Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘reform-uk

“Desperate for the Limelight” – in Britain Far Right Reform Recruits Dodgy Conservatives – bilious stomach cramps predicted

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Dirty personalized politics are ugly.

A British Tory statement about their former colleague Suella Braverman (and recent government minister) stated she had mental health problems. Some trusting souls may believe party leader Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues sincerely regret that low blow. Possibly, if bad publicity becomes a serious difficulty, a very junior staffer will be blamed and sacrificed. But don’t hold your breath.

Let’s remind ourselves of a similar, and famous, Lyndon Baines Johnson dirty trick which allegedly crushed an election opponent in 1950’s Texas.

“Christ, we can’t get away with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested.

“Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that”. “I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the son of a bitch deny it.”

LBJ let the son of a bitch deny it dirty trick hoax

LBJ went on to greater things and became President of the USA in 1963 after John F Kennedy was assassinated.

Very little political substance divides the Badenoch tories and the Nigel Farage reformites.

A correspondent notes “Suella Braverman is clearly a bloody awful figure but (it is) a low blow for the Tory leadership to comment on her mental health.” “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health” is all a bit “she looks tired.” Braverman is a careerist racist. That’s more than enough to criticise.”

Mainstream British politics is in deep sewers.

This sludge has dangerous implications for Ireland. As things stand now Reform is on course to win the next British general election in 2029.

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Racism: The socialism of Fools; Racist Cancer Spreading from Ballymena in Ireland

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Introduction :

The writer Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh offers very valuable insights into the June 2025 pogroms spreading from Ballymena in North Antrim to other towns in the 6 County bit of Ireland, notably Larne and Portadown. These vile events are related to similar sewer eruptions in the 26 county bit of Ireland and fit into a global rise of genocidal-racist powers such as Putin’s Russia, Netanyahu’s Israel, and their protectors such as Donald Trump’s USA. The latter is still a capitalist bourgeois democracy – but credible analysts now ask – for how long?

Below Fearghal’ s timely article –  which contains very useful warnings from history : relevant references are made to the Marxist scholars and activists August Bebel, Victor Serge and Ernest Mandel :

We add :

A chilling report of an interview with the DUP Westminster MP for the Upper Bann constituency, Carla Lockhart.

A stark report from the 6 County bit of Ireland headlined “Week of Violence in North “Akin to 1930s Germany”

Racist Cancer Spreading From Ballymena in Ireland, Irish Times, June 14 2025

Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh

Link :


Ballymena; Racism the Socialism of Fools; Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh

I recently discussed three interconnected issues on Raidió na Gaeltachta: reform to the South’s rent caps benefiting landlords and international funds, Trump’s authoritarian militarization of US protests, and the racist attacks in Ballymena/Larne.

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Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, and the Gruesome Twosome of the British Tory Party

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On the western and eastern sides of the Atlantic Ocean a ferocious viper war has erupted.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s favourite attack-dog Elon Musk is trying to remote-control British politics.

Reform leader Nigel Farage’s typically British stiff upper-lip response is described below : it is like the Fawlty Towers episode when Basil Fawlty failed to produce a Waldorf Salad for a tyrannical American diner who had paid the bungling guest-house owner a generous bribe :

Financial Times, January 6 2025

Before long Trump will dispose of Musk, just as Russian strongman Putin bumped off Mr Prigozhin.

Musk might, at some point, jangle some of his loose change in the direction of far-right Irish political operators. The nearest Irish equivalent to Musk’s suggested Nigel Farage – Tommy Robinson marriage is a direct link between the beggar-gombeens of the Dublin Dáil and the convicted kick boxer/rapist Conor McGregor. The Independent Ireland (II) party had to dump a McGregor associate, Phil Sutcliffe, from its candidate list after Nikita Hand won a court victory over the kick-boxing rapist.

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Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets

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Link :


Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets

We thank Councillor John Lyons (Dublin City, Artane-Whitehall) [Independent Left] for this story.

https://x.com/CllrJohnLyons

Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets

Reform’s leader has been criticised in recent days for claiming the west provoked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

By Adam Barnett and Sam Bright

Jun 26, 2024

One of the biggest donors to Nigel Farage’s anti-net zero Reform UK during the general election campaign has significant Russian business interests, DeSmog can report. 

Natural resources investor David Lilley donated £100,000 to Reform on 10 June – a week after Farage announced that he was returning as the party’s leader. Lilley’s donation was the third largest to Reform during the campaign so far. 

As revealed by The Mirror and Good Law Project in the former’s print edition, Lilley controls a series of companies that own 12,000 hectares of farmland in the Stavropol region of Russia, in the south west of the country, used to produce cereals and oilseeds. 

Lilley confirmed to DeSmog that he still owns this land, saying that “I have never made a secret of my assets in Russia.” He said that he had made no profit on these assets since February 2022 and that he had been prevented from selling them by the Russian state. 

Farage has come under fire in recent days for suggesting that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was provoked by the west, and for calling on Ukraine to enter peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Good Law Project executive director Jolyon Maugham told DeSmog that Reform is “starting to feel a bit like Russia’s unofficial British Embassy.”

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