How worried is the Govt. that Palestine Action protestors have the sympathy of juries?
enough to hide from the jury the fact that they would e sentenced not as criminals (having been convicted of criminal damage) but rather as terrorists.
At best, its a grossly unjust manipulation of procedure, and at worst brings the justice system into disrepute as juries are being lied to (albeit by omission).
This Govt.'s 'respect' for the rule of law seems ever weaker!
#politicshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/12/palestine-action-activists-elbit-protest-terrorist-connection-ruling
Remote
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us has moved
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
mastodon 4.7.3This account is now @ChrisMayLA@mastodon.me.uk
8550 Followers
140 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 18, 2022
If the rich are the most dangerous minority, it also needs to be said (as Steve Keen does) that:
'The most dangerous sincere believers on this planet are not religious extremists, but mainstream economists. They will destroy capitalism, precisely because they falsely believe that it is indestructible'!
However, for those of us brought up on Karl Marx, the idea that capitalism has within it the seed(s) of its own destruction (here in the guise of economists) is hardly news.....
The Mayor of London's Office has blocked the Metropolitan Police's procurement of Palantir software to aid investigation(s).... partly due to concerns about the standing of Palantir & partly as the Mayor's office believes that the Met have colluded with Palantir to avoid a clear open procurement process.
The Met call the intervention 'disappointing', many others will see this a judicious & sensible.
#London #Palantir #politics
h/t FT
Keir Starmer vs. Wes Streeting is about as politically interesting as two bald men fighting over a comb.... its a classic bit of change but no change, and suggests the Labour Party is clueless about why people are abandoning them.
Then the (more interesting) Q. is how would Andy Burnham vs. Wes Streeting play out, if Streeting gets past an increasingly truculent Starmer?
Or perhaps Burnham wouldn't have the appetite for a second leadership challenge in this Parliament?
As Nesrine Malik argues, whatever other problems there are with AI & its associated technologies, in the end one of its most corrosive aspects may be its destruction of trust in what people write;
the widening suspicion that AI has been used to write all sorts of things (previously penned/typed by humans) is leading to a decline in trust in communication more generally.... with who knows what long-term consequences?
#AI #communication #books #mediahttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/01/ai-meaning-humanity-political-moment-trust-humans-over-machines
When Yvette Cooper rejected legal advice & wrote a column criticising Palestine Action, while activists were being tried, did she (as the defence alleged) interfere with the judicial process making a fair trial more difficult or as the Judge concluded only risk 'causing some prejudice to these proceedings, but that is different from deliberately flouting a reporting restriction order'?
I think the defence was right; it was an attempt to prejudice the trial!
So, the HMRC has concluded there was no malice or intent in Angela Rayner's mistaken lower payment of stamp duty (and as a result no attempted tax avoidance).
As such she is now free to enter the fray around the leadership of the Labour Party.
For those who think a female leader from the broad left might be the answer to the party's travails this may be good news... or it may end up being another case of a women being 'allowed' to take on a hopeless case?
While the mainstream media has been working to down play it, it seems the Fascist Frog *will* be investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner for not declaring a £5mn gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
The maximum sanction if found in breach of Parliamentary standards is, of course, suspension & a possible by-election in Clacton.
But, of course, there's many a slip twixt cup & lip....
#NigelFarage #politics
h/t FT
As @sjwrenlewis@econtwitter.net concludes, because the Right spends most of its time lying to the voting public, the UK's political environment has become more 'dumb':
'When key political actors are constantly lying and getting away with it, it becomes harder for the rest to tell difficult truths, or indeed to hold any kind of serious political conversation. When one side is telling voters they can always eat cake, it becomes hard to say that cake is off the menu'!
https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/05/why-has-westminster-politics-become-so.html
This weekend is demonstrating an unwavering truth of political reporting...
Media commenters & analysts decry the chaotic psychodrama of leadership challenges & churn in the top job (with tales of its negative impact on UK politics & economics and the UK's international standing)... yet;
they find it hard to hide their glee at filling their papers (and online presence) with speculation, profiles of possible contenders & argument(s) around 'new starts' for the Govt.
[grinds teeth]
@ReggieHere@mastodon.social sums up our political predicament concisely:
'The offering from Labour & the LibDems doesn't challenge the status quo and only keeps the country 'Farage-ready' rather than adopting a path to progressive improvement'.
