Novara Media

I really like this short piece from @Maoskyist on what NS should be doing in the current context - and I hope it can open up wider discussion of what a left publication ought to be doing. https://t.co/5xN4WofPOB

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) October 12, 2022

Look who's going.

The Strasser Brothers memorial festival pic.twitter.com/EQHwvDYivN

— Sunlight bathed the golden glow (@mypalfootfoot7) October 13, 2022

Why would anyone go to hear SPIKED! nonsense at the 'Battle of Ideas'

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 29, 2012

lol should've known xyzz would be quicker than me in posting this one

🤗🤗🤗

fucking glinner tho, I had the impression that even the terf-sphere had decided he was a liability/not the best messenger for their Reasonable Concerns.

He’s a liability alright but there’s always the chance he screams the quiet part loud

he is hardly the only liability there tho

Disappointed in Coppola, The Conversation is still a banger tho.

This is pretty good.

canal-boats, garment factories, sugar production & consumption, & the bourgeois machismo of the contemporary british left: presenting the ~director's cut~ of my talk at TWT!https://t.co/T9mBSw6Pro

— josie sparrow (@ofthesparrows) October 14, 2022

Slightly surprised by implication that Sarkar has strong views on Coltrane's extensive back catalogue of work.

I mean, *this* is the best Robbie Coltrane bit isn't it? https://t.co/QD7cjbnnL8

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 14, 2022

Obviously this is not a good way to win hearts and minds to activism or the climate movement, but it does get people talking about oil. I'm more interested in getting people talking about new oil than the reputation of climate activism, so I have some respect! https://t.co/NR0X8Gtq9O

— Michael Walker (@michaeljswalker) October 14, 2022

Unsure that this protest did "get people talking about oil" as MW hopes.

I've heard a little. less so than talk about the action itself (which is whatever) but the cynical reaction bothers me more

I hate to half-agree with michael wanker who's been the most blue labour of the lot as far as I can tell

it did get manage to get people talking about oil paintings

I'm touched by this statement from a noted art critic.

I’m totally on protesters’ side on this. VG can take it. The planet can’t.

— matthew collings (@matthew51691936) October 14, 2022

Recent Shaun video on JK Rowling's mates casually mentions the Big Brane Festival Bastani went to is funded by the UK branch of the ADF, a US christian right org dedicated to stopping "the homosexual agenda".

https://www.paulmason.org/vote/

if the big brane fest is the spiked event, bastani has said he *didn't* actually attend in the end

I don’t agree with myself 12 years ago on lots of things. One of which is speaking to people who disagree with you. Nothing is more rewarding than reading feedback about how NM content changed someone’s mind. In any case I’m not doing this as my dad has had a stroke.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 14, 2022

p sure spiked is koch- if not thiel-funded these days -- tho (if it hasn't already been written somewhere) a deep dive into the various dark moneys funding of all such projects, complete with receipts, wd be a welcome thing (we shd be working to get the opposed wings of evil fighting one another more)

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Aaron. I wish him a speedy recovery.

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) October 14, 2022

"I've grown up" = I am talking to right wingers = you are a melt!

Yeah that was the one, was it an official Spiked thing? I know it's got that vibe.

I don't really buy Bastani's stance because being the Token Lefty on a long bill of reactionaries means accepting a wrong framing from the get-go. Also, I'm sure most posters itt are familiar with this, but there's this thing certainb types of right wingers do where because they believe themselves to care about Free Speech and the Exchange Of Ideas above all else they enjoy being able to debate leftists within a genteel context because it makes them feel like they're open minded. Zero chance of anyone who'd buy a ticket for this walking away thinking "actually that Bastani guy made some good points", but they sure would have left patting themselves on the back for having heard a leftist out, flattering their self-image as free thinkers.

Re: financing, might as well post that Shaun video. It's specifically about funding of TERF movements from the US right, I'll admit I didn't know how far these connections extended. Fair warning his style is, err, not for everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_xvXJJk7k

battle of ideas is a spiked thing yes. they've been running on absolute-freedom-of-speech since the early 90s at least, when they were still (sortakinda) marxists (RCP) hammering a USP / branding that distiguished them from all the other trot groupuscules, and their platform was "living marxism" (the other marxisms were DEAD bcz the working class was dead iirc etc)

not at all endorsing bastani's argument here, just noting that he apparently didn't actually attend (the ad listing him was of course signed off days or weeks in advance)

Wow. @novaramedia has hit a quarter of a million subscribers on YouTube. 250,000. That’s:

2.7 x Wembley Stadium
4 x Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
25 x Bournemouth Vitality Stadium

A lot of people!

Congrats to the video team, who want to redefine what mainstream news looks like 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/PLT5KMlIb8

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 17, 2022

"4 x Tottenham Hotspur Stadium".

I'm touched.

much less than half the amount of people who subscribe to Paul Mason on twitter!

Absolutely fascinating number of ghost QTs here... pic.twitter.com/ehtAbkgcIr

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) October 17, 2022

not at all endorsing bastani's argument here, just noting that he apparently didn't actually attend

No I understand, but dropping out due to a family emergency means he would've if he could've.

There in spirit some might say

The only one worth bothering with.

