@markhburton@mstdn.social"Starmer continues to pin all his hopes on economic growth driven by the City. In this he follows every prime minister since the 2008 crash who have all banked the future on a revival of the system that imploded globally then."
Labour is neither listening nor learning | Morning Star
https://
@memeorandum@universeodon.comLucy Powell is Labour's new deputy leader (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/lucy-powell-labour-new-deputy-leader/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251025/p4#a251025p4
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzJust caught the end of this discussion: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019009292/labour-announces-new-sovereign-wealth-fund - it annoys me that RNZ doesn't identify Eric Crampton as b…
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"In #Caerphilly, this was certainly a two-party race – but neither of the supposed main parties were in it (#Labour and the #Conservatives had a combined vote share of just 13%)"
Alas,…
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Some of the mistakes we have made, some of the unforced errors have given a sense that we are not on the side of ordinary people."
I imagine Leo is of the Roman persuasion too.
Who is new deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell? - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cev1d3
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Labour ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #FossilFuels
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.orgPretty good analysis from @… but subtleties make it difficult to translate Danish model elsewhere. It's a PR system, so always coalitions many different flavours to vote for; Danish Peoples Party are left on welfare but not on immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/22/danish-model-centre-left-parties-labour-doesnt-work
@metacurity@infosec.exchangeThis is hard for me to understand. I mean, why not label China as a security threat?
I understand that China is a powerful economic partner, but I'm missing something here.
China spy case collapse due to Labour government, prosecutors say
https://www.
@rachel@norfolk.socialIs it Zack Polanski’s birthday or something??
#ukpolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/
@markhburton@mstdn.socialI don't usually post articles from the Telegraph but this from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is worth a read. A key point is that the emphasis should be on decarbonising the sources not yet electified. Tories mis-estimate costs of a return to gas, not including capital costs.
The Tories are even bigger fools than Labour on energy policy
@Techmeme@techhub.socialDespite concerns, Labour MPs and other left-wing UK politicians stay active on X; the UK government says it stopped paid ads on X in 2024, down from £9M in 2021 (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/5b0e3ea9-acc9-4dcc-85fe-2273ea8abb86
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"Gareth Potter (C[onservative]) 690 [votes] (2.05%, -15.29%)"
Alas, poor #Tories, I knew them well.
#Schadenfreude
#Caerphilly
@Dragofix@veganism.socialReplacing animals in science #AnimalRights
@dichotomiker@dresden.networkBefore we come to the time of christmas elve stories:
Could we please have more movies on actual globalized labour instead?
* [Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories](https://youtu.be/yF8jUDzz5bE)
* [The True Cost](
@elduvelle@neuromatch.social"Labour must fight rightwing billionaires undermining net zero, says Ed Miliband"
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/29/labour-must-fight-right-wing-billionaires-undermining-net-zero-ed-miliband
@BBC3MusicBot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #RoundMidnight
Cleo Laine:
🎵 Winter When Icicles Hang By The Wall (Love's Labour Lost)
#CleoLaine
https://open.spotify.com/track/6bMxhDtUfm0BsTFGWRq8L8
@MichaelLondonSF@mas.toFine letter from Kate Macintosh on UK Labour Party's irrational retention of the Right to Buy council housing. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/06/why-labour-lacks-credibility-when-it-comes-to-housing
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems"""
[…] Paradoxically, the more a population grew, the more precious it became, as it offered a supply of cheap labour, and by lowering costs allowed a greater expansion of production and trade. In this infinitely open labour market, the ‘fundamental price’, which for Turgot meant a subsistence level for workers, and the price determined by supply and demand ended up as the same thing. A country was all the more commercially competitive for having at its disposal the virtual wealth that a large population represented.
