Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by mongers - Today at 07:48:04 PM

Yeah. Farage doesn't work well with others and I think it's fair to say Jenrick doesn't have an instinct for loyalty. Wouldn't be surprised to see that fall apart before the next election.

Hopefully you're entirely correct in your assessment.

And you prove a bit wrong on Star?Meh's * political/governmental abilities.


* I didn't just 'invent' that, did I, Keir Star?Meh has a ring too it. 

The Tory Reform Empire strikes back?

Starmer's Holiday Special is over by now, I think.

Oh that's an 'interesting' film I'll have to check it out. 

[When a fellow parent at a park in Bristol learnt they were Jewish, Francis Jones and his wife, Rachel, were asked: "Well, you're not Zionists are you?""We looked puzzled, and from then it didn't go well," Jones said. "That family no longer talk to us."]

#2

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 07:07:48 PM

Just to pick up on Tamas' post about the Jewish MP uninvited from a school, couple of stories in the Times which also go to the problem that is festering here. First that the number of schools signed up with the Holocaust Memorial Trust to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and also for specialist teaching resources has fallen by 60% since 7 October (although I'd note that teaching the Holocaust is mandatory on the national curriculum).

And secondly this story about a family in Bristol - and I know Bristol well and I know exactly the very cool area they're talking about (and honestly not a massive surprise):

The Bristol neighbourhood where Jews are shunned and Zionists hated
A Jewish father says a playground interrogation from a fellow parent was among the antisemitic incidents that led his family to seek a home elsewhere
Will Humphries, Southwest Correspondent
Friday January 16 2026, 9.09pm, The Times

When a fellow parent at a park in Bristol learnt they were Jewish, Francis Jones and his wife, Rachel, were asked: "Well, you're not Zionists are you?"

"We looked puzzled, and from then it didn't go well," Jones said. "That family no longer talk to us."

The Joneses say they have seen a gradual increase of "a permissive culture of antisemitism" since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, committing sexual violence and taking 251 hostages.

The final straw for the couple, who live in a supposedly progressive neighbourhood in east Bristol, came when their local secondary school cancelled a visit by a Jewish MP and its head of diversity was revealed by The Times to be a supporter of the October 7 attacks.

Bristol Brunel Academy, part of the Cabot Learning Federation (CLF), suspended a visit by Damien Egan, the MP for Bristol North East and vice-chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, after learning that National Education Union (NEU) members on its staff and activists from Palestine Solidarity Campaign were planning protests.

Saima Akhtar, the inclusion and diversity co-ordinator at CLF, who sits on the leadership council of Brunel, said Hamas terrorists were "heroes fighting for justice" and told people to ignore "media attempts to paint Israel as a victim" the day after the attacks.

The Joneses, not their real names, are worried about their child attending a CLF school and are searching for a home in a more "neutral neighbourhood".

Jones, who works for a charity, says he faced parents wearing keffiyehs at playgrounds and at the school gates. They were confronted with the war in Gaza on their daily walk to school, with posters bearing the bloody hand prints of children and declaring a genocide in Gaza.

"The small Jewish community is being ostracised in an organised way," Jones said, comparing their treatment to black and Asian minority groups in the past. "It is being done by the left and and polite society aren't doing enough."

Michaela Wilde, a pastoral support worker at a sister school and the NEU branch secretary for CLF schools, said she was "very proud" of having forced their employer to cancel Egan's visit in September. They had already successfully pressured CLF to remove a speaker from Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli-owned security company, from their summer conference in July. "Don't mess with NEU in CLF, we are not here to play," she warned on Facebook.

CLF, which runs 36 schools in the southwest, has been affected by NEU strike action at several of its Bristol schools in the past two years. Union members have fought successfully for better pay and working conditions.

Jones said his child had "already experienced hassle from another pupil over Gaza" at the primary school, which left the child in tears, and all the local secondary school options were run by CLF.

He said it was perfectly normal for people in their neighbourhood to talk about their racial heritage and which protest marches they had attended.

"People are regularly testing you," he said. "There are very few spaces where you are not getting it in your face with the Gaza conflict. We are not Israelis but it's pumped into our lives like it's happening just across the border in Bath.

"We believe in a two-state solution but the only way you can navigate this area of Bristol is to say you believe in the destruction of Israel. People lose their minds if they suspect you have any sympathy for Israel's right to exist."

At a children's football club, which has a Soviet-style red star as a logo and stated aims that include "to challenge racism, sexism, fascism, homophobia and transphobia", a parent was explaining at half-time how Jesus was a Palestinian, not a Jew.

"Everyone was nodding along," Jones said. "I called him out and said Jesus was Jewish and I was looked at like I was causing a scene. We had to change football clubs."

Jones said his wife had family who have lived in Israel for almost a century, having escaped discrimination in another Middle Eastern country.

On the streets around their home, many houses and shops display posters showing they are boycotting Israeli products to end the "apartheid" in Gaza and the West Bank.

Tom and Rand, young parents who have a poster in their front window, said they supported the school cancelling the MP's visit because they were "pro-Palestine, so we wouldn't want anyone with any connection to Israel going in".

