Latest news with #Faragism
Belfast Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Irish unity vote only route for Northern Ireland to rejoin EU – O'Toole
Mr O'Toole was speaking ahead of an opposition motion in the Stormont Assembly, nine years on from the 2016 Brexit referendum. The SDLP MLA will say there has been a 'structural shift' in British politics with the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK party. He will also tell Stormont any prospect of the UK rejoining the EU is 'miniscule', and a referendum under the terms set out in the Good Friday Agreement is the 'only route back to EU membership' for Northern Ireland. Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr O'Toole said: 'The SDLP welcomes the improved co-operation between the UK and the EU following the recent summit in London, along with progress in a number of areas that begin to ease some post-Brexit frictions. 'We always knew Brexit would be disastrous for the whole UK economy, for Northern Ireland and relationships across these islands. Sadly, so it has proven. 'Northern Ireland was dragged out of Europe against its will, and our politics has suffered the consequences.' He said British politics was continuing an 'irresistible drift towards 'Faragism'.' Mr O'Toole added: 'We have virtually no power to stop that happening. 'But we do have a viable pathway to a different future – a European future – and that is through a new Ireland. 'It is time all parties who claim to be pro-European and reject the 'Faragification' of UK politics to acknowledge our only route back into Europe is via an inclusive, hopeful new Ireland.'
The Guardian
25-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Is Blue Labour really the answer to Keir Starmer's woes?
Julian Coman's article on 'the much misunderstood' Blue Labour says Maurice Glasman's project fell out of favour because it advocated 'restrictions on the import of cheaper migrant labour' (An exiled group within Labour is making a comeback – it could hold the key to repelling Farage, 21 February). The truth is that, interviewed by Progress magazine in April 2011, Glasman advocated opening Labour up to supporters of the far-right English Defence League (EDL). Interviewed in July 2011 by the Daily Telegraph's Mary Riddell, he doubled down. Asked whether he would support a total ban on immigration, even just for a temporary period, he replied: 'Yes. I would add that we should be more generous and friendly in receiving those [few] who are needed. To be more generous we have to draw the line.' In response to a further question on whether he supported Iain Duncan Smith's call for British jobs for British workers, he responded: 'Completely. The people who live here are the highest priority. We've got to listen and be with them. They're in the right place – it's us who are not.' I was going to close by stating that far from 'repelling' Faragism, this is more like pandering to it. But that would be unfair to Nigel Farage: he has at least refused to associate with Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the DenhamBirmingham Maurice Glasman claims that Blue Labour began as a recognition of the sadness that beset the party after the crisis of 2008, though Julian Coman is right that the movement emphasises how the party should seek to harness the blue-collar vote. There are any number of genuine nuggets to be mined from Glasman's ideas, not the least of which is the proposal for the establishment of a network of regional banks with a remit to invest exclusively in their own areas to grow and sustain regional small- to medium-term enterprises and to set up low-cost personal loans. His notions of mutuality, reciprocity and pluralism chime with his idea that 'the fundamental role of Labour politics is to resist the imperative of capital to dominate society'. That Blue Labour's stance on immigration is not acceptable to much of the Labour party is also an accurate assessment. However, though Glasman opposes immigration and has been an active supporter of Brexit, the ideas he propounds don't always support such views. Glasman's concept of elections not expressing the will of the people, but merely making a choice, where 'the only rule is that you have to do it again', suggests that Brexit would have to come under fresh scrutiny. Nuggets abound, but Labour should be aware that iron pyrite, though hard, is also brittle and unforgiving. Real gold, on the other hand, is malleable and far more giving a material to work LynchGarstang, Lancashire Julian Coman should gird his loins and read Reform UK's 2024 manifesto pledges on the NHS. They include 'eradicating NHS waiting lists within two years'. The ability to conjure up large numbers of doctors, nurses, equipment, hospital beds, new super-efficient managers etc, pretty well instantly, without large-scale immigration, would be amazing to BrookerWest Wickham, London Do you have a photograph you'd like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers' best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
