Steve Howell Profile picture
May 25 3 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Filipinos are rising up against Pax Silica (a US-led AI cartel) but who knew the UK's a member?

Starmer took us into this in December but the only coverage I've found is Labour Friends of Israel welcoming the alliance to "protect sensitive technologies from hostile nations". 1/3
2/3 As well as the US, UK, Israel and the Philippines, the 14 members of Pax Silica are Australia, Finland, Greece, India, Japan, Norway, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore and UAE.

As @RnaudBertrand puts it Pax Silica is US "vendor lock-in" to regulate AI "the way America wants."
3/3 The LFI statement on Pax Silica is here: lfi.org.uk/uk-and-israel-…

The US is putting pressure on the EU to join the cartel but many member states are wary - so much so that the EU is discussing plans to *reduce* technological dependence on the US. See: politico.eu/article/us-pus…

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More from @FromSteveHowell

Nov 25, 2025
Cold War Puerto Rico - the story of how Washington used the tools of 'McCarthyism' to keep its Caribbean fortress as a colony.

Most of the people on the cover of my new book were imprisoned multiple times in the 1950s as J Edgar Hoover orchestrated a red scare on the island. 1/3 Image
As Trump mounts an authoritarian attack on 'radicals' across the US and uses Puerto Rico for a military build up against Venezuela, Cold War Puerto Rico puts this in context and draws lessons for today.

The book's out next year but is on offer for pre-order now. See below. 2/3 Image
3/3 In the US, PR or internationally, there's a 40% discount if you pre-order the book via the publisher before Jan 4 using the code 'holiday'. See: umasspress.com/9781625349491/…
In the UK and Ireland, the book is available for £20 (inc post) via my website: steve-howell.com/cold-war-puert… Image
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Read 4 tweets
Jun 4, 2024
1/ How YouGov's dodgy MRP poll treated Birmingham.

Headlines:
- It classified every seat as 'safe Labour'
- It forecasted Labour's vote share to rise across the city, despite it falling in the W Midlands mayoral election
- Its treatment of 'others' suggests political/ethnic bias Image
2/ YouGov's forecast that every seat in Birmingham is safe for Labour suggests MRP's prediction of a Labour landslide is based on rocky foundations.

In my view, though Starmer's likely to win, his majority will be reduced by some losses in 'safe' seats.
3/ In the West Midlands mayoral election, Labour's vote share in Birmingham itself fell substantially from 48.2% (102,276 votes) in 2021 to 37.3% (80,251) in 2024.

And yet YouGov is forecasting General Election vote shares ranging from 54% to 78%. These seems highly improbable.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 8, 2022
1/ The big vote for Labour in 2017 posed a real headache for centrists.

The truth is that they oppose left policies - however popular. But they usually hide behind the argument that Labour can't win from the left.

So how do they reconcile this to Corbyn gaining 12.88m votes?
2/ Enter Peter Mandelson - last year he told Kings College students that 2017 was "a re-run of the referendum" with 2015 LibDems "swinging behind" Labour.

But was it that simple? True, 600,000 LibDems DID switch - but so did 700,000 UKIP voters (British Electoral Study).

Why?
3/ Labour won voters from across the Brexit divide in 2017 because we neutralised the issue by promising to honour the referendum result.

This meant voters made their decision on other issues - and, as this YouGov poll shows, our left-wing manifesto was foremost among them.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 8, 2022
My book on the 2017 campaign, Game Changer, is in short supply. The paperback's sold out. There's a Kindle at £5.49 (price set by the publisher). And I have 22 copies of the hardback left - on sale via my website at half price (£8.00 inc postage). See: steve-howell.com/game-changer-e…
I'm still trying to get the rights back from Hachette and hope to re-publish it with an introduction on what we've discovered since, but that could take a while!
There've been ten orders this morning, which means only 12 left. I'll update as they go, but PayPal does allow for refunds if we run out.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 8, 2022
1/ On this day in 2017, Jeremy Corbyn stunned his enemies by denying the Tories a majority when they'd been expected to win by landslide.

Labour's 12.88m votes/40% vote share was the party's best result for 20 years. We gained seats (30 net) for the first time since 1997 too. Image
2/ When Theresa May called the election, the Sun predicted 'Blue Murder' and said she would 'kill off Labour'.

May wanted Brexit to be the central issue - but Corbyn said Labour accepted the referendum result and made it about transforming Britain 'for the many not the few'. Image
3/ Corbyn was fiercely attacked in the media - with some Labour MPs to the fore.

But he focused on a manifesto - read by millions - that contained a plan to rebuild public services, scrap tuition fees, build houses and bring rail, energy and water back into public ownership. ImageImageImageImage
Read 7 tweets
Apr 5, 2022
1/ Dangerous misinformation.

On March 30, the Guardian reported the UN human rights chief saying Russia may be committing war crimes. But I checked: she didn't specify Russia (see text). Why? Because the UN HR Commission is also investigating Ukrainian government war crimes.
2/ War propaganda by omission.

The Guardian also quotes her as saying her office had received credible allegations of Russia using cluster bombs. But its report omits her next sentence: "We are also investigating allegations that Ukrainian armed forces have used such weapons."
3/ Why is this important? Because our horror at the effects of this terrible war is being exploited to push for an escalation of it. Warmongers always use humanitarian arguments (protecting civilians/women, notoriously 'babies in incubators') that prove to be over-stated/untrue.
Read 7 tweets

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