The Telegraph has been pushing this article out:

It begins with this comment:

If there is a more shameful and disturbing moment in modern British politics, I'm struggling to think of one today. After a campaign that weaponised troubling sectarianism and open bigotry, the smug and gurning Greens have taken the Gorton and Denton by-election at the expense of our democracy.

And then it continues with this racist analysis:

This was effectively a straight fight between the working-class population of Denton – 83 per cent white, mostly in low-paid jobs, and supporting Reform – and the communities of Gorton, who are 60 per cent non-white, 40 per cent Muslim, and voting Green.

And the Greens' big crime? They did this:

Understandably, Reform focused on the Denton vote. But they were no match for the Greens, who cynically sold two different messages to the different groups, speaking of the cost of living from one corner of their mouths and Gaza from the other, and producing “anti-Zionist” videos in Urdu.

In other words, what they did was talk to voters about what mattered to them, in language they understood, whilst never once misleading anyone as to their overall message, which reflects universal concerns about:

• Climate change
• Inequality
• Economic injustice
• Failing public services
• Genocide
• The rise of fascism
• Increasing racism
• Growing fear, for a multitude of reasons
• The need for the recognition of diversity whilst embracing equity and inclusion.

They did, in other words, talk about a politics of care. And it is that which is, apparently, heading us for an abyss.

I am not surprised by this. We know the far right are very bad losers, not least because they think they have a natural right to be winners, which democracy does not recognise, which is why they hate it so much.

I am also not surprised, because just as Labour is scared stiff by the Greens, because it removes the age-old assumption that the left has no choice but to vote Labour, come what may, so too are the far right frightened of them, precisely because they expose the fact that the politics of hate and the economics of failure are not necessary, but that the poltucs and economics of hope are possible.

In that case, we must expect many more of these attacks. That they make no sense does not matter. Just compare these two paragraphs. First, this is the claim:

[N]ot since the Sixties, when Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths campaigned on an openly racist message, or the Seventies, with the rise of the National Front, or the BNP's heyday early this century, have we seen an election so dominated by group hatred.

This is the apparent reason:

What did our elites expect after decades of importing communities from non-democratic cultures into our country and neglecting their assimilation? This by-election result has been a long time in coming. Without determined defensive action, and the regrettable rethinking of the limits of liberalism in the face of exploitation, it could be the beginning of the end.

That is an openly racist message, although I am sure that would be denied.

So, where are we? There are three things to note.

First, the attacks on the Greens are going to be staggeringly vitriolic, hostile, and abusive and most likely racist, whilst also potentially inciting violence. Reform and Restore will bith do this, but you can be sure the Tories and Labour will join in. The right wing now has a common foe in the Greens in England, Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP in Scotland, and they are going to let us know about it in the most profoundly unpleasant ways.

Second, the means Greens and independence parties are going to need support to withstand the attacks being made on them. This is not just electoral support. It is expressions of real human concern that will matter to show that there is real community solidarity for those who are standing up for people, decency, hope and the chance of a future, which all those parties collectively seek to deny us through their policies of denial on our shared humanity, and our shared need to live together in harmony on this planet. We need to collectively show our support for decency when it's very likely to be absent from the rhetoric of many in politics from hereon.

Third, there is pressure on all these parties to get their ducks in a row now. They cannot be at the mercy of fortune, and that means sound economic policy is, above all else, necessary. As I show in this morning's video, we already live in an economy whose workings can only be explained using modern monetary theory. It's time for them all to get their heads around this fact and robustly defend the possibility that opens up. Nothing else can do that.

We hav e to deal with a new world of toxic politics. But if we do not, things will get very much worse.

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