Tom Blackburn
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tomblackburn.bsky.social
Tom Blackburn
@tomblackburn.bsky.social
1.5K followers 400 following 75 posts
You wouldn't even know the sun was up unless there was a press release on it
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ICYMI
Wrote this for Tribune on the new left party, its prospects, tasks and challenges:
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
Based on sign-ups, the new Corbyn-Sultana party may soon have the largest membership base of any political party in the country. Read Tom Blackburn on the new left-wing party.
Party Time
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
tribunemag.co.uk
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
The U.K. Online Safety Act was (avowedly, as revealed in a recent High Court case) “not primarily aimed at protecting children” but at regulating “services that have a significant influence over public discourse.”
Starmer and McSweeney are zealots and they're killing that party
Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 31% (-1)
LAB: 19% (-1)
CON: 19% (+3)
LDM: 12% (=)
GRN: 10% (+1)

Via @findoutnow.bsky.social, 13-14 Aug.
Changes w/ 6 Aug.
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
Wrote this for Tribune on the new left party, its prospects, tasks and challenges:
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
Party Time
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
tribunemag.co.uk
Wrote this for Tribune on the new left party, its prospects, tasks and challenges:
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
Party Time
The unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s reactionary Labour government has created a generational opportunity in British politics. Rebuilding the Left will be difficult — but this could be a start.
tribunemag.co.uk
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
Robustly listening to Joy Division to signal my commitment to lawful speech while shaking my head to show I disapprove on the grounds of taste
Its lawful speech to have an offensive/shock value band name like "Kneecap". I would disapprove of calling a band Kneecap, Suicide Vest, Lynch Mob, Pogrom, Nail Bomb, or Punishment Beating or White Hoods on taste/ethics. I guess Guillotine or Executioner/Hangman might be more defensible in context.
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
I wrote this on Tony Benn's life, ideas, career and legacy to mark his centenary:
Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years.

A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.
The British Establishment Still Fears the Ideas of Tony Benn
Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years. A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.
jacobin.com
I wrote this on Tony Benn's life, ideas, career and legacy to mark his centenary:
Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years.

A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.
The British Establishment Still Fears the Ideas of Tony Benn
Having been vilified and spied on when he was an active politician, Tony Benn was patronizingly dismissed in his later years. A new collection of Benn’s writings shows why his democratic socialist vision was such a powerful threat to the status quo.
jacobin.com
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
I have to say, if you need proof that there is absolutely no basis for ever allying with liberals, all you need to do is read this thread. The levels of mutual hatred between the left and the centre are *staggering* and only getting more intense with every day.
I'm seeing a lot more of my far left friends posting things like "both parties aren't the same after all" and "there are meaningful ideological divisions even amongst capital/the right/etc". which is good! We should move with the times. but I'm seeing less contrition about it than I'd hope
It really is the world's town square
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
Worth your time:

“Leaving the means of production firmly in private hands was precisely what enabled capital to unpick Labourist reforms when a crisis of sufficient magnitude presented the opportunity.”
Lowe's response is even more pathetic
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
It's been 15 years since Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land was first published, so I wrote this for New Socialist on how the book still stands up (not well) newsocialist.org.uk/the-last-soc...
The Last Social Democrat
by Tom Blackburn // <p>Tony Judt’s <em>Ill Fares the Land</em>, 15 years on</p>
newsocialist.org.uk
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
It's been 15 years since Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land was first published, so I wrote this for New Socialist on how the book still stands up (not well) newsocialist.org.uk/the-last-soc...
The Last Social Democrat
by Tom Blackburn // <p>Tony Judt’s <em>Ill Fares the Land</em>, 15 years on</p>
newsocialist.org.uk
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
ok sorry . my lawyer has advised me to say that drinking israeli diarrhea is good actually no matter how many kindergartners they murked
Reposted by Tom Blackburn
Starmer taking money away from the sick, elderly and disabled so he can hand it over to ultra-reactionary American military-industrial companies with links to the Trump administration.

Look forward to seeing liberal journalists describe this as a Masterful Gambit
Pointless discussing this on the other place (unless you want to be bombarded by statue pfp Nazis) but I've always thought reactionaries hate Brutalism's functions - as public housing, universities etc - more than its aesthetic, and that it has the temerity to be unapologetic and strident about them