The Prometheus League
Breaking News and Updates
- Abolition Of Work
- Ai
- Alt-right
- Alternative Medicine
- Antifa
- Artificial General Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Super Intelligence
- Ascension
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Atheist
- Atlas Shrugged
- Automation
- Ayn Rand
- Bahamas
- Bankruptcy
- Basic Income Guarantee
- Big Tech
- Bitcoin
- Black Lives Matter
- Blackjack
- Boca Chica Texas
- Brexit
- Caribbean
- Casino
- Casino Affiliate
- Cbd Oil
- Censorship
- Cf
- Chess Engines
- Childfree
- Cloning
- Cloud Computing
- Conscious Evolution
- Corona Virus
- Cosmic Heaven
- Covid-19
- Cryonics
- Cryptocurrency
- Cyberpunk
- Darwinism
- Democrat
- Designer Babies
- DNA
- Donald Trump
- Eczema
- Elon Musk
- Entheogens
- Ethical Egoism
- Eugenic Concepts
- Eugenics
- Euthanasia
- Evolution
- Extropian
- Extropianism
- Extropy
- Fake News
- Federalism
- Federalist
- Fifth Amendment
- Fifth Amendment
- Financial Independence
- First Amendment
- Fiscal Freedom
- Food Supplements
- Fourth Amendment
- Fourth Amendment
- Free Speech
- Freedom
- Freedom of Speech
- Futurism
- Futurist
- Gambling
- Gene Medicine
- Genetic Engineering
- Genome
- Germ Warfare
- Golden Rule
- Government Oppression
- Hedonism
- High Seas
- History
- Hubble Telescope
- Human Genetic Engineering
- Human Genetics
- Human Immortality
- Human Longevity
- Illuminati
- Immortality
- Immortality Medicine
- Intentional Communities
- Jacinda Ardern
- Jitsi
- Jordan Peterson
- Las Vegas
- Liberal
- Libertarian
- Libertarianism
- Liberty
- Life Extension
- Macau
- Marie Byrd Land
- Mars
- Mars Colonization
- Mars Colony
- Memetics
- Micronations
- Mind Uploading
- Minerva Reefs
- Modern Satanism
- Moon Colonization
- Nanotech
- National Vanguard
- NATO
- Neo-eugenics
- Neurohacking
- Neurotechnology
- New Utopia
- New Zealand
- Nihilism
- Nootropics
- NSA
- Oceania
- Offshore
- Olympics
- Online Casino
- Online Gambling
- Pantheism
- Personal Empowerment
- Poker
- Political Correctness
- Politically Incorrect
- Polygamy
- Populism
- Post Human
- Post Humanism
- Posthuman
- Posthumanism
- Private Islands
- Progress
- Proud Boys
- Psoriasis
- Psychedelics
- Putin
- Quantum Computing
- Quantum Physics
- Rationalism
- Republican
- Resource Based Economy
- Robotics
- Rockall
- Ron Paul
- Roulette
- Russia
- Sealand
- Seasteading
- Second Amendment
- Second Amendment
- Seychelles
- Singularitarianism
- Singularity
- Socio-economic Collapse
- Space Exploration
- Space Station
- Space Travel
- Spacex
- Sports Betting
- Sportsbook
- Superintelligence
- Survivalism
- Talmud
- Technology
- Teilhard De Charden
- Terraforming Mars
- The Singularity
- Tms
- Tor Browser
- Trance
- Transhuman
- Transhuman News
- Transhumanism
- Transhumanist
- Transtopian
- Transtopianism
- Ukraine
- Uncategorized
- Vaping
- Victimless Crimes
- Virtual Reality
- Wage Slavery
- War On Drugs
- Waveland
- Ww3
- Yahoo
- Zeitgeist Movement
-
Prometheism
-
Forbidden Fruit
-
The Evolutionary Perspective
Daily Archives: July 19, 2023
Starmer should beware a Left-wing insurgency – UnHerd
Posted: July 19, 2023 at 1:12 pm
Have Labours strategists achieved the impossible? Not only is the party 20 points ahead and in with a shot of winning four by-elections, but, perhaps even more impressively, its leader finally appears to be shrugging off his custardy sheen of squareness. According to a recent Politico profile, Keir Starmer has a dark secret: he once tried to raise some cash by illegally selling ice creams on a lads holiday in France. And yet, as Labour starts to behave like a party on the brink of power optimistically hoping to finalise its policy platform later this month all might not be as it seems.
Though Starmer appears to be doing well, his lead is soft, with less than a quarter of voters rating him as good. This is partly because his success is born of Tory failure rather than any great love for Labour and its policies: there is not much difference between his popularity ratings and Rishi Sunaks, and only around 40% of voters think the Labour Party has the nations best interests at heart.
Already registered? Sign in
This may not matter if Starmer only has to fight the Conservatives, but as he shores up the centre, he is at risk of leaving the partys Left flank vulnerable to the sort of populist insurgency the Tories have been dealing with for a decade. Labour is headed to power, like the Tories 10 or so years ago, with a centrist vision that leaves their more demanding supporters wanting more.
And so, a populist insurgency today is far more likely to take place on the Left than the Right. This isnt too surprising: in the current political climate, a party made up of largely disgruntled Tories would struggle to establish a new brand, would still be tainted by an association with the current administrations failings, and would struggle to pick votes from the Left, where about half the electorate now sits. Equally, it would not enjoy the policy influence that Ukip had in its heyday, when along with the Brexit Party it could knock off five or so points from the Tories polling.