And therein lies a large part of the problem for those of us wanting some radical change in the UK's political economy
The truism 'justice delayed is justice denied' is becoming an ever wider depiction of how the legal system works across England & Wales.
So news that workers & employers are waiting up to five years for an employment tribunal on claims for unfair dismissal is both no surprise & a confirmation of the shocking state of the legal system.
Respect for the rule of law depends on it efficacy in actually delivering judgements - no wonder its being lost!
#RuleOfLaw #politicshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9pj2pk2j7o
David Lloyd Owen (water policy consultant) says:
'You can classify the water companies into four groups: worst by a country mile are those owned by private equity, the not-for-profit companies are quite weak, the public limited companies are second best – but, intriguingly, the best are Wessex & Northumbria, which are owned by foreign companies that run utilities themselves'!
Yet more evidence the UK's real problem is its dysfunctional culture of management?
#water #managerment
h/t Observer
The UK's political & social-economic elites are more often educated at private school than the rest of the population....
Given, the problems the UK finds itself in (and the demand for 'change') perhaps we might wonder whether the underlying issue isn't productivity or management but rather the educational background of our political & business classes?
Perhaps that's what needs to change?
#politics #inequality #education
For more data from the Sutton Trust see:
The Tangerine Tyrant's economic & benefits 'policy' is a classic example of one segment of capital being privileged over others....
By reducing both food stamps & the US Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) those firms whose key business is selling food to the poor have seen a swift decline in demand;
which might lead one to the conclusion that such benefits rather than being aimed at the poor were actually corporate subsidies for food retailers?
#CorporateWelfare
h/t FT
John Kampfner, suggests politicians fail to really deal with problems because:
'They worry about the markets (with reason); they fret about conventional media & social media (with less reason). They wait for bad things to happen, trying to anticipate what their critics might say of them in case they put a foot out of line. It’s a self-fulfilling spiral'!
There's more to it than this, but this seem to capture an important aspect of our political problem(s)!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/14/europe-big-problems-japan-taiwan-care-systems
Here are The Bear's musings on Saturday's Unite the Kingdom rally, in which he suggests it was all a bit sad (a damp squib), perhaps not quite the nationalistic uprising promised by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon & his associates....
the Bear suggests:
'The whole rally felt less like a protest & more like a networking event themed around “How to be Racist Online and Earn Money!'
So, does the Americanisation of the Far Right preface its failure or its renewal?
https://www.bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/the-far-right-has-become-a-bit-sad
Meanwhile in music.... in a time when music streaming & normal record company double dealing have depressed the income from recording for many musicians, large scale touring has become one solution to making money from music....
There have always been acts whose live profile was better/higher than their recorded one, but now BIIRD are joining the small/select group of musicians who have made their reputation (and income) entirely on the basis of playing live.
Allianz Insurance seems to coordinating with the Govt. to harass Palestine activists; in parallel with a trial for criminal damage to the firms offices, Allianz is also suing the activists concerned for compensation for 'anxiety, distress & intimidation' experienced by their employees...
The problem is the activists (who are representing themselves) claim this may reveal their defence strategy in their other case thereby undermining their ability to gain a fair trial....
#politics
h/t FT
Whatever you think about the levels of profitability in the UK's economy, one thing is clear voters are vastly over-estimating how much firms make in profits.... but perhaps most telling (in this misunderstanding of what is going on) is the apparent perception that the NHS makes a profit (although there is a chance respondents didn't properly understand the Q.?).
(And of course this was carried out by the right wing Inst. for Economic Affairs, no doubt to prove a point!)
You'll have seen quite a lot of commentary that the yield profile of UK public debt is rising swiftly making the UK an outlier in the wider context of states raising loans through the bond markets.
However, Daire MacFadden (FT) argues if you *combine* yields with swap rates (which indicate market player's assessment of future currency & interest rate moves) what you see is the UK is back in the pack alongside other countries public debt.
So, the UK's public debt is not an outlier.
