Blair is speaking, as he increasingly does, irresponsibly & without understanding. Grenfell was not the result of 'mistakes', but fraud by manufacturers, complicity by testing bodies, dereliction of safety duty by architects & construction companies, and inaction by politicians.

It is irresponsible in the extreme for a former PM to go on TV and speak pseudo-authoritatively like this. The first page of the report finds precisely that every death and Grenfell could have been and should have been avoided.

the idea of 9,000 millionaires leaving Britain sounds dramatic until you remember there are 2,849,000 millionaires in this country it’s literally a rounding error given the ebb and flow of migration

We saw what happened when governments responded to a crisis this way in the years after WW1 and we’ve seen it again since 2010. Everyone knows there is an alternative and what it is. But it can’t be implemented without weakening finance and all the institutions captured by it.

The government says they have no choice but to cut winter fuel allowance. That is a lie. They could bring in wealth taxes as a start. Instead, they are choosing to push more pensioners into poverty. Defend the principle of universalism — no cuts to welfare!

It's a really good book if you are socialist curious (and I think you probably should be)

It wasn't until January 2022 that the Tories first polled as low as 29% - two years after winning and as the partygate scandal broke. Keir Starmer has managed this feat in two months.

Long thread: The story and treatment of Marieha Hussain is one of the most alarming, ludicrous and unbelievable I’ve ever witnessed. It is a story of eye-wateringly blatant state racism, media complicity in that racism, police manipulation and cultural incompetence. And it is a

Just listened to the new #ACFM microdose, which is a really valuable listen. Contains a very important corrective to the 'common sense' idea that young men are far right Andrew T fans. pca.st/episode/db1a1f…

They're not and even if they were this is what to do about it in RSE lessons (and why poor RSE might be an exacerbating factor) bishtraining.com/the-effect-of-…

THIS IS THE WAY HAHAHAHAHA

A new #ACFM on The Joy of Fascism! Nadia Idle, Jeremy Gilbert, and I look back at this Summer's racist riots and pogroms to ask what was really going on, who participated, and what motivated them, before discussing how the Left should respond. novaramedia.com/2024/09/15/acf…

Genius programming for BBC 4 to put this on now. The Project, Series 1: 1. Opposition: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod… via @bbciplayer

📢NEW PTO EXTRA📢 - "Oasis were part of a broad social and cultural project in the late 1990s of foreclosing the possibility of more radical and progressive developments - both in music and in politics." - Jeremy Gilbert on the Oasis reunion: patreon.com/posts/look-bac…

"Yet he can't bear the tough choice of digging into his pockets and forking out for clothes and gigs. What an own goal. What an embarrassment." averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/09/a-fond…

Introducing buffer zones at abortion clinics is a welcome step against the intimidation that often occurs around them. I had an abortion in my 20s so I know first-hand how daunting that journey to the clinic is. Nobody should be made to feel even more vulnerable in that moment.

Lebanese people are fearful of texting their loved ones in case their phones explode. Our government’s cowardly failure to call out this latest war crime is shameful. There is only one reasonable response: end all arms sales to Israel, now.

This graph goes a long way towards explaining why British houses look so cheap and are such low quality, even though they're expensive to buy. They are, in fact, built cheaply.