The problem with this analysis is that it's all well and true but a considerable amount of people stated that this kind of thing was going to happen.

The only place where we were wrong was that we vastly understated quite how pointless and directionless Starmer was going to be.
Like most of us on the left find centrists to be a waste of space and all the rest - but Starmer is legitimately quite extraordinary. He seems to take this to astonishing levels. He isn't even bothering to oppose the government.
The Liverpool manoeuvre is notable - even Blair wouldn't do something as absurdly daft as that.
This line by Mason is notable: Image
It is not a case of "some". This is imprecise. It is the case that the central figures of the leadership - Starmer, Dodds, Evans, et al - believe this.

And whilst yes, the LP should be in touch with grassroots movements, it won't be - and can't ever be - in this leadership.
This is the crucial flaw with Mason's positioning over the past year or so. Starmer is not left-wing. His project is not left-wing. The people around him are not left-wing.
Everything you need to know about this is summed up by the fact that the leadership were going to whip to abstain on the PCSC Bill.
This plan collapsed after people rightfully performed civil disobedience: attending the vigil in defiance of police instructions to not go - and then having the crap beaten out of them.
The bluntness of it bares repeating: the leadership only decided to not abstain after images & anecdotes of women being pinned down, shoved, kicked, elbowed in the face, & insulted by Met police officers came out on social media.

Starmer and his team are a disgrace.
It took *institutionalised abuse* *against women* *in a public space* to force them to change their position.

Astonishing when you think about it.

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More from @joinaunionpls

27 Mar
We need to come attuned to the fact that the methodology of policing deployed here is very clearly a policy choice coming from the top down.

Every time:

Wait till it's night. Use dogs and horses and batons. Turn a sit-in into a stand up angrier protest. Apply force

#Bristol
This is not an accident. This is not bad apples. This is not a one off isolated incident.

The same strategy & techniques happens every night. The same pattern of events without fail.

#killthebill
#BristolProtest
They very obviously do it at night for a range of reasons: (a) less protesters at night, (b) more difficult to film police misconduct & (c) night-time is more disorientating/frightening for protesters being beaten up than in the day time.

#BristolProtest
#killthebill
#Bristol
Read 4 tweets
26 Mar
A line in the sand please.

From now on *don't ever* allow the political right or anyone associated with the Conservative Party to *ever* offer moral lectures on freedom.

The #policebill is a disgrace as is the brutish policing of the #BristolProtest.

#killthebill
I personally never fell for the whole "Tory civil libertarian" shtick but I hope from now on more people have their eyes open about this.

#killthebill
Results from how Parliament voted on the #PolicingBill. Just *where exactly* are these Tory "civil libertarians"? *Where* the hell are they?

votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/…

#killthebill
#BristolProtest
Read 4 tweets
26 Mar
Obviously I'm not trying to erase or downplay the authoritarian tendencies pre existent in UK politics but watching this I can't help but feel like we're entering frankly new territory.

We are hurtling into authoritarianism - fast.

#BristolProtest
#Bristol
Liberty is delicate and previous. It needs to be nurtured and ruggedly defended.

The spare, unequally distributed & contingent freedoms we have are being pulled from beneath us.

The lesson is obvious: don't allow them to do it.

#BristolProtest
#Bristol
The lockdown is an instructive metaphor. The value of civil liberties is only appreciated when you have that stripped from you.

Imagine some of the tendencies & power techniques involved in this lockdown becoming permanent & refined.

That makes me angry.

#BristolProtest
Read 4 tweets
26 Mar
My intervention in The Discourse™ on racist white gays is merely to say that the LGBT rights movement in the UK - and politicians that liberalised laws - has often been characterised by what I call "low stakes liberalism".

#whitegays #LGBTQ
In other words they are willing to offer reforms & limitations on the state but only for the least contentious issues and for the least immiserated people in the LGBT community.

#whitegays #LGBTQ
This essentially means: allowing the gays to get married & have sex at 16 but radio silence on gay people being deported, radio silence on lesbians in Yarls Wood, discomfort at standing in solidarity with trans people.

#whitegays #lgbtq
Read 4 tweets
25 Mar
No this is what ACORN do when they consistently irritate Labour politicians with direct action & community organising.
Why wait for a Labour government who may or may not get transport into public hands. We can fight for that to happen in our communities now.
ACORN are phenomenal. They are at the cutting edge of direct action politics right now in the UK.

It's just win after win. Victory after victory. Their methods & their model for social change is incredibly powerful & effective.
Read 4 tweets
25 Mar
The 20th century fascist project was simply just the logic of colonialism applied to European states.

Viewed from that perspective, this tweet isn't as clever as it thinks it is...
The British flag isn't fascist, true, it's colonial. But fascism & fascist signifiers very much are colonial.

The distinctions are very slight.
Oh and if we want to make direct comparisons - the strategy of the concentration camp, even the usage of barbed wire to enclose people in spaces, derives from the British empire.
Read 5 tweets

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