Novara Media

AB on GB News ... at Buckingham Palace!

The @Telegraph & others are campaigning for the U.K. taxpayer to subsidise Tom Ford shoes & Gucci handbags for tourists who come to the U.K.

If you buy a suit you pay VAT, but if a tourist buys the same suit your taxes pay for their discount.

WTF?! pic.twitter.com/oby739x8Qz

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 4, 2023

who even gives a flying shit about subsidising tourists? The eejit wants to be a spokesperson for the Taxpayers Alliance now

Novara is good now.

The thing the East German Communist dictatorship was most successful at was building a wall to prevent people leaving and shooting those who tried.

Disgraceful to think people who write this nonsense were welcomed by the hard left leadership that poisoned Labour under Corbyn. https://t.co/aMLPSVN4Es

— Ian Austin (@LordIanAustin) May 8, 2023

Stfu!

I have one real regret with Fully Automated Luxury Communism. I got something very badly wrong…

I didn’t have the courage to back my hypothesis as strongly as I should have. More & more people I speak to think an artificial general intelligence is possible in the next decade… pic.twitter.com/5FIX6qzb7P

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 18, 2023

My basic problem with FALC, tho I enjoy the style & general bravura argument, is that its economics are duff. Sure you can imagine Romer AK model will run forever and we can all be infinitely rich, but it is increasingly clear our core growth models fail to describe growth… 1/n https://t.co/07soTLxsyA

— James Meadway (@meadwaj) May 18, 2023

Ok this is actually good.

We’d pay a cleaner our freelance rate, yes.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 19, 2023

Strong, though rambling, statement from Allardyce.

Big Sam on AI and job layoffs.

Mr Allardyce is welcome on @novaramedia to discuss automation and climate change any time @LUFC! pic.twitter.com/XqyY4LsnIt

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 19, 2023

William Blake said that the idea God would have ever have a singular voice was unthinkable because a voice is by definition a finite thing and God is infinite, and you've got ppl like this going 'ooohhh this one chatbot software knows my subway order, what have we done?' https://t.co/ApGmZCfBXX

— Nettles #ElbitIsGuilty (@problemcl0wn) May 21, 2023

Really outstanding answer from Arnold Schwarzenegger explaining the rationale of protest groups like Just Stop Oil. pic.twitter.com/pU4Z9cBNH3

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) May 21, 2023

AB is set to become a father for the first time. I'm glad for him and his wife, who is plainly a generous and sincere person.

In terms of Novara content I imagine it will go along with AB mellowing further and more often telling assailants "you're a grown man, log off and enjoy life with your children".

I'm not certain re the original substance here - think Creasy had a better point than usual in the first place - but AB is correct to say that this is juvenile and totally inappropriate from an elected parliamentarian.

If I'm reading this right, Stella misread 'racist' as a 5-letter word and thought up an absolute slam-dunk on this mistaken premise. https://t.co/C6rWKxPkMz

— The Jim Foundation #PCFA (@DunceFoundation) June 10, 2023

I think it's forgivable for even an elected parliamentarian to be juvenile in response to something this inane, this is just Bastani mindlessly repeating random arguments he remembers from that Matthew Goodwin book he was so taken with, despite them not really having anything to do with Creasy's original post (also the five letter word she's referring to is 'bigot' surely?)

I think one of the lesser understood aspects of why politics is toxic, is how politicians and figures from the centre, presented with politics now being quite hard (low growth & polarising views) call everyone they disagree with a racist and a bigot. https://t.co/RSEZL5xC8H

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 10, 2023

Sanctimonious dross there from Creasy who not for the first time needs a serious self awareness check

AB becoming a father shouldn't affect Novara's content?

AB likes big, high-achieving men who achieve things like print publications and play sport. (I don't know the person he's talking about here.)

😮 Bookforum re-launch

📰 New Nation website dropped

✍️ Finished a Jacobin print issue

💪🏼Organised 1st DC conference for socialist elected officials in a century

💍 Getting married…tomorrow??

All while having a black eye from basketball?

