anti capitalist musings

The rest of the blog

Screenshot of a Daily Mail headline by Frank Furedi reading: "We've been silenced on mass migration and the nation's furious. All it will take is one spark and tinderbox Britain will go up in flames: FRANK FUREDI." Below the headline, it notes the article was published at 01:10 on 24 July 2025 and updated at 09:25 the same day. The Mail logo appears at the top left.
Far Right Extremism

Britain Will Not Burn – But Furedi Wants It To

Frank Furedi claims the public has been silenced, while shouting from the pages of the Daily Mail. What he’s really mourning is the loss of uncontested dominance: the fantasy of a Britain where dissent means agreeing with him. This isn’t analysis, it’s a staged panic, designed to justify repression and launder far-right talking points as common sense. Britain isn’t a tinderbox. But pieces like this are trying hard to make it one.

In red ink on textured beige paper, a line of riot police with visors and shields confronts an angry crowd. One masked protester is being pulled back mid-leap. The figures are stylised and simplified, with harsh lines and dramatic motion, evoking urgency and confrontation. In the background, blocky lettering hints at a school building.
Britain

The Hotels Are Just the Excuse

The protests outside migrant hotels aren’t spontaneous. They are engineered. Stoked by far-right groups, amplified by the right-wing press, and legitimised by political cowardice, what we’re witnessing is a strategic campaign to turn fear into power. When the police protect anti-racists, it’s called provocation. When the far right throws bottles, it’s “community concern.” The hotels are just the excuse. The real target is the idea that Britain could ever belong to all of us.

A screenshot of The Telegraph’s website front page. The main headline reads: “Police take pro-migrant protesters to asylum hotel.” The subheading says, “Essex officers brought counter-demonstrators to face angry residents, claim witnesses.” Beside the text is an image of uniformed police officers in high-visibility jackets standing in front of a group of pro-migrant protesters holding “Stand Up to Racism” placards. A black Jeep with a visible rear wheel is parked in the foreground. The scene takes place outside the Bell Hotel in Clacton-on-Sea. The mood is tense, with the police forming a line between protesters and onlookers.
Far-Right

The Telegraph’s Riot: When Anti-Fascists Become the Problem

While far right mobs are framed as “concerned locals”, anti-fascists are treated as the threat. The police escort becomes the scandal, not the fact that far-right demonstrators are being allowed to dominate England’s streets with near impunity. When the media sides with the mob, resistance is rebranded as provocation.
Britain

The Patriarchy in Uniform: Reform UK’s Law and Order Is a War on Women

When Reform UK’s justice spokesperson declared she would “much rather see a great big strapping male police officer with a female,” she wasn’t just airing a preference. Pochin was laying out a worldview. One where women are too vulnerable to patrol alone, too soft for frontline work, and too inconvenient to be equal. As under Trump, so under Farage: the creeping politics of patriarchy, where power is always male, and women are tolerated only if they stay in their place.
Britain

The Real Arsonists of Social Cohesion

The English disease is back. While Scotland holds the line with civic identity and social solidarity, England is once again the testing ground for far-right mobilisation and state complicity. From hotel sieges in Epping to flag-waving standoffs in Norfolk, this isn’t about deprivation alone. This is nationalism curdled into grievance, stoked by those who know exactly what they are doing. And the only person who benefits from this is the man rubbing his hands together, whispering told you so, told you so, and you all know exactly who that is: Nigel Farage.
Britain

Unbinding the State: On Suella Braverman’s Plan to Leave the ECHR

Braverman’s plan to leave the ECHR isn’t legal reform, it’s preparation for rule without restraint. Like the ERG before her, she wraps authoritarian ambition in the language of sovereignty. Strip away the rhetoric and what’s left is a state unbound, a state that punishes, not protects. If she jumps to Reform UK, this plan becomes reality.

The China Doctrine

With Elbridge Colby whispering war into Pete Hegseth’s ear, the Trump administration has replaced strategic ambiguity with a doctrine of confrontation.

The screws tighten written in white on blue background

The Screws Tighten

Capitalism hasn’t repented by bringing the jobs back; it’s rearmed, turning screws at home under the banner of patriotic sacrifice.

Trump’s Tariff Fantasy

The Trump administration’s latest tariff proposal assumes that other countries will quietly absorb the cost of import duties. But tariffs don’t work like that. They never have.

1888 anti-free trade cartoon from Judge. Caption: FREE TRADE ENGLAND WANTS THE EARTH

Tariffs: A Capitalist Con

Tariffs have always been sold as a lifeline for workers, a way to safeguard industry and preserve jobs from the encroachment of cheaper imports. But this is a con, a well-rehearsed performance that disguises yet another means of protecting capital at the expense of labour.