Confinement was therefore a clumsy error, and an economic one at that: there was no sense in trying to suppress poverty by taking it out of the economic circuit and providing for a poor population by charitable means. To do that was merely to hide poverty, and suppress an important section of the population, which was always a given wealth. Rather than helping the poor escape their provisionally indigent situation, charity condemned them to it, and dangerously so, by putting a brake on the labour market in a period of crisis. What was required was to palliate the high cost of products with cheaper labour, and to make up for their scarcity by a new industrial and agricultural effort. The only reasonable remedy was to reinsert the population in the circuit of production, being sure to place labour in areas where manpower was most scarce. The use of paupers, vagabonds, exiles and émigrés of any description was one of the secrets of wealth in the competition between nations. […]
Confinement was to be criticised because of the effects it had on the labour market, but also because like all other traditional forms of charity, it constituted a dangerous form of finance. As had been the case in the Middle Ages, the classical era had constantly attempted to look after the needs of the poor by a system of foundations. This implied that a section of the land capital and revenues were out of circulation. In a definitive manner too, as the concern was to avoid the commercialisation of assistance to the poor, so judicial measures had been taken to ensure that this wealth never went back into circulation. But as time passed, their usefulness diminished: the economic situation changed, and so did the nature of poverty.
«Society does not always have the same needs. The nature and distribution of property, the divisions between the different orders of the people, opinions, customs, the occupations of the majority of the population, the climate itself, diseases and all the other accidents of human life are in constant change. New needs come into being, and old ones disappear.» [Turgot, Encyclopédie]
The definitive character of a foundation was in contradiction with the variable and changing nature of the accidental needs to which it was designed to respond. The wealth that it immobilised was never put back into circulation, but more wealth was to be created as new needs appeared. The result was that the proportion of funds and revenues removed from circulation constantly increased, while that of production fell in consequence. The only possible result was increased poverty, and a need for more foundations. The process could continue indefinitely, and the fear was that one day ‘the ever increasing number of foundations might absorb all private funds and all private property’. When closely examined, classical forms of assistance were a cause of poverty, bringing a progressive immobilisation that was like the slow death of productive wealth:
«If all the men who have ever lived had been given a tomb, sooner or later some of those sterile monuments would have been dug up in order to find land to cultivate, and it would have become necessary to stir the ashes of the dead in order to feed the living.» [Turgot, Lettre Š Trudaine sur le Limousin]
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialDespite concerns, Labour MPs and other left-wing UK politicians stay active on X; the UK government says it stopped paid ads in 2024, after spending £9M in 2021 (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/5b0e3ea9-acc9-4dcc-85fe-2273ea8abb86
@ncoca@social.coop @markhburton@mstdn.socialWhile Phillipson was seen as a Starmer loyalist, in my view she'd have been at least as good a choice. Not that I really care about what happens in Labour Party any more.
Lucy Powell appointed new deputy leader of the Labour Party | ITV News
https://www.itv.com/news/202…
@grumpybozo@toad.socialIt’s been a norm for my whole time in tech.
How is it NOT just another day at the job? @… https://toot.cafe/@baldur/115762982979476704
@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzI can't help but wonder how NZ Labour, with their tepid 'national investment fund', are planning to combat secret (from all NZers) ISDS suits from multinational corporations if they deem such policies might affect their profits in NZ. They'd have to pull NZ out of the #CPTPPA first. Which I think would be entirely appropriate. I might even vote for them if they were really going…
@Tuxramus@social.linux.pizzaI am absolutely opposed to this. Never give a government this much control. It is government control in the guise of perceived safety.
Labour wants to ramp up facial recognition. What if our data ends up in the wrong hands? | Simon Jenkins | The Guardian
https://www.t…
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"The #Labour party arose from a long wave of protests by workers against capital, calling for workers’ rights and for sweeping democratic reforms. These protests and their organisers came to be known as the labour movement. Its early actions included the radical war in Scotland, the Merthyr and Newport risings... the Swing riots... and the General Strike of 1842. No such protests would have me…
@villavelius@mastodon.onlineWere they perchance inspired by the Dutch government? (The shameful false accusations of childcare benefit fraud, which all but ruined numerous families, known in the Netherlands as the #toeslagenaffaire – still not fully resolved and remedied.)
