Latest news with #HopeNotHate
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Declining' is the most common word associated with Britain, damning poll shows
The most common word the public associate with Britain is 'declining', a damning new poll has revealed. A study by a group of Labour backers reveals that seven in 10 people feel ignored by politicians amid the erosion of public services and the hollowing out of local communities. And, in the landmark report, the influential group is calling on Sir Keir Starmer to take the fight to Reform UK with a radical programme to rebuild local communities – not by seeking to ape Nigel Farage on immigration. Labour's sister Co-operative Party and the campaign group Hope Not Hate, backed by union Unison, have co-published a report laying bare the despair among voters after more than a decade of communities being eroded and public services being underfunded. Amid growing disillusionment among voters, the report warns that Britain must choose either 'a path of division and extremity, or a path of community power, hope and solidarity'. When asked by pollsters Focaldata to describe the UK today, four in 10 voters said it is 'declining', while a quarter said it is 'weak' and another quarter described it as 'directionless'. And among those who say they feel ignored by politicians, the majority are planning to vote for Mr Farage's insurgent right-wing party. As well as reporting a sense of national decline, almost half of those who took part in the poll said that their local area had been declining, with the report warning that a fall in the number of community organisations is eroding the country's sense of shared identity and trust. The report calls on the PM to immediately develop and publish a strategy to support communities, including through further devolution and greater support for community ownership. The general secretary of the Co-op Party, which has 43 MPs in Westminster and is represented by cabinet ministers including business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said it is 'clear that the path to rebuilding trust in politics runs through our communities'. Joe Fortune, a quietly influential figure in Labour circles, told The Independent: 'People want the power to improve the place they call home, but politics needs to deliver that power in a serious way.' Mr Fortune said rebuilding communities would act as 'an antidote to the trust crisis' in politics. Nick Lowles, founder and chief executive of the Hope Not Hate campaign group, said investing in communities is 'the only way we can fight the rise of Reform UK'. 'After over a decade of austerity, communities in Britain feel isolated. In times of economic hardship, it is harder to come together, forge friendships and tackle local issues. People feel ignored by the politicians who are meant to represent them,' he added. And Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, Britain's biggest trade union, said: 'Public services are the beating heart of communities, and if they're suffering, people are clearly going to feel abandoned and ignored. 'Residents need to feel connected again. That means proper investment in public services to rebuild neighbourhoods and, in turn, restore trust in politicians at both national and local levels.' Mr Farage and Reform swept to victory in hundreds of council seats and a series of mayoral contests in this month's local elections. The party has surged in the polls as disillusioned voters turn their backs on Labour and the Conservatives. Hilary Armstrong, chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, said that the only way to quell the 'pull of political extremism' is to reverse the decline of local neighbourhoods. 'Up and down the country, neighbourhoods have been battered by decades of deindustrialisation and a decade of austerity. From illegal drugs to vandalism, litter to antisocial behaviour, the everyday experience in communities has markedly declined,' Baroness Armstrong added.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Declining' is the most common word associated with Britain, damning poll shows
The most common word the public associates with Britain is 'declining', a damning new poll has revealed. A study by a group of Labour backers reveals seven in 10 people feel ignored by politicians amid the erosion of public services and the hollowing out of local communities. Keir Starmer to take the fight to Reform UK with a radical programme to rebuild local communities - not by seeking to ape Nigel Farage on immigration. Labour 's sister Co-op Party and campaign group Hope not Hate, backed by union Unison, have co-published a report laying bare the despair among voters after more than a decade of communities being eroded and public services being underfunded. Amid growing disillusionment among voters, the report warned Britain faces a choice between 'a path of division and extremity, or a path of community power, hope and solidarity'. When asked by pollsters Focaldata to describe the UK today, four in 10 voters said 'declining', while a quarter said 'weak' and another quarter said 'directionless'. And among those who say they feel ignored by politicians, the majority are planning to vote for Mr Farage's insurgent right-wing party. As well as a sense of national decline, almost half of voters said their local area has been declining, with the report warning that a fall in the number of community organisations is eroding the country's sense of shared identity and trust. The report calls on the PM to immediately develop and publish a strategy to support communities, including through further devolution and greater support for community ownership. The general secretary of the Co-op Party, which has 43 MPs in Westminster and is represented by cabinet ministers including business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said it is 'clear that the path to rebuilding trust in politics runs through our communities'. Joe Fortune, a quietly influential figure in Labour circles, told The Independent: 'People want the power to improve the place they call home, but politics needs to deliver that power in a serious way.' Mr Fortune said rebuilding communities would act as 'an antidote to the trust crisis' in politics. Nick Lowles, founder and chief executive of the Hope not Hate campaign group, said investing in communities is 'the only way we can fight the rise of Reform UK '. 'After over a decade of austerity, communities in Britain feel isolated. In times of economic hardship, it is harder to come together, forge friendships and tackle local issues. People feel ignored by the politicians who are meant to represent them,' he added. And Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, Britain's biggest trade union, said: 'Public services are the beating heart of communities and if they're suffering, people are clearly going to feel abandoned and ignored. "Residents need to feel connected again. That means proper investment in public services to rebuild neighbourhoods and, in turn, restore trust in politicians at both national and local levels." Mr Farage and Reform swept to victory in hundreds of council seats and a series of mayoral contests in this month's local elections. The party has surged in the polls as disillusioned voters turn their backs on Labour and the Conservatives. Hilary Armstrong, chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, said the only way to quell the 'pull of political extremism' is to reverse the decline of local neighbourhoods. 'Up and down the country, neighbourhoods have been battered by decades of deindustrialisation and a decade of austerity. From illegal drugs to vandalism, litter to anti-social behaviour, the everyday experience in communities has markedly declined,' Baroness Armstrong added.
