Brit Beats 2024 wrap up, Gaza, journalism is not a crime, free Cecilia Sala
From the Tories' disastrous defeat to far right violence, 2024 was quite the year in the UK, and around the globe. The genocide in Gaza continues and journalism is not a crime.
Brit Beats 2024 Wrap-Up
It’s been a long break, longer than I expected but one of my commitments for 2025 is to publish more regularly. Let’s delve into this eventful year for British politics without further ado.
Let’s start with July’s General Elections. The outcome was far from surprising, in line with the traditional shifts between the two main parties across the decades. The defeat of Rishi Sunak’s Tories sealed the end of 14 years of Tory governments, led by five different Prime Ministers. These governments led the country through Brexit, the Covid pandemic, and the social and cost of living crisis (crises largely caused by their neoliberal policies and severe cuts to public expenditure, especially when it comes to the NHS) in the same way in which a drunk or intoxicated driver would drive a bus full of people towards a ravine.
It is then unsurprising that the electorate punished the Tories, and while Keir Starmer’s victory was felt by some possibly as a new-post Blairite moment, such depiction is quite far from the real picture.
While Labour under Starmer has an overwhelming majority, if we compare the votes of Labour in 2019 and 2024, the picture becomes surreal. Corbyn’s Labour won more votes in 2019 than Starmer’s in 2024. However, the former presided over one of Labour’s worst defeats, while the latter became Prime Minister. The secret of course is the electoral system, first past the post.
While the first past the post is seen as an insurance of political stability and progressive passage of power between the Tories and the Labour Party, the distortion between the two results for the Labour Party in terms of votes and seats cannot be seen as unproblematic.
Back in 2019, Labour won 32.1% of the vote (8 points down from the 2017 elections, where Labour won 40%) and gained 202 seats, its worst results since the 1935 General Elections. This year, a 1.6 plus change resulted in a landslide with 412 seats (on a total of 650); if we compare the results of this year with 2017, Corbyn’s Labour won 42,2% of the vote and gained 262 seats, while Theresa May lost her majority.
The distortion that the electoral system creates is not a small one, especially at a time when the sitting Prime Minister is increasingly unpopular, with dissatisfaction towards him polling at 61% according to this month’s Ipsos data.
All of this is connected to the fact that Labour’s return to government is more of a consequence of the electorate’s dissatisfaction and exhaustion with the Tories, than a real backing of Starmer and his government’s agenda. Additionally, this election also saw the best result so far for the Green Party, with four MPs elected, including party co-leader Carla Deyer and Nigel Farage, the far-right Phoenix whose Reform UK saw the elections of five MPs, including himself. Starmer’s government also had to contend in August with far-right assaults in the country, which brought a level of violence against and fear among minorities at a troubling level.
The far-right protests in August and Farage, the far-right Phoenix
The far-right “riots” seen in August in various parts of the country, from England to Belfast have been a symbol of the damages inflicted to the public debate in terms of views and perspectives after year of fearmongering and hateful rhetoric against minorities, migrants and Muslims. The two characters who featured in this context were of course Nigel Farage, who unsurprisingly fanned the flames of conflict and Elon Musk. X was at the centre of the disinformation and fake news that led to the explosion of racist violence, and Musk himself mentioned the prospects of civil war, while also starting a series of political and personal attacks against Keir Starmer. The billionaire also made a joke using Starmer’s name, Keir by changing it to Tier, suggesting that there is an harsher approach from the justice system towards white offenders compared to the one towards people of African, Asian descent and other minorities in Britain, a baseless and misguided hoax (a two tier-policing system).
Such a stance from Musk is perfectly in line with his sympathy for far-right ideas and white supremacy views and conspiracy theories, which he has espoused and amplified, like the one around the white genocide. Since then, Musk has seen his bet on Trump succeeding with a role alongside the Administration, expressed his support for the “post” Nazi far-right party AfD in the upcoming German elections in February and hinteda at the possibility of bankrolling Reform UK in the future. All of this, on top of the popularity of Farage which is constantly rising (unlike the one of Starmer and the ineffective leadership of Kemi Badenoch) offer bleak prospects for the level of debate in the UK next year, indicating stronger ties between Farage and now President-elect Donald Trump, and Tech-consigliere Elon Musk.
Keir Starmer’s government and the ongoing support of the genocide in Gaza
When it comes to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have been labeled as genocide not only by Amnesty International, but also by Human Rights Watch, the attitude of Starmer’s government has not really shifted from the one pushed by Rishi Sunak: the bare minimum or no criticism of the actions of the IDF and the ongoing military support for Israel.
When it comes to the ICC arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Keir Starmer has managed to offer a masterpiece of cerchiobottismo (an Italian term which exemplifies the idea of not taking a clear position, navigating between two antithetical choices) by backing the International Criminal Court on one hand, while on the other not clarifying what would happen if Netanyahu or Gallant were to visit the UK.
Starmer’s recent visit to RAF’s Akrotiri military base in Cyprus has also highlighted the magnitude of the British government support for the IDF actions, as both US and UK planes have been conducting surveillance in Gaza, as revealed by Declassified UK.
While the UK government proceeds in the same wicked ways of most European governments when it comes to Gaza, with notable exceptions such as Spain and Ireland, the British public keeps on showing its support on the streets. The next national demo organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign will take place on January 18.
Journalism is not a crime - #FreeCeciliaSala
Saying “Journalism is not a crime” should be a rhetorical sentence, but the data indicates that this has to be clarified loudly and clearly, against the abuses and violence that our profession faces. According to the International Federation of Journalists, 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in 2024. Among these 64 Palestinian, 6 Lebanese and one Syrian journalists have been killed, counting for the 58% of the total. The IJF also listed three media professionals killed in Iraq, a photographer and two Kurdish journalists killed in Syria. 22 journalists have been killed in the Asia-Pacific, 10 in Africa, nine in America, four in Europe (in the theatre of the war in Ukraine), while 516 journalist worldwide are currently incarcerated.
This exponential number also include the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, contributing to both the daily newspaper Il Foglio and Chora Media (where she curates the daily podcast Stories) who has been arrested in Tehran on December 19, when she was about to leave Iran and is currently imprisoned in Evin prison, in the Iranian capital.
Sala has been accused of having violated the Islamic laws of the country (no specifications have been provided and it is a pretext for the arrest ) and had all the needed permits for her reporting work in the country. The prospects of Sala’s freedom seem to be complicated by the arrest of Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a 38-year-old Iranian man accused of working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, at Malpensa airport in Milan, for possible extradition to the United States.
As the year closes, Sala is still in Evin prison and it is no clear when she will be free. We must remind everyone that journalism is not a crime, call and hope for her immediate release #FreeCeciliaSala.
That’s all for 2024, see you in 2025!