Alex Bullett
@catch23.bsky.social
Social democracy with liberal characteristics. All views strictly my own. He/him. 🌹
Reposted by Alex Bullett
If we can’t even talk in general terms about MPs’ workload- which MPs of all parties agree is v casework- heavy and getting heavier- without a lot of responses being to assume that MPs are not telling the truth/just whinging/ working on the wrong things etc- then I think we’re in a bad place
October 10, 2025 at 5:05 PM
If we can’t even talk in general terms about MPs’ workload- which MPs of all parties agree is v casework- heavy and getting heavier- without a lot of responses being to assume that MPs are not telling the truth/just whinging/ working on the wrong things etc- then I think we’re in a bad place
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Reposted by Alex Bullett
On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n
British Politics' Midlife Crisis
Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters
benansell.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 6:40 AM
On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n
Reposted by Alex Bullett
I mean the challenge here is that we have voters who want great public goods and also want to pay no taxes
It is actually peak absurdity that we still have people arguing that voters should bend to the positions of their political representatives instead of the other way around.
September 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I mean the challenge here is that we have voters who want great public goods and also want to pay no taxes
Reposted by Alex Bullett
honestly one of my firmer beliefs is a lowkey hostility to hyperlocalism, because it almost always end up with governing institutions dominated by a fixed, renting and transgressive majority that is extremely difficult to break up
there's a tendency in parts of the left to believe that 'community' is the answer to everything but communities are often horrendous!
did not realize that prisonculture's "abolitionism" consists of believing that lynchings would be better if they were conducted at lilith fair
September 28, 2025 at 10:13 PM
honestly one of my firmer beliefs is a lowkey hostility to hyperlocalism, because it almost always end up with governing institutions dominated by a fixed, renting and transgressive majority that is extremely difficult to break up
Reposted by Alex Bullett
The fundamental ethos of liberalism is not to act without judgement. The fundamental ethos of liberalism is that our judgements shouldn't constrain the life and freedom of others.
September 2, 2025 at 8:43 PM
The fundamental ethos of liberalism is not to act without judgement. The fundamental ethos of liberalism is that our judgements shouldn't constrain the life and freedom of others.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Actually jaw dropping from James McMurdock MP, even by his standards. We cannot become numb to this.
The far right are in Parliament, and they're trying to normalise outright, vicious racism (same goes for the likes of Rupert Lowe too)
The far right are in Parliament, and they're trying to normalise outright, vicious racism (same goes for the likes of Rupert Lowe too)
August 29, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Actually jaw dropping from James McMurdock MP, even by his standards. We cannot become numb to this.
The far right are in Parliament, and they're trying to normalise outright, vicious racism (same goes for the likes of Rupert Lowe too)
The far right are in Parliament, and they're trying to normalise outright, vicious racism (same goes for the likes of Rupert Lowe too)
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Tim Walz: "I always get in trouble for it and I'll continue to say it, I don't think we do any favors when we don't name it -- these are fascist policies."
August 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Tim Walz: "I always get in trouble for it and I'll continue to say it, I don't think we do any favors when we don't name it -- these are fascist policies."
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Every NIMBY sounds like every anti-immigrant reactionary.
August 18, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Every NIMBY sounds like every anti-immigrant reactionary.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Apropos that Guardian article: I’ll happily take estates with no community facilities or shops if it means the 21k on the waiting list in my ends have a home. These articles make me want to weep: numbers of homes is what matters. I don’t want affordable housing funds abstracted to other stuff!
July 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Apropos that Guardian article: I’ll happily take estates with no community facilities or shops if it means the 21k on the waiting list in my ends have a home. These articles make me want to weep: numbers of homes is what matters. I don’t want affordable housing funds abstracted to other stuff!
Reposted by Alex Bullett
This is appalling. Rachel is one of my dear friends and a good egg who just wants to do her funny show. This is just naked antisemitism. It’s not even pretending to be anything else.
Jewish comedy gigs at Fringe cancelled ‘over safety concerns’
Acts allegedly cancelled as venue bar staff express fears of ‘feeling unsafe’
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 24, 2025 at 6:47 PM
This is appalling. Rachel is one of my dear friends and a good egg who just wants to do her funny show. This is just naked antisemitism. It’s not even pretending to be anything else.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
There's surely an argument that while Kwarteng was disastrous as Chancellor - and did huge political damage to the Conservatives - that the economic effects of his policies were far less profound than either Osborne's austerity and Hunt's razing of the tax base.