New European
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New European
Is Blackpool's new Reform pub all it seems?
The Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and i were among those who dispatched colour writers to the town's Talbot pub following the news that the long-standing Conservative club had defected to Nigel Farage's mob and decked itself out in Reform colours ('As GB News blared from several screens inside, most pub-goers sat out on the newly-painted terrace enjoying their cheap drinks in the sun this week,' marvelled the Telegraph's Tom McArdle.) Fleet Street's finest packed their features writers off to Euston station last week with the news that the first Reform-themed pub in the country had opened its doors in Blackpool. But was all exactly what it seemed? Campaign group Hope Not Hate have done some digging and found that, while the Talbot had indeed once been a Conservative club, it hasn't been since 2012. And, having long since been rebranded, it has proved a popular destination for some characters with pretty unsavoury views – until, in several cases, they are cancelled. One such event cancelled in 2018 was The Road Ahead, a day of political speeches and entertainment 'with a focus on future politics, organising growth and leadership'. Co-owner Nick Lowe defended his bookings, saying: 'Every year people slag us off on Facebook saying it's a Nazi event, but it's not. I'm not racist. If somebody wants to book my room and I'm going to make money off it I'm going to do it. It's not against the law.' It is a mite unfortunate, then, that three of the listed speakers have since been prosecuted for actually breaking the law, through incitement to racial hatred: Jez Turner, who called for 'soldiers' to liberate England from 'Jewish control' in an address outside Downing Street, Alison Chabloz, a musician with ditties suggesting the Holocaust was 'a bunch of lies' and referring to Auschwitz as a 'theme park', and 'Rev James', actually James Costello, an unordained cleric who also goes by the name of Pontifex Maximus. The pub was also forced to cancel a music festival, Real Rebellion, last year after Hope Not Hate reported on the dubious politics of some of the bands involved. Canadian group Battlefront's tunes include Aryan Soldiers, Pride is our Will and String 'em Up, while Germans Combat BC decorated the cover of album No Apologies – No Regrets with imagery popular with the country's 1933-45 government. 'It's nowt to do with me. I just rent the room out,' Nick Lowe told the Blackpool Gazette at the time. 'I'm not racist at all but I have to make money somehow.' Now, though, he is busy entertaining the many journalists making the trip north to London to marvel at his rebranding exercise. It's an unfortunate history alright – but on the other hand, as the Telegraph points out, 'the pie and mash will only set you back £3.20, while a chicken curry can be had for £3.50 and a Sunday roast is £5'.
Arab News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Newly elected Reform UK councillors face scrutiny over Islamophobic social media posts
LONDON: Up to a dozen newly elected councillors from Reform UK have been accused of posting Islamophobic and far-right content on social media, The Guardian reported on Saturday. It comes a week after the party made a major breakthrough in local elections across the country, winning 677 of the more than 1,600 contested seats. Reform UK councillors at three country councils have shared social media content from Britain First, a far-right party known for its anti-Islam views. Paul Harrison, who was elected to Leicestershire's county council, retweeted and voted 'yes' to an X poll asking if the UK should conduct mass deportations. The post was accompanied by an image, generated by artificial intelligence, of Muslim men holding Pakistani flags. Reform UK officials are facing greater scrutiny in the wake of the local elections, with many of the social media posts being revealed by counter-extremism campaign group Hope Not Hate. Its director of campaigns, Georgie Laming, said: '(Party leader) Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK have the 'most in-depth vetting procedure' of any party. Our investigation shows that their processes leave much to be desired. 'Not only have they admitted using 'AI techniques and other things' to do the vetting, but Reform UK continue to shirk responsibility for their candidates' online behaviour. They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed.' The campaign group previously uncovered Islamophobic content posted by Reform candidates on social media, as well as far-right conspiracies and support for extremist figures including Tommy Robinson and David Irving.
