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Isn’t the real question of the weekend how will befriender of poor/rich waitresses Farage accommodate the new populist movement sweeping the kingdom (southern half); share or shaft?

Excellent question. Are we going to get a Party to the right of Farage? The Yaxley-Lennons? There would then be three parties swimming in the same fetid tank. Nothing much keeping them apart except for the ambitions of their leaders.

Robinson has already given his backing to Advance UK. Habib spoke at yesterday's rally

You've got to be on your toes to follow the shenanigans of the far right......,

What a time to rejoin the EU. If only we had a Labour leader with a little bit of backbone we could say goodbye to Trump and Mandy and steer a course back to civilisation

Sadly, I think that would lead to violent civil war.

Having a far right party on 25%+ in the polls is convergence with Europe - Italy, France, Germany. To name but a few.

Civilisation, eh?

As high as 56%, in Villefranche Sur Mer.

Whatever arguments there may be for rejoining the EU, marginalising the radical right is not one of them.

Otoh Brexiting doesn’t seem to have done much to marginalise the radical right either.

It was part of the same flow. The politicians sold the people on -

1) The People are Sovereign (no deference to an aristocracy) and can do as they wish - True Democracy
2) You aren’t allowed to change a growing number of parts of public life. The Process State regards you as a tomatoes to be processed into canned chopped tomato. Your part in the process is to shut up and obey. And jump in the can.

Strangely, the Sovereign People didn’t take well to (2)

Again, I would say that analysis is flawed. It's not the "Process State" that has processed people into canned chopped tomatoes: it's large corporations chasing profit. It's not a powerful state, it's a state that has ceded power to international corporations.

Yep. It isn't "the process state" that has closed down the High St in "left behind towns" it is Amazon.

It isn't "the process state" that has closed down your local butcher, greengrocer and pub, it's Asda, Tesco and Aldi.

It isn't "the process state" that has destroyed local and national newspapers, it is Social Media.

Etc etc.

And of course as consumers we have all played our part.

Isn’t the real question of the weekend how will befriender of poor/rich waitresses Farage accommodate the new populist movement sweeping the kingdom (southern half); share or shaft?

Excellent question. Are we going to get a Party to the right of Farage? The Yaxley-Lennons? There would then be three parties swimming in the same fetid tank. Nothing much keeping them apart except for the ambitions of their leaders.

Robinson has already given his backing to Advance UK. Habib spoke at yesterday's rally

You've got to be on your toes to follow the shenanigans of the far right......,

What a time to rejoin the EU. If only we had a Labour leader with a little bit of backbone we could say goodbye to Trump and Mandy and steer a course back to civilisation

Sadly, I think that would lead to violent civil war.

Having a far right party on 25%+ in the polls is convergence with Europe - Italy, France, Germany. To name but a few.

Civilisation, eh?

Clive Lewis also had an unexpected view on the March (1/2)

Believe it or not, I had an old school friend on today’s marches in London. He sent me some photos from the crowd.

We went to middle school together and grew up on the same Eastern District council estate in Northampton.

I asked him why he was there. He gave me two answers:
1.“The government doesn’t listen to us.”
2.“I want to feel proud of my country again.”

He wore a Union Jack, not a St George’s Cross as he said that one had been hijacked by racists.

He wasn’t there for Hopkins, Musk, or any of the professional ‘grifters’ as he put it. He was there to feel part of something bigger, though he admitted there were a lot of, in his words, “assholes” there.

He’s an electrician. He’s smart. He’s not racist, but he’s not “PC” either. He’s not a fan of Keir Starmer but he also believes Farage would be a disaster.

Oh yes, he’s a bundle of contradictions! But aren’t we all?

I don’t know what ‘box’ we put him or the millions like him in. And I think pretending they’re all racists or fascists would be a massive mistake.

Some were. But not all.

This is about something bigger than immigration slogans or GDP numbers. For decades we’ve hollowed out our national life, underfunding and undermining the very institutions that once brought us together…


https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1966988870890963361?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

(2/2)

Karl Polanyi, writing in The Great Transformation, argued that when markets are “disembodied” from society, when land, labour, and life itself are treated as commodities
society pushes back. He called this the “double movement”: people seeking to protect themselves, to reclaim dignity and meaning when everything solid seems to melt into air.

That’s what I saw in my friend’s photos. Not just anger, but a demand for belonging.

We’ve replaced collective experience with atomisation. Without getting too nostalgic, programmes like the BBC’s Generation Game once pulled in millions every Saturday night, giving us something we could all talk about on Monday morning. Now we watch Netflix, Disney+, Prime, or Paramount, alone, in algorithmic silos.

