Michael Chessum
@michael_chessum
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Socialist writer and activist /// 📕 book: This Is Only The Beginning /// ecosocialist Green, Brixton Acre Lane candidate /// Personal account, all views my own
Joined July 2013
The reality is that across London, Greens are now in contention. And that is going to become apparent to most voters after the next set of local (2026) and London Assembly (2028) elections. So unless something massive changes, we have only seen the beginning of the Green surge.
‼️POLL | #GE2029 if Londoners vote for who they actually want to win (no tactical voting)* 🟢 Grn: 36% (+26) 🔴 Lab: 22% (-21) ➡️ Ref: 20% (+11) 🟠 Lib: 11% (=) 🔵 Con: 11% (-10) Poll: @YouGov, 15-16 Mar (+/- vs GE2024) --- *Voters asked to state true first preference.
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But the whole point of this is that, long-term, adopting the far right’s immigration policy doesn't work. Sure, it might win over some voters momentarily, but in the end all you've done is strengthened their narratives and shifted onto their terrain, where you cannot win.
Some muddled electoral timelines on Denmark and Social Democrats immigration reforms. Suggesting their poor result in this election shows that their more control policies didn’t help and possibly hurt them & the left can’t win on them. But that misses a whole election in between
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Very glad to see @VerdantThinking set up today by some excellent people. The Greens are challenging for power. Most parties have decades to build an intellectual ecosystem and policy platform. We have a few years, and in the case of local government just a few months.
Thinktank @VerdantThinking launches today - our first report is in the Guardian: "A “Doge of the left,” could save up to £30bn a year for taxpayers by rooting out waste, fraud and tax avoidance, according to the first report from a new green thinktank.." (Link below...)
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Odd how little coverage this referendum has had. Had it passed, Italy's far right would have succeeded in undermining judicial independence and insulating itself from charges of corruption. A win for the opponents of the slide into darkness - but ultimately a temporary reprieve
Giorgia Meloni loses justice referendum
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This sums up why Labour is doomed. In favour of taxing wealth, but not doing it properly, and arguing for it in the most technocratic way possible: "forget inequality and how unfair it is, what we're really interested in is an implausible-sounding economic indicator (growth)".
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"Kids needs bedrooms, kids need classrooms". Joint demo against nursery closures and shoddy housing conditions outside Lambeth Town Hall this afternoon. It feels like a re-run of the early days of austerity. Only this time under a Labour government.
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Next time you hear someone say "oh Theresa May wasn't that bad compared to what came after", just remember: this guy ran her office.
Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in
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Oh great, the power to manage decline. Devolving spending powers to local and regional government is worth nothing without a power to *raise* money. The Tories also extended the responsibilities of local government (e.g. on public health) while inflicting austerity.
Breaking: Rachel Reeves announces plans to allow regional leaders to spend a proportion of the income tax raised in their areas It's not about setting the rates themselves but spending the revenues locally in a targeted way Reeves says the reforms will represent a 'permanent
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Hi, I'm a Labour MP during a period of collapsing living standards, the rise of fascism, climate catastrophe and genocide - and what keeps me awake at night is a burning desire for cultural censorship at a music festival hundreds of miles away.
Hi @glastonbury, not only has Bob Vylan repeated the chant, he's now done it at a explicitly pro-Iranian regime rally - the one that massacres it's own people. Can you please have some courage and ban him from your future festivals?
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Absolutely astonishing. Labour has put out a direct mail to Lambeth residents, claiming that the Greens voted against the Renters' Rights Bill. That's... simply and demonstrably false? Every lie they tell degrades our politics and opens the door to Reform.
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This is half right. One of the flaws of First Past The Post is that it promotes parochialism and over-prioritises 'local candidates'. But the vast majority of non-local MPs now in parliament aren't selected for quality. They're selected for their sheep-like qualities.
Spot on. We’ve come to fetishise “local representatives” far too much, a symptom of our politics becoming smaller and more parochial. What we need is quality national politicians. If they have to be “parachuted” in, and they spend more time in SW1 than the constituency, so be it.
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This Labour Government will not tolerate fuel companies profiteering and hardworking people losing out.
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🥀 Reminder 🥀 - the Labour leadership under Miliband and Balls capitulated on austerity - many London councils are now facing deep cuts, under a Labour government I cannot think of a worse line of attack.
Tory–Lib Dem austerity pushed hundreds of thousands of children in London into poverty. And you’re proud of that, @ZackPolanski?
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"Four years ago I woke up to my house shaking and the sound of bombs exploding outside..." Green Party activist Valentina Butenko calls on members to support motion E29, "Strengthening solidarity with Ukraine", coming up at the party's Spring conference (28 March, online) 🧵
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The debate over whether the Greens should accept defections from Labour MPs is just bizarre. Labour stretches from Peter Mandelson to John McDonnell. It encompasses half the workers' movement. We should base our decisions on their records and politics.
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European vote distribution with an Atlanticist voting system. What could go wrong?
British politics has never looked as European as it does right now.
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I stand by this. And if, like me, you are just dying to relitigate the anti-Brexit movement, I'll be speaking about it at the launch of this book next Thursday.
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Your party is finally challenging for power after decades in the wilderness. However, you've lost a series of democratic votes on an issue you care deeply about. Do you: A) accept that you are politically isolated; or B) drag it through the courts apparently forever
🔊 Breaking! Green Women's Declaration, having exhausted all internal channels, has formally begun legal proceedings v @TheGreenParty for discrimination under Equality Act 2010. https://t.co/Iss3KRqMGV We do this more in sorrow than in anger. We are forever #ForWomenAndPlanet
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