Cummings retro-edit of his blog perfectly timed to coincide with @SenTomCotton mainstreaming the "Wuhan Lab Theory" - the global right want to use this pandemic for a Cold War on China... 1/ My column: newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
2/ The Wuhan Lab story was pushed into the mainstream by a "member of Cobra" and a UK government minister (in the Mail) 10 days before US intel agencies started briefing their own media... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
4/ The UK govt has repeatedly squashed the Wuhan Lab story. I don't know whether they have any evidence for it but as Bannon says Five Eyes and others are looking at it - but if they do, you can bet it will be the Gulf of Tonkin, v convenient for Trump's election strategy...
5/ Bannon, Trump, Cotton, the US right are determined a) to make the election about confronting China; b) to really confront China - because it's in China's interest for globalisation to continue, while their project is "Westphalian"... thewirechina.com/2020/05/24/ste…
5/ The left, too, should be seriously critical of the CCP: here's why #ClearBrightFuture is not on sale in Beijing...
6/ But as I argue here: any Western strategy to contain China by destroying its economy will lead not just to military confrontation - but to a continental-scale Fallujah. The west won't pick up the pieces, the pieces will pick up the pieces...newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
7/ The British political debate is muted on China. The Tory party is split because the City just wants to keep taking the money, same as with Saudi; Labour wary of all geopolitics; military/security rightly focused on Russia... but... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
8/ It's time to activate calm, responsible debate: defend democracy in HK, smart reindustrialisation of UK/Europe, identify and counter (democratically) China's soft power moves here - but reject Bannon's warmongering. newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
9/ If you have time, read the 57-page propaganda playbook of the GOP on China... because it's coming here: link in the article... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
9/ While we are here, if anyone wants a free copy of Live Working or Die Fighting in Chinese, I've just put it on Academia... it's the job of the Chinese people to build an alternative to the CCP - not Bannon! academia.edu/attachments/63…
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In a jaw dropping interview with Channel 4 News, Zack Polanski claims he wants both "to reform NATO from within" and replace it with "an alternative alliance of countries based in Europe… plus Brazil and Mexico and global south countries"... let's unpack... 1/
2/ NATO is an alliance formed by treaty. It is the lynchpin of the rules based global order, together with the UN. All 31 countries are signed up to defend each other. Can you imagine what would happen if we, the 5th biggest economy, left it?
3/ If the UK left NATO it would collapse. There would not be "an alliance of UK with other European countries plus Mexico and Brasil" - there would be the Russian occupation of Estonia, Lithuania, probably Svalbard and likely the collapse of Ukraine...
Zack Polanski's puerile name-calling during an international crisis is testament to a profound lack of seriousness... here's the sum total of the GPEW's response so far... 🧵1/~
2/~ Starmer has not "appeased" Trump. He has conducted tough diplomacy over Ukraine, talking Trump back from a total sell-out; he has banned all relevant arms sales to Israel; and on Greenland he has made defence of Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders self-determination a red line
3/~ But at the last election the GPEW did NOT say "relying on US for nukes is dangerous"... they said give up nuclear weapons unilaterally... here's the manifesto...
Russia's talking point of the day already being echoed by useful idiot savants ... "They can't invade Europe because they couldn't defeat Ukraine" - here's why that's wrong ... 1/ They have 350k troops in Belarus trained to do exactly that ...
2/ Russia just carried out an attack exercise in Belarus where it practised only with its strategic forces - showing how it will use lessons learned in Ukraine to menace Europe once there is a frozen conflict in Ukraine
3/ Specifically Russia has 3x options - destabilise Moldova, seize Svalbard, attack a Baltic state - in each case it may judge that with Guardianista useful idiots and "actionists" plus far right parties in W Europe - and Trump in power - NATO would not respond... but...
I'm a China hawk but I am sick of Tory duplicity and 💩 Fleet Street commentary on "why don't we designate China a threat"? Neither Johnson, Sunak nor Truss did so, despite Truss threatening... and here's why: 1/ This is what a "threat" to National Security looks like...
2/ ... it's a nuclear capable Russian aircraft with a missile that can travel at Mach 10: three of them spent 12 minutes in NATO airspace last month... and the RAF regularly has to intercept these and other Russian threats...
3/ In 2021 the Tory govt recognised China as a "systemic competitor" - that is, a country determined to compete with us over economic interests, values and geopolitical influence... then, in 2022, China overtly backed the Russian invasion of Ukraine....
I just used my fingerprint to log into my Apple computer; I used facial recognition to pay for an e-bike on my Apple phone; I ordered a repeat prescription on the NHS app that holds every detail of every illness I have ever been treated for on a central server...1/
2/ ... I had to show my drivers' licence to get into a briefing from a civil servant; I used the e-gates at LCY to cross the border without having to speak to a human being... why would I object to "the state" issuing me with digital proof of ID?...
3/... Labour must of course address privacy concerns and the possibility of cyberattacks on a single digital ID - but there are massive libertarian and economic upsides to a society where *everybody is who they say they are*...
Labour's reshuffle was deftly completed and has rewarded competence and narrative skill. Task now is to start not just delivering but telling a story of who we are - I am proud of what Labour is achieving... here's one example... 1/