What’s @sunraysunray taking?? pic.twitter.com/DA1Toc02yQ

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 22, 2023

Like AB, I'm glad to hear of BOOKFORUM being revived.

the big high-achieving man with the big portfolio of achievements is Bhaskar Sunkara (never heard of him tbh)

personally I'm always more impressed with people who keep walking out of jobs, never getting ahead, struggling with addiction issues, failing at relationships, failing at life etc... Anyway why would having a black eye prevent a left-wing political writer from achieving any of these?

"Bhaskar Sunkara"

Believe he is the publisher of Jacobin, took over Tribune etc.

Also a melt. Will tell you to vote for Starmer.

so that's why AB is doing such a sycophantic brownnosing post, very undignified

The man is dumb.

Hear me out.

A left populist leader would go to Rupert Murdoch’s summer party.

And they’d go straight up to the lizard of Oz & tell him to pay tax in the U.K, or relinquish control of his media assets here. They’d also add Leveson 2 is coming. Then they’d grab a G&T.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 23, 2023

damn, a more equal society. wish I'd thought of that. you stupid cunt. pic.twitter.com/lqX79e5rdr

— jan (@janhopi) June 24, 2023

Elton John performance was 🤯🤯🤯

200,000 people enjoying one of Britain’s greatest living artists, whose work has touched millions around world over 5 decades.

The words about George Michael were really moving too. RIP

Why are so many conservatives spitting bile over this?! pic.twitter.com/r3kfF6OTa9

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 25, 2023

touched millions around world

once someone associated w the left succumbs to journalism brain there's no hope for them. solidarity is a distant world. they're just doing their job & afa theyre concerned that job is what they do for the cause, a cause totally unrooted & subject to change/self interest/pressure pic.twitter.com/vNJG55zBBp

— michael richmond (@Sisyphusa) June 28, 2023

Btw, this is what the tweets are referring to.

Anyway, share the real story. Send it to your cis friends. Tell them to send it to theirs. People need to know what the situation is in this country for trans people.https://t.co/FIfq3Ac9KP

— Jess O'Thomson ♿️ 🏳️‍⚧️ (@jessothomson) June 27, 2023

an allegedly left-wing media outlet shouldn't be taking statements from Turning Point at face value. I thought it might take a decade for them to turn into Spiked - it's happening much faster.

I'm just skimming through this but the NM reporting on the anti-trans violence seems flippant and it seems AB is happy to share space with some real scumbags, including one associated with the organisation behind the attack, "to put forward his case etc..." that shit really starts to sound weaker every time him and others like Grace Blakely use it to justify going on GB news or whichever open sewer they are happy to wade into to further their careers.

Lol that's a really good point.

his whole argument about how they're forced to have a communist on to maintain their license as well, like that's a good thing rather than he is in fact helping them to stay on air.

— jan (@janhopi) June 28, 2023

In his video Farage said he was offered a personal account but not a business one by another bank in same group.

There's also allegedly other banks refusing him. This is a serious civil liberties issue if true, shouldn't be an opportunity to go "haha" at someone you dislike. https://t.co/xyf2XU7gBl

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 4, 2023

the bruised ego of a rich fascist prick has got nothing to do with civil liberties, haha-ing at bigoted people you don't like is good, actually. I heard Coutts don't comment on matters like this so he's taking the words of Farage at face value, is he new at this game or something?

Coutts have a minimum balance of something like £3 million or you can’t play. He’s obviously skint in their eyes.

Fuck you.

I’d pay to end the 2 child benefit cap by reforming ‘foreign aid’, personally.

That might sound controversial - but I don’t think it should. The costs of keeping 250k kids in poverty are way bigger than £1.3B a year.

More here: https://t.co/CwL6MlqJfZ https://t.co/8fAZJzl0ao

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 19, 2023

I can’t quite believe what happened a few hours ago, but on my way to the train station, to head into the @novaramedia office, a man I’ve never seen before screamed my name while passing by and assaulted me. I was punched multiple times. (1/5)

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 25, 2023

Dreadful.

I have worried for quite a long time about the danger to public figures, such as socialist journalists and pundits, with the current state of society and public discourse.

Brutal attack on Owen Jones a few years ago was a prominent example. OJ is better known than most and more likely to be targeted. But clearly others are not safe.

