This is a classic example of performative rightwing nationalism and historical revisionism. Villarruel is a horrendous character - notorious for her defence of the fascistic 1976-82 dictatorship. Here, she is trying to play get some alt-right brownie points with an utterly fake

https://twitter.com/espnfc/status/1813951874237653137

‘anticolonial’ defence of the viciously racist song sung by the Argentina football team. Check out the lyrics to this song. The idea is clear, leaving aside the ‘trans lovers like that fucker Mbappe’: (black) French footballers aren’t ‘real Frenchmen’ because of where their

Utterly shameful and unbearable watching what Israel is doing to Gaza. This really does feel like the nightmare solution that the Israeli far-right have longed for for so long - another nakba. A society of 2m people reduced to bloody rubble while the world lets it happen. The cynical, calculated destruction is off the scale. Worse than anything that has happened to the Palestinians in the 75 hellish years since their first expulsion. Hospitals, universities, schools, neighbourhoods, refugee camps wiped out. Generations of the same family killed

Phew! Just been to see #NapoleonMovie and it is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. Epically, comically bad on an almost cosmic level of badness. First, the history. There isn’t any, I mean apart from battle scenes, which of course Ridley Scott does well. But no sense of living, breathing history. Of the man Napoleon and the way he shaped his times and his times shaped him. No understanding of the duality of Napoleon and Bonapartism: the liberator/tyrant. The revolutionary/counter-revolutionary. The racist. The pro-slaver. No insight

Having been to Gaza (three times), it’s utterly heartbreaking to see the shattering devastation being inflicted on such a small densely-populated area…again. But this feels different. The destruction is so intense, so widespread, that I don’t see how the population can continue to live there if it continues. I mean, entire neighbourhoods (Hamas hubs) erased overnight. A ground offensive still to come. The Rafah border closed. Where can people go? But they will go, they’ll have to. If the bombing continues like this, 2 million

A piece of advice friends. If you want to find out about the North, NEVER put your trust in Tory politicians who come bearing imaginary gifts. And before you listen to them, check out the ‘Grim Up North podcast that I co-host with the poet Adrian Scott. Why? Because,

https://twitter.com/jenwilliamsmen/status/1548599636390182912

we will take you on journeys through the North. Through its history, politics, and culture. From the ‘Harrying of the North’ to the Peterloo Massacre.

The only heartening thing about the #ToryLeadershipContest #ToryLeadershipFarce is the fact that Tories genuinely believe that the awfulness and mediocrity of the contenders will be acceptable to the country as a whole. The party seems have lost contact with reality. Unable to see things as they are. Its collective brain hollowed out by Brexit. Fatally compromised by its previous adulation for the worst PM in British history. Only a party like that would even think that people like

To get an idea of the mindcrushing banality and narcissistic delusionalism of this kind of lying boastfulness, let’s look back in time and imagine how others might have applied this nonsense to the history they were part of, shall we? Fantastic day out at Yalta. Here I am with Franklin and Marshall Stalin! UK absolutely leading the way in the fight against fascism!

This kind of stupidity needs to stop. You don’t defeat a criminal regime by attacking the writers and artists who defined the Russian humanist tradition. In war like this, and at a time like this, we need to pay MORE attention to this tradition. We should not be hiding it or banning it. Who’s next? Turgenev? Chekhov? Grossman? Akhmatova? Pushkin? Tarkovsky? Shostakovich? Are these artists ‘inappropriate’ now because

Today is #WorldBookDay, so here’s a little thread to remind you why you should BEWARE OF BOOKS. Firstly, they take over your house. They climb up your hallway. Looming over you like they own the place. Naturally they come swaggering into your study. Like they own the place.

