Earlier this year I read all the empirical evidence, and normative arguments, on the two child benefit limit, and wrote this report for the
@fairnessfdn
.
My conclusion: the case for repealing this cruel and counterproductive policy could not be clearer.
Maps that don’t put North at the top can achieve something remarkable in terms of making you see things afresh. This map of the Mediterranean is amazing in the way that it manages to reduce the distance between Europe and Africa.
One thing about a country having a dysfunctional media system is that its inhabitants may have difficulty recognising the full scale of the disaster through which they’re living.
Just cancelled by membership of the
@guardian
. Despite the paper having some outstanding journalists in
@chakrabortty
,
@DawnHFoster
,
@tianran
, & others, the Guardian has become utterly tedious in its endless political vendetta against the Labour leadership. Enough is enough.
I’ve been in the Labour Party for 29 years. I joined when John Smith was leader. If
@jeremycorbyn
stands as an independent, then I’ll be honoured to knock on doors to support his campaign.
If that means that
@UKLabour
will expel me in my 30th year as a member, then so be it.
The warm reception given to Jeremy Corbyn in Derry is about a community recognising someone who stood in solidarity with them for many years, and supported the cause of acknowledging the truth about Bloody Sunday, even when it wasn't easy or popular to do so.
“In the dirt lay justice like an acorn in the winter, till its oak would sprout in Derry where the thirteen men lay dead…”
It was an honour to deliver the keynote speech marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday at Derry Guildhall.
#BloodySunday50
I’ve been in the Labour Party for 29 years. I joined when John Smith was leader. But if
#JeremyCorbyn
has to stand as an independent, I’ll be honoured to knock on doors to support his campaign.
If that means
@UKLabour
will expel me in my 30th year as a member, then so be it.
As someone who has been a
@UKLabour
member for almost three decades, I think this constitutes a new low from a party that is losing its values. This is nasty, cynical messaging that amplifies far-right talking points and weaponises a difficult issue to try to score cheap points.
This photo should be in the history textbooks our grandchildren study, to help to explain how the politics of the 1990s created the skewed capitalism of the 2020s.
An extremely striking graphic, showing 2017 election results for English constituencies against their position on the index of multiple deprivation. One to wheel out when you encounter that bizarre media talking point of Labour somehow being the party of a “liberal elite”.
Osborne caused over 300,000 excess deaths through his austerity policies.
Meanwhile Jacqui Smith and Wes Streeting are worried that he may have been inconvenienced on his ‘special day’. (Presumably they haven’t read the Letter — orange confetti is the least of George’s worries.)
Why does the BBC keep giving a platform to a lunatic extremist like Melanie Phillips? Horrifying to see this cruel denialism of the unfolding human catastrophe in Gaza.
False, disgusting, and deeply concerning.
I don’t use this term lightly, but Streeting here is pursuing a complete betrayal of the history and values of the Labour Party. He is a danger to our NHS, and hence a danger to us all. 👇
That pathetic performance from
@afneil
is a new low for the
@BBC
. In effect, Neil just shouted over a guest in order to claim that there can be no discussion of Neil’s own business dealings and commercial activities on a BBC programme. This isn’t just normal bullying
#bbctw
1/2
“Schools in England told not to use anti-capitalist material in teaching”.
- My optimistic prediction is that this will backfire spectacularly. This government are creating a generation that will forever despise them and everything they represent.
Delighted to see the fall of the Tories, but this is a very strange election.
Labour 🌹votes in UK general elections:
2017 — 12,877,918
2019 — 10,269,051
2024 — 9,650,254
Keir Starmer votes in his constituency, Holborn & St Pancras:
2017 — 41,343
2019 — 36,641
2024 — 18,884
This is dismal, mean-spirited stuff from Stephen Kinnock, announcing that Labour supports the Tories’ ban on the families of international students.
My kids’ school has been so enriched by such visitors over the years.
Labour gets worse by the day.
Hard to believe that Wes Streeting (a) condemns the Department of Health and Social Care for its “begging bowl culture”, and (b) says that the Health department’s main focus should be on economic growth (!):
The man is a facile pantomime villain.