@gwire@mastodon.socialA lot of the problem with the UK's asylum system has been related to an overwhelmed administrative capacity (the "backlog") so proposing adding 30 month reviews on top of that seems counter-productive?
(Reminds me of how Conservative governments would routinely increase sentences for those convicted, but refused to increase the prison capacity.)
@aral@mastodon.ar.alFolks creating free and open software for the common good: here’s a checklist of everything else you should be doing so corporations can make the best use of your free labour.
I mean, sure, some good security tips here and worth reading anyway but do fuck off with holding free software developers to account for supply chain attacks. It’s your fucking supply chain, not ours, you fucking corporation.
@markhburton@mstdn.socialLabour ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows | Lobbying | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/16/uk-labour-ministers-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-analysis
!
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
@denmanrooke@mastodon.ieWe're hosting a public Meeting on 27 Nov 19:30 at Harbour Hotel in Galway together with Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, Labour & Independents discussing what is next for the left following on from the presidential election.
All welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion.
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizzaJust because the educational work of Anarcho-Syndicalists is directed toward the development of independent thought and action, they are outspoken opponents of all centralising tendencies which are so characteristic of most of the present labour parties.
Centralism, that artificial scheme which operates from the top towards the bottom and turns over the affairs of administration to a small minority, is always attended by barren official routine; it crushes individual conviction, kills …
@cdarwin@c.imJeremy Corbyn says the UK government is endangering pro-Palestine hunger strikers
Former UK Labour leader Cornyn has issued a statement in solidarity with Amu Gib, who is accused of participating in the Palestine Action break-in of RAF Brize Norton airbase this summer.
The action,
carried out in protest of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the UK government’s participation in it,
led to the proscription of the group under “anti-terrorism” laws.
Dozens of protesters h…
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Sadiq Khan calls on Reeves to bring ‘authentic’ Labour budget that boosts green investment"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Money #Finance
@bencurthoys@mastodon.socialI was really having trouble giving a shit about either of the two candidates in the Labour Deputy Leadership election, and I had to scroll quite a long way down the wikipedia page, but I found something in the end.
![Wikipedia screenshot:
LGBT issues
As Minister for Women and Equalities, Phillipson said that trans women should not use women's toilets in April 2025.[57] This was in response to a UK Supreme Court ruling on the definition of man and woman in the Equality Act.](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/384/823/324/105/002/original/d1b4c3ac2cacfdde.png)
@samvarma@fosstodon.orgTHIS
I just said the same thing to a friend yesterday @… https://social.vivaldi.net/@brucelawson/115315064320447429
@mapto@qoto.orgCan't disagree:
"He also defended migrants and refugees to loud applause from the audience and accused Labour of being "handmaidens" of Reform UK adding: "When Farage says jump, Labour asks 'how high'."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c708y9nq174o…
@gwire@mastodon.socialChecking in on the politics of civility.
https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2025/09/29/labour-labelled-nasty-party-after-minister-calls-ed-davey-fat-bloke-in-wetsuit/
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scotOdd etymological question: I was interested today in whether the Soviet word for a labour camp, Gulag, was related to the Nazi-era German word for a prisoner of war camp, Stalag. Gulag is apparently a contraction of 'Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й', where the last word transliterates as 'lageréy', while Stalag is a contraction of 'Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschaftsstammlager'. So: what is the root of 'lager', and how does it end up in both Ru…
@LaChasseuse@mastodon.scotSNP MSP Claire Haughey at conference in Aberdeen: - Due to Westminster policies, there's been an 81% drop in Health and Care worker visas in one year, devastating Scotland's health and care sector.
MSP Emma Harper adds that Labour must allow foreign healthcare workers to bring their families with them when they come to Scotland.
Both are nurses, as well as MSPs.
