Left To Burn

By Left To Burn It's been a strange start to the year in UK politics. The Labour Party finally backed a ceasefire in Gaza, while it once again ran into trouble over claims of Antisemitism. This time, it's the Rochdale by-election, where Labour defended Blairite candidate Azhar Ali after he was caught making conspiratorial claims about 7 October. This was before Keir Starmer suddenly hit the eject...

Britain is preparing for a general election in 2024, but very few voters are enthused by the choices waiting for them at the ballot box. After 14 years of misrule, the Tories face a stronger Labour Party and a new alternative right-wing challenge thanks to their own failings. Josh White, with a new Left To Burn series. Get full access to The Battleground at thebattleground.substack.com/subscribe

By Left To Burn In January, we published a podcast about Everywhere But There , a collection of field recordings of Palestinian protests against Israeli military campaigns in Gaza. Captured by Battleground editor Joel Schalit in Berlin and Brussels between 2014 and 2021, the recordings have never been more relevant. Battleground publisher Natalie Sarkic-Todd leads Schalit and communications direct...

Brexit was not his strong point, and it took him too long to clarify his stance. And he could make some awful gaffes, as per his Jews and irony comment. But Jeremy Corbyn was still the best candidate for UK premier in decades and would have been elected without the subterfuge that favoured Boris Johnson. Josh White, and the final part of his Goodbye United Kingdom release party with Joel Schalit a...

British politics remains bound up with imperialism. Colonisation didn't just produce the multicultural country that exists today. It also drives white reaction against it. Part II of Josh White's Goodbye United Kingdom July launch at London's MayDay Rooms, with Battleground editor Joel Schalit and publisher Natalie Sarkic-Todd. Get full access to The Battleground at thebattleground.substack.com/su...

It was an unforgettable evening. On 13 July, London’s May Day Rooms hosted the UK release party for Josh White’s new Battleground book, Goodbye United Kingdom: Descent Into Chaos, 2015-2022 . For over two hours, White, with MCs Joel Schalit and Natalie Sarkic-Todd, shared his take on Brexit Britain and the complex domestic politics the UK’s departure from the EU indulged. This is the first of two...

Social democrats are in trouble all over Europe. The enemy is still the far-right, but the reasons why voters have turned to populists remain disputed. In the aftermath of the UK local elections, John Foster and Josh White discuss class realignment and whether there is anything to be learned from Labour’s victory over the Tories. Get full access to The Battleground at thebattleground.substack.com/...

From Donald Trump to European populists, conservatives have managed to work together even when they don’t like each other. In this episode of the Left To Burn podcast, Battleground editors Josh White and John Foster mull over the situation in Northern Ireland and weigh the question of why (and whether) the right’s apparent ability to keep itself together seems to outstrip that of the left. Get ful...

We live in an era of excess. The main obstacle to eliminating poverty is distribution. In the latest episode of Left To Burn, Battleground editors Josh White and John Foster discuss strategies for addressing this conundrum. Some think that universal basic income is the answer. Others pin their hopes on universal basic services, using more expansive means to achieve a similar goal. Get full access...

By Left To Burn Welcome to 2023. It’s not 1984, but we’re a lot closer to dystopia.  Automation is reconfiguring the world of work, and all too often, the left finds itself in the position of defending things that nobody wants. In the latest episode of The Battleground’s Left To Burn podcast, John Foster and Josh White look at the challenges and opportunities created by automation. While it has th...

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict overproduces journalism. With good reason. It's been one of the most politically significant crises since WWII. Whether broadcast news or newspaper articles, there's no shortage. Field recording LPs are an exception. In December, editor-in-chief Joel Schalit spoke to publisher Natalie Sarkic-Todd, and communications director Max Sattonay about his new Battleground...

By Left To Burn On the new Left To Burn, Josh White and John Foster discuss the threat posed by Germany’s Reichsbürger. What do such crises signify for the social democratic left, which, from Italy to the UK, remains far too beholden to centrism and corruption to provide an alternative European politics? It’s hard to imagine progressives leading the way, particularly given their lack of vision in...

The biggest failing of leftist anti-multiculturalism is a lack of solidarity. In the new Left To Burn podcast, Battleground editors John Foster and Josh White take on historian Tony Judt (1948-2010) and discuss his legacy for today's diversity debates, from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Rishi Sunak and British neoliberalism. Get full access to The Battleground at thebattleground.substack.com...

