CONFRONTING THE FAR RIGHT MEANS SOLIDARITY WITH CLIMATE REFUGEES ~ James Horton ~ In late January, the Climate and Nature (CaN) Bill failed to pass at the House of Commons. It would have given the UK government a legally binding duty to pursue goals aimed at reducing and reversing the effects of the climate crisis. Specifically, the proposal suggested that the UK government should seek to reduce carbon emissions in line with the 2015 Paris agreement, and work to drive back the ecological damage done domestically and globally. It also suggested the formation of a temporary citizens assembly for consultation on climate crisis issues. It was Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage who sought to use state power and a promise of democratic dialogue to combat the crisis through this legislation. However, both Labour and Reform welded together to euthanise the debate, with the latter celebrating its failure on X as an absolute and undeniable win. So why exactly are the loathsome cretins at Reform UK so exuberant about defeating this legislation? Part of Reform’s anti-climate stance is about social class. Legislation like the CaN Bill—or the white reformism of organisations promoting green consumerism—appeals to the upper middle class, the same people who might donate to the Wildlife Trust or vote LibDem. But it alienates the lower middle class and de-classed groups targeted by Reform UK. Although their lives will also be ruined by climate change, they respond to climate legislation as an imposition from above and feel expected to experience guilt and shame. At the same time, the far right does stand to benefit from climate apathy and the growing opportunity to target climate refugees. Like in France, Italy and elsewhere, the far right in Britain only pretends that it doesn’t want refugees within its country’s borders. From an anti-fascist point of view it is plain to see that they actually rely on them as an ‘other’. As the crisis worsens, they will increasingly seize on opportunities to victimise climate refugees. The imperial forces of the world are doing fascists a huge favour as their climate policies continue driving people to escape affected regions.  After a forced effort to distance himself and his clique from Tommy Robinson and the street fascists, Nigel Farage, the last of Margaret Thatcher’s menagerie, now leads a party polling evenly with Labour. Meanwhile climate activism and antifascism remain separate for all the wrong reasons. Antifascists and climate activists should work together, and in solidarity with refugees and indigenous people around the world. How we resist the far right and its victimisation of ‘others’ is bound up with our politics of planetary survival. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image: Refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece by Julian Buijzen CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 The post Make Climate Politics Antifascist appeared first on Freedom News.

A RARE NOTE OF THANKS GOES TO ELON MUSK FOR HIS HILARIOUS NEW YEAR FARCE TURNING REFORM UK’S LEADER INTO A COMPLETE LAUGHING STOCK ~ Rob Ray ~ What an excellent few days it’s been for far-right watching. Over in the US we’ve been seeing the hardline racist wing of MAGA screaming about betrayal because it turns out big tech doesn’t actually want to deny itself cheap skilled international labour. And domestically Farage has been comprehensively skewered by his dalliance with Elon Musk. The latter has been a really wild ride. Initially warning flags were raised when reports broke that Musk was considering giving a donation worth up to $100 million to Farage’s Reform UK, the sort of sum that barely touches the sides in US elections but potentially transformative for the rapidly rising fortunes of the Daily Telegraph’s political wing. Labour was particularly wrongfooted as Musk simultaneously went after Keir Starmer, seemingly confusing the Labour leader for some sort of leftist and smarting from a perceived conference snub. Which left the party both scrambling to work out how to remain suitably subservient to an incoming US administration while also not looking like a powerless, whipped dog. In the end only the first was well observed, taking the apparent view that blocking obvious foreign political interference would do more damage than giving their opponents 100 million quid.  In some ways, however, the offer was also problematic for Farage. After all, this is a man who made his bones vocally castigating Westminster for giving up sovereign independence to Europe. Taking the sort of Yankee money that couldn’t possibly come without any strings attached would be wildly hypocritical, wouldn’t it? You can’t really portray yourself as a man who won’t be bought when you’re rolling around on a pile of overseas cash.  That sort of money can turn anyone’s head though, even a man as undoubtedly honest and upstanding as Nigel “buy crypto” Farage who’s beyond such petty pursuits as grubbing for cash with paid-for recorded messages or ripping off his MEP allowances. And so our hero in light blue duly kissed that ring in no less a place than the Reform Party Conference, proudly announcing that, though the final amount wouldn’t be 100 million, he was pleased to have King Elon’s support. He described him as a “hero”. Except that even as he was speaking, there was a problem emerging. Elon, as is his wont, was Xhitting out a bunch more ill-thought-out opinions on topics he had very little clue about, including zero-research opinions on UK paedophile rings, and the jailing of Tommy Robinson.  The former, ill informed though it might be, wasn’t really much of a problem for Farage to support (it’s more an issue for Kemi Badenoch) but the latter was thorny. Robinson and his cohort are an embarrassment for Britain’s vote-grubber far right, not just because they hark back to an earlier, knuckle-dragging period in their history that alienates the public, but also because Nige had made a big deal of pretending his rhetoric had nothing to do with the recent riots. Which extended into outright denouncing that sort of thing, and has infuriated many of Tommeh’s most fervent supporters. Musk’s intervention thus put the party in a tough spot. In taking the money, they would also be taking on the problem of being pointed at every time he came out with stupid comments. Something had to be done. A quiet word, perhaps, suggesting support for Tommy wasn’t the right call? A few hints in his speech that he didn’t agree with everything Elon said, all the time? Well, whatever quiet murmurs of not-quite dissent they were, old Elon clearly wasn’t in the mood. By 2pm on Sunday, after days of obsessing about ‘muslim grooming gangs’ in a country thousands of miles away from the US (America First going well as always), he’d lost faith in his latest toy, Xhitting: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.” To which a clearly disappointed Farage responded:  “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree. My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.” Ah come on now Nige, you were already selling out your principles. Claiming that high ground directly after you’ve been dumped is a bit “you can’t fire me I quit”.  So Farage has not only sold out his reputation for independence, defending sovereignty and suchlike, gifting the left a line that “he doesn’t actually care about foreign interference at all”, it now looks like he won’t even get the cash.  It’s been a real hoot. The post Farage’s failed sell-out appeared first on Freedom News.