Football used to be affordable and rooted in community; now it’s millionaires playing for the profitability of billionaires. The NHS, the post office, the railways - all chipped away, run down, sold off or centralised, leaving people feeling powerless and disconnected.

And don’t get me wrong: some kind of “Hovis Labour” nostalgia for the 1950s isn’t the answer. The country back then was often intolerant, grey, and deeply unequal. But what we’ve built since is a society that gives people little to hold in common, no collective story about who we are or what we’re for.

I reckon that’s partly why my mate marched. Not because he wants to turn back the clock. But because he wants to feel pride again. Pride in a country that is inclusive, fair, and offers a role for everyone. Pride in a nation that has a respected place in the world, tackles grotesque inequality, and gives people something real to believe in.

Polanyi warned that when democracies fail to provide a humane alternative, the backlash can turn authoritarian. This is how fascism grew in the 1930s, not because everyone became a true believer, but because millions felt abandoned and looked for strength, identity, and meaning wherever they could find it.

If Labour and progressives don’t offer that story of renewal, if we don’t rebuild our national institutions, restore collective pride, and re-embed markets within society, the far right will do it for us, in their own image.

And by then, it will be too late.

https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1966988870890963361?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

It’s hard to understand why the modern Labour Party has so abandoned their core vote. Perhaps I am going back some way, but historically Labour were proud of British identity and culture, believed it needed to be underpinned by a strong national defence, and above all they championed the rights of British workers. Not non-workers, not immigrant workers, not workers overseas. British workers.

Instead we have this big blancmange of a party that has obsessed itself with free movement for foreigners and British professional classes, free trade and climate policy at the expense of British industry, and massive transfer payments to non workers, many of whom are not even British.

How refreshing to see a Labour politician show a modicum of understanding of how low his party has sunk.

I can’t imagine a scenario where I would vote for the Labour Party but I can recognise that there is a democratic need to have a party that fills the above gap. And it’s staggering to me that Labour are content to let this gap be filled by the latest Farage brand, seemingly for no reason other than they think he’s a nasty racist and anyone that backs him is hence an undesirable and they are welcome to each other.

Yes, exactly.

I just couldn't believe how they were so wedded to FOM. It seemed to go against all the principles of the kind of trade union Labour I was brought up to believe was "us". Opening up the market on low paid jobs to a whole continent, with the result being big corps getting richer whilst the blue collar Brits voted for someone else, unreal

Not sure the first para is correct - I think any MP can engineer a by-election by resigning their position ?

Actually, formally an MP cannot resign their seat. Hence they get themselves disqualified instead by accepting an office of profit under the Crown (Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or Manor of Northstead - Mike Amesbury and Scott Benton at present, which gives confidence that the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead are in safe hands).

More relevantly, I don't think the point being made was that MPs can't decide to leave Parliament, causing a by-election. I think it was that electoral volatility means they cannot predict the result.

I have to say, I don't really agree with that anyway in this case. Burnham is a pretty popular mayor, and there are plenty of Remain-leaning constituencies in his area with large Labour majorities which tend to be rather unfavourable for RefUK, where Tories are unpopular, and Lib Dems just aren't a factor. I mean, RefUK only just won in heavily Leave-leaning Runcorn and, whilst polls have moved their way since, there are quite a few places where Burnham would win comfortably.

Sinn Fein tested the notion that "formally an MP cannot resign their seat" to destruction. They didn't want anything to do with this British royalty stuff, so one departing Sinn Fein MP sent in a letter saying they resigned, and the Commons authorities just interpreted that to mean that they should be appointed to an office of profit under the Crown. The end result of this is that, yes, an MP can resign their seat, because that's what the Sinn Fein MP did, even if there was some make-believe paperwork after the event.

Clive Lewis also had an unexpected view on the March (1/2)

Believe it or not, I had an old school friend on today’s marches in London. He sent me some photos from the crowd.

We went to middle school together and grew up on the same Eastern District council estate in Northampton.

I asked him why he was there. He gave me two answers:
1.“The government doesn’t listen to us.”
2.“I want to feel proud of my country again.”

He wore a Union Jack, not a St George’s Cross as he said that one had been hijacked by racists.

He wasn’t there for Hopkins, Musk, or any of the professional ‘grifters’ as he put it. He was there to feel part of something bigger, though he admitted there were a lot of, in his words, “assholes” there.

He’s an electrician. He’s smart. He’s not racist, but he’s not “PC” either. He’s not a fan of Keir Starmer but he also believes Farage would be a disaster.

Oh yes, he’s a bundle of contradictions! But aren’t we all?

I don’t know what ‘box’ we put him or the millions like him in. And I think pretending they’re all racists or fascists would be a massive mistake.

