In #HowToStopFascism I produced a 21C summary of the fascist thought-architecture... yesterday's @NatConTalk conference ticked a lot of boxes... 1/...
2/ "It's not racist to oppose mass immigration..." ... "our way of life"..."lower birth rate"... "multiculturalism is recipe for national disaster"..."Cultural Marxism"... they know exactly what they are doing...
3/ It's not fascism, yet. Nor is it actually right-wing populism per se. As I explain in the book, the fascist thought-architecture acts like a magnet on right-wing conservatism, pulling them into its moral/intellectual orbit...
4/ Using this language, the NatCons give extremists permission to use their own version of it: liberalism turned from valid tradition to alien ideology... human rights lawyers otherised... feminists cast as collaborators... it's all there in Camus...
5/ All those nice people at the tennis club, or at the church fete in Toryshire, or in the investment bank ... this is where your party is headed unless •you• call a halt. It happened to the Republicans. It's happening here.
6/ Of course they don't espouse the Day X fantasy yet. That's the dividing line. The issue is, are they prepared to use state power to suppress the would-be fascist insurrectionaries? Answer: the Tories are trying to rewrite the policing of extremism to focus away from RWX...
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/