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Intesteing take on the "£500m for blue passports" stories https://www.johnband.org/blog/2017/04/02/dont-believe-passport-story-til-bus/

Oh, does it turn out that anarchism is the inevitable conclusion of the consistent application of principles people claim to believe in again? My, who'd have thought.

But the UK isn't one country - it's four* separate ones linked in economic and political union. Would Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland all be better off going their own way? * or three countries and six counties if you'd prefer.

Just a heads up - Caucasian is a term from race science and should probably be avoided (unless you're referring to people from the actual Caucasus). Better to just say "white" - or "people racialised as white" if you want to be both factually precise and politically correct.

Amazed there's so little support for a repeal of the smoking ban. 9% isn't even a majority of smokers.

*Scenes of Union Jack hatted old ladies putting votes into ballot boxes* *film trailer guy voice* "They thought they were voting to 'Take Back Control'" *archive footage of referendum night* "They thought they were voting to leave the EU" "But in their pride and hubris..." *terrified civilians...

In the long run, it's going to be fine, isn't it? I mean, we're probably going to end up more or less where we were with the EU when the dust clears - whatever trade deals eventually gets agreed will mire us in the same red-tape as before, so I don't think there's any threat to our nation's...

Enjoyed this short piece about Jolyons https://anomiegeographie.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/the-jolyoncene/

You may recommend whatever the hell you like. Just remember, you can't spell authoritarianism without smat.

He hasn't supported the Muslim ban as introduced by Trump, but he did support the "Christian refugees only" policy of Ted Cruz, and supports racial profiling on borders, and dangerously wrong ideas such as the demographic time bomb. I think it's fair to say he did a lot of the intellectual...

Sam Harris believes (or has expressed support for): The creation and maintenance by force of the US imperial project. Closing US borders to muslims domestic fascist groups and extreme-right-wing Christians (such as Ben Carson) have "the right idea" about Islam The idea that murdering or mass...

It's a well argued case - Kundnani uses actual testimony from people who've perpetrated attacks. Where Islam comes into it is much more in terms of identity - identifying and showing solidarity with Muslims around the world - than in terms of what people would call "violent interpretations of...

Majid Nawaz is a hack and an opportunist though. I don't really think he has anything interesting to say. His links to the security services tarnish his credibility and his willingness to pal about with the extreme-right suggest that his political judgement is far from sound. I mean, in whose...

Post books here that are good and about politics. Because I'm not a fascist like Smat you may discuss them should you wish. This thread can (and should) also be used to denounce Smat. I recommend Arun Kundnani's The Muslims Are Coming. It's a very good analysis of the war on terror. Would...

sorry smat

Are we allowed to talk about books? If so, I would recommend The Muslims Are Coming by Arun Kundnani as a way of understanding much of contemporary politics.

Given that we know that these sorts of incidents inevitably generate a racist backlash, it's probably more important in these moments to analyse the role that racism plays in characterising and framing atrocities like these. When people say "we yet don't know if this is a terrorist incident" as...

Imperialism is driven by capitalism and capitalism depends on imperialism (or more specifically, depends on land/resource theft in the global south, together with the brutal exploitation of the working class there - and requires imperialist aggression in order to prevent those people from...

If there's one thing we need it's more referendums. Can you imagine a world without referendums?

I would vote leave because I like the idea of Captain Scumbag finally getting his treasured EU exit, only to rejoin a year later as part of an independent Scotland.