Some were. But not all.

This is about something bigger than immigration slogans or GDP numbers. For decades we’ve hollowed out our national life, underfunding and undermining the very institutions that once brought us together…


https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1966988870890963361?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

(2/2)

Karl Polanyi, writing in The Great Transformation, argued that when markets are “disembodied” from society, when land, labour, and life itself are treated as commodities
society pushes back. He called this the “double movement”: people seeking to protect themselves, to reclaim dignity and meaning when everything solid seems to melt into air.

That’s what I saw in my friend’s photos. Not just anger, but a demand for belonging.

We’ve replaced collective experience with atomisation. Without getting too nostalgic, programmes like the BBC’s Generation Game once pulled in millions every Saturday night, giving us something we could all talk about on Monday morning. Now we watch Netflix, Disney+, Prime, or Paramount, alone, in algorithmic silos.

Football used to be affordable and rooted in community; now it’s millionaires playing for the profitability of billionaires. The NHS, the post office, the railways - all chipped away, run down, sold off or centralised, leaving people feeling powerless and disconnected.

And don’t get me wrong: some kind of “Hovis Labour” nostalgia for the 1950s isn’t the answer. The country back then was often intolerant, grey, and deeply unequal. But what we’ve built since is a society that gives people little to hold in common, no collective story about who we are or what we’re for.

I reckon that’s partly why my mate marched. Not because he wants to turn back the clock. But because he wants to feel pride again. Pride in a country that is inclusive, fair, and offers a role for everyone. Pride in a nation that has a respected place in the world, tackles grotesque inequality, and gives people something real to believe in.

Polanyi warned that when democracies fail to provide a humane alternative, the backlash can turn authoritarian. This is how fascism grew in the 1930s, not because everyone became a true believer, but because millions felt abandoned and looked for strength, identity, and meaning wherever they could find it.

If Labour and progressives don’t offer that story of renewal, if we don’t rebuild our national institutions, restore collective pride, and re-embed markets within society, the far right will do it for us, in their own image.

And by then, it will be too late.

https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1966988870890963361?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q

It’s hard to understand why the modern Labour Party has so abandoned their core vote. Perhaps I am going back some way, but historically Labour were proud of British identity and culture, believed it needed to be underpinned by a strong national defence, and above all they championed the rights of British workers. Not non-workers, not immigrant workers, not workers overseas. British workers.

Instead we have this big blancmange of a party that has obsessed itself with free movement for foreigners and British professional classes, free trade and climate policy at the expense of British industry, and massive transfer payments to non workers, many of whom are not even British.

How refreshing to see a Labour politician show a modicum of understanding of how low his party has sunk.

I can’t imagine a scenario where I would vote for the Labour Party but I can recognise that there is a democratic need to have a party that fills the above gap. And it’s staggering to me that Labour are content to let this gap be filled by the latest Farage brand, seemingly for no reason other than they think he’s a nasty racist and anyone that backs him is hence an undesirable and they are welcome to each other.

Isn’t the real question of the weekend how will befriender of poor/rich waitresses Farage accommodate the new populist movement sweeping the kingdom (southern half); share or shaft?

Excellent question. Are we going to get a Party to the right of Farage? The Yaxley-Lennons? There would then be three parties swimming in the same fetid tank. Nothing much keeping them apart except for the ambitions of their leaders.

Robinson has already given his backing to Advance UK. Habib spoke at yesterday's rally

You've got to be on your toes to follow the shenanigans of the far right......,

What a time to rejoin the EU. If only we had a Labour leader with a little bit of backbone we could say goodbye to Trump and Mandy and steer a course back to civilisation

Sadly, I think that would lead to violent civil war.

Having a far right party on 25%+ in the polls is convergence with Europe - Italy, France, Germany. To name but a few.

Civilisation, eh?

As high as 56%, in Villefranche Sur Mer.

Whatever arguments there may be for rejoining the EU, marginalising the radical right is not one of them.

Otoh Brexiting doesn’t seem to have done much to marginalise the radical right either.

It was part of the same flow. The politicians sold the people on -

1) The People are Sovereign (no deference to an aristocracy) and can do as they wish - True Democracy
2) You aren’t allowed to change a growing number of parts of public life. The Process State regards you as a tomatoes to be processed into canned chopped tomato. Your part in the process is to shut up and obey. And jump in the can.

Strangely, the Sovereign People didn’t take well to (2)

Again, I would say that analysis is flawed. It's not the "Process State" that has processed people into canned chopped tomatoes: it's large corporations chasing profit. It's not a powerful state, it's a state that has ceded power to international corporations.