Through the 2010s, this meant the difference between being in Downing Street or in opposition. As a result, the Tories were forced to keep them sweet by offering concessions, most obviously the EU referendum. But this kind of strategy would not work today. Given their dire performance in the polls, the Tories are likely to be defeated in the next election regardless of whether they lose votes to the Right. So, even if they do make concessions to an insurgent party, they will be in no position to enact them. Moreover, the Tories will be wary of any Right-wing coalition that might scare off moderate voters in the Lib Dem marginal seats in the south and east of England. In other words, now is evidently not the time for another Right-wing insurgency.
The situation on the Left, however, is very different. To form a government, Labour needs to win big and win across the country: an almost unprecedented electoral task. A Leftist party perhaps drawn from a few disgruntled MPs, outrider commentators and a celebrity or two picking up between 5-10% of the vote could cause a huge amount of damage without even winning any seats, especially if it gave the Tories the upper hand in some of the tightest marginals. In this instance, Starmer would be forced onto a civil war footing.
Moreover, there is a clear ideological gap for the Leftist insurgency to occupy. Starmers weakness is that on crime, on culture, on social issues and even on economics he is cautious about leaning into populist ideas. Not wanting to scare potential supporters, he talks little of nationalisation, seems sometimes beholden to identity politics and is squeamish about things such as reducing immigration to protect workers. But when it comes to economics, a large proportion of voters sit to the Left of Labour, especially Starmers version of it.
If one dares to look beyond Rachel Reevess sensible economic credentials, there is real scope for more radical economic policies to capture the public imagination, from ramping up tax rates to imposing rent controls. There is currently mass support for the nationalisation of energy something that Labour has been careful to step back from as well as for nationalising trains and water supply. A clear majority of British voters dont think the rich pay enough tax, and so a cost-of-living response that embraces some form of Universal Basic Income or increases taxes on the very richest would also go down well. Starmer, who knows he must appeal to the middle ground, wont dare to go down this path but a firebrand might.
All of which might start to sound a little like Corbynism rehashed, but the difference is that any successful Left-wing populist movement would have to be rooted in a patriotic vision that reflects the views of the British people. It could not be on the side of Stop the War or identity politics but would fly the flag and sing the national anthem. The new party would also embrace the Leftish vision of leaving the EU that appealed to many Brexiteers in left-behind regions: strengthening worker protections, for example, would be a popular policy with even Tory voters opposed to things such as zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire. It could also take a tough, Left-wing stance on crime and immigration, wresting these from the Right by portraying them as issues which protect the poorest.
Could the British Left learn from their European counterparts? Across the Continent, insurgent Leftists have recently achieved success by capitalising on the failure of both Right and Left and focusing instead on populist demands. Support for the centre-Left party Syriza surged in Greece after the financial crisis thanks to their anti-neoliberal, anti-globalist rhetoric; in Spain, while Podemos emerged as an anti-establishment option with Left-wing economics. Though these parties have now started to wane Syriza trailed nearly 23 points behind the conservative New Democracy party in the countrys elections this is no reason to discount their initial success (if anything, its a lesson in what happens once they start to stray from their initial pledges). A British Left-populist party could follow their example, first by developing a popular alternative to the old-Left establishment, and then by broadening their appeal towards big-tent populism.
Of course, electoral success would be harder to replicate here because of our first-past-the-post system but its far from impossible. At the very least, a new party could introduce itself to voters in next years general elections, and seek to capitalise on their results in 2025s locals. There are lots on the Left who seem alienated from Starmers centrism, especially those who espoused a sort of soft Corbynism. None yet seem committed to forming a new party, but it might serve them better in the short term than trying to wrestle the levers of Labour from him.
Forming a Left-wing populist party would not be easy. It would face the same hurdles as any other new party finding the funds, the supporters and the platform to get off the ground. Equally, it would have to find a way to delicately navigate policy traps that the Left has long struggled with, particularly surrounding the issues of immigration and social liberalism. But that doesnt make it impossible.
Farage and the various parties he led achieved their goal on Brexit because they parasitically latched onto the power of the Tories. Now that host is exhausted, but there is space for a Leftist visionary to take advantage of the rising Labour party. After all, the Conservatives won in 2019 by targeting Leftish voters who had grown tired of Labour, galvanising them both around Brexit and a more interventionist economy. This fell flat in government, but showed how populism could reach new electoral coalitions especially in disenchanted regions. Arguably, the SNP and Plaid Cymru have already succeeded in advancing some form of Left-wing populism, albeit framed around civic nationalism.
In a time of great political flux, where the main parties have been untethered from popular opinion, the opportunity for radical Left-wing thought has always existed. So far, it is unclear who will seize it, but that doesnt mean the conditions arent ripe for an insurgency. Politics can often act as a pendulum, and while Labour delights in the decline of Britains Right, they would do well to keep an eye on the rebirth of the Left.