#SNPconf25
@markhburton@mstdn.socialKeir Starmer appoints 25 [right wing, I assume] Labour peers to strengthen support in House of Lords | House of Lords | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/10/keir-starmer-appoints-25-…
@arXiv_econGN_bot@mastoxiv.pageLabour unions under neoliberal authoritarianism in the Global South: the cases of Turkey and Egypt
Mehmet Erman Erol, Cagatay Edgucan Sahin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25152 http…
@sauer_lauwarm@mastodon.socialThis division of labour / worked very much in my favour
@UP8@mastodon.socialThe labour and resource use requirements of a good life for all
#economy #environment
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialEx-Tory MP Ben Howlett says he paid £100 for a 50% stake in influential X account PoliticsUK, which he used for posts that aligned with his clients' interests (Democracy for Sale)
https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-our-fake-chinese-ai-investor<…
@elduvelle@neuromatch.socialLooks like #Labour is fighting back! "Farage boats" 😂
"Starmer to rethink human rights law to tackle ‘Farage boats’"
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/oc…
@david_colquhoun@mstdn.socialGood grief. @Sarah_Montague on @BBCWorldatOne just accused Labour of engaging in Trump-like politics because they criticize Farage. That is grotesque! Farage is a huge admirer of Trump - a gross example of biased interviewing IMO.
@metacurity@infosec.exchangehttps://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/13/muddle-over-semantics-or-pressure-from-china-collapsed-spying-case-remains-baffling
Muddle over semantics or pressure from China? Collapsed spying…
@arXiv_qfinPM_bot@mastoxiv.pageOptimal annuitization with labor income under age-dependent force of mortality
Criscent Birungi, Cody Hyndman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10371 https://arxi…
@LillyHerself@Mastodon.socialRE: https://mastodon.social/@TCatInReality/115317306795824403
How did ordinary people become so stupid that they started voting for the rich?
We used to see rich people as parasitic bloodsuckers who lived off of exploiting the labour of others.…
@grifferz@social.bitfolk.comI think Gary is correct, although I think maybe he has underestimated how likely it is that Reform fall apart due to some incompetence and scandal. To be fair he does say, "unless there is some scandal".
But basically yes, collapsing living standards mean that Labour will be out by 2029, a further right party (Reform or its successor) will be dominant and the best we can hope for is a hung parliament with a coalition of everyone-but-Reform.
@markhburton@mstdn.socialA sound move by Jamie Driscoll.
Thrown under a bus by the Starmer clique.
Appears to see YP as too much of a mess to be realistically considered.
Former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll joins Green Party - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrnm56xdr5o
…
@buercher@tooting.chIn a separate case, Lord Evans is to be suspended for five months after a finding that his actions “could erode public trust in parliamentarians”, with the watchdog finding four separate breaches of the rules.
The Labour peer was caught offering to introduce undercover reporters – who were posing as property developers hoping to lobby the government – to fellow parliamentarians.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/nov/24/house-of-lords-peers-richard-dannatt-david-evans-suspended-breaking-lobbying-rules?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@arXiv_csAR_bot@mastoxiv.pageISAAC: Intelligent, Scalable, Agile, and Accelerated CPU Verification via LLM-aided FPGA Parallelism
Jialin Sun, Yuchen Hu, Dean You, Yushu Du, Hui Wang, Xinwei Fang, Weiwei Shan, Nan Guan, Zhe Jiang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10225
@markhburton@mstdn.socialGreens ‘on track’ to supplant Labour as favourite party in London
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/04/greens-on-track-to-supplant-labour-as-favourite-party-in-london-says-zack-polanski
@steadystatemcr@mstdn.social“The housing crisis is primarily one of affordability rather than solely relating to supply and a range of measures are needed to address them.
“But allowing developers an even greater level of autonomy does nothing to deliver the kind of housing solutions needed by the majority of people affected. It just allows developers and landlords to increase their profits.”
Labour told ‘numbers game’ approach to housing targets is doomed to failure | Morning Star
@metacurity@infosec.exchangeThings are about to get woolly in cybersecurity, so don't miss today's Metacurity for the most critical infosec developments you should know, including
--The UK is a European hotspot for cyberattacks,
--Hackers stole employee data from FEMA,
--DoD and DHS prep for government shutdown,
--CISA kills CIS and MS-ISAC contract,
--WestJet says hackers stole data in a breach,
--Newsom signs nation's toughest AI safety law,
--Labour Party to stud…
@ncoca@social.coopThis CSO letter submitted today has a single #China/#HongKong entity, China Labour Bulletin.
