Putting my two cents in for the New Social and Ecological People’s Union 😉

‘Left Party’ has the virtue of accuracy - this is the party of the left e.g. all forms of liberation and egalitarianism. It’s as much a ‘what it says on the tin’ name as something dryer but more specific like ‘Socialist Republican Party’. But is it a good name for building power?

I do think, in 2025, that avoiding either the word ‘left’ or the word ‘socialist’ is a bit pointless. These are widely used terms that everyone understands, not fringe attitudes that it pays to hide. Either this is a proudly left-socialist party or it’s not doing anything new.

One strategy I definitely don’t think the left party should adopt is appealing to Reform voters. There might be a sliver that would pay attention to a populist left party, but this is going to be pretty damn left-wing, and the vast majority of Reform voters are conservatives.

Tory and Reform voters prefer the ‘Left Party’, which for them is a slur. It’s like us wanting Reform to be called the British Reactionary Party. Pollsters should ask: ‘If you were a supporter of this party, what would you prefer it to be called?’

I’d be happy enough with the Left Party, happy enough with the

If your goal is to restore class to the forefront of political attention, adding ‘white’ to ‘working-class’, thereby ethnicising and dividing class as a category, is the stupidest thing you could do. There’s a reason the right do it: because the dominant term is ‘white’.

Something I think we should all remember is the name probably doesn’t matter *that* much. Reform is a fucking awful name and they’re winning. What matters is the politics, policies, internal democracy, leadership, messaging.

In 15 years we’ve gone from the PM correctly identifying someone as a bigot (and being torn to shreds for it) to the three biggest parties arguing over how best to achieve mass deportations of asylum seekers.

I tend to agree - we also need leaders who can go on TV and answer the inevitable question ‘is this a party just for left-wingers’ with a combination of humour and pedagogy.

Paul’s argument is that, with deportations and ID cards, we should treat all the ‘gullible’, irredeemable racists like children scared of the monster in the closet - open it up and show them there’s nothing there. Validate the ideology, understate the BAME, tuck the racists in.

How can you have a strategy for fighting racism that doesn’t involve a critique of racism? Mainstream liberal responses to Farage are the anti-racism equivalent of a sexual assault reduction strategy based on women dressing modestly. Insulting, regressive, impractical, pointless.

If I was on the right, I’d be complaining about the Tories splitting the vote, not Reform. We may well be in that position re Labour and the green/left bloc soon. No reason for Labour to contest every seat, unless they want to ‘split the progressive vote’!

Personally, I don’t care whether Reform’s 600k target is possible, and neither do its voters. What I (and they, for opposite reasons) care about is that it’s racist, targets poor, working-class and vulnerable migrants, and borders on ethnic cleansing. It’s worse if it’s doable.

Every additional year of Labour government isn’t a year without Reform. It’s a year of no-Reform *credit* which must be paid back with interest. Put it off for another four years and the final amount only grows, fed by the cowardice and conservatism of the Labour right.

Better vote for this guy to keep the racists out 👍

Anti-Muslim rhetoric now is closely analogous to early 20th century antisemitic propaganda. It's truly the same thing

Indeed, because they’re quite literally the same people

Lib Dems within 2 seats of being the official opposition

“It’s because Satan was unavailable.” @ayocaesar on why former prime minister Tony Blair was invited to White House meetings to discuss postwar Gaza. Last month, the Financial Times reported that Tony Blair's thinktank was involved in Trump’s ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ Gaza