I think @robertshrimsley.bsky.social is much too kind to Jeremy Hunt here. In time, Hunt will come to be reviled as second worst chancellor in modern times after Kwarteng. In 1997, faced with similar circumstances, Ken Clarke put the national interest first. Hunt salted the earth. Shame on him
July 19, 2025 at 1:36 PM
There's surely an argument that while Kwarteng was disastrous as Chancellor - and did huge political damage to the Conservatives - that the economic effects of his policies were far less profound than either Osborne's austerity and Hunt's razing of the tax base.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
We Should Have Finished Reconstruction: A Brief History of the Republic, 1865-2025
A good time to repeat my unpopular opinion that every single US history class, from elementary school through high school, should start with Appomattox in 1865 & the Compromise of 1877 as the foundational events of the current Republic, & work backwards & forwards from there.
June 14, 2025 at 5:57 PM
We Should Have Finished Reconstruction: A Brief History of the Republic, 1865-2025
Reposted by Alex Bullett
"Well the thing you have to understand is that fascism is a very specific term referring to a vague and undefinable set of precepts, Trumpism is more of a sort of hybrid populist strongman movement that-" shut the fuck up you insufferable failson it's fascism
The "it's not fascism" intellectuals looks pretty silly right about now.
June 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
"Well the thing you have to understand is that fascism is a very specific term referring to a vague and undefinable set of precepts, Trumpism is more of a sort of hybrid populist strongman movement that-" shut the fuck up you insufferable failson it's fascism
Reposted by Alex Bullett
This isn't a stalled gender revolution. It's a gender counter-revolution. And the most troubling part is that it's younger men and boys the leading charge.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/o...
June 6, 2025 at 4:56 PM
This isn't a stalled gender revolution. It's a gender counter-revolution. And the most troubling part is that it's younger men and boys the leading charge.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/o...
Reposted by Alex Bullett
I do think some left model of masculinity is necessary at least as a guide but the promise the right is making is “we will remove the people who have usurped your rightful status from competition by taking away their rights” and it’s pretty obvious why dems can’t offer that bsky.app/profile/pbum...
I have never seen any example of the left "hating" young men that doesn't distill to "refusal to coddle them/insistence on treating them like adults with agency."
May 27, 2025 at 3:40 PM
I do think some left model of masculinity is necessary at least as a guide but the promise the right is making is “we will remove the people who have usurped your rightful status from competition by taking away their rights” and it’s pretty obvious why dems can’t offer that bsky.app/profile/pbum...
Reposted by Alex Bullett
A man named Elias Rodriguez just shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers at a Jewish museum in DC, shouting “free Palestine!”
An awful, criminal act that puts Israel back in a victim position. I’ve never seen a just cause attract such a high % of counterproductive “allies.” 🧵
An awful, criminal act that puts Israel back in a victim position. I’ve never seen a just cause attract such a high % of counterproductive “allies.” 🧵
May 22, 2025 at 6:20 AM
A man named Elias Rodriguez just shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers at a Jewish museum in DC, shouting “free Palestine!”
An awful, criminal act that puts Israel back in a victim position. I’ve never seen a just cause attract such a high % of counterproductive “allies.” 🧵
An awful, criminal act that puts Israel back in a victim position. I’ve never seen a just cause attract such a high % of counterproductive “allies.” 🧵
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Our latest report looks at five 'anti-supply measures' that are a major bottleneck on urban housebuilding and the 1.5m new home target - a quick thread below on what they are, why they're a problem, and how to fix them:
May 14, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Our latest report looks at five 'anti-supply measures' that are a major bottleneck on urban housebuilding and the 1.5m new home target - a quick thread below on what they are, why they're a problem, and how to fix them:
Reposted by Alex Bullett
🚨 BREAKING: The Green / Lib Dem council have put library closures back on the table
📚 On Friday, they set up a new subcommittee that will be tasked with making the library service 'financially sustainable’, refusing to vote to rule out closures
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...
📚 On Friday, they set up a new subcommittee that will be tasked with making the library service 'financially sustainable’, refusing to vote to rule out closures
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...
Save Bristol's Libraries
Libraries provide a crucial service to the city, not least for the worst-off. Our valued community spaces need to be protected and invested in.
Libraries need more investment, not less.
Sources:
...
you.38degrees.org.uk
May 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM
🚨 BREAKING: The Green / Lib Dem council have put library closures back on the table
📚 On Friday, they set up a new subcommittee that will be tasked with making the library service 'financially sustainable’, refusing to vote to rule out closures
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...
📚 On Friday, they set up a new subcommittee that will be tasked with making the library service 'financially sustainable’, refusing to vote to rule out closures
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...