Which self-dissolved in mid-2025...
https://foejapan.org/en/issue/20251205/27117/
@arXiv_csSE_bot@mastoxiv.pageRefactoring Towards Microservices: Preparing the Ground for Service Extraction
Rita Peixoto, Filipe F. Correia, Thatiane Rosa, Eduardo Guerra, Alfredo Goldman
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03050
@markhburton@mstdn.socialI joined Labour 3 times.Never again.
"Questions arise for members of the Labour Party. Why would one join a party where being a member means only paying subs and having no voice? Why would one join a party which is itself host to the enemies not only of socialism but of mild social democratic reform? Why would anyone on the left join an organisation that required you to battle the party bureaucracy before you could battle the true political opposition?"
@arXiv_csRO_bot@mastoxiv.pageARMADA: Autonomous Online Failure Detection and Human Shared Control Empower Scalable Real-world Deployment and Adaptation
Wenye Yu, Jun Lv, Zixi Ying, Yang Jin, Chuan Wen, Cewu Lu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02298
@arXiv_csCL_bot@mastoxiv.pageArabJobs: A Multinational Corpus of Arabic Job Ads
Mo El-Haj
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.22589 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.22589
@bencurthoys@mastodon.socialThe thing about the headlong dash to AI is that it makes very clear that there is just SO MUCH money just sloshing around waiting for an opportunity.
Money that was made by tightening the screws on the labour force another turn, that they didn't even know what to do with.
Money ground of an increasingly oppressive system that they didn't even have anything to spend it on.
Money that could have been making the world a better place all along, except that wasn't…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialLabour Party also says what so many of us have been long saying: Israel is committing genocide. Sanctions now!
'Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Union (TSSA), said: "Today the Labour movement stood on the right side of history and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, sending a clear message to the Labour leadership: we will not remain silent on the crime of genocide."'
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"Labour has also won every time the Senedd has been contested, as it will be again in May. Yet, if the most recent Wales-wide poll holds good, that is set to change. Plaid will instead be the largest party, just ahead of Reform UK, with Labour third. Though still a minority, Plaid would be in government. In Welsh terms, that would be a political earthquake. Perhaps in Britain-wide terms too"
#UKPol
@unchartedworlds@scicomm.xyzWell done Zarah Sultana -
“A government Budget is not the same as a household budget.”
“The glaring omission in all of this is no one's mentioned wealth taxes. ...
“The magic money tree exists – it's in the City of London, and it's with the billionaires.
“But what you find is the lack of political will, because these parties are bankrolled by the billionaires, so they're definitely not going to tax them.”
Also, tip of the hat to Gary Stevenson and Richard Murphy, who I think have both done a lot to shift the conversation on this stuff.
#TaxWealthNotWork #ZarahSultana #QuestionTime #UKPol #GarysEconomics
@markhburton@mstdn.social"..in the UK. Populist rhetoric has moved away from talking about immigrants in general and towards the demonisation of particular ethnic or religious groups, and away from a concern about current immigration numbers towards demands for deportation of legal migrants. Associating immigrants and asylum seekers with crime is part of that pattern."
mainly macro: Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse…
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scotRight, what odds would I get for a bet that the next UK government will be a Labour-Conservative coalition, justified to their supporters by both parties as 'the only way to keep out the extremists'?
@markhburton@mstdn.socialIt's come to this.
Yaxley Lennon and Farage endorse Mahmoud's asylum plan. Most Labour MPs supine.
Progressive parties oppose them.
‘Morally wrong and politically disastrous’ – Labour's asylum plans slammed | Morning Star
https://mor…
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca
@adamhotep@infosec.exchangeWe have no idea how this #AI cycle is affecting jobs. The numbers are all over the place.
Relatedly, I've found myself regularly explaining the concept of an "AI winter" and that most academics expect that we're coming up on the next one. Nobody is connecting these two concepts because they're both so…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialYes, given the chaos, Your Party supporters should now cut their losses and join the Green Party (E&W).
