Latest news with #socialist
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Gary Jones obituary
My friend Gary Jones, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 64, was a steelworker, socialist and local councillor. A perfect example of the Welsh working-class autodidact, Gary immersed himself in military history, read voraciously and, it seemed, always had pocketfuls of leftwing badges which he would hand out to anyone. Gary and I first met at the Laugharne Weekend festival in the town on which Dylan Thomas modelled 'Llaregggub' in Under Milk Wood. As there's no green room, the punters and performers mingle all weekend, and consequently the same people come each year. That's how we became friends, albeit just for a weekend a year, though you can fit a lifetime into an hour over a few pints in a Welsh pub. Born in Gwent, Gary was the eldest of the three children of Yvonne Hawkins, a shop assistant, and Robert Jones, a steelworker. His father wanted to call him Yuri Gagarin Jones, but was persuaded by a sober-minded registrar to name him after Gary Cooper instead. After Ebbw Vale grammar school, Gary joined his father in the local steelworks as a tinplater, remaining there until it closed in 2002, when he relocated with his family to Llangennech in Carmarthenshire to work at the Trostre steelworks until his retirement in 2019. Aged 15, Gary joined the Young Socialists, becoming a full member of the Labour party three years later, and remained one for the rest of his life. In Llangennech he embraced village life, being elected to the local community council, serving for a year as chair. He also represented Llangennech and Bryn on Carmarthenshire unitary council. During the 2024 general election (undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver), Gary earned brief notoriety at a hustings when he made a Nazi salute to a far-right Ukip candidate, Stan Robinson, after Robinson had expressed admiration for General Franco. Asked to leave, Gary then apologised to the security staff. Neither I nor any of Gary's many friends were remotely surprised or shocked. He was a passionate analyst of leftwing history, his Twitter handle being 'Poumista' after Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Poum), the anti-Stalinist socialist party George Orwell joined up with in the Spanish civil war. We last met at this year's festival. He gave me a badge. I gave him a book (I also portrayed him in several festival posters). He died seven weeks later, a prospect he spoke of with calm nobility. Gary is survived by his wife, Cara (nee Evans), a trainer for Carmarthenshire school staff on computer systems and data protection, now retired, whom he married in 1985, their daughters, Molly and Rowen, his sister, Dawn, and his brother, David.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Keir Starmer is the most unscrupulous dud ever to enter Downing Street but I know what Tories need to do to save Britain
THE cast iron lesson of political history is that socialist governments always, always leave the country in a worse mess than they find it. And until David Cameron and Boris Johnson came along, it was always the Tories who cleaned up afterwards. 9 9 9 This explains why voters put Conservatives in power for most of the last century. Then came the 14 years of suicidal carnage when a couple of arrogant Old Etonians decided they could copy Labour, print money and import cheap labour to pay the bills. On July 4 last year, the nation held its nose and, in a spasm of self-destructive revenge, put their faith in the man Boris dubbed 'Captain Crasheroonie Snoozefest'. Within months, Britain was being ravaged by a gang of vengeful race warriors under the most unscrupulous dud ever to enter Downing Street as PM. Today, Keir Starmer is the humiliated hostage of a loony left-wing party bent on social and cultural revolution — with four more years to run. Smoke and mirrors And it falls to Kemi Badenoch to prove her Tory Party has recovered from its decade of madness and win back the trust of millions of fleeing supporters. It's a tough call. Thanks to Starmer and five blundering Tory PMs, Nigel Farage has mopped up swarms of angry voters who are fed up with being lied to. 'Sir Shifty' arrived as Prime Minister on a manifesto of smoke and mirrors, fraudulent promises and calculated deceit. Many warned we were handing over the UK to wolves in sheep's clothing. Fabled 'Prince of Darkness' Peter Mandelson expressed private dismay at Starmer's refusal to come clean with voters. First migrants detained under Starmer's 'one-in-one-out' deal with France as MORE boats arrive in UK His deepest fears may have been exceeded by what looks like the irreversible destruction of our social fabric by Labour's rag-bag army of barmy cults and pro-Gaza thugs. Buyers' remorse set in as voters witnessed the emergence of relentlessly divisive politics and whining race and gender lobbies. Sun readers wrote in about mindless stabbings, the rape of young girls and incessant muggings on the streets of Sadiq Khan's dystopian capital city. Yet while criminals run rampant, free speech police are busy banging up innocent citizens for Orwellian 'non-crime hate incidents'. Only those who hate this country — and there are some — can watch unmoved as TV cameras capture yet another brimming dinghy unloaded mid- Channel on to Border Force taxis. Millions of once-loyal BBC taxpayers have stopped listening to the whingeing public sector, previously known as the Today Programme. 