Follow this link:
Posted in Populism
Comments Off on Starmer should beware a Left-wing insurgency – UnHerd
The French Far-Right Tsunami Is Coming – The Media Line
Posted: at 1:12 pm
Okaz, Saudi Arabia, July 6
The end of the war in Europe in the late 1940s spawned a reconstruction process throughout the continent, led by France, which urgently needed labor. This necessity resulted in a large influx of Moroccans into the French job market. As the French economy experienced a recovery, the demand for this labor only increased. Many of these immigrants intended to stay in France temporarily, yet their stay eventually lengthened. These people lived in run-down neighborhoods close to the capital of Paris and other large cities. They formed a distinct community that posed a challenge to local urban areas. Consequently, the decision was made to construct social housing to concentrate these individuals in one place. This move created a barrier between immigrants and mainstream French society, plunging second-generation immigrants into marginalization and alienation. With their parents clinging to ties to their countries of origin, members of this new generation had no homeland to which they could truly belong other than France. Later generations of immigrants sought equality with their French counterparts, but the states efforts to improve the suburbs, however commendable, were not sufficient, particularly in terms of economic policy. As the 1990s marked the end of the Cold War, resurgent populist right-wing parties ushered in a new era of the nation-state. Consequently, the citizenship state that had emerged from the ashes of World War II began to gradually decline. Even greater identity, economic, and social crises increased populist support, culminating in right-wing groups coming to power in Italy and Austria. This right-wing ideology has even been adopted by traditional parties, such as the Conservative Party in Britain, leading to Boris Johnsons rise to power with his populism-driven rhetoric that enabled the adoption of Brexit, with all its negative consequences for Britons. Now in France, the situation has not changed. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the far-right has become essential in the French presidential elections. What is even more concerning is the fact that traditional parties have begun being influenced by this same far-right extremism, as long as it holds appeal in electoral contests. This has subsequently led to a normalization of xenophobic and racist discourse, as numerous politicians and public figures have attempted to establish their presence by exhibiting increasingly extreme views. ric Zemmours participation in the most recent presidential election is perhaps the most glaring example of this growing symbiotic relationship. Hate speech has found outlets in the media, creating a barrier between a significant section of foreign-origin French society and the populist right. Worst of all, these sentiments have seeped into security services, resulting in tension and distrust between youth in the suburbs and security services personnel. This pressure has been intensifying every day and reached new heights with the killing of the 17-year-old boy Nahel Merzouk, which has sparked riots in cities across France as well as the town of Nanterre to the west of Paris where he grew up. The extreme right is on the rise in France, transforming the state and society to an alarming degree. This transformation is coming at the expense of immigrantsa price that is too heavy for them to bear. Rami Al-Khalifa Al-Ali (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)
Continue reading here:
Posted in Populism
Comments Off on The French Far-Right Tsunami Is Coming – The Media Line
Tabloids are misleading their readers over Brexit at their own peril – The Media Leader
Posted: at 1:12 pm
Opinion The commercial departments of Brexit-supporting newspapers know the damage being caused to the UK economy, and newspaper advertising revenues, by Brexit. Their editorial colleagues continue to support it anyway.
The page lead in last weeks Daily Express was dramatic and right up their street. The headline read: Brexit victory as 6bn car engine deal proves leaving the EU hasnt alienated business.
Britain had scored a major Brexit victory as a new global company formed by the merger of Renault and Geely of China has decided to base itself in the UK.
The new company would invest 6bn to develop low-emission, hybrid and electric engines. More than 19,000 would be employed in 17 manufacturing plants and five research and development centres.
A Brexit victory indeed.
Former International Trade Secretary Liam Fox was ecstatic and commented: Another international vote of confidence in the UK as Renault and Geely invest 6bn in a new HQ here. [] It comes on top of the 17bn investment from Japan. Lets hear more good news.
Former Tory leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt and business minister Jesse Norman waxed lyrical in a similar vein.
There is only one small problem with this deal, which the Daily Express unaccountably failed to mention: none of the 17 engine plants or five R&D centres spread across three continents are in the UK.
The only British connection is that a small corporate headquarters will be based in London to set strategy and pull together the threads of plants scattered across the globe. The new company did not say how many jobs will be based in London, but we can be sure the number of office jobs will be relatively small, and equally sure that only the tiniest fraction of the 6bn investment will be coming to the UK.
Podcast: What next for digital publishing?
The Daily Express did not actually specifically say that all the 17 plants and five research centres would be based in the UK or that all of the 6bn and 19,000 jobs would be based here. It was however heavily implied so heavily implied that the coverage was downright misleading, well on the way to deceiving its readers.
It was enough to fool an experienced trade politician such as Liam Fox, and many of the aging, Brexit-supporting readers of the Daily Express would have been duped by the 6bn Brexit victory.
Hardly the greatest journalism, but alas all too common from the right-wing Brexit-supporting press which plays down the bad news about the impact of Brexit of which there is no shortage and hails minor deals as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
For example, the free trade agreement last year between the UK and New Zealand was portrayed as a triumph even though British farmers were hung out to dry to get a deal any deal.
Much less, coverage for the EU reaching a much better deal with New Zealand than the UK managed and the EU held out to protect its farmers.
Yet anything that the Daily Express can do, the Sunday Express can do better much better.
Whereas the Daily Express could manage only a mere 6bn Brexit boost, the Sunday soared away with a 12tn Brexit Trade Boost for Britain as a result of joining the 11-nation Indo-Pacific trade bloc (CPTPP).
Wow, 12tn is one serious trade boost.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said the agreement placed the UK at the top table of the Indo-Pacific group and greeted the step as the clearest demonstration yet of our new found freedoms outside the EU.
As you might have guessed by now, there are a few problems with this extravagant example of pro-Brexit journalism.
The UK has already got trade agreements with no less than 10 of the 11 CPTPP countries, including the aforementioned member, New Zealand. The Indo-Pacific group may have a population of 500 million in a fast-growing part of the world economy, but the UK decided to turn its back on a much richer, if more mature, 500 million market in Europe 600 million if you add in the EUs subsequent trade deal with Japan.
The 12tn Brexit Trade Boost is, of course, also total nonsense. The Sunday Express has simply added together the GDPs of all 11 countries including Japan, Canada and Australia, and of course the number has nothing whatsoever to do with trade.
