For those of you looking across the Atlantic & thinking at least what's happening with ICE in Minnesota couldn't happen here.... think again.
This is exactly what Reform UK Ltd (Nigel Farage's company masquerading as a political party) *is* planning - and as so often the Fascists are quite open about what they intend.
Moreover, lacking the sort of constitutional restraints (unevenly) available in the US, the danger of ICE-like action(s) here is worse!
bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/reader-…
Reader Contribution: UK DEPORTATION COMMAND: The Great British ICE
What Reform UK is not telling youBrown Reporter (Bearly Politics)
reshared this
FediThing
in reply to Emeritus Prof Christopher May • • •This is terrifying.
This is why it's so crucial for UK people to vote and to vote in a way that keeps Reform out, even if it means voting for a least worst option.
The horrors this article hiighlights are horrors that can be prevented if Reform is kept out of office.
Allowing them into office will make life much, much, much worse than now, possibly permanently. And the people who will suffer the most are the most vulnerable minorities.
People who "want to keep their hands clean" by not voting or by voting in a non-tactical way are helping these horrors to happen.
MusiqueNow ✡️ 🇵🇸
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing
I'm going to say this again to my fellow anarchists!
VOTE !!!
I do NOT care that you think this isn't part of being an anarchist. Elections have consequences !!!
KEEP REFORM OUT!!!! VOTE!
ABOLISH PRIVATE HEALTHCARE!⚫
in reply to FediThing • • •JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing no. You cannot blame voters if they refuse to vote for genocide, corporatism. It’s got nothing to do with keeping hands clean.
Rather I have to ask what kind of person says it’s ok to vote for genocidal, corporatist parties - who are literally killing people (tho they are mostly brown it’s true so perhaps that’s ok).
Can you really play the ‘least worst’ game when they are all genocidal?
FediThing
in reply to JimmyB (he/him) • • •Please stop thinking about the parties and think about the people whose lives will be affected. The people who run parties will not be affected by your vote one way or another, but ordinary people will be.
Things can get much, much, much worse for ordinary people. There are people being snatched off the streets and even murdered in the US, and Reform openly say they want that to happen in the UK.
It's not about choosing parties, it's about trying to stop things getting worse for ordinary people. The people who will suffer the most in a Reform victory are NOT politicians but the most vulnerable minorities.
JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •FediThing
in reply to JimmyB (he/him) • • •Did you read the article this thread is about?
Here it is: bearlypolitics.co.uk/p/reader-…
"The scale of (Reform's) ambition is staggering. The plan calls for the rapid construction of 24,000 detention spaces in remote parts of the country to support a target of up to 600,000 deportations over five years. This is not merely a policy adjustment, it is an attempt to industrialise deportation."
If you have read through all that, and you have a chance to stop that, and you refuse to even try, how is that thinking about ordinary people?
UK govs don't have any of the guardrails of US govs. There's no UK constitution.
Reader Contribution: UK DEPORTATION COMMAND: The Great British ICE
Brown Reporter (Bearly Politics)JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing no - I refuse to engage in the framing of ‘you’ve got to vote for genocidal parties or you’re the problem’
Nope. Those voting for genocide are - obviously (how is it possible that this even needs saying?) - the problem.
You are the problem here and if you disagree, I suggest you have a small chat with a Palestinian.
FediThing
in reply to JimmyB (he/him) • • •It's not me wanting it to be like this, it's what the situation is in the UK's electoral system.
If the UK used PR then it wouldn't be like this, people under PR could vote for whoever they really wanted without worrying about lesser evils etc.
But the UK doesn't have PR, it has FPTP which operates entirely on either choosing the least worst option in your area, or standing by and doing nothing as the most worst gets elected.
JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing it’s not standing by and doing nothing. Are you the Daily Mail or something?
Here’s a thought: stop looking at me and ask yourself why you’re ok voting for genocide?
FediThing
in reply to JimmyB (he/him) • • •I haven't even said vote for any particular party, all I've said is vote to stop Reform. The vote to do that will vary depending on where people live.
What are you suggesting should happen to prevent things getting worse? Allow Reform into power?
I'm not okay with voting for any major party but I'm also not okay with mass deportations and ICE-style kidnap squads.
The UK is in an incredibly dangerous situation, it would have zero protection for human rights if it leaves the ECHR (which Reform says it will do). There is no written constitution to guarantee anything in the UK, not even elections.
Reg
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing
I don't think FPTP will be such a huge factor at the next election because the vote will be heavily split and the quirks of FPTP could easily throw up some quite bizarre results.
Labour will need to find another excuse to stop people voting Green.
@JimmyB @ChrisMayLA6
JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •FediThing
in reply to JimmyB (he/him) • • •I said vote to stop Reform. You're the one who turned that into a pro-Starmer thing, I never even mentioned Starmer or Labour.
The parties to stop Reform will vary by each constituency, and how local polling goes for parties in each constituency over the next couple of years.
JimmyB (he/him)
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing
Oh ok. So here’s the thing. Voting to stop Reform is exactly the same as voting for who you want to vote for if you’re not a Reform voter and won’t vote for a genocide party: there is no difference then is there? pC in Wales; SNP in Scotland or Greens anywhere. That’s it I think.
@ChrisMayLA6
Reg
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing
I think most people would agree with you, but I'm conscious that this sort of rhetoric is also being used by centrist parties who want to conscript further-left voters to prevent them voting for the Greens/YP.
It's worth remembering that centrism can only ever mitigate the worst effects of the system while fundamentally changing nothing, and this has been the ultimate undoing of the Democrats in the States.
Fortunately, we have left-wing alternatives in the UK
@ChrisMayLA6
Reg
in reply to Emeritus Prof Christopher May • • •FediThing
in reply to Reg • • •The far right claim to be patriotic but they're happy to sell their country out to Trump and Putin.
The same thing is happening in the far right in the rest of Europe, they claim to want to "defend the homeland" but they are collaborating with overseas powers who want to invade and control their homeland.
The leaders of the far right are being bankrolled by foreign billionaires, so they do the bidding of foreign billionaires.
Reg
in reply to FediThing • • •@FediThing
Absolutely, and while Russian propaganda regularly gets called out, its US equivalent is roundly ignored.
The EU have banned political advertising on social media, and the US platforms are variously trying to game or maliciously interpret the ban, The UK has done nothing afaik.
politico.eu/article/eu-politic…
@ChrisMayLA6
Backlash as new EU political ad rules kick in
Ellen O'Regan (POLITICO)