Reposted by Alex Bullett
Reform's success in local elections this year may bring greater scrutiny to policy positions which don't make sense. The same may happen with the Greens, sooner or later.
The Mayor’s green belt proposal won’t solve London’s housing crisis. It’s just more luxury homes dressed up as a good deal for Londoners.
What we need is need rent controls, a freeze on Right to Buy and to take back control of the thousands of empty homes across the city.
@cprelondon.bsky.social
What we need is need rent controls, a freeze on Right to Buy and to take back control of the thousands of empty homes across the city.
@cprelondon.bsky.social
May 10, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reform's success in local elections this year may bring greater scrutiny to policy positions which don't make sense. The same may happen with the Greens, sooner or later.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
> looking for a new leftist movement
> ask the left populist receptionist if their leftist movement is based or tankie
> she doesn't understand
> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is based and what is tankie
> she laughs and says "It's a good leftist movement, sir"
> join
> it's Tankie
> ask the left populist receptionist if their leftist movement is based or tankie
> she doesn't understand
> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is based and what is tankie
> she laughs and says "It's a good leftist movement, sir"
> join
> it's Tankie
Green Party leadership frontrunner Zack Polanski tells me the UK must now end its membership of NATO, because of Trump.
Polanski says that Trump's presidency means the "Age of NATO is over" and his party should now abandon its commitment to the alliance
bylinetimes.com/2025/05/08/g...
Polanski says that Trump's presidency means the "Age of NATO is over" and his party should now abandon its commitment to the alliance
bylinetimes.com/2025/05/08/g...
Green Party Deputy Leader Zack Polanski Says UK Must Leave NATO Because of Trump
The frontrunner to become the next leader of the Green Party of England and Wales tells Byline Times the UK must now form new alliances for "peace" instead
bylinetimes.com
May 8, 2025 at 11:15 AM
> looking for a new leftist movement
> ask the left populist receptionist if their leftist movement is based or tankie
> she doesn't understand
> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is based and what is tankie
> she laughs and says "It's a good leftist movement, sir"
> join
> it's Tankie
> ask the left populist receptionist if their leftist movement is based or tankie
> she doesn't understand
> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is based and what is tankie
> she laughs and says "It's a good leftist movement, sir"
> join
> it's Tankie
Reposted by Alex Bullett
I think there’s far more evidence for the exact opposite being true: the veneer of academic radicalism is meant to distract from relatively straightforward things like “we don’t have enough apartments”. Just so tired of this bullshit dude.
By the way, this is a main function of the "Abundance Agenda." It's about intervening in *this moment* to prevent well-meaning people from adopting more structural analyses of the problems and to prevent the anti-fascist coalition from getting too egalitarian/anti-capitalist.
One of the themes of propaganda that pervades almost all news reporting on "crime" and "public safety" is an obsession with the idea that the problems of our world can be solved without discussing root causes like concentrated power and inequality. From my new book, Copaganda:
May 6, 2025 at 2:07 AM
I think there’s far more evidence for the exact opposite being true: the veneer of academic radicalism is meant to distract from relatively straightforward things like “we don’t have enough apartments”. Just so tired of this bullshit dude.
Reposted by Alex Bullett
“The Tories in England long imagined that they were enthusiastic about monarchy, the church, and the beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about ground rent.”
Do they… not know what Toryism traditionally stands for?
May 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
“The Tories in England long imagined that they were enthusiastic about monarchy, the church, and the beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about ground rent.”
Reposted by Alex Bullett
What happens when a bunch of people who have no idea what they’re doing crash into the already overstretched world of local government? It isn’t going to be fun to watch or live through.
@matildamartin.bsky.social speaks to Reform candidates in areas where they're expected to do well on 1 May to get a sense of their plans:
A Kent candidate says they'd be "cutting DEI for a start"
A Durham councillor says the "first thing we would do is an audit" and that "nothing is off the table"
A Kent candidate says they'd be "cutting DEI for a start"
A Durham councillor says the "first thing we would do is an audit" and that "nothing is off the table"
Reform local election candidates plan Elon Musk-style efficiency drives and cuts to diversity & equality programmes if they win councils on 1 May
Thomas Mallon, Reform councillor in Kent where Farage's party is eyeing control, told @matildamartin.bsky.social they would be "cutting DEI for a start"
Thomas Mallon, Reform councillor in Kent where Farage's party is eyeing control, told @matildamartin.bsky.social they would be "cutting DEI for a start"
April 17, 2025 at 9:31 AM
What happens when a bunch of people who have no idea what they’re doing crash into the already overstretched world of local government? It isn’t going to be fun to watch or live through.