It’s striking when you think of it that the last UK Prime Minister who came into the job through winning a general election *and* left it through losing a general election was Ted Heath in 1970-74 — almost 50 years ago. Our political system doesn’t really work how we often think.
This is sad to see. Starmer is damaging the Labour Party by talking gibberish like this.
What does it even mean to say that “we can’t afford” to raise taxes on the top 5% of earners (as he’d pledged to do in 2020)?
Taxes generate revenue, not costs!
Dear Mr Thompson,
I’m a
@RoyalMail
customer and I back your workers 100% and have complete solidarity with the CWU
@CWUnews
. Have you considered that the problem might be you, and how you’re letting down your brilliant workforce?
Please pay our posties properly. 👇
Crispin Blunt MP, a sitting Conservative MP, and former chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, warning the UK government (and for that matter the Labour front bench) that they are in danger of being complicit in the commission of war crimes by Israel.
🚨BREAKING🚨ICJP Co-Director Crispin Blunt MP spoke to
@SkyNews
Breakfast this morning to discuss ICJP's written notice to
@RishiSunak
informing him of intention to prosecute UK government officials for complicity in Israeli war crimes.
Starmer confirms that Labour would keep the two child benefit cap.
Sadly that means a vote for Labour is a vote for ongoing child poverty, with the performance of ‘credibility’ prioritised over the suffering of vulnerable children.
So there it is. 👇
This universal childcare policy was central to one of Starmer’s “5 missions”, announced *less than 4 months ago*.
Now this too has been thrown into the dustbin.
You can’t believe anything that Starmer says. There is no ‘pledge’ he won’t betray; no ‘mission’ he won’t abandon.
Diane Abbott will go down in history as a hugely important figure in the history of the black community in Britain, and in the political history of the country more generally.
To see her treated with such contempt and disrespect by Keir Starmer is heartbreaking and infuriating.
This seems to have been the Observer headline every 3rd week for the past 3 years. Ironically it would likely benefit the Labour Party if people like Chris Leslie quit, as he’d simply lose his seat at the next election & be replaced by a better Labour MP.
I'm an Arsenal fan, but even so I wouldn't want to be slow in acknowledging that Leeds had something magical there under this extraordinary man.
#Bielsa
thought and acted with great sincerity and integrity.
“The most powerful are so because of what they produce and summon, the rest are indispensable. What gives health to football is the possibility of the development of the weak, not the excess growth of the strong”.
I’m happy to be able to say that I’ve been promoted to Professor. Feeling grateful to have had such great teachers, colleagues, and students, who all made this possible; and for the amazing support along the way from my parents, my kids, and most of all from Mary.
#FirstGen
Absolutely amazing that within 30 minutes of Cressida Dick announcing that Johnson is under criminal investigation for breaching Covid regulations, the BBC is editorialising to downplay the significance of this development and to tell its readers to "have a sense of proportion".
I hope I can’t be expelled from
@UKLabour
for saying that, on the question of the “heinous” two-child benefit cap,
@CarolineLucas
is 💯 right, while the position of
@Keir_Starmer
is appalling, shameful, and contemptible. 👇
Labour in 2020: Two-child benefit cap is “obscene and inhumane”.
Labour last month: Two-child benefit cap is “heinous”.
Labour now: Keeping the obscene, inhumane and heinous two-child benefit cap.
Labour simply can’t be trusted.
“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.” - James Waterman Wise, 1936
In those terrible straight-to-video British hooligan films, there’s always the character of the ageing firm leader, who’s lost whatever ability or charisma he once had, but who brings down everyone around him with his obsession with an bygone era in which he used to feel at home.
If you need an emetic, look no further.
Blair & Starmer laughing & congratulating each other on how “tough” they are to throw innocent children into poverty.
Odd that their “tough decisions” always take the side of the rich & powerful against the weak.
Anyone in the position of
@AngelaRayner
, or in the place of anyone with a shred of dignity or self-respect on the
@UKLabour
front bench, must surely be furious at Keir Starmer for turning them into abject, brazen liars.