A few points on this argument: (1) British politics *has* had 'political' - i.e., non-technocratic - leaders for the past few years; in particular its main opposition party was helmed by the most anti-systemic British politician in living memory. https://t.co/7vRgdMbblh

— James B (@piercepenniless) October 18, 2022

Tony Adams, alongside Rio Ferdinand, is the best centre back I’ve ever seen play for England.

Even more impressive: he hasn’t really aged since 1998? pic.twitter.com/1c9D3N1ml8

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 18, 2022

Not AB's best tweet. Yes, TA has 'aged well', but he isn't really unchanged since 1998 (no-one is), and even that wouldn't be 'impressive' as an achievement; mostly just an accident.

But is Adams really one of the very greatest modern ENG centre-backs? AB isn't old enough to remember some of his worst performances (this is a standard AB flaw when talking of soccer). Think I'd be inclined to put Sol Campbell above him; maybe Butcher; Ledley King a better player but injury-hit; and I'm not sure that Adams was really a better player than Gary Pallister, Des Walker and others.

Adams was strong in a good side in Euro 96; I expect AB is really just lazily referring back to that memory.

Suella Braverman: "I fought the Quorn, and the Quorn won".

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 19, 2022

That would be a good pun if 'Quorn' sounded more like 'Law'.

Should @novaramedia start a line in anti landlord merch? Is it time to bring this much needed message to your nearest high street?

Please RT this for better feedback!

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 19, 2022

Not AB's best day online.

xp

bad puns are absolutely fine, leave all the good puns to cunts like Gyles Brandreth imo, lol

Novara would very likely agree with Monbiot.

These comparisons (“Xi’s China”) totally obfuscate things. They can be situated within the history of the British state, of the role of repression in the accumulation of capital. https://t.co/eJXfsfoDon

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) October 20, 2022

A communist speaks.

If you want a General Election, get out on the streets and demand one.

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 20, 2022

disappointed penny's gone for the novara media aesthetic here rather than the tried and true, much-beloved brand identity of Good Manners Emojis. game's gone. https://t.co/w77VB9zrML

— josie sparrow (@ofthesparrows) October 20, 2022

Getting more Bastani tweets on my timeline. Inanities like this.

The Peripheral is really good. London circa 2090 has replaced building lego-esque skyscrapers with statues several times larger than the Shard (!)

Sci-Fi is such a powerful genre in 21st C, when every political & economic impulse demands the future *must* look like the present. pic.twitter.com/dY9Wcs0sA4

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 22, 2022

Last night I finished watching Tysky Sour from 8 days earlier - that is 1 PM, 1 Chancellor, 1 Home Secretary ago. It featured a good nuanced discussion of the Van Gogh oil protest. I was quite convinced by MW's statement that "these people have made the sacrifice of being thought ridiculous by most of the country". A discussion of undeclared donors to neoliberal think-tanks was also good.

Then I started watching one from a mere 5 days ago, with Sarkar. I now only have about 4 hours of this to be up to date again.

Thank goodness for Novara Media's coverage of current events, which can help our understanding and also sometimes give us entertainment or encouragement.

What a silly person.

this reads like copy from a property developer who wants to put a load of shipping containers full of street food vendors on brockwell park https://t.co/EcUUBymHKM

— Peregrine falcon fan (@nrgsrhc) October 24, 2022

lol this tweet was harrumphed at by the full-spectrum professional twitter grump gang (from joe k3nnedy to qu4ntick)

I have quite often said before that while I like lots about the Novara people, they are different from me for various reasons, above all that they are young.

I feel that Sarkar's statement reflects this. I don't like it at all.

If parks are open and spacious then leave them that way. It is probably better for what limited wildlife exists in them. The idea of wanting to cover this with 'street food stands' is very wrongheaded.

I reflect that Sarkar's statement also reflects a general tendency among these people to go somewhere and say it's better than the UK. In some cases, in some ways, it might well be. But the gesture also seems naive, too much the reaction of the thrilled tourist who didn't want to come home.

I would say all kinds of bullshit if I had their kind of platform tbh

I think in this particular case you're both getting hung up on the food stalls and ignoring the two other, non-profitable, activities listed.

I do find London public spaces, be they parks or squares or whatever, sorely lacking in Old People Just Hanging Out Talking Shit, which def is an important sign of civilisation.

Of course London weather doesn't make this very easy but I notice Caribbean immigrant populations give it as much of a go as they can, when they are not being dispersed by the cops for anti-social activity that is.

West Ham Park and the Olympic Park are full of people chatting on benches, having kids' birthday parties on the grass, walking their dogs, playing table tennis, doing open-air workouts.. Maybe Ash doesn't live in the right part of London for this stuff?

there is a giant outdoor chess board outside Hudds library and two branches of Greggs, a largish piazza where couples can canoodle. Total Mexico ripoff.

As someone who lives near Brockwell park I see couples in parks. I do see old people walking. I see people going for a run or playing some sport.

In summer I see the festivals being put in the park, so it is actually being criminally well used for profit. She is talking nonsense xxp

If she was suggesting urban golf courses be compulsorily purchased and turned into parks then I could get behind it, hate those fucking things

Ok but "this is untrue" is a diff argument from "thid would not be good".

Simon Jenkins, a person who people on ILX probably do not like, has written many times that London's parks, which should be simply public, are repeatedly sealed off and used by private corporations to make massive profits, and that this is wrong.

I agree with this view.

you could also replace "London's parks" with "land"

let's take back st george's hill from the golfers and millionaires