In fact, there is some dispute about what the impact on trade will be. According to one estimate it would add 0.08% to the UKs GDP over 10 years but that is almost certainly an underestimate based on out-of-date numbers.
The BBC forecast of less than 1% is more realistic, yet the Corporation was once again accused of bias by the Daily Mail for setting the deal in a totally realistic context.
If the near-1% figure turns out to be even close to accurate it would compare badly with figures produced by the Centre For European Reform on what Brexit has cost the UK.
John Springford, deputy director of the Centre, says its model, which has been accurate so far, estimates that Brexit had cost the UK economy 5.5% of GDP growth up to the end of the second quarter of 2022.
You would never find numbers like that in either the Daily Express, the Sunday Express or the Daily Mail or for that matter The Sun.
Mail Metro sales chief: Brexit definitely having an effect on adspend
The Daily and Sunday Express coverage is an affront to responsible journalism and should be an embarrassment to Reach, the company that owns both papers.
Reach may allow the editors of its various publications, which includes the Daily Mirror, the editorial freedom to address the very different political proclivities of its newspapers. But by pumping out such embarrassing rubbish, Reach faces the serious danger of corporate reputational damage by allowing its journalism to practice deception on its readers and indeed British society.
All those involved in such murky journalism should have a care about the latest polling from YouGov suggesting that only 31% of the population now want to remain outside the EU.
And for good measure the UK is still losing trade with the EU. In May, year-on-year trade between the UK and Ireland fell by 34% while Irish trade the other way increased by 19%.
I dont suppose Express readers will get to hear about that either.
The irony is that the commercial departments of the Brexit-supporting newspapers know all too well the damage being caused to the UK economy, and newspaper advertising revenues, by Brexit.
In a Media Leader interview last week by Jack Benjamin, Dominic Williams, chief revenue officer at Mail Metro Media, admitted how tough it was out there because of the pandemic, Ukraine, the cost-of living crisis and Brexit.
Williams was asked how much Brexit had impacted business.
That is definitely having an effect on advertising because of the UK economy, replied Williams.
Perhaps he should have a word with some of his editorial colleagues.
Read the original:
Tabloids are misleading their readers over Brexit at their own peril - The Media Leader
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on Tabloids are misleading their readers over Brexit at their own peril – The Media Leader
Can Spain hold back the right? – The New European
Posted: at 1:11 pm
This sudden uptick of support for far-right parties is happening all over Europe. In Germany, the Alternative fr Deutschland (AfD) is surging. It scored 22% in a recent national opinion poll and 34% in the region of Thuringia, where, for the first time, its candidate won a district mayoral election in June. In Austria, meanwhile, the Freedom Party (FP) is consistently polling above both the centre left and centre-right parties, at around 30%.
In France, where riots that centred on poor, ethnic minority communities shook Emanuel Macrons presidency last month, the political winner has been Rassemblement Nationale (RN). Its leader, Marine Le Pen who called for a crackdown on the protests has approval ratings on 39% compared to President Macrons 33%.
In the Flanders region of Belgium, the Vlaams Belang a far-right separatist party with a fascist past is on 22%. In Portugal, Chega, another openly racist far-right party, has doubled its 2022 election score to poll 12% and 14% for most of this year. In Greece no fewer than three far-right parties entered parliament in the June general election with a combined score of 12%, the largest of them overtly aligned to a jailed neo-Nazi former MP.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Poland and Italy, right-wing populist parties are already firmly ensconced in government. The price democracies pay for that was shown in Finland last week when deputy prime minister Riikka Purra, who leads the far-right Finns Party, was revealed to have bragged: If they gave me a gun, thered be bodies on a commuter train, referring to an incident with migrants. Her defence was that it happened in 2008 and that unlike her fellow minister she had not made any public jokes using the phrase Heil Hitler (the Hitler guy resigned).
Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate says: There are a series of elections due over the next five years where, apart from Germany, all the major countries in continental Europe could either end up with far-right governments or a far-right party a ruling coalition. When Austrian far-right leader Jrg Haider was elected in the 1990s, or when Le Pen did well in 2012, there were demonstrations everywhere and conniptions across the global media. Today theres just a sense of relief that they havent won.
Whats driving this new surge of right-wing populism? First, the cost-of-living crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, which has plunged the euro area into an inflationary recession. Though the negative GDP numbers were slight minus 0.1% GDP growth for Q4/2022 and Q1/2023 the inflation figures were big: 6.1% across the Eurozone, with Latvia, Slovakia, Poland and Czechia all on 12% and Hungary on 21%.
Theres an increasing sense, for people across the continent, that the status quo isnt working, says Mulhall, and whenever we get into one of those crunch points, with economically deprived communities that are already susceptible to far-right politics, people turn round and ask, electorally: Why not look elsewhere?.
Florian Ranft, of Das Progressive Zentrum, a centre-left German thinktank, says this is particularly true of the AfDs surge in Eastern Germany. In Sonneberg, a picture-postcard town close to the Czech border, Ranft tells, me, the AfDs winning candidate only campaigned on national issues. They had thousands of posters about closing the borders, or ending the war in Ukraine, which had nothing to do with local politics. Its a protest vote.
The second factor, experts believe, is the unique situation of a rise in trans-Mediterranean refugee traffic, alongside the arrival four million refugees from Ukraine. Youre getting the idea of the deserving and undeserving refugee, says Mulhall: There are white Christians from Ukraine and then people who the far-right stigmatise as single male economic migrants of fighting age: all the primary narratives across the European far right concern the idea there are non-white people coming over to invade us and change us demographically.
