Boris Johnson's presser was a shameful moment in British governance. Under-prepared, insincere, apologetic - he revealed the NHS is about 6 weeks from collapse, thanks to his refusal to lock down in early October 1/
2/ I've seen a prime minister rattled - Brown and Darling during the second RBS bailout in 2008 - but even they were in control of the timetable. Johnson has lost control of this crisis...
3/ With the entire machinery of government of what is still the 5th most powerful country in the world, Johnson could not stage a coherent briefing to the British people, nor even get the Powerpoint to fit on screen...
4/ I have no confidence in Johnson. Yesterday the put his girlfriend up on TV on a dog/pony show. Today my biosecurity, and yours, is in his the hands of a man who can't even stage a press conference.
5/ That said. We all have to obey this lockdown. Doubly so since the authorities enforcing it in England are incompetent. Let's do it from below, for each other. #JohnsonMustGo

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More from @paulmasonnews

31 Oct
The Great Reset is a half-assed but well intentioned idea by the WEF to design a sustainable version of neoliberalism-lite. But the Covid conspiraloons think it's an actual "global elite plan to take over the world" because the graphic looks like a Freemasonic eye 1/
2/ Here's the Mises Institute and a Vatican conspiraloon spreading the same basic idea... it maps perfectly onto QAnon and plays on the ultimate fear of the disoriented neoliberal self: that society exists after all...
3/ It's totally consistent with Arendt's observation that, before they take power the authoritarian right have to conjure up "a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself" newstatesman.com/world/2020/09/…
Read 7 tweets
30 Oct
If anyone's thinking to spend the weekend fantasising about a left split from Labour, here's an updated summary of why it's crazy ... 1/ Labour is the only route to a left government in Britain. Even Podemos ended up in power as junior partners to PSOE... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
2/ 56% support for Scottish independence and Labour on 13% in Holyrood polls mean 2024 is the last chance saloon. If Scotland is out of the UK there'll have to be something akin to the US Democrats, or Popular Front in 36 - until the demographics change medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
3/ The culture/values conflict is unavoidable and will be intensified inside any left party. Trans rights, migration, Brexit - all the issues that divide the Labour left would divide anything to the left of it: so then there'd be two left alternatives... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
Read 10 tweets
24 Oct
The Tory party is giving us an object lesson in "culture war-ification": free school meals are an economic issue - now they're being elided with criminality and fecklessness 1/ it's not random or accidental ...
2/ and now the Tory MPs are claiming cultural victimhood - "poor little public school educated me, being hounded by the plebs"... when their supporters *still* stand outside Parliament harassing left MPs/ journalists...
3/ It shows the futility of the mantra "don't fight the culture war": their attack on BLM, anticapitalism in schools, Critical Race Theory, "activist lawyers" etc an intelligent fightback but can't be ignored...
Read 5 tweets
20 Oct
The Newsnight film on Labour's divisions under Starmer was pretty accurate... but 1/ Look how easily it has provoked more divisions. Len McCluskey's "counting gold" comment about Mandelson was a disgrace and so was Unite's initial defence of it... he is right to apologise...
2/ The allegation of Starmer being "untrustworthy" from Diane Abbot sounded to me like a left that has no intention of fighting for influence in a battle of ideas... I hope the #GrassrootsVoice NEC slate stays well away from this...
3/ There's a growing logic: the disaffiliation of a big union, a provoked confrontation over the EHRC report, a Unite-led "faction" so that tankies can live in a well-funded echo chamber while abdicating the struggle for a Labour government...
Read 6 tweets
18 Oct
We're in another round of "I'm quitting Labour because..." Seriously? 1/ The state is central to neoliberalism's power; it's the only tool we have to stop climate change. Without a party how do we contest with capital for control of the state? medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
2/ Fine - repurpose some union funds towards extra-party activism. Let's start with a daily news website, massive boost for Momentum, the SCG, Open Labour etc... but shaping the next Labour govt is critical.... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
3/ Or if you are a Leninist who wants to smash the state, fine, join a re-enactment group. The fact is, as with Cliff's SWP in the 1980s, you will still end up obsessing over who controls the Labour Party... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
Read 10 tweets
12 Oct
We're in Covid crisis mode again - and this is just the start. Why? Because Johnson is trapped between libertarian herd-immunity crowd, and a faction that wants to use the crisis to privatise public health... there is no functioning state.... 1/
2/ They promised major businesses there would be no second lockdown - not in public statements but in private briefings. So whatever the epidemiology says, they have to stick to local lockdowns...
3/ But during the summer the libertarians were on top, urging the return of schools, universities, office workers and of course restaurants... the exponential curve is back as a result....
Read 11 tweets

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