"This [poll] makes the Green Party the primary opposition party to the neo-fascist Reform UK – and is gaining ground on the static Farage outfit."
Green Party leapfrogs Labour, Tories — the old order is crumbling
@pre@boing.worldSo the temporary placeholder name "Your Party" is made permanent.
None of the options on the shortlist were good. Most of them just as grammatically inconvenient as the dumb placeholder name.
The people who decide on the short-list, who can be a member, whose votes counts and what the options are, have quite a lot of power.
Zara Sultana boycotted day one over who sets the rules and who can be involved. If Your Party have a governing body with power to override conference they end up like the Labour party and just are easily taken over and usurped by a cabal of thatcherite neoliberal capitalists.
They did allow the dual membership system and a wider governance, so Zara won on who gets to be a member and who gets to be in charge. Which is probably good.
Coz as the terrible name shows, if you put the idiots in charge you'll get idiocy not good collective decision making.
For now the membership appear to have won, and I hear are they are all very excited and fierce and canny and not likely to let the old guard just set up another dictatorship from the top.
They currently have half the membership count of the greens, less than a quarter that claimed by Reform. Lets hope they can get some attention towards something other than how billionaires think the country should be run and focus on the people.
Here's hoping they can inflate that number by draining the Labour party and Reform members who just want change really rather than actually liking anything said by Farage.
#yourParty #ukpol
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Rachel Reeves, boasted to corporate executives that she has “unblocked” a large housing development in Sussex being held up by “some snails … a protected species or something … microscopic snails that you cannot even see”. .. The very rare little whirlpool ramshorn snail, by no means microscopic, is an indicator of fresh water not affected by sewage pollution"
@markhburton@mstdn.socialNot so surprising given Starmer's ever greater adoption of Reform's pseudo-policies.
Bolton gets first Reform councillor as former Labour member joins party - Manchester Evening News https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ne
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scotWell, well, well. Mhairi Black is to play a detective in a new BBC police drama set in Glasgow.
I wish her well, of course, but I feel she has much more to offer the world than TV drama.
#ScotPol
@markhburton@mstdn.social'Whether it’s left Labour MPs worried about retaliation from the whips, “Your Party” organisers arguing over the finances and structures of a new left vehicle, or Greens whose leaders still view a rapidly militarising EU as some kind of progressive force, we need more seriousness and urgency over the deadly threat to us all posed by the ruling-class drive to war.'
Confront the war fever sweeping the continent
| Morning Star
@primonatura@mstdn.social"How Labour is growing UK renewables, and the biggest challenges on the horizon"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Energy #Renewables
@unchartedworlds@scicomm.xyzGood piece from Nesrine Malik.
"The supposedly unifying thread of all these new policies is “integration”: this mythical concept that has taken on the quality of a religious ideal. ... It depends upon the children’s centre that links parents to others in the community and pools advice and resources. It depends on the libraries that provide literature and history and local knowledge. It depends on youth clubs and midwife visits and community centres and public-sector workers ...
"Yet all of these services have been hollowed out by years of austerity, pushing people back into their own small networks and atomised lives."
I'm remembering when one of the Nottingham leisure centres was closed, a youth worker explaining that the youth club there had been neutral ground for local kids from different areas to be able to hang out safely. I think it's unlikely the benefits of that had been costed in when the council decided to close the place. Even purely economically, I think it was a false economy, let alone quality of life and community-building.
#austerity #migration #integration #LabourParty #UKLaw #UKPol #libraries #LeisureCentres #ThirdSpaces #citizenship
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"Poverty ... is a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society, without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of civilisation. It is the lot of man – it is the source of wealth, since without poverty there would be no labour, and without labour there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth" — Patrick Colquhoun, quoted by @…
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Whether through the People’s Assembly, “Your Party,” the Greens or union organisations like trades councils, we need mobilising vehicles that will take the fight to both Labour and Reform. How to do that should be the focus of every socialist organisation and activist."