Saw a couple of "left-wingers" not giving a shit, not knowing that they won't discriminate.

Conscription (which is what "national service" refers to) is obviously a right wing tool against the poor & young to provide a begrudging and prone to abuse "care" to the poor & disabled/old.

You couldn't even come up with a more right wing "solution" for care https://t.co/sejEX3mRY2

— Decorum in the Discoteca (@TKispeter) August 10, 2023

social care needs more funding and better fucking wages for specialised background checked workers you fucking insipid moron. Dragooning people into work they might be ill suited to in a hardcore austerity period where the UK govt will pay minimum wage at best or well below is a stupid fucking dangerous idea that could only lead to bad outcomes like abuse of vulnerable people and deaths.

I really fucking hate this cunt now

Basic pay for a private soldier was 28 shillings (£1.40) a week in 1948. This compared poorly with the average weekly wage in 1951, which was eight pounds, eight shillings and six pence. Those on a Short Service Commission would get extra pay.

Pay for conscripts rose to 38 shillings in 1960. However, the average weekly wage for men in 1961 was 15 pounds, 10 shillings.

Sometimes the low wages were reduced by deductions for lost or damaged kit and equipment. National Servicemen often had little money left for social activities beyond a visit to the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes

the og national service also paid people a pittance for abusing vulnerable people and committing murder

I imagine that in AB's national service, there would be a lot of bullying.

I suspect that AB doesn't perceive this problem because he is a former body-builder who was not afraid of bullies.

Bastani says he has been "attacked" for coming with such opinions, but he gets thoughtful responses like the above, for which he ignores as he has no answers to them.

In AB's national service there would be a very sophisticated screening process to protect the vulnerable and ensure social care conscripts are appropriately allocated: are you a dodgy af ? yes/no

it's bad enough when local authorities go to agencies for social care workers to save on doing any proper recruitment and training. Last year an agency sent a transport escort who was turned away by son's SEN college because he was staggeringly drunk and being inappropriately chatty with female staff. I'd imagine AB knows a lot more about body building supplements than he does about the social care crisis. He's a fucking clown with right-wing brain worms.

I think AB's idea makes a kind of socialist sense - getting people to contribute to community. I imagine that they have had such things in China or Cuba, say, in the past. Or that many socialist utopias have had them.

On the other hand, the UK is not a socialist society, so you'd be forcing people to contribute to a society that is actually geared to profit, inequality, exploitation, etc. This may be contradictory.

Socialists like AB are always saying that young people now have a raw deal - eg on housing, jobs, pay, rent. OK. Wouldn't national service for the young just punish them further? Why should they take the burden of a society they haven't made?

Maybe the national service would be better aimed at the 'boomers' that AB often seems to despise?

it me:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dadsarmy/images/8/8f/Private_Godfrey.jpg

High inflation means below inflation pay rises and above inflation price increases.

It’s true for countless companies, and in countless industries. See how it works? pic.twitter.com/nlv5ejToFF

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) August 17, 2023

AB seems to be on GB News at least once a week. He gets on well with their presenter.

I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing, but it's true.

FWIW I think the things he says when on the channel are often persuasive.

I reflect that the only time I see GB News is when AB, or indeed Walker, talk about it and appear on it.

So whatever else they are doing, for good or ill, they are certainly increasing its exposure.

"gets on well with their presenter."

I'm sure they do.

this country is terminally fucked when the left wing panelist on GB news is the bring back national service guy.

they might get into trouble with ofcom when their left panellist has fully opened his mind to the marketplace of ideas.

I've just watched an episode of Novara Live and one of the items is Michael Walker screening and discussing ... his own contribution to GB News.

It literally is true that for most people on the political Left, the only time they ever see GB News or have an idea what its presenters look like is when they're re-transmitted on Novara Media.

I don't think that can be true - Nigel Farage is one of the presenters.

OK. GB News features a few (?) famous right-wing politicians whom people would recognise.

Otherwise, few people watch it, and nobody on the Left would choose to watch it (if they can even find it*), so they would have little idea what it really is or looks like, unless AB and MW kept re-screening clips of themselves on it.

*I was going through obscure channels on my TV recently and found that it receives GB News!