UK Politics

TL;DR: arguably.

A Tory student group has apologised after leaked footage showed them dancing to a Nazi marching song.

The Warwick University Conservative Association asked the DJ at a gathering following their annual “chairman’s dinner” to play Erika, a song composed in 1938 by Nazi soldier Herms Niel.

In a leaked video published by The Times, students can be seen dancing and laughing to the song before one member spots the camera and says: “Don’t film!”

The students are also accused of chanting “Kill the Hughs” – substituting the word “Jews” for the name of their outgoing association chairman Hugh Herring.

Reports suggest they also said: “Heil the chairman”.

They are:

1. Why Did Farage Lie About Meeting the Russian Ambassador?
2. How Could Farage Not Have Known About Arron Banks’ Multiple Visits to the Russian Embassy During the Brexit Campaign?
3. What Did Farage Know of the Russian Hacking of the Clinton Campaign?
4. How Could Farage be Blind to Trump and Steve Bannon’s Backing for Russia?
5. Why Did Farage Hide the Assessment that his Leave.EU Campaign Funder was an “Agent of Russian Influence?”

See also:

• Previous thread on Russian interference in the current General Election
• Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum on Wikipedia, which seems well-written and properly sourced

Claims of Russian interference in the general election campaign are "gravely concerning", the deputy prime minister has said.

Mr Dowden told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that Moscow allegedly using Facebook pages to spread support for Nigel Farage "is a classic example from the Russian playbook".

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) says it has been monitoring five co-ordinated Facebook pages which have been spouting Kremlin talking points, with some posting in support of Reform UK.

Mr Dowden, who has called the ABC report "gravely concerning", told Sky News: "This is something that I've warned about for some time.

"There is a threat in all elections, and indeed we see it in this election, from hostile state actors seeking to influence the outcome of the election campaign.

"Russia is a prime example of this and this is a classic example from the Russian playbook."

He added that this was a "low-level use of bots".

...

The broadcaster also reportedly found most of the administrators for each page are based in Nigeria, which is a significant connection as previous online Russian propaganda networks were found to have been operating from Africa.

The reports come after Mr Farage faced a backlash for saying he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Farage called it "cobblers" to claim bots generated by foreign state actors could interfere with the election outcome - as he launched a personal attack on Mr Dowden.

Neil Kinnock has warned his party not to ignore the nationalist threat posed by Nigel Farage, as concern grows in Labour ranks that Reform UK could pose a long-term threat for them as well as for the Conservatives.

The former Labour leader told the Guardian he wanted Labour to turn its guns on Farage’s party in the final week of the election campaign, saying the populist right could gain a stronghold in the UK as it has across much of Europe.

Labour has been accused of not putting up a fight against Farage because the Reform party appeared to be taking more votes from the Conservatives. But with Reform predicted by some pollsters to win more than a dozen parliamentary seats next week, Kinnock said Labour needed to start taking the threat seriously.

...

Kinnock added that if Labour was overly cautious in government, it would play into Reform’s narrative that there was little difference between the two main parties. “Absolutely vitally, [the populist right] have to be combated with actions,” he said. “That means the implementation of change which is positive and cumulative, and driven by strong purpose in the service of the community.”

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker will launch a bid to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader after the election, it is understood.

The Brexiteer Conservative is expected to attempt to replace Mr Sunak if the party is defeated on 4 July.

Mr Baker hinted at a leadership run if he retains his Wycombe seat at the general election.

bHe said: "One thing at a time. I want to represent the people of Wycombe the best that I can, as I always have done.

"Then let's see what happens."

It is understood he will announce his intentions after polling day.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/23066599

Since 2017, Wikipedia editors have compiled a list of news sources from which articles are highly likely to employ systematic bias, lack professional editing and/or journalistic standards, regularly misrepresent sources, and/or fabricate information.

While its list is by no means a complete list of publications with the aforementioned problems, it has helped make Wikipedia articles more reliable by basing them off of sources covering the same events and information from a less biased point of view.

To make Lemmy news communities better than their Reddit counterparts, I think avoiding links to those sources in favor of more reliable alternatives would be worthwhile.

Starmer responds to questions from the Big Issue journalists and from vendors. Nothing particularly groundbreaking here but it all sounds good.

A Reform UK activist in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing has been secretly filmed making extremely racist comments about Rishi Sunak, as well as using Islamophobic and other offensive language.

Farage said he was “dismayed” by the views expressed by Andrew Parker, a Reform canvasser, who was filmed as part of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News.

The channel also secretly filmed George Jones, a longtime party activist who organises events for Farage, making homophobic comments, calling the Pride flag “degenerate” and LGBT people “nonces”.

The emergence of the footage, filming of which concluded last week, comes on the same day that Reform dropped an election candidate in another seat, after the Guardian informed the party that Raymond Saint had been on a list of members of the British National party.

The Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK sent candidates from one of the five Bristol constituencies, but Labour only offered a city councillor, Kelvin Blake.

There was frustration and concern after the event that each of the five representatives had made statements that were not in their parties’ manifestos and were not party policy.

A slightly too wordy and too long article that I nonetheless basically agree with. Key paragraphs:

Starmer’s strategic sense has been impressive, from opening his leadership consensually with qualified support for, and constructive criticism of, lockdown, to encouraging Boris Johnson to get his denials of Partygate on the record and leaving them there, to, most of all, his relentless focus on the voters he actually needs to win, rather than the ones who make the most noise.

This, of course, is the source of the biggest criticisms of Starmer from the left: that he won the leadership by relentlessly focusing on the voters he needed to win within the Labour Party, and then pivoted towards the national electorate rather than sticking with a prospectus whose chief appeal was to people who had already been shown to be a minority of a minority. I am not wholly unsympathetic to this view: his ten pledges were mostly bad, and he shouldn’t have made them; but dropping bad policies is better than sticking to them, and winning is better than losing.

After all, Jeremy Corbyn didn’t keep any of his promises, which may be why a recent election leaflet endorsing his bid to be the independent MP for Islington North gives so much prominence to his role in saving the Number 4 bus route.

A man who threw objects towards Nigel Farage while he was campaigning in Barnsley has admitted using threatening behaviour.

Josh Greally, 28, from Chesterfield, was filmed throwing items while Reform UK leader Mr Farage was on an open-top bus in the town centre on 11 June.

At Barnsley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, Greally admitted using threatening, abusive, insulting words and behaviour with intent to cause fear.

He will be sentenced on 28 August.

Most polls suggest that Sunak will retain his seat, as every prime minister has before him. But his national approval rating is so low that an Ipsos survey released Saturday found that Sunak was only four percentage points ahead of Binface on favorability. Binface, in turn, was viewed more favorably than former prime minister Liz Truss.

Archived copies of the article: archive.today web.archive.org ghostarchive.org

Rishi Sunak has intervened in a row between Kemi Badenoch and actor David Tennant, saying the Doctor Who star is "the problem".

Tennant suggested at the British LGBT Awards last week that he wanted a world where the equalities minister "doesn't exist any more", and said she should "shut up".

The prime minister posted on X, external that freedom of speech was the "most powerful feature of our democracy", adding: "If you’re calling for women to shut up and wishing they didn’t exist, you are the problem."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters he "wouldn't have engaged the way he (Tennant) did," adding that "robust" discussions should be respectful.

Previously