The Morning Star take on Labour conference 2025 | Morning Star
@markhburton@mstdn.socialRaising the basic rate of income tax could be suicidal for Labour | Morning Star
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/raising-basic-rate-income-tax-could-be-suicidal-labour
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"An SNP victory in May’s Holyrood contest would hardly be an earthquake, after 18 continuous years of nationalist government. It would, though, signal a remarkable comeback from a period of eclipse, and from an often dismal record on public services. For Labour, which did so well in Scotland in the 2024 general election, it would signal a crisis moment, imperilling Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership"
#UKPol
@markhburton@mstdn.socialLeft-wing candidate Andrea Egan beats Starmer ally to lead Unison - BBC News
#UKPol
@markhburton@mstdn.socialOne of our friends is the daughter of a Chilean refugee who came here as a young child after the fascist coup in 1973.
Under this Labour government she and her family would have been sent back, probably by 1980 when the dictatorship imposed a new constitution. It was still a highly repressive country. Refugees generally didn't deem it safe to return until the late 1980s. Most made lives here, contributing greatly to this country, as migrant communities always do.
@paulbusch@mstdn.caGood Morning #Canada
Many people, that includes you, are worried about #Skynet assuming control of all military systems, but what happens when it starts harvesting our crops? Canadian agricultural scientists are blindly charging ahead in their efforts to fill our farms with robots. It started with self-driving tractors pulling conventional equipment and evolved to fully autonomous vehicles that plow, plant, fertilizer, weed, and harvest. Organic farming is seeing the biggest benefits as robots can hand weed 2 hectares per day, eliminating herbicides.... and farm workers. Almost 15% of Canada’s dairy farms use robotic milking cubicles where cows enter when they need milking, with no cold human hands involved. IMO, using robots to replace hard back breaking labour or tedious driving of equipment up and down a farm field is a good use of technology. But I hope the tech is not priced out of the reach of small farms.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Robotics #Farming
https://news.uoguelph.ca/2024/08/these-self-driving-weed-cutting-robots-transform-the-future-of-farming-says-u-of-g-researcher/
@markhburton@mstdn.socialGuardian:
"Greens struggle for coverage at the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times. The news today will be dominated by the repurcussions from the Manchester synagogue attack."
https://www.theguardian.com/politic…
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Whether that is a remade Labour, or the Greens, or Your Party, or Scottish and Welsh nationalists the essential issue will be the same – driving Farage back into his hard-core support through a politics of radical change."
Reform voting bloc can be challenged by the left | Morning Star
https://<…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialA customs union is a sensible, pragmatic measure, not because of "going for growth", which is a) unattainable anyway and b) ecocidal, but to make life easier for small businesses who send goods to our neighbours.
Davey claims ‘historic victory’ for Lib Dems after tokenistic vote in favour of customs union with EU – UK politics live | Politics | The Guardian
@markhburton@mstdn.socialAlan Simpson, always worth reading. On Labour's deep crisis and the departure from reality of those controling the party.
The Anachronistic Procession: today’s politics of the lost | Morning Star
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anachroni…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialLabour still trying to
Out-Reform Reform.
UK to announce plans to emulate stringent Danish immigration system | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian
https://archive.ph/uUYN9
@markhburton@mstdn.social"...the scams perpetrated during the Corbyn period by Labour Together, CCDH and its sock-puppet ‘Stop Funding Fake News’ (SFFN) to topple Corbyn and install Starmer in his stead, have led directly to the burgeoning police state Starmer is building against the people of this country, their rights and their freedoms, all to protect Israel and its interests."
Starmer's attempt to destroy Corbyn reaches US
@markhburton@mstdn.socialSleepwalking into a fascist hell.
UK now.
#UKPol
@markhburton@mstdn.socialGiven the remarkable #GreensSurge in members and polling, and the ongoing chaotic infighting at 'Your Party', it's maybe worth reposting my questioning of both leaderships on the eco-planetary crisis and overshoot.
As UK politics turns both right and left, how do we get degrowth onto the agenda? – degrowthUK
