While I agree to some extent with Miriam González Durántez that the Far Right's rise is because they are more committed to politics than an historically complacent centre, what she really doesn't identify is how the centrist political class have continually depicted the moderate Left as 'extremists' too, and thereby played into the hands of the Far Right (as an 'acceptable' extremism).

The centre has proved to be really dangerously disingenuous in its views of the Left!

#politics
h/t FT

tRump has sold out #Ukraine. He makes Chamberlain look like a man of iron principle

🖊 Simon Tisdall

Europe’s leaders can no longer trust a word that comes out of Washington. No more slaps on the wrist – we need concrete steps to punish tRump

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/22/donald-trump-ukraine-betrayal-putin-nato

For those of you wondering about Olly Robbins' litigation strategy over his exit from a senior civil service post, having been 'sacked' by Keir Starmer.... here's @davidallengreen setting out how Robbins actually manoeuvred the Govt. into a major out of court settlement.

Its a classic case of the civil servant knowing a lot better how things *can* work than the politicians... in other words, be careful, PM (and now that's you Mr Burnham), who you piss off!

#politics
https://theemptycity.com/blog/2026/10/the-curious-incident-of-the-settlement-of-the-robbins-claim/

Jackdaw will do nothing for the people of Scotland.

Plans show it will provide just 2% of UK gas demand, only create 27 jobs, and it will leave us more dependent on gas despite its global fluctuating prices.

Investing in renewables will create thousands of jobs and cut household energy bills.

As I said a couple of days ago after watching the Aberfan documentary, what ties a range of scandals & disasters together in the UK is the common element of elite (political class) disdain for normal people, our wellbeing & our lives (generally). The COVID enquiry just adds more evidence to that conclusion...

The UK's problem is our political class just don't like us very much & as such whatever they may be required to say publicly, care little for our lives.

#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/oct/21/families-care-home-residents-covid-inquiry-report-findings

John Ashby sums up the central hypocrisy of media coverage of the Green Party of England & Wales....

#GPEW #Greens #politics

h/t Guardian Letters

"Not every billionaire is a policy failure," argues an opinion piece in the FT.

Comrades, we're winning the argument. They've conceded the broad principle and are reduced to haggling over details.

https://www.ft.com/content/2c8c610b-83f3-4cab-b409-bab69f4c2207

As @sjwrenlewis argues, the problem with neoliberalism is not the approach itself (whatever its shortcomings), but rather the evidence free, faith-based version (privileging corporate interest) that dominates the economic thinking of the UK's political class.

Shorn of evidence & knowledge, economic policy has become wholly ideological with no real interest in, or use for *actual* economic evidence. Until we change this, economic policy will remain misguided.

#economics
https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-decline-of-knowledge-based-policy.html

The money being thrown at oil and gas companies should instead be used to insulate homes and help people swap out their gas boilers for heat pumps.

We can save people money, but not with new fossil fuels.

Let's demand better.
https://greens.scot/join

🚨 BREAKING: The UK Labour Government have approved the Jackdaw gas field. This a devastating betrayal of future generations.

Jackdaw will make the UK even more dependent on the global gas market. This will do nothing to lower household energy bills and it is dishonest to pretend that it will.

World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/21/world-cut-emissions-un-climate-crisis

A while back, a friend found a water-worn pebble in a Highland river and gave it to me.

I asked a local jeweller to make a small addition to the stone.

I'm quite pleased with the result.

"No state has a ‘right’ to exist – least of all an apartheid, genocidal state like Israel"

A *state as it exists* is not the same as *the people that the state is supposed to represent*.

The Israeli people have a right to exist, but they lose the right to maintain their state when it is used to oppress.

Then it becomes an illegitimate state like apartheid South Africa. It must be reconstituted in ways that regain its legitimacy.

https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2026-10-12/state-right-exist-apartheid-israel/

#ApartheidIsrael #USPol #EUPol .

First, the MAGANazis came for Ilan Omar. And I knew exactly what that meant because I've read the rest of the fucking poem.

Among Keir Starmer's worst deeds were his legislative and rhetorical attacks on nature protection. In those two wasted years, we spiralled backwards, even from the Tory legacy. At this week's biodiversity summit, the Burnham govt should pledge to turn that round. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Wage war on nature to build ne...

Now is the time for Burnham to plan for Thames Water’s demise. Will Burnham rise to the challenge? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/10/20/now-is-the-time-for-burnham-to-plan-for-the-thames-waters-demise/

And so The Canary goes dark, among recriminations & conspiracy theories about attacks and partial 'de-banking' from Lloyds.... The Canary claims it will offer its side of the story of its closure imminently, but given how the political class treats anything that looks left-ish, it doesn't take too big a leap to see something political behind the closure of a leading outlet for left-opinion & analysis.

They'll be more on this soon, I'm sure....

#media #politics

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/19/the-canary-leftwing-news-website-closure

One of the striking differences between UK employers & the Dutch is the issue of responsibility;

Dutch employers see themselves with responsibility for the well-being of young workers; in the UK many employers see labour as a cost that needs to be reduced, training as a luxury & young workers only being employable if they *already* have work experience.

To replicate the Dutch model of partnership will require significant cultural change!

#workers #NEETS #politics
https://feweek.co.uk/what-alan-milburn-and-i-learned-from-the-dutch/

We can build a new society out of the wreckage of neoliberalism, and we're going to have to. https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/10/20/we-can-build-a-new-society-out-of-the-wreckage-of-neoliberalism/

"It is an absurdity so mind-bending to think that today the current president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who rampaged through Syria as the commander of the al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra, could land in the UK and be received at 10 Downing Street, but Sally Rooney could be arrested on arrival on terrorism charges"

#PalestineAction #SallyRooney #UKPolitics

What the UK Is Doing to Pro-Palestine Novelist Sally Rooney Is an Act of Orwellian Villainy
https://zeteo.uk/p/if-the-uk-can-shut-down-sally-rooney