Replying to
@wood5y@mastodonapp.uk @alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
Yes, there is a special place in hell reserved for Cameron
Replying to
@kigelia@mastodon.online
The new leader that the Labour Party needs if it is too revive its fortunes is not the leader that Blue Labour are likely to allow to function... and therein lies the party's probelm
Replying to
@TCatInReality@mastodon.social
Agreed, but my guess is they will not
Replying to
@HarriettMB@toot.wales
Agreed; Clive Lewis would actually be a leader who *could* offer some really meaningful change for the Labour Party, and thus of course both isn't interested (he likely knows it would be quixotic) & would never be allowed near the leadership by the 'controllers'
Replying to
@wnd@fosstodon.org
I've always liked a bit of Gramsci, and back in my academic career I was often lumped in with (not necessarily to my liking) with the Neo-Gramscians, a group of International Relations & International Political Economy scholars who focussed on the political realm ion ideas (as I did myself)
Replying to
@GeofCox@climatejustice.social
yes a couple of years ago I posited the development of a NS&I social housing bond... with exactly this sort of logic.
On the bond traders; the key ting is they are margin traders, both in the sense of trading at the margins of the overall bind market (while influencing more of it) & only interested in the impact *on* margins (quite tightly defined)
Replying to
@bms48@mastodon.social
Well, as you may (or may not know) Susan Strange was a massive influence on me early in my academic career - I read her while still working in the private sector, and thought 'finally, a (political) economist who actually understand business'....
Replying to
@Sarah111well@mas.to @alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
That's certainly a major element of it
Replying to
@TerryBTwo@ohai.social @alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
Well, the PPE degree on which my heteorodox economics was the core second war model was *very* different from the OxBridge PPE taken by many of our political class... but I understand the sentiment
Replying to
@alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
Yes the amateurism of British politics has long been evident
Replying to
@Simon318ppm@mastodon.sdf.org @gcvsa@mstdn.plus
exactly; show trial it is/was
Replying to
@gcvsa@mstdn.plus
Certainly grounds for appeal, I would have thought, although the MoJ's line will be that conviction & sentence are separate & so nothing relevant to the conviction was withheld - so an appeal would be based on connecting these two aspects (back together)
Replying to
@peterhorvath@mastodon.de
I'm gong to say there are some differences, but I get the point you're making
Replying to
@peterhorvath@mastodon.de
I'd agree with that, this is a theatre often played out by & for the political class with little real interest (other than for narrative's sake) in the lives of those far from their enclaves
Replying to
@peterhorvath@mastodon.de
Well, we do in the UK have more than two parties... the dominance( in the east) of two parties is more about the voting system (and what it achieves) than in the number of parties...
Replying to
@michellelaverickmusic@mastodon.social
Yes, I think there's something to that
Replying to
@Thebratdragon@mastodon.scot @rooftopjaxx@kolektiva.social
Agreed; Smith is one of the most misrepresented economists in economics
Replying to
@h4890@merovingian.club @alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
Yes, term limits seem to me to be a good way of limiting the corruption.... however the issue of salaries is almost the opposite; too low pay means they are amenable to 'other payments' because in the elite in which they mix, they feel themselves to be poor - rather higher salaries bit no second jobs or other income would be a better option - pay them well, but don't allow them (for their limited terms) any other income
Replying to
@wood5y@mastodonapp.uk
Yes, the 'treasury mindset' into which Reeves was inculcated long ago is a key problem in the fiscal management of the UK
Replying to
@DaRC_Fantom@cupoftea.social @sjwrenlewis@econtwitter.net
waiting to watch it on catch-up, possibly this evening
Replying to
@cyberspice@oldbytes.space
This has been discussed in the thread/replies - not entirely clear one way or the other
Replying to
@RobertoArchimboldi@kolektiva.social @tribactam@social.vivaldi.net
Thanks a longer more detailed of my earlier reply in this thread
Replying to
@mukto_manob@mastodon.social
Yup, my suspicion too....
Replying to
@Simon318ppm@mastodon.sdf.org
Indeed, and it is the final point you make that will make it hard for media to make the mud thy fling stick... (incidentally I was also disappointed that Neidle made the running on this)
Replying to
@benh@mastodon.scot
see previous answer in this thread
Replying to
@GeofCox@climatejustice.social
I imagine, however, the Treasury would object in parallel to their long-standing opposition to hypothecated taxation - hypothecated public debt would likely be just as 'inflexible' to their minds
Replying to
@dtwx@mastodon.social
oh that is Hobson's Choice - don't like the politics of either of them
Replying to
@feijoa@mastodon.org.uk
Going by memory I remember a similar level of coverage in the weekends around various Tory moves to change PM...
Replying to
@h4890@merovingian.club @alex_p_roe@mastodon.world
Indeed, this (or another multiple) has been suggested before on exactly that basis... I'm not just twice would be enough, but the logic of the tie & its impact on decision making is compelling