In the new edition of Left To Burn, Josh White and John Foster look at the decline of Liz Truss, and the rise of Giorgia Meloni. It should be a triumph for Italy and the UK to have women leaders, but neither has much use for democracy or human rights. Will Meloni fail like Truss? We’ll soon find out. Get full access to The Battleground at thebattleground.substack.com/subscribe

By Left To Burn The centre-left’s defeat in the Italian election isn’t its only story. In the second part of their conversation about Georgia Meloni’s victory, Basilio Korman and Joel Schalit change their focus to the damage it inflicted on Italy’s far-right. Meloni both alienated Italian fascists, including members of her own Fratelli d’Italia party, and defeated her main far-right competitor, Ma...

By Left To Burn Giorgia Meloni was always the winner. If the press is anything to go by, her triumph was confirmed the day Mario Draghi resigned. To make things worse, she didn’t win the popular vote. The Battleground’s Editor-in-Chief, Joel Schalit, spoke with staff journalist Basilio Korman about why Meloni triumphed and what it says about the state of Italian democracy. Photograph courtesy of J...

By Left To Burn In the new edition of Left To Burn, Josh White and John Foster mull over the latest regressions in British politics and lament the European left’s tendency to appropriate the worst errors of populism. Join us for another informed chat by our intrepid Transatlantic editors, who this week discovered the threads linking UK Premier Liz Truss to left-wing German sociologist Wolfgang Str...

By Left To Burn When is a change not a change? When one member of the moribund House of Windsor gives way to another but the inexorable decline of the United Kingdom continues apace. In this episode of the Left To Burn podcast, Battleground editors Josh White and John Foster look at events that masquerade as transformations. Photograph courtesy of Duncan C . Published under a Creative Commons lice...

By Left To Burn Coming to the end of one of the hottest and most destructive summers on record, politics on both sides of the Atlantic are heating up as well.  In the UK, the Tories look certain to select Liz Truss, with her latter-day Thatcherite politics to be its new leader. Meanwhile, politics in the United States still spirals in the malign orbit of Donald Trump. In the latest episode of the...

By Left To Burn The Tory leadership contest is hotting up, with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak failing to pitch themselves as Thatcher 2.0. Given Keir Starmer’s jihad against leftists in the Labour Party, Truss and Sunak are left to root out growing socialist tendencies amongst the Conservatives. Meanwhile, in the United States, the logjam in the Democratic Party that has been holding back Joe Biden’s...

By Left To Burn Boris Johnson has resigned. He’s still premier until September, so it’s not time to start singing “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” just yet. These should be good times. But Britain’s Labour Party is mired in institutional and political malaise, with Keir Starmer unable to do anything other than imitate the Liberal Democrats and the Tories. Starmer will do anything, or so it seems, to...

By Left To Burn Few French politicians are as loathsome as Marine Le Pen. Patiently waiting her turn for the presidency, she’s spent decades on the sidelines, preparing to take over. Thanks to centre-right politicians like arch-enemy Emanuel Macron copping her nationalist ideas and pushing France rightwards, Le Pen finally has her shot. Coming in second in this year’s parliamentary elections, her...

By Left To Burn Boris Johnson is facing a crisis of confidence, but not in himself sadly. The discontent in the country over Partygate and the cost-of-living crisis is matched by anger from Tory backbenchers. Many Conservative MPs are angry about lockdowns. They’re also angry about the lack of tax cuts and market reforms. They’re angry about the level of public spending. They’re angry about the fa...

By Left To Burn Perhaps it’s an expression of our collective fear. But the perception that fascism is making a comeback is much in evidence, both on the left and elsewhere. No idea is so bad that it is ever truly dead. With the political fortunes of the populist right on the rise, it’s natural to think in terms of worst-case scenarios. But being alert to threats is one thing and claiming that the...

By Left To Burn As the Russian invasion of Ukraine looks more and more like a quagmire, the broader consequences of Vladimir Putin’s aggressive policy come increasingly into view. Far from splitting the EU or slowing the expansion of NATO, the Ukraine invasion appears to be having precisely the opposite consequences. With Sweden and Finland preparing to join, and Switzerland seriously considering...