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George MonbiotFebruary 10, 2026 at 2:31 AM EST

1. Many here seem bemused by the anger and disappointment this government attracts. Please bear with me while I try to explain it. Let’s begin with Gaza. Starmer’s complicity is one of the major reasons so many people are disillusioned. rethinkingsecurityorguk.wpcomstaging.com 🧵

2. Linked to its alignment with the Netanyahu government is the Labour government’s assaults on the right to protest at home. Assaults that would have stopped the Labour movement in its tracks: theguardian.com

3. Then there’s the government’s parroting of Reform UK lines on immigration and small boats, despite all the evidence showing that when centrists ape the extreme right they simply empower it. It even went so far as to mimic Reform’s branding: theguardian.com

4. Its repeated assaults on benefits - first resisting, beyond all reason, its backbenchers’ demands to end the Tories' vicious two-child benefit cap, before finally relenting, then seeking to throw people with disabilities into the ditch - has been grim beyond belief. 5. For me, a massive frustration has been the government’s war on nature: falsely pitching wildlife against human welfare, tearing down essential protections for the tiny scraps of ecosystem that remain here. theguardian.com

6. Its misallocation of resources on climate has also been deeply shocking. It is sluicing public money into Carbon Capture and Storage not because it works (it doesn’t) but because it’s a finacial lifeline for the fossil fuel industry. theguardian.com

7. The failure to change our disastrous electoral system, which might gift the UK to Reform on a small share of the vote, can, I feel, be understood as a matter of putting party over country and faction over party. theguardian.com

8. Perhaps above all, it’s the way policy is decided. There seem to be two main determinants. A. Will this stick it to the Labour left? The whole country must suffer for Starmer’s factional war. Good, progressive policies are blocked or delayed because they would look like a concession. 9. B. Does it give business lobbyists what they want? To just as great an extent as the Tories, this government has allowed corporate lobbyists to shape its agenda and shut down competing options. When you see the whole picture, it’s breath-taking. theguardian.com

10. There’s much more, but I’ll leave it there, in the hope that maybe you can begin to understand that Starmer’s detractors aren’t just the bitter, never-satisfied cynics and saboteurs of your imagination, but might actually have a point. Thank you. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue