Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Posts Tagged ‘uk-politics

Good Election News from Cymru(Wales) – Caerffili – Victory For Plaid Cymru But Defeat for both Labour and Reform UK

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Most recent election news from the British state has been very depressing. A labour party government led by Keir Starmer regularly responds to the electoral rise of the far-right Reform outfit led by Nigel Farage by attempting to be more racist and right-wing than the racists themselves.

This political instability is damaging ancient foundations of the British state – Scottish politics in the 21st century has been dominated by the rise of political separatism – and now Cymru/Wales is following that trend.

This will have, and is having, important side-effects in Ireland.

How do we explain an extremely welcome Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) electoral triumph in Caerffili?

Geoff Ryan’s interesting report is below – one of the factors he highlights is

The women of the small Ukrainian community played an important role in combatting the lies of Reform.


Link :


Caerffili victory for Plaid Cymru but defeat for both Labour and Reform UK

Caerffili – Victory For Plaid Cymru But Defeat for both Labour and Reform UK.

Geoff Ryan reports from Wales/Cymru on the Caerffili byelection result

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Britain : “Your Party is Our Party – stop wrecking this opportunity!” Anti-Capitalist Resistance Statement

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Britain badly needs a new mass left party. A new organisation temporarily called “Your Party” – headed by Westminaster MP’s Zarah Sultana and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – looked promising. It has descended into chaos.

The article below by Anti-Capitalist Resistance suggests a way out. Let’s hope political sanity takes over.

Link :



Your party is Our Party – Stop Wrecking this Opportunity


AntiCapitalist Resistance welcomed the announcement by Zarah Sultana of a new left party involving herself and Jeremy Corbyn. When 800,000 people signed up to the mailing list it confirmed a huge appetite for a left voice at elections but also in our communities and workplaces. 

The events of the last few days  however have been chaotic and exposed deep splits in the organising group of Your Party. The regular leaks to the capitalist press had already shown there were divisions but the membership launch fiasco and the threats to call in lawyers and the Information Commissioners office is hugely damaging. 

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“Approximately 100,000 on a far right march in London. A grim new milestone in post-war political history” – Great Article by A Very Public Sociologist

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The writer angrily says “This is the culmination of Keir Starmer’s rancid approach to immigration” – and he is spot on. We have problems confronting a growing racist right in Ireland also, and can learn a very important lesson : Dog-Whistling and Pandering to racists creates a catastrophe.

Link :
Grim Political Milestone in London 13.11.2025 – A Very Public Sociologist

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A Westminster Member of Parliament leaves the Tory party; joins racist far-right Reform outfit; Resist sinister threat to Immigrants and the Common Travel Area (CTA)in Ireland

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Britain : A Westminster Member of Parliament leaves the Tory party and joins the far-right Reform outfit :

“Conservative MP Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK, the first time a sitting Tory has joined the rightwing populist party led by Nigel Farage. The defection means Reform now has five MPs in parliament and is a big blow to Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, ahead of her party conference next month…..

With Reform leading UK opinion polls since the spring, Kruger’s defection will give further credibility to the party, as will his withering departing words aimed at the Tories. “The rule of our time in office was failure,” Kruger said at a press conference in London. “Bigger government, social decline, lower wages, higher taxes and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.” He added: “The Conservative party is over, over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left. “The flame is passing from one torch to another. The new torch is already alight, already brighter than the one it is replacing, held aloft in firm and confident hands.” – Financial Times Report.

These developments, which will continue, are encouraging the far-right in the 26 and 6 county bits of Ireland.
The Reform party leader Nigel Farage is already threatening to alter the Good Friday Agreement, and make it worse :

Speaking yesterday, Mr Farage said he wanted to remove human rights law from the peace accord to make it easier to deport illegal migrants.

Reform has signalled that if it gets into power in Britain the party will leave the European Convention on
Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and pass the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.

The ECHR is incorporated into the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which codified the Good Friday Agreement into law.

Mr Farage said that as prime minister he would, in time, be able to renegotiate the agreement.

“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” he told a press conference.

Source, John Manley, Irish News August 27 2025





The Fermanagh and Omagh District Council adopted a progressive policy in 2022 which is an excellent start :

Despite Common Travel Area “There is an Invisible Hard Border in Ireland That leads to Racial Discrimination”

Council Meeting – 5th July 2022

Fermanagh & Omagh District Council notes that the Common Travel Area (CTA) enables free
movement within the island of Ireland. However, it excludes people of other nationalities, in
particular citizens of countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

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British General Election 2024 – Highlights and Lowlights – Loveless Landslide, Sandcastle Majority. Far-Right Hiding in Plain Sight, House of Paisley Falls in Antrim – and a Message of Hope from new MP Shockat Adam, Leicester South

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Let’s start with positive news :

Shockat Adam MP, Leicester South – “This is for the people of Gaza”.

When you listen to this June 25 car-crash interview with former Leicester South Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, you would be forgiven for thinking he was a member of the far-right racist party, Reform.

Shockat Adam was not alone. Five pro-Gaza independent candidates (including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North) are members of the new Westminster parliament :

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Written by tomasoflatharta

Jul 6, 2024 at 3:22 pm

Posted in 26 County State (Ireland), Alliance Party, Anti War Movements, Anti-Capitalist Resistance (Britain), Apartheid, “A Carnival of Reaction” - James Connolly’s Warning About the Partition of Ireland, Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS), Brexit - Britain Leaves the EU, Britain, British Empire, British Labour Party, British Tory Party, Channel 4 (Britain), Colum Eastwood MP (Derry), Conservative Party (Tories), Britain, Democratic Unionist Party, Derry, Dublin Governments, England, Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF), European Union, FFFGGG Coalition, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Fourth International, Green Party, History of Ireland, Ian Paisley Junior MP, International Political Analysis, Ireland, Irish News Newspaper (Belfast), Israel, Israel Assault on Gaza, October 2023, Ivana Bacik TD, Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Joe Brolly, John Swinney, Labour Party (Ireland), Left Wing Organisations, Liz Truss, ex British Prime Minister, Migration in Europe, Nigel Farage, Orange Order, Racism, Reform, Reverend Ian Paisley, Rishi Sunak - 3rd 2022 British Prime Minister, Russia, Sammy Wilson MP, Scotland, Scottish Independence, Scottish National party (SNP), Sinn Féin, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, Sir Keir Starmer, Six County State, Sorcha Eastwood MP, Stormont, Lord Carson’s Tomb

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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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