It’s greatly to the credit of
@OwenJones84
on
#bbctw
that he:
(1) Broke through the clubby coziness of
#bbctw
to refuse to accept usual blather from Portillo and
@afneil
;
(2) In doing so, got
@afneil
’s mask to slip, and generated Neil’s shambolic spasm of self-protection.
Excellent letter to the
@guardian
from the former MP Chris Mullin
@chrismullinexmp
, author of A Very British Coup, and a former FCO minister under Blair.
Mullin here condemns the way that Starmer has treated Jeremy Corbyn, and highlights Starmer’s inconsistency and duplicity.
Here’s
@afneil
shouting that he won’t allow any discussion of the Spectator (of which he is the Chairmam) on
#bbctw
*If* the BBC were serious about its governance, this shabby, self-condemning performance *should* end Neil’s career
@BBC
.
“I am many things Owen Jones, but I am not naive”
@afneil
“I will finish what I was going to say… Everyone can look at the record of the Spectator”
@OwenJones84
#bbctw
I thought this by
@davidallengreen
on Simon McDonald was very good, and revealing. (And good to know that the use of “going forward” by a senior civil servant is taken as the equivalent of someone trying to communicate by blinking in a hostage video.)
The
@BBCSounds
podcast version of
@BBCInOurTime
on Rawls has 18 mins additional material: on reflective equilibrium, democracy, reciprocity, inequality, anticapitalism, and the scope of Rawls’s influence.
@annefabpeter
@JoWolffBSG
I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many distressed people on the streets of London as there are now — people with severe mental health problems; addicts with open wounds and infected injection sites on their arms. Life is not going at all well for so many of our fellow human beings.
A message from the one and only Alan Moore. (And he’s right: the Tory manifesto contains proposals for gerrymandering constituencies and voter suppression through voter ID laws. It’s now or never for saving a genuinely democratic country.)
This is a new low from
@UKLabour
, blocking Jamie Driscoll
@MayorJD
from standing for mayor of the North East. Jamie has done an amazing job as North of Tyne Mayor. Meanwhile Labour are doing everything they can to exclude popular left wing policies and to sideline socialists. 👇
I’ve been barred from standing as North East Mayor by
@UKLabour
. No explanation has been given.
I’m proud to have created thousands of jobs, fought child poverty, built affordable homes and delivered our Green New Deal. I believe in democracy. Share if you do too. More to follow.
I used to think Richarlison was an incredibly annoying, nasty person. Then I learned of his staunch support for Lula and his brave, outspoken opposition to Bolsonaro.
So now I think he’s an incredibly annoying, nasty person with excellent politics.
2/2 It’s a disgusting abuse of a position he has only by virtue of being employed by a public service broadcaster, and one for which we all pay through the license fee. The
@BBC
should serve the public interest, not jump to the whims, or serve the self-interest, of
@afneil
.
The Humanities Faculty at Utrecht University is recruiting to 40 new Assistant Professor positions, including eight new jobs in Philosophy. (Feels unimaginable that a UK university could do this.)
Twenty years today since the death of Bernard Williams, one of the most perceptive and powerful minds in recent philosophy.
Here he is writing with bleakly accurate insight about the rise of the internet, in his final book, Truth and Truthfulness (2002).
This is worth 5 minutes of everyone’s time. A devastating condemnation from Ash Sarkar
@AyoCaesar
, against a dismal, would-be-patronising, wholly self-undermining performance from Emily Thornberry
@EmilyThornberry
The sidelining of Ed Miliband’s careful work on a green agenda for the next Labour government is an act of vandalism. It may please a few aging reactionaries in swing constituencies to hear that Starmer “hates tree-huggers”, but it’s at the cost of a liveable future for our kids.
