Author: Miles Donavan

The division rumbles on… Zarah Sultana had backed an attempt to remove MPs from the leadership of ‘Your Party. Posting on social media, Sultana shared a link to the ‘Our Party’ petition which is calling for the MPs currently steering the founding of the party to be replaced with ‘grassroots members’. Sultana said: “This has always been my view: Your Party belongs to you, not MPs.I support this call from the movement. It’s what I’ve been fighting for from the start.” This comes during an incredibly fraught few days in for the party-to-be. On Thursday, an email was sent to…

The Lib Dems will continue to push for asylum seekers to have the right to work, Jardine tells Left Foot Forward Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine has called on Labour to adopt her party’s policy allowing asylum seekers to work, rather than “fall in behind Reform”.  Speaking to Left Foot Forward at the Lib Dem autumn conference, Jardine said the Labour government had “shown a willingness” to take on some Lib Dem ideas but added: “I wish they would take on more of what we’ve said about asylum seekers.” “I don’t think it helps for everybody to fall in behind…

The pro-Brexit outrage machine might crank into gear every September, but those EU flags still wave with a message far more in tune with the future, especially now, given that even a majority of Reform UK supporters want to unpick parts of Brexit and move the UK closer to Europe. It’s that time of year again, when the Proms return, and with them, the ubiquitous right-wing media meltdown over the appearance of EU flags at the Royal Albert Hall. You could be forgiven for thinking some outlets just dust off last year’s outrage, change the date, and hit ‘publish,’ because…

Are we witnessing the beginnings of a Christian nationalist movement in Britain – one inspired by a distinctly American form of evangelicalism, rooted not just in belief, but in an aggressive pursuit of power? By chance or calculation, Tommy Robinson’s far-right march in London took place on the same weekend that Christians were marking the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which honours Christ’s sacrifice through the cross. And the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ gathering was no ordinary Robinson rally. It was saturated in Christian symbolism: gospel rock blared from loudspeakers, crosses were hoisted like banners, and images of…

The motion related to barring trans women from ‘taking’ women’s roles A proposed constitutional amendment that would have barred trans women from standing in roles reserved for women was not put to a vote at the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference this morning.  The amendment (F4), put forward by Liberal Voice for Women, sought to change the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Constitution so that gender quotas would be based on biological sex rather than self-identification. It comes after the UK Supreme Court ruling in April that the use of ‘man’, ‘woman’, and ‘sex’ under the Equality Act were ‘always intended’ to refer…

“Can you imagine a British businessman appearing at a rally in Washington, safely 3,000 miles away by video and telling Americans “fight or die”?” Speaking remotely at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march last weekend, organised by ex-convict and far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk delivered a tirade that was quickly condemned and ridiculed. He called for a “dissolution of Parliament,” warned of incoming “violence,” and told the crowd: “You either fight back or you die.” The owner of X used the opportunity to rail against what he has repeatedly labelled the “woke mind virus.” He blamed “massive uncontrolled migration” for…

Yet another statement… Zarah Sultana has issued yet another statement as the chaos surrounding ‘Your Party’ continues to rumble on (catch up here). Sultana, one of the MPs involved in establishing Your Party has said that ‘a number of false and defamatory statements have been published’ about her in the last 24 hours. In her statement, she has said that ‘at no point was members’ data misused or put at risk.’. The full statement published on her social media channels reads: “Over the last 24 hours, a number of false and defamatory statements have been published about me concerning the…

It would be a mistake to assume democracy is our default state, or to underestimate the power and reach of authoritarianism It’s troubling to hear the political commentariat describing Trump’s and Farage’s actions as ‘unprecedented’. It suggests they are observing individual pieces of the jigsaw instead of the broader authoritarian context.  Authoritarian systems differ on such parameters as religious vs secular, left (Communist China) vs right (Orban’s Hungary); blatant vs faux democratic. But, as Anne Applebaum observes, authoritarians are now shelving these differences to attack a perceived common enemy: democracy itself.  To acquire and retain power and funding, modern authoritarians…

The left-wing groups behind the motion say “not allowing this motion to be debated is a senseless act” A motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap has been blocked from being discussed at Labour’s annual party conference at the end of the month. The motion, submitted by Open Labour, Compass and Momentum, was rejected by the Labour Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) today. CAC says that this is because it does not meet the required criteria. This includes it covering ‘more than one subject’ and ‘does not relate to a new issue not substantially covered in the NPF report’. The organisations…

They’ve called for Corbyn and Sultana to ‘hand the reins over to the grassroots membership’ It’s not been a good week for ‘Your Party’, the new political party supposedly being formed by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. On one chaotic day, Sultana launched a membership scheme for the party, Corbyn branded this ‘false’, Sultana accused her fellow Independent Alliance MPs of being a ‘sexist boys club’, the sending of an email to the party membership was referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office, leading figures said they were ‘shocked and appalled’ by the events, and the first formal faction within the…