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NEW POST: The RCP’s long march from anti-imperialist outsiders to the gates of Downing Street http://brockley.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-rcps-long-march-from-anti.html
A few more that I didn’t go into detail about in my RCP/Spiked blogspot:
First, I hadn’t noticed until @cockneycampaign pointed out that Chloe Westley, Johnson’s controversial* head of social media, has appeared at Spiked events, including a Spiked panel at the Battle of Ideas, which is basically their main showcase. (Munira Mirza spoke there too.)
*by “controversial”, I mean stuff like supporting fascists - see @Otto_English: https://bylinetimes.com/2019/07/26/boris-johnsons-game-of-russian-roulette/
...Chloe Westley and Munira Mirza are co-founders of Brexit AstroTurf outfit “Change Britain”, which Westley worked for. ...
...Change Britain has an overlapping leadership with Artists For Brexit and Invoke Democracy Now, both of which are dominated by LM veterans. Mirza helped set up AFB and Westley has been involved in it. It is heavily promoted by BrexitCentral. https://brexitcentral.com/artists-brexit-started-going/
...Invoke Democracy Now is part of the same network of Spiked-dominated Brexit AstroTurf groups — see @Colin_Lawson: http://www.reasonandreality.org/?p=4421
Another right-wing thinktank Spiked‘s connected to is Civitas, whose education arm is run by a Spiked veteran. Civitas frequently publishes RCPers like Frank Furedi, Brendan O’Neill & Patrick West (as well as climate change “skeptics” & anti-migrant/anti-Muslim doom merchants).
...Civitas, based at 55 Tufton Street, has a Schools arm, whose director, Juliette Brian, is a veteran LM activist, former staffer of the Institute of Ideas, and activist with Invoke Democracy Now. http://powerbase.info/index.php/Civitas http://www.civitas.org.uk/schools/contact.php
...Civitas and the other right-wing Tufton Street thinktanks Spiked is connected to are the least transparent in Britain according to @transparify (see @DeSmogUK: https://www.desmog.co.uk/2017/02/08/opaque-and-deceptive-think-tanks-spend-millions-pushing-brexit-and-climate-science-misinformation
Another educational charity Spiked is connected to: WORLDwrite, directed by former RCP candidate Ceri Dingle. Mirza worked for it in the 2000s. It pushes pro-Brexit ideology to schoolkids. See @EmmaReporter: https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/worldwrite-s-pro-brexit-anti-feminist-anti-environmental-videos-spark-concern-1-6029020 https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/worldwrite-charity-chief-ceri-dingle-at-2016-brexit-rally-1-6052821 http://powerbase.info/index.php/WORLDwrite
One more thing: in researching this, I found so little in the mainstream press, apart from several excellent pieces by @GeorgeMonbiot and a couple of opinion pieces by @DAaronovitch and @NickCohen4. Why aren’t reporters all over this stuff? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/07/us-billionaires-hard-right-britain-spiked-magazine-charles-david-koch-foundation
...
The Guardian’ @rowenamason just called Mirza a “right-wing” “academic”. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/23/who-will-be-among-boris-johnson-core-team-of-aides
I think @alexwickham for Buzzfeed added “former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party” after publication, which probably isn’t strictly true.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/boris-johnson-downing-street-advisers
The Guardian’ @rowenamason just called Mirza a “right-wing” “academic”. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/23/who-will-be-among-boris-johnson-core-team-of-aides
I think @alexwickham for Buzzfeed added “former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party” after publication, which probably isn’t strictly true.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/boris-johnson-downing-street-advisers
Something I missed out in the thread above: Artists for Britain and Leavers of London are basically the same people, including Chloe Westley and Lucy Harris. @Otto_English explores how their “grassroots” Leavers of Britain movement was funded & promoted: https://bylinetimes.com/2019/05/09/astroturfers-of-britain-the-brexit-partys-artificial-grass-roots-part-one/
Dizzy from all these front organisations & astroturfing. @JRogan3000 points out another “grassroots, informal, diverse” pro-Brexit group Munira Mirza started: All In Britain. Reposts stuff from Spiked, eg by Artists For Brexit’s Manick Govinda. https://allinbritain.org/about/
...All In Britain’s main thing seems to be promoting Quillette-style right-wing ideas about race and integration (eg attacking “the anti-racist lobby in football” or saying hate crimes are no big deal), but giving it a more “diverse” vibe. https://twitter.com/bobfrombrockley/status/1156544056685674498?s=21 cc @FFRAFAction
...Here’s one of All In Britain’s main contributors, Rakib Ehsan of the Henry Jackson Society and Spiked regular, also seen writing in The Sun about how Boris can’t be a racist because some of his best Cabinet members are Asian. https://allinbritain.org/author/rakib/ https://www.spiked-online.com/?s=%E2%80%AARakib+Ehsan%E2%80%AC
Oh what a surprise. Spiked are endorsing Tulsi Gabbard, the fake left (anti-refugee, anti-LGBT) candidate also endorsed by Nick Griffin & Richard Spencer, who was hyped by 4Chan & Russian bots, introduced to Trump by Bannon, supports Modi & Sisi... https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/02/tulsi-gabbard-finally-a-democrat-worth-supporting/
Brendan O’Neill calls Ganbard “the most principled critic of military interventionism to have emerged in the US mainstream in decades” — an odd claim to make of someone who criticised Obama for not bombing Syria as much as Putin did...
CORRECTION: I meant David Duke not Nick Griffin (all three of them share support for Assad in Syria)
I’m not sure if Spiked have a line on Syria, but one of their long-time activists (also involved in their fronts “Full Brexit” and “Academics for Academic Freedom”) is one of the leading UK proponents of denialism over Assad’s war crimes. See @ChrisDYork: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/uk-academics-pro-assad-conspiracy-theories-about-syria_uk_5aa51ea7e4b01b9b0a3c4b10
I checked and actually Spiked does have a line on Syria: they think Assad should be left to get on with it; a dictatorship is better than “Balkanising” the country; the rebels are the real sectarians; and westerners who care are moany elitists.
https://www.spiked-online.com/?s=Syria
https://www.spiked-online.com/?s=Syria
(These are all the same positions that Spiked took in the Yugoslav war when they were the Revolutionary Communist Party.) https://twitter.com/bobfrombrockley/status/1157325418434912256?s=21 cc @___adn
I've collected some of the recent articles about Munira Mirza and RCP/Spiked in my latest blogpost, citing @NickCohen4 @evanishistory @afuahirsch @DrMatthewSweet @Otto_English @aurelmondon @aaronzwinter @ChrisDYork @LouisProyect1 & @Pabloite: http://brockley.blogspot.com/2020/06/spiked-footnotes.html
I strongly recommend this week’s @RemainiacsCast podcast, especially for its section (29:12+) on Spiked, and not just because @NickCohen4 kindly namechecks me 46 minutes in https://kite.link/remainiacscast
