European Politics

Will this result affect the balance of power between London and Hull in any way?

Lol. Hull is currently the UK City of Culture!

Bruegel wrote:I saw Corbyn as uniquely badly placed to win a debate on terrorism/security but my views may be slightly skewed on this:

Using the latest atrocities to score bobbies-on-the-beat points doesn't really cut it with me.

Totally fair. The politics of security and tragedy are always disgusting and preferably avoidable anyway. However, in so far as it is just a reality, it was interesting to watch him successfully flip the script on these things. Usually liberals/leftists/progressives will just acquiesce to public opinion and adopt a militarized conservative worldview as a triangulation strategy (see: Clinton Crime Bill of '94). I'd actually never considered an alternative strategy or approach, so it was noteworthy for me.

Bruegel wrote:Having voted for Corbyn as my local MP at 3 general elections I'm well aware of his strengths but I'm also very familiar with his shortcomings. I appreciate that this is a vantage point not enjoyed by the vast majority of the electorate or overseas observers.

I lived in his constituency for 12 years. For 4 years of that period I lived on the same street as Finsbury Park mosque, outside which Abu Hamza delivered his weekly hate speeches (prior to the 2003 raid).

During this time, Corbyn was deaf to local community concerns about what was happening there and even cited the mosque as an example of multiculturalism.

And of course, I appreciate that no amount of Guardian/BBC coverage and Deutsche Welle 'Inside Europe' podcasts can replace the awareness and perspective of local constituents. I had no knowledge, for example, of the Finsbury Park mosque and its financial and ideological ties to militant Islamic groups prior to 2005. I'm sure there are hundreds of other examples where I'm out of my depth.

I do try my best to take these elections on their own terms, but of course I have a rooting interest and will unfortunately slip into hollow triumphalism at times. Though give me some credit here, I've refrained from calling him The Absolute Boy.

The only thing that puts me on the defensive are flimsy attacks against millennial voters. That got my undies in a major bunch during the Democratic primaries as well. It makes me very upset and sad. In my experience, many young voters are refreshingly engaged and we should give them credit. They also have legitimate economic concerns and we aren't just here for the sick memes (although these are often very funny too).

At least in England there is a consensus around the desirability of things like the NHS. We don't even have that assurance and it majorly sucks. I've been thinking a lot about how different my outlook would be if I lived in a country where my health was not an insurable commodity and it would be transformative. I would approach my future in a really different manner and would probably be more willing to take chances and improve my quality of life. Instead, I'm basically abandoning my dream of continuing university because I'm terrified of turning 26, being kicked off my parent's insurance, and not having a secure job/career. And I'm of course very fortunate. For most of my friends, the option is deciding whether or not to commute to a full-time job from home to save money on their rent, or work 60 hour weeks just to pay the bills while paying off their massive college debt without any possibility of loan forgiveness or refinancing. Meanwhile, the baby boomer generation is bankrupting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. and simultaneously electing the most craven assholes so they can receive huge tax cuts simultaneously.

This is all just to say, we have a legitimate stake in this. I'm far less concerned about proving that, in fact, we are actually consuming our own congealed labor-power as fictitious commodity, and really just want some guarantee that I can pursue certain available options without fearing the potential consequences of bankrupting medical costs... Following elections across the Ocean is encouraging, in some way, because it suggests political possibilities for avoiding that awful possibility. It also makes me wonder what life could be like with just a few extra stamps in my passport and a rather large leap of faith.

some of my friends are in Barcelona this week. my friend sent a Snapchat of him skateboarding by the Catedral de Barcelona about 30 minutes after the attacks today. they were pretty close by when it happened.

earlier this year my parents were at an orchestra in Central London when the London Bridge attacks happened.

stuff feels close sometimes.

this is phenomenal: https://www.economist.com/puteens

So this Hungary thing sure is fucked.

I don't know anything about Sweden or Swedish politics, but it appears as though the far right party is going to perform very well in this election. Not only is this upsetting on its own terms, I think it also challenges the idea that strong social democratic institutions and policies can fully prevent the rise of racist and xenophobic politics.