But underlying these trigger factors is the deeper demographic divergence between the life experience of young, educated, skilled and urban people and those in older, ex-industrial small towns. Paul Hilder, CEO of Datapraxis, a strategic advice and research company working with progressive parties across Europe, says:
As worldviews and experiences diverge, and the system is increasingly seen as failing to deliver consistently for people, issues such as immigration and crime function as common vectors of alienation. Wherever we poll in Europe, there is either large minority or majority support for the position that all immigration, legal or illegal, should be stopped.
The cost-of-living crisis, says Hilder, has made voters go in search of immediate change and practical answers: Where the populist right are winning they often seem to attract swing voters who are experiencing insecurity in their daily lives and want something better for themselves and their families. These voters are often losing faith in mainstream politics, wanting change, and looking for any port in a storm and they will vote despite the extremist ideology of the far-right parties, not because of it.
Hilders polling shows that in France, Sweden and Italy, twice as many voters switched to far-right parties because they hoped they would change things rather than because they thought such parties have the best policies.
Another factor boosting the far-right vote is the mainstreaming of its ideology via social media, which increasingly forces the mainstream media to give it a platform. Weve had an object lesson in this process with GB News and the National Conservatives conference in the UK with one feeding off the other to legitimise anti-trans, anti-drag and white victimhood ideas. But elsewhere in Europe, the process is on steroids.
Paulina Frhlich, who heads the democratic resilience programme at Das Progressive Zentrum, says: The AfD has more than three times as many Facebook followers as the ruling SPD. They understand social media and use it to good effect. For example, they deliver their speeches in the Bundestag in a YouTube-friendly way. Within a few minutes, the video is edited and uploaded. The speech was not addressed to the colleagues in parliament, but to the partys followers beyond.
Experts believe the AfD does not need the traditional media any more because it has built up its own mass media online, where it doesnt have to deal with context or critical questions from journalists. Without social media, the AfD would not even be in parliament.
A signal moment in the evolution of the European far right came with the de facto inclusion of the Sweden Democrats in a conservative-liberal coalition last October. Though they did not get any ministers from the deal, the SDs who have well-documented origins in neo-Nazism co-signed the coalition agreement, which calls for a crackdown on gang crime, the reduction of immigration to a legal minimum and a demanding programme of cultural integration.
There was no need for Swedens mainstream parties to admit the Sweden Democrats: they could have sought to govern as a minority, or in coalition with the Social Democrats. So it was a conscious, strategic choice and gave permission for the direct absorption of the Finns Party into the government in Helsinki this year, whose neo-Nazi gaffes have now triggered a political crisis. Few doubt that, if the PP and VOX can form a majority government in Madrid after next Sunday, they will.
The underlying problem is that the ide fixe of modern fascist ideology the Great Replacement Theory has begun to structure the thinking of both the populist and the conservative right. The idea that Muslim invaders are coming to enact white genocide against the population of Europe, encouraged by an army of human rights lawyers, feminists and drag queens is of course ludicrous; but its an order of magnitude more dangerous than the routine racial prejudice of the 1970s and 80s.
Because its practical conclusions are alarming. First, it has begun to frame all politics to the right of traditional conservatism around the myth of a coming inter-ethnic conflict. Second, it elevates misogyny and anti-LBTQ+ prejudices to the same status as racism within far-right folklore opening up recruitment pathways for young men. Third, it swirls through, and collides with, an amorphous cloud of online conspiracy theories. Fourth, it maps more effectively on to the widespread anti-systemic sentiment among voters.
So, for the French far right, the recent uprisings by minority ethnic communities in response to the police murder of an unarmed teenager are no longer simply cited as a justification for ending migration or tougher policing: they are framed as a rehearsal for Day X when liberal democracy erupts into a global inter-ethnic civil war.
And the critical forums where the text of far-right populism gets mixed with the subtext of outright fascism are online, says Hope Not Hates Mullhall:
Alongside the far-right parties you have a miasma of post-organisational far-right networks involving thousands of individuals operating across national boundaries. These networks are like synapses, that allow information, ideas, rhetoric, tactics to move around the internet, creating memes and content and pushing it towards wherever the next target is.
Everybody I spoke to about the far-right surge pointed to the paralysis of liberal, green and social-democratic parties in the face of it. Mulhall warns that sudden, local radicalisations, which grab the attention of party strategists weeks before elections, are often the produce of decades of local work by far-right activists. The Spanish left and centre left, meanwhile, had to scramble together messaging for the snap election they triggered, in the case of the radical left producing a whole new party, slogans and programme.
Paul Hilder of Datapraxis offers a handful of to-dos for parties of the progressive mainstream in the face of the right-wing populist surge.
Meet voters where they are, which is struggling with inflation in their daily lives; make bold, practical and credible offers on these issues. When it comes to drawing a contrast with the right wing populists, its not about calling them fascists or Putin backers its about connecting their extremism to life getting worse and not better. Progressives need to attract a diverse electorate, ranging from those who agree with them on social issues to those who dont. Finally, its about execution: making sure that clear, effective messages are reaching the right people.
Does this mean we should stay away from woke politics, I ask? Hilder, who has worked with some of the most progressive politicians across Europe and the Americas, does not mince his words.
Many marginal voters take the position that ordinary peoples daily lives are more important than social or ethnic minorities. That doesnt mean being anti-woke. If your disposable income has dropped by 10 or 20% in the past year, thats what you want politicians to be focusing on, rather than how many genders there are.
