Could Andy Burnham LOSE in Makerfield?! Our report from Makerfield - the most important by-election in more than a CENTURY. Always a pleasure making these for @novaramedia youtu.be/9EPwVKmqpk4?is=_17v…

Appreciate there’s spinning going on, but FYI “Burnham needs to win by more than the Restore vote” is a totally nonsense test to set. On national polling, Labour should be 20 points behind in Makerfield. Whatever you think of him, if he wins it’s a genuine achievement.

This is closer to what Labour canvassing returns were suggesting…. We will see!

We literally don’t teach kids what a councillor is at school. They learn about the assassination of Kirov, and quadratic equations, but not the politics of how their bins are collected, or what a council ward even is 🤯🤣

There are lots of people on here drinking the security services Kool Aid over the sentencing of the Filton Four. They believe the judge was right to overturn the jury's decision to convict four anti-genocide activists of criminal damage and make it a terrorism offence instead, overturning centuries of legal precedent. Why? Because, they claim, the four activists broke / smashed / shattered a police woman's spine. But that obviously can't be the explanation because three of the activists had nothing to do with that incident and yet they were convicted as terrorists by the judge anyway. Even Samuel Corner, the activist who was convicted over this incident (which left the police woman with a minor fracture, according to the medical authorities who testified), shouldn't have been sentenced as a terrorist for it because that is not what the jury, which heard the actual evidence, decided. The jury convicted Samuel Corner of grievous bodily harm *without intent*. The prosecution had charged him with GBH *with intent* because they needed that as his conviction to build a public mood in support of the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. If Corner could be presented as having entered Israel's Elbit weapons factory with intent to commit violence, then the implication would be that the other activists were in on that plan – a conspiracy – and the government would be off the hook of violating fundamental legal norms by proscribing Palestine Action. By stripping out intent, the jury pulled the rug from under the government's feet. Judge Johnson's task was put the rug firmly back in place by riding roughshod over the jury's decision and sentencing them as terrorists anyway. The timing couldn't be more convenient. On Monday, the Appeal Court will be deciding on the government's appeal against the High Court declaring its proscription of Palestine Action unlawful. If you're peddling the "But they smashed the back of a police woman" line you've been fed by the Daily Mail and BBC, it's because that is exactly what the government needs you spouting as it upends our age-old rights to jury trials, as it stamps out an honourable tradition of direct action dating back to the Suffragettes and before, and as it gives itself cover for continuing complicity in a genocide. Stop being a cuck. Don't fall for this psy-op.

Look at those pins. Suddenly American performance in the Gulf makes a lot more sense. 🤣

Starting to get worried now… youtu.be/9EPwVKmqpk4?is=couy…

“BBC is taking around 270 staff to the World Cup, many of whom are expected to stay in a five-star hotel, and 17 commentators. It has estimated it will spend around £11,000 per worker, which means staff will cost around £3m, plus £1m for the glass studio” The Telegraph in 2010

If Burnham loses in Makerfield the media will somehow paint it as a win for Starmer. BUT Burnham is Labour’s most popular figure. If he loses, to a weak-ish candidate in Robert Kenyon, while Restore come 3rd, we need to start talking about single digit Labour MPs after next GE.

A post on Rupert Lowe’s FB earlier today!

Labour canvassers very confident they are leading with canvassing returns - but this is entirely correct in one sense: In the privacy of polling booth it’s hard to know how those Restore (and to a lesser extent Greens and Tory) voters will vote. Extraordinarily high stakes!

Russia is nationalist. China is nationalist. Iran is nationalist. All 3 see various parts of the global status quo as undermining their core interests and - whatever you think about it - their sovereignty. It’s not about hashtags and NGOs. Who still believes that?

Ffs 🤣

Misrepresented in headline by Times but this, from Burnham, is eminently sensible. So sensible, in fact, that I doubt it survives impact with the Ministry of Defence and the civil service.