rightarmrandom.bsky.social

What’s that you say? Liz has a new book out which even the Telegraph is saying is even more unhinged than the last one? Wonderful, I’ll post this then.

The lesson from Brazil is that democracy cannot be taken for granted. Defeating authoritarianism at the ballot box is only part of the struggle. Defending democratic institutions, protecting civil rights and demanding accountability require strong, sustained, principled public participation.

Flávio Bolsonaro has been banned from leaving Brazil and ordered to surrender his passports following his presidential election defeat, amid investigations into suspected influence-peddling, money laundering and other alleged financial irregularities.

Brazil, thank you for winning 👍

"Today was the best day for global democracy in quite a while“, writes @stevelevitsky.bsky.social re. election results in Serbia and Brazil. This graph shows why. Between 2012 and 2022, 🇧🇷 #6 and 🇷🇸 #9 had some of the steepest LDI declines in the world, in the same group as Hungary, Turkey and India

What an incredible night last night. To see the resistance against populism triumph in two such different countries, in two such different ways.

Obviously I want the utmost damage to Trump in the midterms, for Congress to constrain him & for a Democrat president in a couple years time. But honestly something broke in my relationship w America when Trump won the second time. I can't imagine feeling excited for an American president again.

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory” — Obama

“Elon Musk screwed up Twitter, he screwed up the federal government. “He’s just a carnival barker.” Is Elon Musk actually a good business man, or simply a good conman?

It’s funny how this never features in the cultural memory of 1995, or even my own memories. I actually did not know it was the year of maximum crime

. @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social "Andy Burnham has been telling the truth, that's for sure" "I don't think that anybody can say Brexit has been a success for the country" "It's done enormous damage to our economic interests, our trade interests, our soft power"

Unbelievable cricket scores today. Congratulations to South Africa and Sri Lanka and what on earth happened to England (again)!?

The Aberfan tribunal report (3 August 1967) directly blamed the National Coal Board (NCB) It cited a “terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude by men charged with tasks for which they were totally unfitted, of failure to heed clear warnings, and of total lack of direction from above”. 1/…

💪 "Lord Sadiq Khan today made his latest push for Britain to rejoin the EU, warning that Brexit has been “catastrophic” for the capital."

I've seen misrepresentations of our findings. We're not blaming Labour for the state of public services or claiming extra funding has had no effect. Rather, we find that public services were in such a mess in 2024 that, despite money and reforms, services won't have recovered to 2019 levels by 2029

Brexit was the greatest act of economic self-harm in our country’s history, leaving Londoners nearly £3,400 worse off on average.

Just to cheer everyone up: according to the latest poll Steve Hilton is losing the California governor race by 28 points.

“With Trump, always assume the pettiest, most vain, pathetic, wriggling urges and you're probably close to what he's thinking." Why Donald is too ignorant and uneducated to ever get it right when it comes to Russia and Ukraine www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/why-...

“We can talk about the geopolitics all day long, but Trump is simply jealous of Zelenskyy. “He knows deep down he’s 100x the man he’ll ever be.” Is Trump’s disdain for Zelenskyy really this petty?

"With Trump, always assume the pettiest, most vain, pathetic, wriggling urges and you'll be close to what he's thinking." Why Donald is too ignorant and uneducated to ever get it right when it comes to Russia and Ukraine www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/why-...

On the populist craft of fanning flames and posing as a firefighter www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Heart of Europe - European Movement UK's new national ambition for the UK to join the EU within the next decade. Find out more here: www.europeanmovement.co.uk/heart-of-eur...

So just to recap: They hear people being vile racists and misogynists all the time but also when itv catch members of their party doing it it’s ’not representative’. It’s just a ‘few bad apples’. BUT when asylum seekers commit crimes tho that’s somehow not a few bad apples. That means everyone…

Ossoff: "Tech titans dig bunkers while warning us the AI they're creating risks human extinction. Meanwhile, our Congress debates youth sports and the president builds a ballroom ... I refuse to leave my girls a world as dark and dangerous and cruel as this one threatens to become"

Ossoff: "It's the most corrupt administration of all time & everybody knows it. While the crook president & his crook family rake in billions from all over the world, you pay more for everything... they lied us into war & spent most of the last year covering up for the world's most famous pedophile"

How US politics seems to non Americans: Democratic candidate: a stirring, intelligent orator, a deeply religious family man and devoted public servant. Republican candidate: convicted fraudster, multiple adulterer and rubbish speaker who trades in blatant lies and outright bigotry Result: toss up

My dad fought in the war and he wasn't a racist. My late mother was a teenager and dedicated her life to helping refugees. My cousin is in her 80s and "fucking hates racists". You don't get a get out of racist jail free card simply for being old and having happened to have lived during a war.

This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his.

“Look in the mirror, 🇺🇸”. No matter how many times you say “this is not who we are as a country”; right now it IS. 🇺🇸 has twice elected a corrupt, selfish bully who abandons allies, deals with enemies, rejects science and medicine, attacks other countries, harms the vulnerable and pardons criminals.

Trump, Musk, Weidel, Le Pen: These are collaborator-populists who triumph at the ballot box and yet would sell their country to a Russian despot iandunt.substack.com/p/these-are-...

Badenoch's position on Russian interference in the Brexit vote is a patriotic disgrace really. Her view seems to be that because she approves of the outcome of the referendum, no-one can mention that there was very likely to have been foreign interference in it.

Who will speak for Brexit? My SKETCH of a total political triumph that's suddenly unloved. thecritic.co.uk/the-...

‘It was a stupid thing to do. It was always going to be a stupid thing to do.’ @mrjamesob.bsky.social is hopeful that Andy Burnham could successfully undo the Brexit ‘madness’.

'Do you think we were pouring sugar into the engine of the Brexit bus?!' Texter Richard says leaving the EU 'hasn't worked' because of 'people like James O'Brien', and @mrjamesob.bsky.social isn't having it...

Interference is easy to prove or disprove if, unlike Boris Johnson, you can be bothered to investigate, influence almost impossible. The average Brexit voter would not be able to tell you which lies - or liars - they found most persuasive. Many of them still claim they didn't fall for any of them.

Much of the coverage today is absolutely nuts. The facts are on Wikipedia. The full Intelligence and Security Committee (Russia) Report is online. Tory media & politicians once again banking on their average consumer/voter being too daft/busy/blinkered to notice...

@stellacreasy.bsky.social: "Are these Brexit benefits in the room with us now?" "Can anybody else see them?"👀

For too long, successive governments have turned a blind eye to the huge damage caused by the Johnson-Farage Brexit deal. I really hope this marks a real turning point. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Brexit is forever tainted with disinformation, foreign interference, murky vested interests, ugly prejudice, unforgivable costs and now deep unpopularity. If you really cared about our country and wanted to fix its problems, you’d admit this… Good that Burnham is finally doing so…

Trump’s obeisance to Putin has been established beyond even the vaguest scintilla of doubt; the possibility of another January 6-style assault on US democracy after/during the mid-terms is clearly acute and ‘we’ are still wary of calling fascism fascism. These are the moments…

Andy Burnham says it is clear Russia interfered in Brexit vote

Breaking news: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has accused Moscow of meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum and warns European voters of the Russian threat ft.trib.al/ucfuDpV

"The contrast between the utterly sycophantic coverage of Badenoch ... and the utterly dismissive coverage of Polanski, who has significantly improved his party’s standing over the past year, tells you everything you need to know about media bias in the UK" www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/why-the-ho...

Andy Burnham says UK authorities are “clear” there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum as @catneilan.bsky.social reports in today’s @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Ukrainian strikes hit several Russian data centers, knocking millions of suspected bot accounts offline.

Andy Burnham first PM to confirm Kremlin role in Brexit vote The prime minister has revealed UK authorities told him there was ‘clear evidence’ that Moscow meddled in the referendum observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Russia's ally Iran has so thoroughly achieved what it set out to do against the USA that it has forced the USA to make a massive concession to Russia in its fight against Ukraine. I'm struggling to process how embarrassing this is. It's almost incomprehensible. Imagine if Biden, etc etc etc...