The decision of the Lib Dems not to form a coalition with Labour to prevent a Johnson-led No Deal Brexit after they spent an entire year haranguing Labour for not supporting a second referendum is the most predictable bullshit in the world. Anti-Socialism is always going to be more important for centrist/liberal parties than any of their self-proclaimed policies or principles. Such fuckers.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/15/jeremy-corbyn-to-launch-clause-v-workers-rights-document

She added: “In practice, it means that rather than the employer having all the power to determine what your conditions and pay are at work, they will be legally obliged to enter into negotiation with your trade union – a giant step forward in rebalancing the unequal power relations that exist between worker and employer.”

Other labour market reforms will include John McDonnell’s aspiration of reducing average working hours to 32 hours a week within a decade – announced at this year’s Labour conference in Brighton.

Labour would also ban zero-hours contracts, which affect 900,000 people, and give employees in companies with 250 or more staff the right to own shares under an “inclusive ownership fund” – benefiting 10 million people.

It's so refreshing to see a Party with an actual political agenda.

Technically not European news but the British Labour leaks is the most damning indictment of the utter disdain that elite centre-left political operatives have for mass politics. A really, really depressing revelation. As Momentum and other young activist groups were effectively democratizing the Labour Party, a small group of executive level operatives were working to divert funds away from contested elections in order to prevent the Labour Party from entering government in 2017. These people are literally communicating with each other in the immediate aftermath of Labour's surprisingly positive electoral result in 2017 saying shit like "the exact opposite of what I had been working towards for the last couple years."

More sickening is the workplace bullying that was directed at outspoken left-wing women of color, particularly Diane Abbot. We also found out that one-half of the anti-Semitic harassment complaints within the Party were filed by one single individual. That does not dismiss the problem, but it does suggest that a faction within the Party was exploiting the issue of anti-Semitism in order to diminish the legitimacy of social democratic forces, which was aided by their fundamentally broken national media landscape. I really hope that young socialists and progressives do not leave the Party after this. These Blairite fuckers would love nothing more than for these individuals to return to their esoteric and marginal university politics. I would hate to see them get that satisfaction.

https://www.ft.com/video/96240572-7e35-4fcd-aecb-8f503d529354?emailId=5e99c07c8d495d0004020bc6&segmentId=2785c52b-1c00-edaa-29be-7452cf90b5a2

For anyone that is interested, that is a fascinating interview with French President Emmanuel Macron. I obviously do not share his politics. For example, I think that his proposed reform to "standardize/modernize" the country's pay-as-you-go pension system is a trojan horse to fracture the country's strong labor movement, which won major gains during post-war reconstruction. I would never vote for him.

But I think he is also probably the most important and vocal champion of liberal values and democratic imperatives in the world at this moment, which is kind of frightening. Merkel is a lame duck Chancellor and her assumed heir within the CDU just stepped down as a result of a regional political scandal wherein the centre-right party formed a governing coalition with the far-right Alternative for Deutschland (not a good look and it led to big national protests in Berlin just a few months ago). Even if Biden were to win in the United States, his politics are outmoded and he is not a very effective orator. The Iberian countries both have centre-left governments but neither commands enough international prestige to fundamentally reshape global political orders. Otherwise all of the major powers, and particularly the major carbon emitters (Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, China, and Brazil) have some form of authoritarian governance or corrosive and destabilizing forms of right-wing populism.

Anyway, it is a great interview and it gave me a lot to think about. On a personal level, it actually means a lot to me that he is speaking to the needs of Spain and Italy right now. He also understands that this is a major crossroads for the European project, wherein they need to decide if they are a political project or just a common market. That is a really pressing and urgent question that needed to be answered ten years ago. The long they delay the more credibility the right-wing and nationalist alternatives to European integration will gain throughout the continent (Salvini, Le Pen, Vox, Orban, Meloni, etc.), which is truly frightening.

And yeah, he is obviously just a super intelligent guy who does a really incredible job of framing the long-term political and social impact that this crisis will have on human societies. It is really worth watching! It is also a good way to remember just how fucking incompetent and insane Trump is...