Robin's Media Watch

Keeping a close eye on mainstream media and social media chat

(Image: Colin Davis/Unsplash)

Starmer has apparently described the Green Party’s intent to legalise drugs as “disgusting”, claiming that the plan would turn parks and playgrounds into crack dens. However, I am questioning whether the Green Party means actual legalisation or decriminalisation. If the latter, my gut feeling is that this is a good thing, as, potentially, this would reduce the violent crime associated with drug dealing, and yet I wonder what the police feel about this.

It’s good to see a new geothermal and lithium extraction plant operating near Redruth in Cornwall. There is a continuing need to source lithium domestically as much as possible, ensuring that as little lithium as possible is sourced from areas of the world where it causes environmental destruction and utilises slave labour. Furthermore, it will provide another much-needed boost to the Cornish economy.

What do you feel about the proposed ban on social media access for the under-16’s? Personally, I feel this is the wrong approach, as there is an element of ‘punishing the victims’ about this, or over-cautiousness. A much better approach would be to actually do something solid to properly regulate social media, particularly with regard to cracking down on hate speech and cyberbullying, pornographic material and other content that has proved to be harmful to younger people, and indeed people generally. Some platforms, especially X.com, have become spaces in which virtually anything goes now, under the guise of ‘free speech’. However, for any truly compassionate and ethical society, there are limits on free speech, especially when it comes to content that incites hatred, which basically means that there is no totally free speech. I therefore favour regulation over a ban for younger people. If you think I am wrong here, please by all means explain why and let’s discuss it.

Is Mandelson a ‘flight risk’? In my opinion, absolutely. His arrest was totally the right thing to do, despite his denials. I trust him as far as I can throw a tank.

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I was alarmed to read this morning about how the idea of ‘remigration’ is taking root in Italy. Of all the far right’s evil policies, short of actually killing people, this is the most pernicious in my opinion. The far-right trolls on X regularly discuss it with apparent glee, three of the most despicable promoters of this idea on X being Jess Gill of the far right Women’s Safety Initiative, Saskia Teague and Steve Laws. I intend to monitor these three amoebas regularly in a forthcoming ‘far right watch’ post (you might see the first one of these appear this morning actually). Let’s be clear about this: remigration is fundamentally the far-right version of ethnic cleansing. The intent is push for a mostly-white society and reverse, if not totally destroy, any shred of multiculturalism. This is THE big reason why everyone and anyone with any sense of compassion and human decency should utterly declare war on the far-right, and I do not use the term ‘war’ lightly. Obviously, I don’t mean it in a sense of violent, shooting people in the street kind of actions, but I do absolutely mean it in the sense of a culture war context. The way to do this would be to push for much stronger laws against hate speech. Perhaps also it is time for the country to build more jails, because that is where racists belong.

Is anyone really surprised that Reform’s Simon Evans called for someone (in this case Labour MP Natalie Fleet) to be shot? I am not. It confirms two things 1) Reform UK absolutely is a far-right party. 2) The far-right do not have any compunctions at all about dealing out lethal violence to those people they dislike, and let’s be clear, that includes leftists as well as immigrants and Muslims. Do I expect Reform politicians to alter their behaviour after this? No not at all. In my opinion they are just the usual far-right street thugs pretending to be a political party.

(Image: Jade Koroliuk/Unsplash)

There’s continuing chat about the potential of Russia to target a NATO country if it manages to conquer Ukraine, and sure enough, the focus is on the Baltic states particularly Estonia. People absolutely must take this seriously. Putin will use any cessation of hostilities in Ukraine as an opportunity to regroup and rearm. There is only answer to this – to defeat Russia militarily on the battlefield. Europe is right to prepare for a future Russian attack on NATO – which could come as early as 2028, and we must all start bracing ourselves for what that means.

Starmer says that a vote for the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election just risks letting Reform in by the back door. But it’s not surprising that decent people, especially young people, are flocking to the Greens, because Labour’s retaliation against the far-right – which as I mentioned previously includes Reform in my opinion – has been lamentably weak. If Labour aren’t willing to seriously fight Reform, then step forward a party that is willing – the Green Party.

(Image: Lincoln Holley/Unsplash)

And yet, despite being a strong supporter of the Green Party, I am not afraid to criticise them either. Zack Polanski’s ideas on defence are complete lunacy in my opinion. The notion of a “non-offensive” defence strategy in a world threatened like never before by the monster that is Putinist Russia is just completely ridiculous.

The Daily Mail is right to discuss any alarming increase in ritual abuse in the UK, but there are two major risks when discussing this subject. The first is the potential for racism when discussing African ritual practices being brought into the country. The second is that by using the term ‘witchcraft’, this could have a knock-on effect on British Pagans following the Wiccan-Witchcraft tradition as it is understood from remnants of British Celtic and Medieval practices revived shortly after the Second World War by Gerald Gardner and others. As a Pagan myself, though not following a Wiccan tradition (I follow Celtic, i.e. Druidic, and Norse Paganism), I instantly focus in on any discussion in which the term ‘witchcraft’ appears. Thankfully, the Mail has been careful to avoid any reference to non-African forms of witchcraft, but even so, an article like this could indeed provide more ammunition to Christian fundamentalist extremists who would like to see all forms of Paganism banned.

I am hoping this will become a regular daily or weekly post focusing on key news stories appearing on the mainstream media, along with any notable social media chat that also catches my attention. Also look out for my ‘Far Right Watch’ posts coming soon.