As the world records its hottest ever week, Labour sources brief the Sunday Times that Keir Starmer "hates tree huggers" and wants to ditch the party's green agenda
Good news: we are opening a direct Ireland – France ferry route on 2 January. This new freight ferry route between Rosslare and Dunkerque offers lorries and their drivers direct and paperless transport between EU countries
#dfds
#Ireland
#france
#newroute
Absolutely unbelievable that
@lisanandy
here puts
@UKLabour
in opposition to the Good Friday Agreement, which makes the constitutional future of Northern Ireland a matter for the people who live there. I hope she retracts this as a matter of urgency.
The 1st item on the news: the Earth has now exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures.
The 2nd item:
@UKLabour
under Keir Starmer has abandoned its green investment pledge.
We need real political leadership; instead we get these useless people.
It’s a disaster.
@REWearmouth
Completely self-condemning that the deputy editor of the
@NewStatesman
thinks that Laura Kuennsberg is presenting “a serious politics show”.
Fair play to Joe Lycett for calling the whole thing out as the useless superficial blather it really is.
UK academics should definitely log in to the benefit modeller on the
#USS
consultation website.
Turns out that all those mornings in snow and rain on
@ucu
picket lines have added around a *third* to my projected annual retirement income ... 1/2 (link below)
Anti-Irish racism alive and well in 2022 in the British Army and on the BBC. Feels like this Jubilee shindig is allowing lots of people to show us who they really are.
The year is 2022… and a BBC presenter and someone from the British Army are explaining why “micks” actually isn’t an offensive term for Irish people… 🙄🤦♂️
Speaking as someone who has been a Labour Party member for over 30 years, isn’t this behaviour by the current members of the Labour NEC just outright corruption? 👇
🔴 One has to ask how Labour will handle peerages and government appointments if this is how the party's National Executive operates before they've even won power.
The Labour NEC - and the right-wing faction in particular - seem to be behaving like a bunch of schoolboys who've
Mind-boggling that a Labour politician — the leader of the Labour Party no less — should be so dismally unsupportive of working people taking industrial action to defend their pay and conditions.
Starmer seems hell-bent on alienating swathes of Britain’s working people. 👇
Shameful that Starmer took to the airwaves this morning to condemn workers fighting for fair pay & conditions👇
The leader of Labour should be backing staff, not bosses
We have overwhelming support from students. If he cares about them he needs to recommit to abolishing fees
You have to be living in a weird little bubble of privilege to think that those who can put £60k a year into their pensions are “middle class”.
No, this is a “bung” to the wealthy.
The pensions annual tax free allowance from £40,000 to £60,000. And he abolishes the maximum lifetime tax allowance. Wow. This is huge middle class bung and reverses some of Osborne's pension tax raid
#Budget2023
Here are the small number of MPs prepared to stand up and be counted against the wanton cruelty of the Illegal Migration Bill. It includes MPs from the
@SDLPlive
@AlliancePTY
@TheGreenParty
@Plaid_Cymru
, and the small minority within
@UKLabour
that retain the values of the left.
The Tories' 'hostile environment' led to black Britons being denied cancer treatment, being kicked out on the street, and being deported: never let them forget it.
It’s dispiriting but instructive to see all the establishment political voices laying into
@chakrabortty
for writing a great piece yesterday on similarities between Starmer & Sunak.
I’m guessing the same people won’t be criticising
@bbclaurak
for making similar points today.
Striking that Michael Crick
@tomorrowsmps
seems to be the only political journalist reporting on the backroom stitch-ups that could well see Luke Akehurst, the Director of *We Believe in Israel*, being gifted a safe seat as a Member of Parliament. 👇
🔴 And our old friend, arch-fixer Luke Akehurst, the right-wing NEC member who has chaired many candidate panels, is also due to get a good seat. When I've asked him about this publicly he's not denied it, but helpfully reminded me how he stood for Parliament back in 2005.
Very refreshing to see libertarian communist Ash Sarkar
@AyoCaesar
interviewing Italian autonomist theorist Franco “Bifo” Berardi on the BBC. The times are changing.
This piece by
@AdamRamsay
@openDemocracy
is perhaps the most important thing that’s been written so far on Boris Johnson & the UK government’s bungled, harmful and dishonest response to the coronavirus crisis.
