1/ People think that Leavers and many Tory voters will be shocked and angry when they realise they've been lied to. That's naive, the Tory supporters know their leaders are lying, and they like and are grateful for the lies, which express their views and harm their enemies.
2/ Democracy relies on people feeling they and their political opponents form a single democratic community, with a common code of conduct. But the UK is not a democratic society. The nationalist right now act as a tribe that is free to cheat and lie against its enemies.
3/ The propaganda of the Brexit right is cynically devised to inflame tribal sentiments. We are threatened by an influx of migrants, we are controlled by or attacked by the EU, and the liberal metropolitan enemies within are undermining the moral & cultural fabric of the nation.
4/ I think some of Starmer's advisers are telling him the culture wars will end. I believe this is nonsense. The Tories and their media allies will always find new ways of whipping them up. They have to, because that is how they plan to retain power.
5/ I believe Labour should join the LibDems, Greens and PC in a ProgressiveAlliance, and take a clear stance on one side of the culture wars, but moderate enough to appeal to middle of the road voters who are patriotic but prefer good government to flag-waving jingoism.
6/ Labour needs to redefine patriotism in terms of care - of careful thought and responsible hard work to address this country's problems, rather than loudmouthed jingoism, the abdication of responsibility, and the scapegoating of minorities and foreigners.

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More from @nickreeves9876

22 Mar
Brexit: Starmer says Labour will not fight ‘yesterday’s wars’ and doesn’t ‘want to rejoin’

Starmer is deluded, the Brexit deal and the Protocol are so divisive, destructive and unstable that Brexit politics is here to stay. Brexit is absolutely not done. thelondoneconomic.com/politics/brexi…
Brexit is a horrible mess which the Tories and their press allies will use to stir up nationalist hysteria. It is not going away. And so long as Labour tries to appeal to Brexiters it will increasingly alienate and anger the majority of its voters and members.
And Labour won't succeed with the Brexiters, because it won't be able or want to match the Tories for loudmouthed jingoism and xenophobia. So by trying to appease the Brexiters it will lose on all counts.
Read 4 tweets
22 Mar
The #PoliceBill is not directed against violent protests. It has no impact on them. It aims to suppress peaceful protest. It is an attack on our rights and liberty. It is not the act of a democratic government. It is the act of a Putinist regime.
The #PoliceBill is not the act of any legitimate democratic government. It drives a bulldozer through the right to protest which is a constitutional cornerstone of any democracy. And the UK is only a democracy by dint of unwritten constitutional conventions and norms.
With a compliant Commons majority the PM has the power of an absolute monarch. In the UK the power of the monarch was not curbed by a constitution, instead it was transfered to the monarch's proxy - the PM.
Read 8 tweets
19 Mar
On the authoritarian right politics is largely built around tribal power, leadership, and war against the other. On the left it's about principles, but on the authoritarian left the principles are treated as sacred and deviation becomes heresy - hence hard leftist intolerance.
When Theresa May mocked 'citizens of nowhere' her purpose wasn't to state an idiotically obvious truth, but to deny the idea of a common humanity, to whom universal principles could apply. She was asserting the tribal view that each tribe has its principles and rights.
In a tribal mentality, which denies universal rights, it's not incoherent to deny Scotland rights which you demand for the UK (Greater England). Scotland is simply viewed as an inferior tribal entity which has fewer rights than England.
Read 4 tweets
19 Mar
A reminder of the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 when over 100,000 people stood up against Union Jack waving fascists posing as patriots.
A photo of the rally of 30,000 fascists in Earl's Court in July 1939 side by side with a photo of one of Farage's rallies. Farage will have been well aware of, and I'm sure very pleased by the similarity. Again more Union Jack waving fascism.
Fascist leader Oswald Mosley said "True democracy only begins when the Will of the People is carried out". Now where have we heard that recently? Brexit has injected a huge chunk of fascist ideology into our politics.
Read 4 tweets
17 Mar
The Tories are step-by-step destroying our democracy. We on Twitter, need to think of ourselves not just as voicing our opinions and talking about politics, but as campaigners actively working on building campaigns - the most important of which is the one to save our democracy.
Other campaigns are very important, but if the Tories are allowed to turn the UK into a Putinist managed democracy then none of them will have any effect. That's why saving, and rebuilding our battered democracy has to be the key campaign.
I don't want to see responses on the lines of 'we are just stuck on Twitter'. If you think that, then think of ways you and others can help get our campaigns out of Twitter and into the wider world. Be a campaigner, not a commentator.
Read 4 tweets
13 Mar
Please retweet if you want the opposition parties to cooperate in the next General Election in order to get the Tories out.

If you support this campaign, please put #FBPA (Follow Back Progressive Alliance) in your Twitter names.
Compass is organising a campaign for a Progressive Alliance backed by MPs including Clive Lewis, Layla Moran and Caroline Lucas. There are Compass groups in Labour, LibDems and Greens. compassonline.org.uk/campaigns/
The next government must rebuild our broken democracy. We need electoral reform and legislation to push (as far as can be done) big money out of politics. We need a much stronger Electoral Commission. There must be a clampdown on political lies, media reform, and plenty more.
Read 5 tweets

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