9 9 9 Thank goodness for the voices of common sense on Talk and Times Radio. So what can we do about Labour's point blank refusal to guard our borders and make our streets safe again? It's time the Tories stopped feeling guilty and started coming up with answers . . . plausible traditional policies on defence, sound economics and safe streets. Since taking over as leader nine months ago, Kemi Badenoch has been quietly rebuilding the public's shattered trust. She hit the target yesterday with a powerful attack on former state prosecutor Starmer's reluctance to stage a full-scale national probe into Pakistani rape gangs. This is a revolting national scandal — still ongoing — involving Labour council chiefs and complicit police. There are plenty more issues the Tories can use to attack Labour. But the polls speak for themselves. 9 9 It is Reform leader Farage who is stealing the headlines after turning his slightly bonkers one-man band into a political pop sensation. And he is doing so by poaching once-sacred Tory brands — defence, crime and, with less credibility, economics. He is free to promise the earth on border controls, rape gangs and migrant hostels. And he has earned the right to fight EU bullies and meddling European judges. Mrs Badenoch is hamstrung by Tory MPs still confused about Britain's role outside the EU. And she has just promoted Sir James Cleverly, who is wobbly about quitting the ECHR. As Kemi struggles to capture attention, Farage has displaced Tony Blair as the political messiah who once hypnotised David Cameron, George Osborne and Michael Gove. Blair was the Pied Piper who lured the Tories to their doom. But he was a snake oil salesman. Farage might also turn out to be a fairground huckster. But he is the man of this particular moment, the ultimate vote- whisperer. Angry and betrayed voters are ditching the two main parties and swarming to support Reform. Social dilapidation The revolt will grow each time a fresh boatload of military-aged and unvetted young men checks into four-star hotel rooms with free phones and instant access to the NHS. And it will explode beyond control as law-abiding citizens are rounded up for voicing alarm about sex crimes while two-tier police act as escorts to masked pro-migrant protesters. Voters are justly resentful about soaring taxes, idle public servants on fat-cat pay and pensions, and the 9million working-age men and women living on state benefits. They are fed up with rivers of raw sewage, crippling energy bills and shirk-from-home public servants. But the overwhelming problem for Kemi Badenoch and the Tories is that much of this social dilapidation began or even increased under Cameron, May, Boris, Truss and Sunak. It might indeed have been worse if Labour had been in power over those 14 years, especially during the Covid pandemic. But they weren't. The Tories were mismanaging the country. Kemi must somehow repair the damage, galvanise her MPs and turn them once again into a realistically credible party of government. Otherwise the Conservatives face political extinction as triumphant Farage smashes the political mould and storms to power in four years' time. 9
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Katie Pavlich warns Mamdani could give the Left 'breath of life'
Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich, Stagwell Inc. CEO Mark Penn and Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson dissect the Democratic Party's 'radical' socialist movement on 'Hannity.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mamdani vows to be Donald Trump's ‘worst nightmare' as president weighs working with rival in NYC mayor race
New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani took aim at President Donald Trump in a Thursday press conference amid a report that the president is weighing getting involved in the race. "Donald Trump has not called me," Mamdani told reporters on Thursday in New York City. "I've said that my approach to Washington will not be a reflexive one, it is one that will be in opposition to Donald Trump's administration when it comes for New Yorkers, when it comes at the expense of the welfare of the people that I'm seeking to serve," Mamdani continued. "If the president and the administration is looking to work for the benefit of dollars, which is what he spent so much of his campaign speaking about. That is a different conversation if he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries. But he told us he would deliver. That is a different conversation. But what threatens the president so much about my campaign and our movement is the fact that it showcases the way in which he's betrayed the very people that we are seeking to serve." Mamdani's Past 'Visceral Disdain' For Police 'Scares A Lot Of New Yorkers' For Good Reason: Nyc Crime Expert Trump, according to a New York Times report this week, recently spoke on the phone with Cuomo and has been talking with associates about who has the best chance to beat Mamdani between Cuomo, current mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Read On The Fox News App When asked what Mamdani would tell Trump if the president called, he said, "I will tell Donald Trump the same thing I'm telling you right now. That's what makes me different than Andrew