Feels like the Tribune crowd would easily settle for a Burnham Labour supporter by a left-talking Union bureaucracy.

Listened to the TrueAnon episode on Mandelson with Marcus Barnett. A lot of what he said about British politics was correct but his analysis of Your Party and Greens (both projects that I’m broadly supportive of but not without some reservations) was just lazy and cynical.

£240m. With no tender. Palantir.

I wrote to Wes Streeting last week demanding answers.

Every day without any transparency deepens the scandal.

Palantir out.

Israeli forces are massacring Palestinian journalists - committing war crimes on a scale that would normally make headline news - and yet Western media are still calling this a "ceasefire". Pure propaganda.

Of course Morocco is on there lol

It’s amazing how people who were totally silent on Gaza for two years have a voice about geopolitics now

Chat GPT when you find a hard lump on your body: nah bro don’t sweat it!

Chat GPT when you have a runny nose: Dawg, I need you to drop everything you doing and get to the hospital

Finally watched Sinners and:
1. It’s fantastic
2. It’s one of the most flagrant pieces of anti communist propaganda I’ve ever seen

I don’t like the Zionism or ambivalence towards Palestine that mix of the Iranian opposition has but at the same time it’s hard to imagine that your average Iranian suffering inflation and oppression from corrupt religious authoritarians is going to be thrilled about resources going to 🇵🇸

Thinking about it. I don’t think the Axis of Resistance was ever really going to be sustainable with IRI as the dominant node. Sanctions etc aside, you can’t really have any kind of strong internationalist commitment without internal stability and your own population’s basic needs being met.

If you're a person of good conscience, spare a thought today for the residents of the West Midlands—especially those of a Muslim background—who can now be certain that they're viewed below violent, rape & genocide-supporting football hooligans in the eyes of their govt & most of the political class.

There’s a lot of pressure to pretend there are easy answers and a lot of scolding of the left along the lines of “you’ll speak up in support of Palestine but not Iran!” I read the latter as being some kind of attempted punishment for having been correct about Gaza.

even pro-monarchy types would find insufferable

I think you could push for a maximalist position (accept any and all outside interference to topple regime and harness the emotional heightedness of the moment for a fast and decisive transfer of power) but I think that would create chaos, more suffering and a quick return to authoritarianism that

Well sanctions (which are also awful and immoral, to be clear) are a point of leverage in this scenario. And unfortunately there would have to be some give-and-take with the IRI in the short term to relieve the most acute suffering, if longer time change is to have any chance at success.

I can only reply to criticisms of the western left re Iran with “ok but what do you want me to do? I’ve condemned the IRI, I don’t repeat its talking points. What else is there?” The political establishment of the UK and its allies is anti-regime, there’s enough symbolic force + support already!

Good but difficult question:
Short term (trying to be realistic): sanction relief and non-interference in exchange for prisoner release, execution cancellation, expansion of freedoms
Long term (being hopeful): replacement of IRI with something independent, emancipatory and led by the Iranian masses

It’s actually really good to see how insane our politicians have become now

Aware!

Correct line!

Having said that I just saw an instagram post from a British-Iranian person I’ve worked with in the past and it’s explicitly calling for the return of “our shah”, so the prospects of an emancipatory alternative are looking fairly remote as I’ve said elsewhere!

Sure, I’m not looking to demonise the IRI tout court or advance western top-down regime change agendas but at the same time but I’m not going to minimise the reality of the IRI’s abuses or disparage anyone who’s protesting for freedom just because there are other pro-western bad guys in the region.

I’m finding it hard to gauge the real ideological composition of the protest movement but I’m not going to disparage anyone who’s sick of having their dress code dictated, their political party banned and their basic nutritional needs not met!

Tl;dr the protestors should be supported because they’re brave and hate corrupt theocrats.
There may be productive ways ahead on the other side of a lot of suffering and it’s right to hope even if optimism seems remote.

Unlikely, but I guess sometimes you just have to hope in the right direction.

I hope whoever takes over, if the protests are successful, continues solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.

But at the same time, there are obviously some leftists and progressives in those crowds and we all owe them our solidarity and general encouragement!

It’s kind of wrong to bash the left over this because like what leverage or influence does your average internet leftist have on the Islamic Republic of Iran vs their own government (if we’re using the whole “you were loud about Palestine and silent on Iran” critique)?

As time goes on I think the annoying “you can believe both things” people are right. You have to lsupport the protesters and hope the most progressive elements win out (even though unlikely) because it’s wrong to cede opposition to theocratic tyranny to all of the worst people backing the protests.

The Iranian regime has always been internally unstable, thats why they had to kill record breaking levels of leftists, marxists, atheists etc, etc during the 80s - whilst there is undoubtedly external interests looking to ferment unrest in the country, they're doing so on very rich soil