@rbreich please let it sink in that whenever #multinational #corporations #conspiracy of #amazon #apple #google #bank #banks #tax #lawyer and #corrupt #bribed #politics defending the #bermuda #cayman #luxembourg and #switzerland #taxinjustice scheme they actively destroy #democracy and fund #fascism, because people are angry, very angry
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
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Teaching union claims extra £4bn for Send overhaul just ‘drop in bucket’ compared with what’s needed – UK politics live https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/feb/23/send-white-paper-keir-starmer-labour-reform-tories-uk-politics-latest-news-updates #Politics #UkNews #Labour #SpecialEducationalNeeds #Education #BridgetPhillipson #Disability #Schools #Conservatives #ReformUk
Teaching union claims extra £4bn for Send overhaul just ‘drop in bucket’ compared with what’s needed – UK politics live https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/feb/23/send-white-paper-keir-starmer-labour-reform-tories-uk-politics-latest-news-updates #Politics #UkNews #Labour #SpecialEducationalNeeds #Education #BridgetPhillipson #Disability #Schools #Conservatives #ReformUk
Trying to predict by-elections may be fools' game, but Paul Whiteley (UEssex) has had a go (as have many others, of course), and concludes while a Green victory *is* possible, Labour may scrape through because the anti-Labour vote is split between the Green Party of England & Wales & Reform UK Ltd.
The locals want a local election, the commentariat want a weather vane, but in the end the canvasses may be the key for wavering voters?
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New polling for PropserUK (the new centre Right group) suggest the Tories have actually lost more votes to the left of the party than to Reform - around 1.3 voters moving 'left' to each voter shifting to ReformUK Ltd.
Left here is relative rather than absolute but once agains suggests ReformUK Ltd may not be as popular among wavering voters as the media seems to think... and of course then the Labour Party's focus on those looking to Reform may be misplaced?
h/t FT
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As a political economist, of course I agree with Jostein Hauge when he concludes:
'Economics is fundamentally political — it has never been & never will be, a value-free science. At its core, economics is shaped by ideologies, human morality, competing interests, social norms & political priorities. Pretending otherwise does not make economics more rigorous. It makes it more dangerous. Economics was born as political economy for a reason!'
https://www.theglobalcurrents.com/p/economics-is-fundamentally-political
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😱
"Top Democratic officials who worked on the party's still-secret autopsy of the 2024 election concluded that Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration's approach to the war in Gaza, Axios has learned."
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/22/dnc-2024-autopsy-harris-gaza
Charlie Stross
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Looks like Palantir may have fallen into the Streisand trap;
in seeking their right to reply (under Swiss media law) via the courts, they have drawn a lot more attention to two articles (based on Freedom of Information requests) that reveal why the Swiss state refused to do a deal with Palantir for some military software; they were worried data would be obtained by the US Govt.
Now a story, originally limited to the Swiss is gaining traction across Europe; oops.
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Looks like Palantir may have fallen into the Streisand trap;
in seeking their right to reply (under Swiss media law) via the courts, they have drawn a lot more attention to two articles (based on Freedom of Information requests) that reveal why the Swiss state refused to do a deal with Palantir for some military software; they were worried data would be obtained by the US Govt.
Now a story, originally limited to the Swiss is gaining traction across Europe; oops.
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As with all by-elections the turnout will likely be low in Gorton & Denton, so the issue will be how many past Labour voters while not voting for anyone else will (as the saying goes) 'sit on their hands'.
The political circus has come to town & many voters (at least as reported across the media this weekend) are fed up with being a destination for carpet baggers who will move on leaving the constituency in the same plight they found it.
Political disaffection many the real winner?
RE: https://mamot.fr/@Martin_Pigeon/116113491654948651
Having said I'd seen no obituaries of Susan George, @Martin_Pigeon has provided links to two....
The imminent announcement of the Govt's proposed reforms to Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) support system has, been (like other policies) prefigured by briefings & leaks on its policy content.
Certainly SEND proposals need clear & informed public discussion, but this process of selected leaks to the media, as always, just looks point scoring not the desire to have a reasoned conversation!
Discussion should only start when the *whole* policy package is public!
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There's been little acknowledgement but Susan George (political scientist as Wikipedia have it, or political economist, as I would prefer) passed on 14th February. I've seen no obituaries, but here is her Wikipedia entry which included the long list of her excellent & insightful books... many of which were always on my reading lists
I'm sure the lack of obits has nothing to do with her being a women or a critique of global capitalism. /s
h/t @AnnPettifor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_George_(political_scientist)
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Perhaps unsurprisingly given the bookies' odds, tactical voting advice (now going online) for the Gorton & Denton by-election is focussing on voting Green (Hannah Spencer) as the best route to block a win by ReformUK Ltd.
This is exactly what Labour fears; as the Green Parties (of England & Wales, and Scottish) become the best route for tactical voters, their support will start to consolidate more widely sapping Labour's remaining support.
#GortonAndDenton #politics
https://stopreformuk.vote/parl/gorton-and-denton
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Jess👾
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Our top story, from Steven Monacelli: Wearing black, owning zines, using the encrypted messaging app Signal. The broader constitutional rights of left-wing activists may hang in the balance as the government builds its "antifa conspiracy." https://www.texasobserver.org/antifa-scare-prairieland-19-trial-ice-detention/
#politics #USpol #news #FreeSpeech #Texas #NorthTexas #ICE #law #antifa
Our top story, from Steven Monacelli: Wearing black, owning zines, using the encrypted messaging app Signal. The broader constitutional rights of left-wing activists may hang in the balance as the government builds its "antifa conspiracy." https://www.texasobserver.org/antifa-scare-prairieland-19-trial-ice-detention/
#politics #USpol #news #FreeSpeech #Texas #NorthTexas #ICE #law #antifa
Camilla Cavendish (FT & Tory peer I should add) does sum up Keir Starmer's problem with Minsters' private actions well:
'this is a government whose hallmark is legislating for complexity. Ministers shouldn’t ask that we judge them by lower standards than they apply to everyone else....
A hallmark of Starmer’s administration has been its pious tone, which makes the hypocrisy doubly unpalatable.... at least Boris Johnson never pretended to be “good”.'
Which is fair comment, I think
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@adamtooze argues in the FT today, given the shifting of the global political tectonic plates (my term not his), Europe needs to move from national re-arming to the development of a proper European military force (funded by joint debt issuance on its behalf).
In the wake of US' growing unreliability, Europeans can only rely on themselves for security.
A European Military Keynesianism may look like a major project but its logic becoming inescapable.
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Simon Tisdall sets out the betrayal of Ukraine by the US, starting (rightly) with the failure to uphold the so-called 'security guarantees' offered by President Clinton to ensure that Ukraine gave up it nuclear weapons on independence...
How different the situation would have looked if those guarantees had actually been fulfilled (or of course, Ukraine had kept the nukes stationed on its soil).
Who now would believe anything the US 'guaranteed'?
#Ukraine #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/ukraine-us-betrayal-donald-trump-vladimir-putin
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
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The hostility of the Labour party to migrants steps up with Shabana Mahmood's proposal to double the time to gain settled status would double (to 20 years) if migrants have been in receipt of public funds... this is pretty grim stuff, but even more un-just would be the inclusion of in-work benefits which are in effect not to benefits for migrants but (as I have pointed out often) a subsidy to low-wage employers' profits.
This move is a disgrace!
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