Co-Founder, Novara Media. Dad. Husband. Author of ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’. Column at UnHerd. More soon with Verso Books.
South coast, England
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Trump Gives Wildest Speech YET To UN.
From tonight’s show with @AyoCaesar - great to do one with Ash!
piped.video/XeYQQHvR6_Y?is=Wn40…
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Andy Burnham has promised a break with neoliberalism.
The more I learn about Camden Labour’s record in recent years, and their candidate in this by-election’s record, the more ridiculous that sounds.
The weirdest thing? The Greens aren’t shouting about it. Camden is ground zero for private development, asset managers and outsourcing when it comes to London authorities. Even lots of potential Green voters seem unaware of precisely how bad it is.
LOTS of votes still to win.
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Aaron Bastani retweeted
Polanski has also called for expelling US troops from British soil
The only other leader of a major party to do so was Michael Foot in 1980s
Trust me: these are redlines guarded religiously by the British establishment
The Greens are now a threat to the smooth running of the war machine
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40 years ago Iranians would change names to fit in.
Hossein > ‘Harry’. Babak > ‘Bobby’. I knew a Bozorgmehr who went by ‘Dave’!
Now we have endless signaling about the ‘diaspora’, like this sweater.
A political shift? No. Both are attempts to fit in with dominant culture.
Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed responds to a visibly upset Iranian-American student at the University of Michigan, telling him that U.S. military interventions, sanctions, and regime-change wars often advance corporate interests and harm civilians, rather than promote democracy and freedom.
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If you are, relatively speaking, a recent arrival, ‘fitting in’ with the professional managerial class in the US (and to a lesser extent the UK) means leaning into this stuff, rather than doing the opposite.
So it’s changed behaviour, to achieve the same end.
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If Labour wins big in Holborn and St Pancras (big if), I think we get a soft budget and a March election.
Obviously the most sensible thing to do.
🚨 NEW: Senior No 10 advisers are pushing for Andy Burnham to call a general election early next year
[@Telegraph]
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I’ll be in Holborn and St Pancras this week for @novaramedia with a by-election walk about to camera.
From everything I’ve been told, the Greens simply aren’t criticising the Labour candidate - despite Camden Labour’s mixed record (to say the least) and the local party being ground zero for Starmerism smashing the Labour left.
Looking back, Reform couldn’t have given a better candidate to the Greens than Matt Goodwin. He was the anti-Hannah Spencer: Southern, affluent-coded and, despite his political branding, very much regarded as part of Westminster politics.
Now, though, the lines aren’t so clear. What’s more there’s whispers about a lack of clarity from the Greens regarding a national message…
So much to learn about, and people to talk to!
There’s EVERYTHING to play for!
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By-elections make people prone to exaggeration. But this year we’ll have 3 HUGE ones.
It’s been said that Holborn & St Pancras, as a Labour vs Green race, is about the future of the British left.
That’s true. But, as important, it’s about the future of foreign policy from the centre, and centre left.
Right now Burnham’s bet is that a modicum of radicalism at home, plus adjustment on West Bank, plus vibes, are enough.
Fundamentally therefore, as we see with Saudi story, the fundamentals of UK foreign policy stay the same. There’s not even an impulse to examine a coalition of the middle powers - like Carney and Macron. This is probably the most conservative aspect of ‘Burnhamism’.
If Zack Polanski wins, or frankly just comes close, that logic collapses. Labour would need to think about a shift on foreign policy, and Britain’s place in global order, on a scale probably not seen since 1945. Frankly I suspect, as a party, they wouldn’t be capable of it.
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The Liberal Democrats want a tax free personal allowance of £15,000.
Stupid, unserious policy. We need to expand the tax base, not shrink it.
In which case: expect it to become very popular, and adopted by all the major parties and the media class.
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We need:
To decarbonise much of the economy very quickly.
Have a publicly owned house builder to act as a market maker.
Build 1000s of miles of high speed rail and trams.
Immediately scrap loans and fees, and reintroduce grants for strategically important industries (not least healthcare) as a start.
Increase local authority funding to 2010 levels.
Create a national care service.
It’s very appealing to think other people will pay for all that. But that’s not happening. The tax base can’t *shrink*.
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Goebbels says the same in his diaries. The Third Reich leadership were completely blown away (understatement!) by the Soviet Union’s industrial capacity (which had been moved into the country’s interior).
We aren’t really allowed to acknowledge that in West, not least because it showed extraordinary success of state-led coordination (in some contexts anyway!)
Hitler had no fucking idea this was being recorded.
June 4, 1942. Talking privately with Mannerheim, he admitted Soviet tank strength had taken him by surprise:
" I did not think that possible. "
His ordinary speaking voice. Sound on.
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Aaron Bastani retweeted
An empty chair.
The Labour candidate for Holborn & St Pancras didn’t even show up for the Camden Muslim Network debate.
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Aaron Bastani retweeted
Francis Fukuyama on AI and the loss of thymos.
Why I Changed My Mind About AI Risk open.substack.com/pub/persua…
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“The smallest concerns are often the most important concerns - because that’s where you can build the early blocks of trust & faith with a constituent….thats why we are so passionate about paving potholes”.
- @NYCMayor
It's extraordinary this needs saying. But great he did!
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When I carp on about things like litter, flytipping, consistently anti-social behaviour, charity shop bins, tags everywhere - this is why.
These are things that repeatedly come up with citizens, literally everywhere. If socialists want their votes, they need to listen.
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Honestly, if my daddy was this rich I'd start a bookshop and enjoy life!
(And of course donate to @novaramedia !)
After listening to this anecdote, I was curious about what Nicky Blair is doing now.
Improbably, his career has gone: teacher > football agent > founding a defense technology startup.
It's not what you know ...
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