If critical mass of left/centre had mobilised around soft Brexit after 2017 we'd now be determining nature of the debate: keeping freedom of movement & single market membership.
That didn't happen because liberal establishment *always* thinks it knows best. No Deal now odds on >
For some arch-remainers this manifested itself in a bizarre obsession with Jeremy Corbyn, the politician they most needed to move closer to their ideal outcome. For the Lib Dems it was calculus aimed at reviving their chances with electorate >
This has been a timeline where Alastair Campbell, with the gleeful assistance of the media, thought he was a bigger story than stopping no deal, where Tom Watson - even now - cares more about unseating Corbyn than stopping Boris >
Where Labour backbenchers have compiled dossiers on left journalists to attack and undermine them; where a new party formed and claimed it wanted to avoid no deal...before swiftly voting against a customs union >
But more than anything it boils down to a certain mindset: Trump can never beat Clinton; Brexit can never win; Corbyn will never defy the polls and win 40% of the popular vote.
They still don't get that the figure of the 'people' has returned - especially since 2016 >
They want to put it back in the box and certainly don't see it's an outgrowth of an economic model which has decayed steadily since 2008. That's because, as 'moderates', they have no materialist idea of history. It's about 'goodies' and 'baddies' >
What we know from last few years is this: that concept of politics & leadership is over. Be wistful & complain, fine, but it only means things get worse than even Boris & Trump. I'm an optimist but if there's a GE alliance between Brexit and Tories it's hard to see how they lose>
And you know what that would mean? The usual suspects - within the Labour parliamentary party - demanding Corbyn resign. That is their priority, even now.
It's genuinely stunning that these people have chosen the course of action they have over the last 2 years.
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Very obvious that the Labour right are now starting to use exact same campaign techniques against the Greens that they used against Corbyn.
Greens should take that seriously: most of broadcast media is New Labour aligned & very happy to repeat garbage - from Sky to BBC & LBC 1/3
How does it work?
1) They attack credibility/integrity by attacking your social networks & fragmenting them. This works particularly well against those whose pitch is moral virtue.
2) This is done not just by Labour but by favourable parts of media (Sky, BBC) & NGOs
2/3
Expect a nexus of Labour, LFI, the Board of Deputies, Hope Not Hate etc etc to target the Greens as they become an electoral threat to Labour.
This is literally about them losing seats. Not acceptable!
I wrote for @novaramedia about the Dune films, and why they are the most important of the 2020s.
Not only do they show how humanity’s future could resemble its past, but they underscore our relationship to technology is a *choice*. novaramedia.com/2024/03/20/the…
The Dune universe is built on a critique of technopoly, and the idea that technological progress can be substituted for human progress.
The Butlerian jihad is a more relevant uprising in a world of machine learning & generative AI than the Matrix or the Terminator.
Technology - specifically thinking machines - can be dangerous because it might make us more dependent and more stupid, and therefore less free and less human.
I can’t quite believe what happened a few hours ago, but on my way to the train station, to head into the @novaramedia office, a man I’ve never seen before screamed my name while passing by and assaulted me. I was punched multiple times. (1/5)
Fortunately I was able to pacify him, with subsequent assistance from a passer-by, until the police arrived.
This is someone who knew my name. Fortunately there were multiple independent witnesses, and the man is now being questioned by police. (2/5)
This was a completely unprovoked attack, near my home, in broad daylight.
My suspicion is this was a politically motivated physical attack on a journalist. (3/5)
In 2023 some 50-something men on the left have the same political default as blue haired students occupying universities in 2016. Amazing how quickly it’s happened. No platform for… anyone I don’t entirely agree with!
A later mid life crisis used to mean a red sports car for a man. Now, if you are a progressive, it means pretending you’re at Berkeley university sit in in 1967, forever.
Does anything demonstrate BBC’s complete lack of editorial confidence when it comes to an under 40 audience as seeing Kirsty Wark ask Mizzy about….Andrew Tate. What on Earth??
Median age is 40 in U.K. BBC news is fast becoming irrelevant for anyone younger than that.
Also the Tate interview was utterly crap. Hectoring, predictable questions. Interviewer seemed genuinely underprepared (any gotchas would take hours of proper research watching him and having counter arguments to his replies.)
BBC interviews with Tate & Musk have been abysmal.
This is an organisation which calls itself world class (and in some ways clearly is). But these were woeful. Partly a talent problem but also think the BBC’s notion of credible journalism is just very dull and low information now to most people under 40 (and some over too Ofc!)
You can now watch my interview with @GoodwinMJ on the @novaramedia youtube channel. A few thoughts & an apology.
Firstly, I think it important to interview Goodwin as anti-elite politics are now the shared political fabric of *everyone*.
It's important to interrogate the right's version of that, & hold it alongside left's.
Personally I think an anti-elite politics infused with proper class analysis makes infinitely more sense, & I hope that comes across in the interview. The conservative account is lightweight.
I want to talk about landlords and a financial elite who are holding the rest of the country to ransom. Meanwhile I think Matthew, and 'anti-elite' conservatives, want to talk about the latest random ad campaign on Tik Tok...