In the run-up to Sundays vote, the Spanish socialist party has been laser focused on the cost of living, campaigning on its record of getting inflation down to 1.9% by using price controls while in government. We will see whether that cuts through the tsunami of hate coming from the right.
See the rest here:
Posted in Populism
Comments Off on Can Spain hold back the right? – The New European
UK Support to Rejoin the EU Passes 50% for the First Time Since Brexit – Yahoo News
Posted: at 1:11 pm
(Bloomberg) -- More than half of Britons would vote to rejoin the European Union for the first time since the nation opted to leave the bloc seven years ago, YouGov polling showed.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Some 51% of Britons told the polling company that they would vote for the UK to become an EU member again, while 32% said theyd stay out, according to the survey conducted last week. The proportion in favor of rejoining has risen 11 points since January 2021, when Brexit formally took place.
The findings reflect growing disillusionment among British voters about Brexit, which triggered years of divisive debate in Parliament before the UK finally left the bloc.
Britons are yet to see the promised fruits of departure from the EU, with UK holidaymakers facing longer queues at European airports and shoppers facing higher food prices fueled by both Brexit curbs on migrant workers and its effect on supply chains. A trade deal with the US, meanwhile, held as one of the great prizes of Brexit, doesnt look likely to materialize anytime soon.
Seven years on from the referendum, the UK remains in a cost-of-living crisis with inflation outstripping price rises elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, many regions which voted for Brexit are more likely to face a widening wealth and opportunity gap relative to richer parts of the UK, according to Bloomberg analysis earlier this year.
Some 57% of Britons told YouGov the UK was wrong to vote for Brexit in 2016, the highest figure the polling firm has recorded. One in five Britons who voted to leave the EU in 2016 now say it was the wrong decision.
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly said he believes in Brexit and the opportunities it presents, but his government is nevertheless seeking to renegotiate parts of the UKs exit deal that it fears will cause disruption and added costs to businesses and consumers.
Story continues
UK officials are currently in talks with their EU counterparts to delay upcoming tariffs on electric vehicles shipped between the UK and the EU and the government is also weighing options to limit the cost of post-Brexit border checks on European food imports due to start in the next six months.
In April, Bloomberg reported that Sunak also hopes to reach an agreement to let Britons use EU e-gates for passport checks, another friction point for tourists and business travelers since Brexit.
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
2023 Bloomberg L.P.
See more here:
UK Support to Rejoin the EU Passes 50% for the First Time Since Brexit - Yahoo News
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on UK Support to Rejoin the EU Passes 50% for the First Time Since Brexit – Yahoo News
Populism, authoritarianism and agrarian struggles – Transnational Institute
Posted: at 1:11 pm
Around the world emerging new exclusionary politics are generating deepening inequalities, jobless growth, climate chaos, and social division. These processes have been intensified or exposed in many places by the Covid-19 pandemic and responses to it, but they are not new. Since 2017 the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) has used engaged research to better understand these destructive dynamics, and the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to them. We aim to provoke debate and action among scholars, activists, practitioners and policymakers from across the world who are concerned about the current situation, and hopeful about alternatives and resistances.
Today, these questions remain urgent, worldwide. Yet organised movements and actions in and from rural areas have contributed to changing the political trajectories in many countries: the (qualified) success of the Indian farmers' protests; the electoral victories of left-wing parties in Chile, Peru and other countries in Latin America; the repositioning of the Workers Party in Brazil and more. Other tensions and dynamics are playing out in many other countries: from Turkey to Tunisia, Mozambique to the United States of America. In some places regressive populism has turned into outright authoritarianism, as in Myanmar. How do we make sense of all these changes and continuities?
Engaged researchers have published timely collections on these issues: (a) Routledge book 'Authoritarianism and the Rural World' with 20 chapters and edited by Ian Scoones, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Marc Edelman, Ruth Hall, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Ben White and Wendy Wolford (Open Access ebook); (b) Special Issue of Sociologia Ruralis onauthoritarian populism in Europeedited by Natalia Mamonova, Jaume Franquesa and Sally Brooks; (c) Special Issue ofJournal of Rural Studieson North America edited by Antonio Roman-Alcala, Garrett Lovelace-Graddy and Marc Edelman; (d) aspecial forum ofLatin American Perspectivesedited by Daniela Andrade and Sergio Coronado and e)A View From The Countryside, co-published by TNI, FIAN, and ERPI by Katie Sandwell, Anglica Castaeda Flores, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Jennifer Franco, Sofia Monsalve Surez, Andrea Nuila and Philip Seufert.
This edition of the Agrarian Conversations Webinar Series will showcase these relevant and urgent publications, discuss recent events, and assess the progress of struggles in and from the rural areas in relation to right-wing populism.
Speakers:
Moderators:Ruth Hall(PLAAS) andKatie Sandwell(TNI)
Background reading: Preface of Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World, pages xv-xxi,https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/49632Languages: English, Spanish, French
View original post here:
Populism, authoritarianism and agrarian struggles - Transnational Institute
Posted in Populism
Comments Off on Populism, authoritarianism and agrarian struggles – Transnational Institute
Record Numbers of Brits Regretting Brexit, Survey Shows – SchengenVisaInfo.com – SchengenVisaInfo.com
Posted: at 1:11 pm
British nationals are increasingly regretting their decision to leave the European Union in the move known as Brexit, which, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying it brought benefits to the UK, more than half of the population would vote to remain in the EU.
