If you support Reform, Restore, Greens and similar far right/left parties

[Yellownotblue]

How do you feel about the fact that your support is being whipped up by Russia, in concerted attacks, for the specific purpose of sowing division and political instability in Britain? Is this giving you any pause for thought? Do you think you will go back to supporting traditional parties?

Do you think the party you support has a strong platform to defend the country against clear and present danger from very powerful nations which are taking active measures to harm us? Or put another way, are you prepared to entertain the very real possibility that the party you support is propped up by foreign influence and money that are actually using you as pawns in a political game that will destroy all of us, including yourself?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2l352z2do

You are right, I should have said MP or 'elected politician'.

I think we can both agree that he is not a reliable source of information anyway!!

The Green party are not ‘far left’. they are the most left wing party we have among the major parties but that doesn’t make them far left.
I don’t think any of the parties have the best interests of normal people at the centre of their ideology and that is the problem.

@Yellownotblue Did you read to the end of the BBC article you linked? This is just the usual highly questionable BBC reporting we all know well and why trust in the organisation is at rock bottom.

Quote (my bold):

Cdr Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the aim of the attacks was clearly "to intimidate and create fear for the prime minister and to attack the UK". But she said police have not been able to prove the identity of EL or who he was working for, and that "we've got no evidence to suggest that this was a state-backed threat".

However, sources have told us that authorities in the UK and in Ukraine have privately concluded Russia was behind the arson attacks.

It is not just the BBC saying this. The FT has a very good investigative article:

https://www.ft.com/content/dd79d6eb-44e4-4365-8c6e-a4fd64b211c8?syn-25a6b1a6=1

The end of the article says they have no evidence it was Russia. This is just the usual anti Russian message.

Did you read the FT article?

I can't. It's paywalled.

It is excellent. I was able to read it the first time I went into it. I will see if there is a share token somewhere.

Go to @joshspero.ft.com on bluesky, he has provided a non paywalled link to his article. But essentially:

A Russian online sabotage network was behind a series of arson attacks on Sir Keir Starmer’s family home and other targets linked to the UK prime minister, an FT investigation has found.

Prosecutors in the case did not disclose information about the identity of Lavrynovych’s handler, other than to reveal that they used the Telegram handle “El Money” and communicated in Russian and Ukrainian.

An FT investigation based on Telegram archives, cryptocurrency wallets, court evidence and interviews with western officials has established that El Money was located in Russia and was closely aligned with NoName057(16), a pro-Kremlin hacktivist group that the US has called a Russian “state-sanctioned project”.

The usual anti Russian message ?

Another link
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15902423/Russian-spy-orchestrated-arson-attacks-PM-started-wild-conspiracy-theory-revenge-two-Ukrainian-rent-boys.html

What is shocking is that the Russian-originated smear was spread here on a Mumsnet thread. I thought it was desperate for posters to do that. I mean it's a more accurate report in the Daily Mail ....

Russian spy orchestrated arson attacks on PM - then started wild conspiracy theory that it was revenge by two Ukrainian rent boys | Daily Mail Online

I'm definitely not a Reform voter and though there's things I like about the Greens some of their policies are 🙄. I also think where there are politicians/public figures very clearly cosyig up to Russia or receiving money from dodgy sources(I name no names) that should be seen as a clear warning that they don't genuinely have the best for Britain at heart.

BUT I think one thing that gets lost is that successful foreign shit stirring campaigns don't tend to create something out of nothing. It's very hard to manufacture outrage where there is none, it's very easy to exacerbate existing grievances into something much bigger. That means that, there are two ways this sort of interference damages public discourse:

1. Whipping everything up into a superheated angry argument. Causing greater division etc
2. Making it easy to dismiss grievance as "whipped up/not real". Concerns can be very real AND being exploited to cause division (even if I disagree with her I think my mum's opinions on the EU were real). In fact, it makes discourse harder because e.g. a right wing voter could accuse someone who disagrees with them of being "affected by propaganda/foreign bots" and a left wing voter could say the same. It erodes faith in democracy/discussion which is very much the intention. In reality we are all affected by algorithms etc in social media that doesn't mean it's impossible to come to an informed opinion or to disagree with someone else.

The individuals who are brazenly taking money or sucking up to governments (or individuals) opposed to UK interests are Not To Be Trusted however. TBH even when the country is an "ally" it's disturbing to see a British public figure talking about putting them first.

Interestingly the Russian Rent Boy story appeared to get traction on here and other places but was never mentioned offline to me even though I know people with very diverse political opinions. I thinknthey tried very hard to make it a big thing but it didn't land because it didn't fit with most people's existing ideas about Starmer. Whereas rumours that meet existing prejudices people might have work better. The problem is social media etc make it very easy for bad actors to fire of a barrage of different rumours/half truths/complaints and see what sticks. It's not that the techniques are new. Technology means it can be done much more efficiently and at scale.

It definitely got a lot of traction on here. As did the "press blackout" narrative that was equally untrue.

I didn't realise it got a lot - I saw a gleeful thread about it. Where it wasn't really believed but it was just seen as another thing to attack the PM with.

Heaven forbid the PM is held accountable. He's certainly busy at the moment with Russian threats that aren't about fake stories.

There were lots of posts about it on various threads along with speculation about Starmer's sexuality.

This is what happened:

At 1.10am, Starmer’s sister-in-law called the fire brigade after hearing loud bangs and seeing smoke and fire at the front door. Her nine-year-old daughter was woken by smoke; the sister-in-law, who has asthma, struggled to breathe.

This was then coupled with posts about 'rent boys' and 'burn the police'.

We should unite behind the PM over this. I am not making a political point - it would be the same if that had happened to an opposition MP, of course.

Farage claimed his phone was hacked by Russia, this shouldn't be ignored either.

No it shouldn't.
Although, where I worked if my work phone was hacked and I reported it there would be no blame. If my phone was hacked and I didn't bother to tell the appropriate authorities for ages because I was "handling it myself" I would be SO fired. Either

1. He's lying about it being hacked. This reflects very badly on him
2. He's telling the truth. This is a serious concern because it means Russia has been accessing MPs phones and also it's appalling he didn't tell any of the actual people meant to deal with that and instead faffed around with unnamed"independent experts"

Can't disagree!

Labour didn't cause Brexit, the biggest act of national self sabotage/ self harm a country inflicted on itself since colonisation.

Russia and right wingers in the UK made plenty out of it. Cameron, Johnson, Farage, Tommy "the Traitor" Robinson, Gove, Cummings did.

None of them lost anything. They all profited from it and some of them continue to. Putin is still fucking buzzing about it. Gives him something to feel hopeful and happy about, considering Ukraine are kicking Russia's arse.

Terribly greedy and immoral are those right wingers. Anyone would think that appointing a US Ambassador, who had not even been thoroughly vetted was a good thing. A friend of the most high profile sex offender and a red flag on security clearance, what could possibly have gone wrong. Glasses for passes? Lord Alli's generous gifts were turned down by Starmer were they? Another one of Starmer's little gems where he claimed he had done nothing wrong. Only swapping temporary security clearance to Downing Street for a nice pair of expensive glasses your honour. The left and their impeccable record eh. So much for the Greens being included in this thread. Anything to say about them?

The alledged Russian phone hack and the £5m donation should be taken seriously and be fully investigated