VC of Edinburgh joins call to suspend
@UniversitiesUK
’s proposed elimination of DB benefits in USS, ahead of a comprehensive re-examination of the valuation and governance of
#USS
.
Yet another VC breaking ranks from UUK’s vandalism.
#USSstrikes
#USSstrike
#StrikeforUSS
The British media really is a bad joke. The Times doesn’t know the difference between the European Court of Justice (a EU institution, based in Luxembourg) and the European Court of Human Rights (not an EU institution, based in Strasbourg). This comic doesn’t even do basic facts.
Remembering with solidarity the leftist young people murdered for their beliefs at Utøya, ten years ago today. This piece in the
@FT
gives the moving testimonies of some of the survivors of that terrible day.
My youngest boy is 7. He tells me that when he & his friends play football at break time at school, they start by taking the knee. I think this is just the most lovely and inspirational thing, and is a huge credit to the example set by the
#eng
team.
#BlackLivesMatter
#Equality
The entry on “Socialism” by Pablo Gilabert and me is now live on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. We hope it proves to be a useful resource for people reading, thinking, and writing about socialism in the years ahead!
An economic and political model that gives such limited hope for the future for so many, while allowing domination and inequality to fester and grow, is bound to produce morbid symptoms. The far right are profiting from the failures of the centrist consensus.
Farewell “Journal of Political Philosophy”, a brilliant institution destroyed by a clueless and rapacious publishing company.
Welcome instead “Political Philosophy”, a new *open access* journal with a reassuringly familiar editorial team!
The Political Philosophy of Socialism - a special issue of Philosophical Topics, ed. by Pablo Gilabert & Martin O'Neill, is now finally out in the world!
12 great new essays, over 300+ pages of content, putting socialist ideas at the centre of analytic political philosophy (1/4)
What Boris Johnson says here is straightforwardly factually untrue. His govt went from early talk of “herd immunity”, to a late initial lockdown, to a summer of “Eat Out to Help Out”, to stupidly bringing schools back for *one day* in January. If he had any integrity, he’d resign
Such a familiar kind of sight — an
@FT
journalist belatedly noticing that the country is completely broken after 14 years of Tory government. And yet the Financial Times recommended a vote for the Conservatives in 2010, in 2015, and in 2017. Where’s the paper’s apology? 👇👇👇
Outside of the pandemic I don’t think I’ve known my news feed be this bleak. Story after story of something structural breaking - often things that have long been known about - or the human cost of it. So many things to report that it’s hard to know where to start
A very sad day for higher education in the UK. Shame on all those VCs who were more interested in shifting a ‘liability’ off their balance sheets than in making sure that UK universities might still be able to attract staff in the future. An utter lack of vision and leadership.
BREAKING: The Universities Superannuation Scheme Joint Negotiating Committee has today formally voted to implement cuts to future
#pension
benefits for tens of thousands of UK university sector staff.
Centrist parties in the Netherlands thought they could attract right-leaning voters by adopting the far right's positions on immigration, etc. Instead, they legitimized the far right, contributed to its unexpected surge in the recent election.
Starmer here suggesting that the incumbent North of Tyne mayor, the brilliant Jamie Driscoll
@MayorJD
, isn’t a “high quality candidate”?
Jamie Driscoll has shown sustained principle and integrity, which makes him a damn sight higher quality than a cynical liar like Starmer. 👇
NEW: Labour leader
@Keir_Starmer
responds to criticism over Jamie Driscoll (
@MayorJD
) not being on the party's candidate longlist for North East Mayor
"We're going through a rigorous selection exercise & I make no apologies for saying we want the highest quality candidates"
I think universities should give up the misleading language of spaces being “Covid secure”. It’s right and proper to take action significantly to reduce the danger of transmission, but it’s inaccurate & unhelpful to talk of those measures as creating “security” against infection.
The wealth of the top 100 billionaires in Britain has more than trebled since the financial crisis.
I’m guessing that your own household finances, and those of your family and friends, haven’t done so well in the same period.
These two facts are related.