According to the results of the YouGov survey, if the referendum was to be held again, 55 per cent of respondents said they would vote to remain in the EU, while 31 per cent said they would stay out, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
While three in ten respondents, representing 31 per cent of the total, said they would vote to leave the EU, it indicates that one in six leave voters, or 18 per cent, would change their mind and instead vote to remain in the EU if the referendum would be held again.
In addition, the data show that the interest to remain in the EU has increased, with 49 per cent of respondents voting to remain in the EU back in 2021, which grew to 55 per cent in 2023.
The number of people that would not vote or arent certain remains the same as in 2021; 13 per cent of the total respondents.
Among those that voted to leave the EU in 2021, the survey found that from 81 per cent of respondents, it shrank to 73 per cent in 2023. Similarly, from nine per cent of respondents that voted to remain in the EU, these rates doubled to 18 per cent in 2022. Additionally, the number of people who are uncertain about their decision grew by one per cent among leave voters.
Currently, 57 per cent of Britons say the 2016 decision to leave the EU was wrong, which is the highest figure YouGov has recorded to date. By comparison, one in three respondents (32 per cent) thinks this decision was right and appropriate, while one in five Leave voters (19 per cent) now say it was the wrong decision.
On top of thousands of respondents that have changed their minds and would vote to remain in the EU, seven in ten Brits say that the government handled Brexit poorly. The trend shows that the number of respondents that think the government handled the exit badly has been increasing since 2021, while the number of those that think the opposite is constantly dropping, to be hitting its lowest rate at 18 per cent.
Leaving the EU has had some severe impact on the British economy, as data by the OECD reveals that the GDP growth has decreased by 0.4 per cent since 2019, while other countries have experienced increases such as Germany and France, with 0.3 and 1.1 per cent increases in economic growth during the same period.
Go here to read the rest:
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on Record Numbers of Brits Regretting Brexit, Survey Shows – SchengenVisaInfo.com – SchengenVisaInfo.com
Almost two-thirds of Brits think Brexit has been a failure – The New European
Posted: at 1:11 pm
Two months ago, Nigel Farage declared that Brexit had failed. Now, hes not alone.
According to a new YouGov poll, the proportion of Brits who say leaving the European Union was a mistake has hit an all-time high. YouGov surveyed over 2000 British people, of whom 63% believed Brexit has been more of a failure than a success. A mere 12% saw it as a success while 18% said it had been neither.
55% of the same respondents said that if a referendum were held again tomorrow, they would vote to rejoin while 31% said they would opt to stay out of the bloc. Some 57% now see the 2016 vote to leave the EU as the wrong decision while 32% still think it was justified.
When Farage declared Brexits failure in May, Rishi Sunak responded by boasting about the advantages Brexit was bringing in. He cited his flagship policy of freeports and VAT cuts that he claimed would make beer and sanitary products cheaper.
But Sunak, it seems, is not fooling anyone. On Thursday, he could become the first prime minister since Harold Wilson to lose three seats at a by-election, with Boris Johnsons seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip up for grabs as well as Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire and Somerton and Frome in Somerset. The by-elections fall at a time when the Conservatives sit 22 points behind Labour in the most recent poll, painting far from a pretty picture for the government.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Keir Starmer remains undeterred about his vague stance of making Brexit work regardless of whether the country is behind the sentiment.
See original here:
Almost two-thirds of Brits think Brexit has been a failure - The New European
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on Almost two-thirds of Brits think Brexit has been a failure – The New European
Five ways UK fashion industry can grow post-Brexit, Covid – just-style.com
Posted: at 1:11 pm
The report titled Impact of Brexit and Covid-19 on the UK Fashion & Textiles Technology Ecosystem proposes five key recommendations to support the growth and prosperity of the UK Fashion, Textile and Technology industry.
The report was published collectively by the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) led by the University of the Arts London and the Future Fashion Factory (FFF) led by the University of Leeds with the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT)s Adam Mansell as chair of the project.
The report builds on a previous study published in July 2021, titled Mapping the UK Fashion Textiles Technology Ecosystem, which revealed the main challenges the UK fashion, textiles and technology (FTT) industry would face in the next three to five years. The challenges included changes in consumer spending; funding, tax and business rates; trade policies and Brexit; and a shortage of FTT skills.
Mansell explains the new report highlights many of the ongoing issues faced by the UK fashion and textile industry, particularly those SMEs and micro businesses that makeup over 80% of the industry.
However, he is quick to point out that the report also marks the resilience and adaptability of UK fashion and textile companies when faced with challenges such as Brexit and Covid.
Mansell describes the UKs departure from the EU the biggest change in the global trading environment in decades.
He says: With the EU accounting for 75% of the UKs fashion and textile exports and over 30% of the sectors imports, the implications of the change in relationship was always going to be hugely significant.
Despite the rhetoric, the UK EU Trade Continuity Agreement was not the simplest trade deal ever negotiated. The reality is (and was always going to be) a new trading relationship with significant administrative burdens, a large increase in costs and more limited movement of people and products.
He suggests confidence in the UK as a supply base has fallen sharply with many European companies declining to do business with UK brands due to the new trading difficulties.
Mansell explains: These difficulties are likely to increase with the development of the EUs ambitious and comprehensive textile sustainability strategy. The strategy will see a dramatic increase in legislation requiring better monitoring and reporting for all fashion and textiles sold in the EU and will apply to UK suppliers.
This research was a collaborative project with support and funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), BFTT, FFF, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA), Leeds University Business School (LUBS), UAL LCF Fashion Business School, UKFT and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Last month the UK Fashion & Textile Association (UKFT) and the British Fashion Council (BFC) said they were collaborating as co-chairs on a new government-funded circular fashion programme, which aims to facilitate and lead the development of a circular fashion ecosystem within the UK.