The disconnect between the perilous international situation and the fundamental unseriousness of the UK government is genuinely terrifying. We couldn’t have worse politicians at a more dangerous time. To say I’m anxious about the outcome would be understating it considerably. I mean, it’s not just the ignorance or the narcissism, the endless posturing and smirking photo-ops, the glibness, the constant we-do-it-better-than-anyone else bragging. Or the absence of diplomatic nous from those occupying the major offices of state. This is a government

One of the many morbid consequences of our post-Brexit dystopia is the way its advocates continually pretend everything is the opposite of what it actually is. So that even Truss's humiliation in Moscow is a sign that Russia 'is rattled' by the UK's ineffective diplomacy. It's the same with everything: mediocre trade deals become dazzling coups; Covid failures become a triumph for the PM; lorry queues are evidence of 'EU bureaucracy' - every failure is dressed up as a success or a failure on someone else's part. Needless to say,

When the likes of Steve Baker try to oppose Climate Change mitigation on the grounds that carbon neutral measures will make working people ‘cold and poor’, this is what Baker did for working people over the years. theguardian.com/politics/2022/… Also Steve, not very keen on trade unions, which, though this may sound a bit old-fashioned, help defend employment rights and working conditions. Or legal aid (Clue: poor people often need it)

How things work in a crumbling democracy

1/ PM uses far-right ‘paedo’ conspiracy theory to smear LOTO purely in order to distract attention from his own egregious rule breaking? PM does this despite being warned by his own advisors not to do it. 2/Outcry ensues. The PM’s own policy chief resigns, supposedly in protest. Some Tory MPs denounce PM’s actions

3/Cabinet members refuse to do this

4/ PM issues fake ‘explanation’, accusing critics of getting ‘hot under the collar.’ Says he wasn’t accusing LOTO of anything

It is offensive and disturbing, but Johnson has no moral high ground from which to condemn anyone for offensive and disturbing ‘jokes’ and is only ‘blasting’ Carr as a brand-changing gimmick (Well done Guto Harri!)

https://twitter.com/MetroUK/status/1490679824184135681

You like racist jokes? Jonners has a few:

‘All the young people I know – ie those under 30 – are just as avaricious as we flinty Thatcherite yuppies of the 1980s in fact, they have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.’

Downing Street’s tactical decision to hide Bertie Booster in the fridge in order to stop the negative headlines is hilariously backfiring.

1) They try to spin a spy story on Labour only for it to be revealed that Johnson took £45,000 from her and didn’t declare it! Also… It turns out that Cameron and May also cultivated the same source, and the story is in any case at least five years old. As devastating counter-attacks go, this is like being assaulted by hamsters nibbling at the toes of the person who sent them.

Meanwhile…

Interesting that so many fascists and nationalist populists across the world seem to think Novax Djokovic is a 'hero' for enduring exactly the same detention conditions that they applaud when refugees and asylum seekers are subjected to them - in some cases for years. #AusOpen I wonder if this partly explains it: euronews.com/2022/01/07/nov…

Exactly right from Rhian Graham of the #Colston4. This quotation can’t be shared enough. theguardian.com/world/2022/jan… This is how Merriam-Webster-Webster defines ‘woke.’ So when the right uses it as an insult, they are revelling in and actively promoting a contrary definition, as in

I don’t think there is much doubt that Johnson is the most personally repulsive PM in British history. But by focussing exclusively on ‘character’ it’s easy to forget the ‘characters’ who brought him to power, and the political forces that used him for their own purposes. For example…the donors

‘THE 'RED DEATH' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal: the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.’ ‘But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated…’

Today I went walking in the hills and got so wet and cold I could hardly move my fingers and my hands were like raw meat. On returning to my house I put the heating on, changed into warm clothes and thought of the 27 men,women, and children who drowned in the Channel. That was just over a week ago, but already the crocodile tears have dried on the faces of politicians. Already the ‘tragedy’ is slipping down the memory hole. So far there has been no investigation into allegations that the French and British ignored their calls for help and left them

Is there going to be an investigation into the horrific claims made on the Kurdish Rudaw News website? Or have we become a country that is ok with this now? rudaw.net/english/world/… Last night Fiona Bruce asked on Question Time, ‘how do we stop them coming?’ This is how some of ‘them’ spent their last hours on earth