New Statesman
07-05-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
Reform is the right-wing media's monster
Photo by Oli Scarff / AFP via Getty Images If Labour and the Conservatives are in a state of bewilderment about how to manage Reform's explosion in popularity, so too is the British media. Across the mainstream media, Reform's strong showing in the local elections was considered almost entirely through the prism of what the results meant for Labour and the Conservatives. Nowhere did I read any analysis on how Nigel Farage might translate local election success into a general election victory. Or a proper assessment of Reform's economic policy. Or – beyond the work of campaigners Hope Not Hate – detailed examination of its candidates. There was virtually no consideration of Reform itself. We can only assume editors have failed to read the think-pieces their political editors keep churning out about the end of two-party politics. Because Britain's established news media – operating through print, broadcast and online – is stuck in a two-party world. Like the Japanese soldier who continued fighting for nearly 30 years after the end of the Second World War, they're stuck in a battle long over. Reform has received (and benefited from) excessive media attention compared to the Liberal Democrats and Greens in recent years. But it has been reported upon almost as an entertaining cultural phenomenon, like K-pop or darts. Now, with Reform taking 30 per cent of the popular vote in last week's elections, the news media has to accept Reform voters in the UK are no longer 'they', but 'us'. I'm guessing that in the case of the Daily Mail Reform supports make up a significant chunk of readers. And yet in Saturday's edition the editorial told Badenoch: 'The first imperative is not to panic.' By Sunday the right-leaning Express didn't even bother to mention the Tories' enormous losses on page one, and dedicated just a two-paragraph leader to the issue, calling on Badenoch to give people a 'reason to vote Conservative'. A leader in the Sunday Telegraph simply called for 'hard work' from the Tory leader. Reform is a monster created by the right-wing media's anti-immigration, anti-net zero and anti-woke obsessions. But following the results of the locals it appeared bewildered as, like Frankenstein, it 'beheld the wretch' it had made. Farage couldn't care less, for he is already dominating in the social media arena, where six parties (if we're counting the SNP) are slugging it out. During last July's election campaign Reform generated nearly three times more social media interactions as Labour. X's algorithm favours the bold. TikTok – where Farage is the most followed politician with 1.2 million – favours the funny and frank. Facebook is still a useful recruiting tool among older voters and those rooted in communities. Reform benefits from all. Farage uses social media to talk directly to those attracted to his brand of populism, while painting the established media as an elite trying to stymie his bid for power. He has attacked the BBC for 'double standards', accused Question Time of being 'rigged' and flung accusations of political interference at the Daily Mail and Channel 4. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe It is essential for him to keep a battle going with the mainstream media, as it is for Trump, to protect his reputation as an anti-establishment disruptor and to undermine the validity of its scrutiny, while provoking from it the attention he requires. Earlier this year the BBC failed to ensure journalistic standards were upheld in the creation of its How to Survive a Warzone film about children in Gaza, when it emerged the narrator was the son of a Hamas official. Now, the corporation is compounding this failure by blocking a totally separate documentary about medics in Gaza. The film was apparently ready to air in February, but has been pulled while a review of How to Survive a Warzone is concluded. The new documentary's creators, Basement Films, say they are 'desperate' for a release date. It is ridiculous that the inquiry into what went wrong in the first film has taken three months, with no sign of when it will be concluded. But what is worse is that a film that has already been cleared to air and that deserves to be seen has been paused, seemingly for nothing more than fear of provoking controversy. Saturday 3 May was World Press Freedom Day, but it was not a day for celebration. This year, Reporters Without Borders, which creates the annual Press Freedom Index, highlighted economic pressures on journalism as 'a major, more insidious problem' globally. The UK was 20th on the global press freedom charts – up from 23rd in 2024. But the report made mention of how many newsrooms have closed and staff have been laid off. There was also a reference to the government's failure to address intimidatory SLAPP legal actions against journalists. The US fell two places from last year to 57th in the index, reflecting an 'alarming deterioration' in press freedom, 'indicative of an authoritarian shift in government' under Donald Trump, alongside the loss of thousands of journalist jobs since 2002. Populists present an obvious danger to our media, but its profitability could prove fatal. [See also: Cosplaying Reform will doom Labour] Related