UKFT is also spearheading a 4m ($5.06m) project to develop and pilot an automated sorting and pre-processing plant for waste textiles (ATSP) in a bid to divert tonnes of waste from landfill each year.
Here is the original post:
Five ways UK fashion industry can grow post-Brexit, Covid - just-style.com
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on Five ways UK fashion industry can grow post-Brexit, Covid – just-style.com
British companies start to grapple with ‘Brexit 2.0’ – Financial Times
Posted: at 1:11 pm
For many Britons, Brexit was a one-off event involving a vote in the 2016 referendum, but for UK exporters such as Brandauer, a Birmingham-based specialised components maker, trading outside the EU has been a journey of continuous adaptation.
From handling German value added tax to mastering the intricacies of six-digit EU customs codes, Brandauer chief executive Rowan Crozier said his small company has managed to retain its EU customers thanks to precision components used in a wide range of industries including carmakers, construction and pharmaceuticals.
But Crozier is aware that in many ways Brandaeurs Brexit journey is only just beginning as the EU introduces rules on carbon border taxes, plastic waste management and supply chain monitoring.
This means EU rules are starting to diverge from UK equivalents. Divergence is an ongoing headache, he said.
Trade and industry experts warn the rising volume of future EU regulations is leading to Brexit 2.0 as the 27-nation bloc introduces rules that even when they are mirrored by the UK create fresh barriers to trade.
Were getting new [EU] legislation continuously, said Fergus McReynolds, director of EU affairs at the manufacturers trade body Make UK. So as the UK stays static, youre having to treat the EU and the UK as two completely different markets from a regulatory perspective.
McReynolds said Make UKs members are focused on three main EU regulations: the blocs upcoming carbon border tax, implementation of plastic packaging rules and draft supply chain due diligence laws being discussed by member states.
The introduction of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism is likely to have a significant effect on companies trading with the bloc, according to George Riddell, director of trade strategy at consultancy EY, who is helping UK businesses that export to the EU prepare for the measure.
From October this year EU companies will have to compile reports on the carbon emissions attached to some imported goods, including steel, aluminium and fertilisers, with businesses having to buy certificates to cover emissions embedded in products from 2026.
The paperwork and costs associated with the carbon tax will land on UK companies who supply components to EU businesses covered by the regulation which affects products as prosaic as nuts and bolts. As a result, some of these UK companies will be more difficult to trade with for EU businesses.
From 2026, there will be cost pressures factored into where you choose your suppliers, said Riddell.
The British government is consulting industry over introducing a UK version of the EU carbon border tax, but without legally binding linkage between the two schemes, domestic businesses will still need to demonstrate compliance with the blocs rules, said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.
[The EU carbon border adjustment mechanism], packaging legislation, supply chain legislation are becoming an issue for UK companies on how they best order their compliance without incurring huge additional costs, he added.
British MPs were warned at a meeting in Brussels this month that they needed to track EU legislation to help UK companies respond.
Nathalie Loiseau, a senior French MEP who co-chairs the UK-EU parliamentary partnership assembly, said the two sides have started to diverge.
There is lots of legislation going through at the EU level...and we need to be aware of the impact, she said. Businesses on both sides of the Channel are saying the same thing: we want high standards and we do not want to diverge too much.
The issue affects services companies too. Accountants MHA warned that EU tax rules for virtual services will change in January 2025, meaning British businesses providing online facilities to consumers will have to pay VAT where the customer resides rather than in the UK, as now.
Sue Rathmell, partner at MHA, said: UK businesses providing virtual [business to consumer] services to the EU, such as webinars, online conferences or advertising software, require swift input from [HM Revenue & Customs] in response to the EUs intention to overhaul place of supply rules from January 2025.
McReynolds said one of the biggest challenges for business was the widely differing approaches of individual EU member states to implementing regulations such as the blocs requirement to recycle plastic packaging.
Some countries, including Spain, apply rules more strictly than others, with some EU businesses now insisting that UK companies provide proof that plastic components of manufactured goods also comply with the regulations, he added.
When the UK was an EU member, such rules were transposed automatically on to the British statute book and companies were presumed to have complied for the entire single market.
As a non-member, that presumption of compliance has been removed. Post-Brexit British firms have to comply with the domestic interpretation of EU directives of 27 different regulatory regimes, said McReynolds.
Both Make UK and British Chambers of Commerce say that now the UK is no longer automatically transposing EU law, the British government needs to do more to assess the impact of the blocs future regulations, as well as using the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the two sides to co-ordinate better with Brussels.
The UK Department for Business and Trade said the agreement was opening up new opportunities for British businesses in the EU.
We will continue to assess the impact new EU laws could have on our trade interests, as we do with other trading partners.
However, Bain said there needed to be much broader discussion about regulatory developments on both sides. We need to get a lot better at this. Everybody has to up their game.
Recommended
Make UK has called for the government to create a central register of impending EU laws and to help British companies with analysis of what they mean for business.
The alternative for British companies is a repeat of the chaotic and costly learning curve that followed the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in January 2021, barely a week after the eleventh-hour deal was struck between the UK and the EU, said Crozier.
Based on past form, he was not optimistic. Weve been flying blind all the way through as manufacturers. We didnt know what Brexit we were going to get until the very last minute, and Ive no faith that it wont be the same scenario all over again.
Read the original:
British companies start to grapple with 'Brexit 2.0' - Financial Times
Posted in Brexit
Comments Off on British companies start to grapple with ‘Brexit 2.0’ – Financial Times