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Robert Saunders @redhistorian
, 4 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
As Labour prepares to discipline @margarethodge, here's a post I wrote in April on the culture of complacency, victim-blaming and self-congratulation that has marked the party's response to #Antisemitism. gladstonediaries.blogspot.com/2018/04/labour…
Too often, Labour has tried to silence those who complain rather than challenge the existence of abuse.
Too many on the Left see prejudice as a right-wing problem, of which the Left is incapable. The result is a culture of complacency that allows abuse to flourish.
In disciplining @margarethodge, the leadership has chosen to target the victim rather than the problem. A sad day for the Left, for progressive politics and for a politics of equality and respect. gladstonediaries.blogspot.com/2018/04/labour…
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The conviction that what the world really needs from Britain is "leadership" - indulged by a govt that can barely tie its own shoelaces - is a fallacy with deep historical roots. It has bedevilled British foreign policy since 1945 - & its relations with the EU above all. [THREAD]
2. After the Second World War, Britain's power in the world was severely weakened, but its commitment to global leadership remained undimmed. So govts turned to the Commonwealth as an organisation that "has only to develop its resources to match the power of the United States".
3. Yet hopes that the Commonwealth would provide a new platform for British power were swiftly disappointed, as it became less white, less "British" & less amenable to UK leadership. The result, on the British Right, was a backlash that anticipated later criticism of the EU.
Read 12 tweets
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Rule 1: a total ban on honours for serving Members of Parliament. The only honour to which an MP should aspire is being elected to Parliament by their constituents - and there should be no currency by which the front-benches can purchase their loyalty.
Rule 2: a statutory and muscular "conflict of interest" test. No honours for big party donors, people who have conducted inquiries into the parties bestowing them, or figures in quasi-judicial roles. Like Caesar's wife, honours given on our behalf must be beyond suspicion.
Rule 3: service to a political party, however admirable, is not the same as service to the country. If parties wish to honour chairmen, activists or donors, they should do so in their own way, from their own resources. (We might call this "Cameron's Law").
Read 8 tweets
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Of all the many delusions that have gripped British politics, this is perhaps the most destructive. It's what I call "The Tinkerbell Theory of History" - and it's carrying us down the road to ruin. [THREAD] 1/13
In the Boys' Book of History to which Raab and his ilk subscribe, Britain's glorious past can be traced to a single source. Not geography. Not empire. Not its natural resources or the immigration that birthed the industrial revolution. Just this: sheer pluck & determination. 2/13
Far from being nostalgic for empire, the dominant folk memory of British history is of "plucky little Britain", standing with its backs to the wall in the face of overpowering odds. It's the story of the underdog, hopelessly outnumbered but somehow finding a way through. 3/13
Read 13 tweets

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In Kathleen Hale news, @groveatlantic has issued a statement to @bustle on their decision to publish Hale's essays.

Basically: they stand by their decision to go forward.

(Link: bustle.com/p/author-kathl…) Grove Press saying they stand by their decision to publish Kathleen Hale.
To paraphrase @knoxdiver, I really don't think Kathleen Hale deserves my valuable time or attention.

But I do think we should continue to have some serious discussions on:

1. Why serious, repeated violations of certain boundaries like Hale's isn't art/shouldn't be rewarded,
2. How *we* as a society consume stories shared by people like her.

With the understanding I'm not criticizing anyone, I think the internet/social media has warped our ability to some extent, on how we sometimes view these types of stories.

I saw more than one person express -
Read 7 tweets
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Can you be the reason someone believes in the goodness of people? 🤔 #Discipline
I’m certain we have read that “the person who masters him/herself through self control and discipline is truly undefeatable.” But What then is discipline in simple terms without expending grammar at this time of the night? 🤔
To simply deconstruct from the litany of definitions, it is simply described as ‘self imposed standards for the sake of a higher/greater goal.’ This is why ALL leaders are meant to have self discipline essentially as against other kinds of (external) discipline.
Read 58 tweets
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I don't know how our journalists came to see "storytelling" as the heart of what they do, and "storyteller" as a self-description. I can think of 4-5 elements of journalism more central than "story." Truthtelling, grounding public conversation in fact, verification... listening.
Read @ub14 on how bizarre the centrality of "story" can seem. "After I left law for journalism, I learned that journalists do, in fact, call the people in their stories 'characters.' I remember how astonished I was when I learned that..." Good piece. niemanlab.org/2018/12/the-st…
Or, on the same point — how did journalists come to see themselves a society's storytellers and what are the costs of this misfit self-conception? — read @jeffjarvis on the Der Spiegel scandal, which is all about this. The seduction of storytelling: medium.com/whither-news/t…
Read 7 tweets
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I've absolutely had it with this 24/7 #antisemitism news cycle, which is being weaponised by elements of the Labour party and the mainstream press to undermine the Labour party and its leadership... #TomWatson
If you haven't heard @MikeSegalov on anti-semitism yet, his interviews for the #BBC and Momentum are well worth a listen
As Segalov makes clear, its right to say there are legitimate concerns regarding anti-semitism both across society & within Labour. A fringe element within Labour & most political parties = anti semitic. Also fair to say #antisemitism is being weaponised
Read 12 tweets
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After my tweet below & the Times article today, I wondered if it was just a one-off, this support by a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan for Mr Corbyn?
It wasn't.
12 Aug 2015 'British opposition leader candidate slammed for associations with David Duke'
& here's a picture of Duke (on the far left) in his younger days with some of his friends.
27 Sep 2015 'Jeremy Corbyn - 9/11 was manipulated: Zio watch'
& another pic of Duke on an outing.
Read 9 tweets
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Will America's shift to a majority-minority country be a good thing?

Most Democrats (85%), a majority of Independents (59%), and a substantial minority of Republicans (43%) say YES, it will.

This is pretty amazing result!!

prri.org/research/ameri…
If you think about it, this finding is pretty incredible.

This country is hurtling toward a demographic change that is UNPRECEDENTED in modern history, as far as I know.

And most Americans are EMBRACING that change!!
Many people will be tempted to focus on the partisan difference - the fact that "only" 43% of Republicans say a majority-minority country is a good thing.

But of COURSE the people who don't like demographic change are going to mostly cluster in one party. That's not news!!
Read 12 tweets

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