WE’VE REALLY REACHED A LOW POINT WHEN THROWING A MILKSHAKE AT A POLITICIAN IS NOT ONLY BROUGHT TO COURT, BUT PROSECUTED AS “ASSAULT BY BEATING” ~ Rob Ray ~ Nigel Farage’s court case against Clacton hero Victoria Thomas Bowen is the latest example in a trend of politicians refusing to abide by Britain’s historic and hallowed tradition of flying food; as with disruptive road protests, this is a recent phenomenon in which pathetic victimhood is constantly paraded around by people with immense power, often in the same breath as complaining about ‘snowflakes’. James Cleverly MP, leadership hopeful for the Bomb ‘Em and Flog ‘Em Party, argued earlier this year that “where a mob of people are outside someone’s private residence, clearly with the intention of distorting their future votes, that is unacceptable and we expect the police to deal with it”. This was in response, not to any actual fear of serious reprisals, but to the usual people in anoraks chanting “ceasefire now” waving nothing more intimidating than placards. You know the ones, light card on balsa wood. And across the aisle in a rather patronising interview a few months later, after losing her seat in the election, centrist Labourite Thangam Debbonaire was getting asked in ultra-serious tones about “being put at risk” by journalist Cathy Newman. The risk? She got some critical feedback over her party’s position on Gaza.  This has been an increasing trend across the political board — we’ve all seen politicians pushing the line, in similar mode to Cleverly, that what democracy really means is putting a cross in a box and shutting up for the next four to five years. And it’s an obviously silly argument, even to non-anarchists. Representatives are not purified avatars of their constituencies’ direct collective will, they’re usually just some chump with an ego selected by head office to vote along party lines. It is absolutely within bounds, and frankly something of a responsibility, for their constituents to push them out of the sphere of paid lobbyists and into that of normal human beings. Any politician pretending otherwise is speaking to their own arrogance and laziness, not democratic ideals. But the likes of Farage and his milieu are particularly egregious when they do this stuff, because they spend so much of their time presenting themselves as the straight-shooting hard edge of politics. Not for them the namby-pamby equivocation about treating migrants with respect while doing the bare minimum to obey international human rights law. They’re the ones telling it how it is, whistling and nodding at Turn The Boats Back, looking the other way when their supporters waffle on about standing on the cliffs of Dover with Sten guns. That a prosecution then gets carried forward over the flinging of a dairy product speaks to the absolutely cowardly reality of Farage and his cohort. They aren’t rough and tumble political types at all: when confrontation arises they’re to be found cringing behind the backs of cops and bodyguards, whining about scary young women wielding sweet liquid retribution. No two-jabs Prescott these, shrugging off a dousing at the Brits by Burnley legend Alice Nutter in 1998 and not even registering a complaint. Instead they’re right next to the likes of Cleverly and Debonnaire, merrily dishing out pain and suffering by official decree — but heaven forfend that come with the same consequences a cheating boyfriend might face on a night out at Nando’s. Tweedy Farage and his fan club love to accuse the left of being feeble wannabe victims, but just look at the state of them, literally crying over spilt milk, disgracing their political forebears who wouldn’t have dreamed of throwing such tantrums over a bit of flung fruit or an errant egg. I suppose we shouldn’t expect anything better from Nige and his collection of whingers and pearl-clutchers, but still, it’s quite the self-humiliation. The post Milkshake Farage is a courtroom crybaby appeared first on Freedom News.