Lord Frost wanted to rip up his own Brexit treaty, to let the planet burn and let Covid-19 rip through the population. That is the real Conservatism - a cult of social suicide... but Johnson couldn't buy it... 1/ newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
2/ Johnson "ism" is just kluge together of state patronage, debt-fuelled (meagre) growth, geopolitical hubris and corruption. It is not a philosophy - but... newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
3/ Hard Brexit, the small state and austerity - three essential beliefs of the modern Tory party - cannot be sustained amid the real capitalism of the 21C - beset by climate chaos, C-19 and permanent QE... newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
4/ Frost had to climb down over the ECJ - so a European court still has jurisdiction in the UK; he saw "net zero" adopted as Tory policy, mandating a big spending big state; and Johnson told him no more Covid restrictions (🤷🏼♀️) ... newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
5/ Coming next - either a blatant cover up or prosecutions and resignations over Xmas parties; and more on the flat refurbishments... and more WhatsApp wars between deluded backbenchers and the Cabinet... newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
6/ Much more important: an ideologically coherent conservatism is becoming impossible - paradoxically at the very moment that social-democracy and liberalism converge on net zero economics: newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
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Tory Covid rebellion means Johnson, and any future leader, need Labour votes to uphold science-based public health strategy - here's why newstatesman.com/comment/2021/1…
The US press this w/e is full of well sourced briefing about the scale of Putin's threatened invasion of Ukraine. What do we learn? Thread: 1/ from WaPo that the Pentagon sees 100+ battalion equivalents attacking on multiple fronts ...
2/ ... that State Dept has understood Putin's red lines are advancing ... to start heaving NATO-friendly countries in Nordics/Balkans...
3/ ... and that this is about a strategic outcome for VVP, not just another demonstration of power... and that USA is short of options. It's a kind of "wake up weekend" for US political pundits...
Don't celebrate the "10% swing to Labour" in Bexley/Sidcup. In 2019 under Corbyn Labour scored 14,000 votes there; last night, with a corrupt, racist, incompetent Govt, we scored <7,000 - while the UKIP vote returned for Tice... 1/
2/ Around half the normally loyal Tory vote stayed at home - but in a by-election that's easier to do than in a general election where the stakes are existential ...
3/ Bexley/Sidcup shows why Labour has to win the North and Midlands... large parts of suburban southern England are genealogically addicted to racist Toryism and will never "swing"
Labour's reshuffle. A thread. 1/ It's a move to the right - slightly across the whole team, but significantly in one area: crime, policing and security. @YvetteCooper will go toe to toe with Patel over her serially failing Dept, on a traditional Labour agenda...
...2/ and Cooper's politics are not my politics - as you can see from this exchange... but Labour needs to cut thru with Tory-Labour switchers, esp in northern England, and their #1 issue (for many) is crime and personal security - so I see the logic...
3/ Lammy for Nandy is a good swap, and promotion for someone who - again - has started to cut thru with Tory-Labour switchers via LBC... Streeting for Ashworth is basically Old Labour for Soft Left... but buries a potential challenger to KS in a tough portfolio...
Tony Blair offering great solutions for Potemkin Village CLP here 1/ seeks unity with "non-Labour progressive forces" but no mention of Greens, SNP, Plaid ... and it gets worse ... thetimes.co.uk/article/tony-b…
2/ ... yeah "longevity in office" - not committing the U.K. to an illegal war and a doomed occupation, or overseeing financial boom-bust, or the most aggressive adoption of FOM in Europe...
3/ ... now he sees the left as the source of "woke" politics - good job he's not been to an SCG meeting recently - and wants young MPs who are not "woke" - there'll be plenty in Potemkin Village CLP...
I've been monitoring UK far-right Telegram channels following the tragic drowning of migrants in the Channel... there is predictable crowing over the deaths - but also racist venom directed at Priti Patel 1/...
2/ ... the politician who's done the most to stoke expectations of pushbacks and forced deportations is (no doubt because she is Asian) the far right's new hate figure...
3/ ... another disgusting theme of far-right commentary in the chans is that "this was staged to gain sympathy"... often coming from the type of accounts that look manipulated (ie follow the Trump or Russian agenda)...