History And Such

I'm noticing a lot a Restore supporters seem to hate Reform more than they hate Labour. It is bizarre. The narcissism of small differences at play.

People often tell me that Andy Burnham is a nice guy and more engaging to listen to than Keir Starmer. This is correct, but Burnham is also a slippery politician who will say one thing when it is convenient for him, even if he believes the total opposite in private. He is absolutely untrustworthy.

This photo from Burnham's campaign launch captures how absolutely bizarre the Makerfield by-election is going to be politically. Left holding the banner, Johnny Reynolds, who as chief whip is in charge of making sure Keir Starmer remains prime minister and his agenda is delivered. Centre, Andy Burnham, who is declaring a vote for Labour is a vote to change Labour... by which he is universally read to mean ditching Keir Starmer. Even the Prime Minister himself is promising to campaign for a candidate who is coming to Westminster to replace him. Has there ever been a by-election like this??

Just a reminder that Hope Not Hate hired Liron Woodcock-Velleman, who has been convicted of sending explicit texts and images to a 13-year-old girl. A disgusting organisation which should not be taken seriously. Here is an old clip of Liron, can’t say he didn’t warn us.

Israel is more multicultural and diverse than any country in the region. Walk in Tel Aviv for an hour and you'll see Jews and Muslims, Blacks and Whites, West and East. You'll hear Hebrew, English, Arabic, French, Hindu, Thai and Farsi. You'll pass mosques, churches, synagogues and even a scientology center. You'll smell every kind of cuisine in the world and hear 20 kinds of music. Not having totally open borders doesn't mean being xenophobic. It means being open responsibly. It means taking the best of the world and keeping out the worst of the world. These idiots have no idea what they're talking about.

The average working class tradesman will have views much closer to Robert Kenyon than Andy Burnham. The fact that journalists, Labour and even some Tories are pretending to be horrified over nothing just shows how out of touch they are.

Tommy Robinson Unite the Kingdom. It was a matter of time before the Islamophobia would start. It’s sickening behaviour. As Muslims, we shouldn’t have to tolerate this in our home…… England.

Sad to see Kemi Badenoch’s Tories lose so many seats. She is a brilliant leader - strong and principled - but it’s still too soon for people to forget.

I have an ex from Wigan & spent some time there. I remember once I was in a pub (in Standish) & nandy came on TV, she was talking about how Wigan welcoming asylum seekers could really put it on the map & a man shouted ‘we don’t want to be on the bloody map’

Lots of rightwingers are tweeting that they are glad they don't live in Hackney. Hackney residents are equally happy about that.

Japan has police boxes everywhere. They're called koban. Tiny ones on street corners, run by a few officers in shifts. About 14,000 across the country if you count the rural ones too. You go there for stuff like asking directions, turning in a wallet you found, or reporting something. Honestly, a lot of people just stop by to say hi. The officers walk around the neighborhood. They know who lives where. Kids wave at them on the way to school. Singapore copied the whole system in 1983. Their crime rates dropped. Brazil and parts of the US have done the same. Japan didn't make policing better. They made it friendlier. 🇯🇵

🚨 NEW: A UK immigration officer has been found guilty of working for China Chi Leung "Peter" Wai, 38, used his access to the main immigration database to track Hong Kong dissidents based in the UK

Even if you find racial bigotry morally acceptable, from a pragmatic perspective you should *still* not want a white supremacist approach to campaigning because it's self-defeating and really unpopular with normal people who don't spend their time making up new slurs online.

There is a profound dishonesty in Polanski's rhetoric. To hear him tell it on the BBC, he is a pure internationalist who simply has no time for 'tribal' homelands. Yet this supposed universalism is strictly one-sided. Outside the studio, he and his colleagues are walking billboards for Palestinian nationalism, complete with the flags and the keffiyehs to match. His 'principled' objection to the nation-state is a mask for a much more specific hostility.