Asked if they thought a two-state solution was the best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Rand said: "It's hard to think of Israel ever as being good, in a way, but whatever helps Palestine."

Others in the neighbourhood also support the school's cancellation of Egan's visit. One man, who had a "Vote Green" placard in his front garden, said: "If the government and other bodies aren't going to say we need to draw a line and we are not all right supporting a genocidal state [Israel], it's up to unions to apply pressure themselves."

Shivanni, 34, a self-employed property manager, said: "The people who run our country openly admit they are Zionists. Our government, as opposed to working for us, is working for Israel."

She said she supported the cancellation of Egan's visit. "We are a very liberal city and I would say in general we all feel the same way."

Jones said he welcomed Ofsted's investigation into whether Brunel "may have been intimidated into cancelling a visit".

Brunel was last inspected in June 2023, when Ofsted judged it "good' and said diversity was "valued and celebrated".

CLF said Egan had previously visited six of its schools and it "fully agrees with the prime minister's view that MPs should be able to visit schools in their constituencies without issue".

It said the MP's visit was "postponed" because of concerns about the "safety and wellbeing" of pupils during planned protests, and a new date for a visit had been agreed.

It said it was investigating Akhtar's social media posts and had commissioned an external review of its staff training.

The NEU said: "The general secretary [Daniel Kebede] wants the NEU to be a healthy and participative trade union, with good workplace practices and where different views can be heard."

The Department for Education said: "No Jewish MP should be prevented from attending schools in their constituency. It is a legal duty for teachers to be politically impartial."

Not all of what's described in that article is necessarily an issue but this is the point I've had from the start with the protests. If the way you are protesting is being experienced by a minority as threatening, then I think the least you can do is take a beat and think if there are better ways of protest or expression. The protesters and chants and people in this story might not mean to be anti-semitic, there may be no intent there but if the effect is that Jews feel afraid of their own community or city centres - does that lack of intent really matter?

#3

Off the Record / Re: Go Persians, go!

Last post by Razgovory - Today at 07:04:43 PM

As Iran seems to be slowly loosening restrictions on the internet I assume the revolt has been smothered in blood already.
In any case: no universities were occupied or red lines drawn.

The people who occupy universities were rather on the side of the government.  Turns out the Republic of Gilead is emancipatory if it opposes the US.

#4

Off the Record / Re: Go Persians, go!

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 06:52:28 PM

Are there any Western observers in Iran now? Nope.
We know very little.

Yeah. I've no idea - obviously I hope the revolters can triumph but there's so little reliable information coming out it's impossible to really think anything.

#5

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by mongers - Today at 06:48:46 PM

I've been away at a military course for the last week. Naturally US imperialism was a discussion point and we all agreed that we would volunteer as a trip wire force in Greenland. US aggression needs to be stopped and the US needs to be treated as the enemy it has chosen to become.

 

Good for you Threviel and your fellow reservists.


Pity there's not something similar in the UK.

#6

Off the Record / Re: Trump's Venezuela Vendetta

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 06:43:19 PM

Not sure if it's American competence or smart internal Venezuelan politics playing the Americans - but Reuters exclusive today that Maduro's "hardline" Interior Minister had been in contact with American intelligence for months before the attack.

#7

Off the Record / Re: The China Thread

Last post by mongers - Today at 06:42:53 PM

In other China news, the carrier Fujian has returned to its builder's yard and is out of commission. Apparently their new EMALS system is a dud. It was already noted that it never launched its E-2 equivalent AEW and hadn't launched any of its fighters with a full weapons load. Launch cycle times were also were very long.

The suspicion is that the ship's power plant is not capable of operating its engines, sensors, and also operating EMALS at full power.

What could possibly go wrong with a CV having to shutdown its comms and radars, so it can launch it's aircraft?

[Pick-up football games in the Parisian streets have not been possible since the mid '90s given gentrification and other concerns, for me at least, so no spontaneous sport practice.]

#8

Off the Record / Re: Fitness 2026

Last post by mongers - Today at 06:39:08 PM

My place is still on the 8th floor (9th for people in Trumpistan), no elevator, and I walk or use public transportation.

Pick-up football games in the Parisian streets have not been possible since the mid '90s given gentrification and other concerns, for me at least, so no spontaneous sport practice.

 

That's a excellent anecdote, everyday life that could feature in a film, as you say pity it's gone.

As you say, brisk walking and active transport participation is enough to keep us out of the morgue for a good while yet. 

#9

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by Admiral Yi - Today at 06:20:09 PM

Not the point we were discussing. Classic semantic derail.

It's the point Tamas chose to raise, to which i responded, and which you voiced your support.  Classic myth making.

#10

Off the Record / Re: US - Greenland Crisis Thre...

Last post by Grey Fox - Today at 06:13:40 PM

I actually think this will unite the opposition to Trump even more. Europeans would have wavered on economic retaliation, but that's now here as Trump brought it into play.

If NATO survives the week it'll be a minor miracle. The White House has a regular media schedule. Trump's dysgenic baldie should regale us with screeching epithets in a day or so.

Not only that, chances are is that we're at war against the USA by the end of January.