RIP to Jesse Jackson. His funeral is today. I wanted to share this clip from his appearance on Sesame Street in 1971. His important words ring just as true today as they did back then.
🧵Feels like shouting into the void, but it is essential to note that the Trump/Rubio gutting of the State Department and blowtorching of US diplomatic capacity and credibility is an accelerant to this spiraling war and will seriously undercut US/allied efforts to pick up the pieces after. 1/
President Trump demands unconditional surrender in respect of something his government insists is not a war.
Friend suggested yesterday’s Badenoch Today programme interview. Embarrassing stuff. The polls obviously put the Conservatives nowhere. Interviews like this don’t suggest that will change.
Incredibly telling Kemi Badenoch interview on Today:
- can’t say what she’d actually want UK forces to do
- no idea what objective her proposed military action is to achieve
- hides from reality that single biggest constraint on British military = her govt’s defence cuts
Again, Farage, Badenoch and their fellow travellers on X are wildly out of touch with the public on Iran.
Even the majority of Reform supporters oppose their position.
What do Britons think the UK military response to the US-Iran conflict should be?
Purely defensive (shooting down drones, etc): 46%
Retaliatory only against Iran sites that launched attacks: 26%
Actively joining US + Israel in wide attacks on Iran: 8%
yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
Destroying the Iranian state with the IRGC still around as a substantial armed actor in whatever hollowed out husk remains would generate levels of instability that will inevitably drag in the forces of most of Iran's neighbours long after the Americans and Israelis have declared victory and left
I'd quite like a journalist to ask him to clarify his beliefs about how running surveys works, and specifically whether he believes that if Hope Not Hate commissions a survey, Survation - or indeed any other polling agency - colludes to supply them with the answers they want.
Every newspaper from the Express to the Guardian is using “expats” to talk about British immigrants in UAE. Every last one. These people do not need a special word.
WELCH: Mr. Yoho is also the husband of your former spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin?
NOEM: Yes
WELCH: So your former assistant and her husband are the ones that got the DHS no bid contract for $143m. Any dispute about that?
NOEM: No.
Nigel Farage lied multiple times at his press conference today - including saying no-one who voted Green in Gorton and Denton has a job and he's "certain" Reform won most British born voters in the by-election, based on zero evidence, and yet not a single journalist there pushed back on them
Denmark has *far* worse outcomes - economic, social and integration - than the UK.
Just a fantasyland for those who want an excuse for their own xenophobia and/or are incapable of doing the hard work of confronting the UK's real problems.
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...
How many more times do these people need to get hit in the face by the reality before their publishers finally begin noticing?
“We cannot say that the United States’ actions are against international law, but we condemn Iran’s retaliatory actions as against international law,” is neither a coherent nor a compelling position.
Mark Warner: "I saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States. None."
I think there is going to be a very substantial backbench rebellion against the immigration bill. Not at all convinced it will survive without concessions.
Farage / far right anger over by-election result entirely understandable. Because having wanted to emphasise the commonwealth and the white working classes, the two got together to defeat him. Which is complete humiliation.
As journalists working today many of us are taught to recognise disinformation when we see it and fight back against it.
Unfortunately there are some who willingly seek it out and put it on their front pages. A disgrace to the profession.
Well, no, they’re not just as wrong. The bigger error is not seeing that “trying to win over voters from a party on the opposite end of the spectrum, whose values your core voters oppose” is not same as “chasing voters from party on same side ideologically whose values your core voters like.”
And to think he was overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize.
They don't need to "move left" in the sense of adopting Green policies. They do need to stop insulting their own voters. Not the same thing.
One other issue here is while there is rightly discussion about what happens if the Iranian regime survives and Trump et al have no plan for what next, there also needs to be more discussion of scenarios where the regime falls and Trump et al have no plan for what next
That Nigel Farage thinks it is more important not to endanger his backing from the US government than take a position that reflects the overwhelming sentiment of the British public reflects underlying structural contradictions that could split the British Far Right
Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.
Everyone is analysing the implications of the byelection for Keir Starmer and Labour but the most important lessons are for democracy - my latest for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gort...
The real threat to democracy doesn't come from 'family voting'. It comes from the losing side refusing go accept they've lost
It seems to me that effective policy responses to this (new financial instruments, optimisation of AI models etc.) will depend very much on open auto industry data standards & effective legislation to ensure public authorities have access to the rich vehicle and environmental data that AVs capture.
Using boilerplate messaging that would use for George Galloway about Hannah Spencer personally & how she will approach being an MP is tin eared, graceless, implausible to the immediate audience (Labour MPs) and esp the broader one (Labour waverers/switchers) underpinned by the wrong strategy
