhetoric will grow, and as it becomes louder and as education is further destroyed, more and more people will parrot these idea and fewer and fewer will be able to voice an opposition. The future is bleak, and its dangerous.

The far right will continue to target to marginalised groups, and when, the former issues still remain and even worsen, they'll spice up their rhetoric. It'll no longer be able reducing immigration, it'll be about deportations, then it'll be about revoking citizenship,

We're being told the reason for the ills of our society is not income inequality, disappearing opportunity, mass wealth accumulation, faltering public services but instead it's immigration, its the destruction of 'tradition values', it's the rise of tolerance.

We need to be clear here, this movement against social equalities and minority rights will not disappear and it is no longer a case of a vocal but small minority. We are seeing social conservatism captivate a wider and wider audience.

The past decades have been a golden era for progress, where popular consensus backed progress and Liberal thought on the rights of minorities and marginalised groups. This is now being stripped away in the eyes of a new right-wing populist movement gripping the Western world.

I feel this is a real lesson in realising that rights are never guaranteed and progress is never permanent. If we don't continue to fight to keep the progress we make over the years it will be yanked away by the same people who prevented it in the first place.

I want to begin writing a couple opinion pieces of internal party affairs - I'd greatly appreciate giving my first piece a read. It's a, potentially harsh and critical, view and outlook on the future of the soft left in its current form.
samspeaks.squarespace.com/opinion-piec...

This is such an excellent idea and more NEC members should be aiming to discuss more openly their work and views on the committee. Aware Ann Black has done a fantastic job at this the past years but positive we're seeing more take this on board!

📢The Guardian is now officially on Bluesky

@theguardian.com

Less Good Candidate demands a recount.

Parry, Cai Labour Party - 3,012,281,283 votes

Candidate, Less Good Bad Party - 2 votes

Get this man on a ballot 🔥🔥🔥🗳🗳🗳

Let's put the effort in now to build our base on the regional executive committee, not limited to just the South West, and I urge everyone on the soft left to stand for internal roles and campaign for amazing pluralist candidates across Labour Party committees!

The success of the soft left majority in the Labour Party depends on us treating every election, on every level of the party seriously and promoting candidates to stand even where they may not be successful. We have a solid foundation to build a significant soft left group in the party.

With South West Labour Party regional elections coming up in Febuary we need to build a group of soft left, pluralist and non-alligned group to stand for the Regional Executive Committee. It must not be understated what a huge task this entails - but we need to start organising from the bottom up!

Welcome to the new Labour MPs joining Bluesky! 🌹 🦋

@jessicatoale.bsky.social @lukecharters.bsky.social @samanthaniblett.bsky.social @adamjogee.bsky.social @cateccles.bsky.social

Follow them all here👇
go.bsky.app/EW4FZwp

Well this alot more peaceful isn't it 😔