Cuomo. Whatever I say on a sidewalk, I say in a press conference, I say in the morning, it's the same agenda. It's fighting for the same people. And I will make that case to everyone. What I will not do, however, is pick up the phone to call Donald Trump, to ask how we can work together to defeat the will of Democrats across this. And. That's what Andrew Cuomo did." Cuomo Flips Script On Mamdani For Owning Property In Uganda Despite Its Anti-lgbt Laws: 'Silence Is Violence' Cuomo and Mamdani have been sparring over Trump in recent days, with Mamdani railing against the idea of Trump trying to help Cuomo. "As usual, you're short on facts and long on nonsense," Cuomo posted on X in response to an attack from Mamdani about potentially working with Trump in the race. "And while I'm here, let's be real - Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party." Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told the New York Times, "As far as I know, they have not discussed the race." The White House has dismissed the idea that Trump is planning on getting involved in the race. "As President Trump has repeatedly stated, he has no intention of getting involved or making an endorsement in the New York City mayoral race," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement. In the press conference, Mamdani went on to say that his administration will be "Donald Trump's worst nightmare." "And you don't need to take me at my word or take Andrew Cuomo at his," Mamdani said. "You need only look at the actions of the Trump administration since I won the Democratic primary. How else can you describe a president who has proposed de-naturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City? How else can you describe a president who has sought to entertain suggestions of deporting me, of arresting me, of taking control of the city over the will of New Yorkers? Those are the actions of a president who is afraid of the fact that I will actually deliver in a manner where he is simply betrayed."Original article source: Mamdani vows to be Donald Trump's 'worst nightmare' as president weighs working with rival in NYC mayor race
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Mamdani rails against report Trump is mulling getting involved in mayoral race: 'Trump's worst nightmare'
New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani took aim at President Donald Trump in a Thursday press conference amid a report that the president is weighing getting involved in the race. "Donald Trump has not called me," Mamdani told reporters on Thursday in New York City. "I've said that my approach to Washington will not be a reflexive one, it is one that will be in opposition to Donald Trump's administration when it comes for New Yorkers, when it comes at the expense of the welfare of the people that I'm seeking to serve," Mamdani continued. "If the president and the administration is looking to work for the benefit of dollars, which is what he spent so much of his campaign speaking about. That is a different conversation if he wants to actually act upon the cheaper groceries. But he told us he would deliver. That is a different conversation. But what threatens the president so much about my campaign and our movement is the fact that it showcases the way in which he's betrayed the very people that we are seeking to serve." Trump, according to a New York Times report this week, recently spoke on the phone with Cuomo and has been talking with associates about who has the best chance to beat Mamdani between Cuomo, current mayor Eric Adams, and Republican Curtis Sliwa. When asked what Mamdani would tell Trump if the president called, he said, "I will tell Donald Trump the same thing I'm telling you right now. That's what makes me different than Andrew Cuomo. Whatever I say on a sidewalk, I say in a press conference, I say in the morning, it's the same agenda. It's fighting for the same people. And I will make that case to everyone. What I will not do, however, is pick up the phone to call Donald Trump, to ask how we can work together to defeat the will of Democrats across this. And. That's what Andrew Cuomo did." Cuomo and Mamdani have been sparring over Trump in recent days, with Mamdani railing against the idea of Trump trying to help Cuomo. "As usual, you're short on facts and long on nonsense," Cuomo posted on X in response to an attack from Mamdani about potentially working with Trump in the race. "And while I'm here, let's be real - Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party." Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told the New York Times, "As far as I know, they have not discussed the race." In the press conference, Mamdani went on to say that his administration will be "Donald Trump's worst nightmare." "And you don't need to take me at my word or take Andrew Cuomo at his," Mamdani said. "You need only look at the actions of the Trump administration since I won the Democratic primary. How else can you describe a president who has proposed de-naturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City? How else can you describe a president who has sought to entertain suggestions of deporting me, of arresting me, of taking control of the city over the will of New Yorkers? Those are the actions of a president who is afraid of the fact that I will actually deliver in a manner where he is simply betrayed."
