Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Britain's persistent racism cannot simply explained by its imeprial history Related: Britain: imperial nostalgia

The liberal impartiality/hypocrisy of the BBC "Theresa May condemns Trump's 'go home' remark" Here is what racism and Islamophobia look like in the British establishment: The hard-centre is racist The Tories' Islamophobia problem and Angela Merkel, too. Merking

Britain, Britons, Brexit, Bonkers ... The conditions are ripe for the biggest backlash imaginable One decline is related to another Why Britain doesn't have a Huawei of its own

Bourgeois values In "normal" times they justify exploitation, plunder, murder and complicity in murder, austerity, Islamophobia and xenophobia. They propagate mediocrity, commodification, celebrity culture and miseducation. When the shit hits the fan, they call for "national unity".

"And as polling shows, public attitudes on migration are softening markedly." Are they? Labour must make a principled case for free movement

Britain The racists won. So are they happy now?

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said in the aftermath of the 'Western' attack on Syria that "The US president, UK prime minister and the president of France are criminals." So are him, Bashar al-Assad and Putin. 

After the Skripal attack

It is not only about defending past crimes; it is also going on justifying present ones. Close to a year ago, on 12 December of last year, PM Theresa May addressed the Annual Business Lunch of the Conservative Friends of Israel in these terms: “On November 2, 1917, the then Foreign Secretary – a Conservative Foreign Secretary – Arthur James Balfour wrote: ‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, …’” The PM read the whole text of the letter I will be getting back to later. She then went on saying: “It is one of the most important letters in history. It demonstrates Britain’s vital role in creating a homeland for the Jewish people. And it is an anniversary we will be marking with pride.” The PM added: “Born of that letter, and the efforts of so many people, is a remarkable country.” A country, Israel, which the PM described a...

"The promise of Brexit was steeped in ideology from the very beginning, a fairy tale based on dark chauvinism. The Spanish Armada, Napoleon, Hitler and now the Polish plumbers who allegedly push down wages..." "A wave of anger crashes over Britain"

"IS might find itself being pushed back militarily, but its logics are not only still firmly intact, they are being bolstered by the very forces that allegedly seek to destroy them. And it's the logics, beyond videos on internet sites or radical preachers, that are visible for almost everyone in the world to see - to Muslims, they are even more striking. IS is a product of counter-revolution - an active symptom of savage destruction of hope. If the Arab revolutions represented progressive antagonism towards a regional order determined by the brutal denial of basic liberties, IS are fed by the brutal backlash against this." Inetresting to read, but the healine is not

Theresa May: " We are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism."   For the first time ever, I am in agreement with  May. I will only be more accurate in future. I will try to avoid the term "terrorism". I will use "violence" instead.

"Strong and Stable"   Silverdale, Hamstead Road, London and A lit crit of the party manifestos

Britain "The post-Brexit Tory vote is contradictory. The economically nationalist petty bourgeois voter has little in common with the affluent swing voters currently favoring May against Labour or the discredited Liberals. The business and financial class condensed in the Tory leadership is remote from the concerns of grassroots Conservatives. Such broad coalitions forged in these moments of crisis can last, but only if the political and economic situation begins to stabilize." That's a crucial "if". Back to the 1930s with Theresa May

The British PM calls for a snap eelection. — They are not only criminals, they are also clever and they know when to change their minds and to strike  when it is hot. — Another chance for "the public" to elect the criminals (again).

London I have received an email saying that the attack, which took place yesterday, was "an attack on the values of democracy and openess".  Theresa May, the PM, has said that "the attacker was inspired by the Islamic faith". The intellectual disability (or the fundamentalist discourse) of some people are just disgusting. Has the PM said something else? Yes, she spoke about "the oldest democracy", "freedom", "forces of evil", and some other things of that nature. The ones we heard after the previous attacks. Update: the Prime Minister also said that "we saw the worst of humanity." She is not pretending to be ignorant; she is just a representative of an imperialist and chauvinistic regime for which the rhetoric of "humanity" is a PR for public comsumption. More than 200 people just drowned in the Miditerranean

"When Theresa May sets off to embrace the autocrats in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the other Gulf countries, the democratic opposition in these countries will be even less heard." — Anna Lehman, the Guardian, 18 December 2016 Ah, because this embrace is a new thing! Previous governments were champions of "human rights", trying to overthrow those autocratic families and were always supporting progressive oppositions until Brexit and Theresa came.

Britain May emerged as the preferred candidate of the Tory establishment. Her job, it seems, is to organize the transition to a new form of Conservative politics with less emphasis on austerity and economic competence and more on racist populism. Amid a record period of declining living standards and economic stagnation, the currency of politics today is resentment; it is never just “the economy, stupid.” Theresa May's Le Pen Moment