Diamond Ashiagbor
diamondashiagbor.bsky.social
Diamond Ashiagbor
@diamondashiagbor.bsky.social
professor of law, University of Birmingham | labour, EU, equality, race & colonialism | editor, European Law Open | FAcSS | fixed-term member, Matrix Chambers | trustee, Black Cultural Archives
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7533-8853
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
If all the fired journalists from the Washington Post get together and start a new paper I’ll send them my subscription money. Bet a lot of others would too.
I was curious to see what the WashPost would do to retain subscribers, so I started the cancellation process -- and they came back with a $2/month offer, which is crazy
February 5, 2026 at 1:53 AM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Jeffrey Bezos is destroying the Washington Post for the same reason Musk destroyed Twitter and Ellison is destroying CBS—oligarchs oppose the free press when if it threatens their wealth and power.

They don’t want normal people to see what is happening in America.
February 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Devastatingly sad.
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support
February 4, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Really looking forward to reading this - on African decolonial thinking
February 3, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
“We can think about the restructuring of the global economy to remove ... dependence, not just from foreign tourist industries but offshore financial centres & tax havens” — Kojo Koram

Explore our visual project on the Caribbean: https://visualising-extractive-capitalism.common-wealth.org
January 29, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
It's not just that these professional politics observers somehow failed to spot the obvious rise of American nativist thuggery.

It's how much energy they devoted to arguing the real problem was the volume, tone, and vocabulary of those raising the alarm about it.
January 25, 2026 at 10:24 PM
This is so painfully true. And BBC News comes to mind...
A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.
January 25, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**

substack.com/@gelliottmor...
January 25, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Blocking Andy Burnham from fighting the Gorton by-election is another gift to Reform from a Labour leadership whose entire strategy has so far played directly into their hands
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/morgan-mcs...
Morgan McSweeney’s 0% Strategy
The plot to block Andy Burnham's return to Westminster tells you everything you need to know about how Keir Starmer's Government got itself into this mess
www.adambienkov.co.uk
January 25, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
The BBC coverage is absolutely terrible.

It leads on "sharply contested narratives"

It has a dramatic skew to the US government

It has posted the video but has failed to report on what it shows: it shows the US govt account is untrue
January 24, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
It was obvious that Trump’s political career was going to lead to this. A lot of people need to be apologising. There was never any doubt that sowing the seeds of hate was going to get people killed, it always does. The rest of us need to learn from this and use it to defeat our own fascists
January 24, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
They are never, ever going to win in Minnesota.
January 23, 2026 at 8:56 PM
This Substack post is such a clinically precise dissection of the British class system…
“You are more a Prosecco person, I think” may just very well be the most devastatingly middle-class insult ever committed to text.

All of this happened under a Waitrose champagne listing.

The internet in Britain remains completely undefeated.
"You Are More a Prosecco Person, I Think"
An online champagne review delivers the most brutal class takedown imaginable.
www.bearlypolitics.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Mad respect for all the Minnesotans who stand up to ICE intimidation. Great to see trade unions take an active role.
Minnesotans strike to protest ICE surge in state: ‘No work, no school, no shopping’
Organizers demand ICE leave state and agency be investigated for constitutional violations
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Sixteen years ago, the Supreme Court decided that corporations are people under the First Amendment.

Today, sold-out politicians block progress on all fronts to appease their corporate donors.

Citizens United is among the worst decisions in history. It corrupts our system every day.
January 21, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Starmer keeps using this line, & it's bonkers.

Most importantly, it's untrue: the party that ended Free Movement, ran the "hostile environment" & made Suella Braverman Home Sec did not run "an experiment in open borders".

It's also politically mad. Voters who believe this will not vote for Starmer
January 15, 2026 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
New 2026 thread to retest in real time if X reporting system *mostly* ignores/protects unlawful racist abuse reported to it

Criteria: direct racist abuse @ people that would be unlawful on the bus + is unlawful online + that broad consensus (9/10 people across parties) would agree should be stopped
January 12, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
.@PabloReports: Stephen Miller seems to be operating sort of as a shadow president at this point. Is there any legal liability he could face at the end of this presidency?

Ryan: There’s going to be legal—and I think criminal—liability for multiple members.. certainly Stephen Miller.
January 15, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
The Reform pitch is increasingly “the last government was terrible, so we’ve hired everyone who was in it”.
January 15, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
Any one of us could be detained for hours by ICE despite being a U.S. citizen.

Any one of us could be in the next apartment building that ICE raids in the middle of the night.

Any one of us could be the next to be brutalized by ICE for speaking out.

Authoritarianism hurts all of us.
January 15, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
One of the few things that might actually get some kind of reaction from Musk would be the government and all MPs simply leaving X.

This doesn't require regulatory or legal action. There are no barriers. They could *and should* just do it.
Liz Kendall to give a Commons statement today on online regulation. She wrote this Telegraph piece, calling this a tipping point.

I'd like to hear govt + the regulator show that they are taking the full range of unlawful content seriously - not just one strand

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
Sexual deepfakes are a disgrace – and we won’t stand for it
This Government is as determined to ensure women and girls are safe online as we are to ensure they are safe in the real world
www.telegraph.co.uk
January 12, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
hi, political philosopher here! this is not funny, central banks only do this when they're in extreme distress
January 12, 2026 at 1:04 AM
This whole thread is a must-read. Sunder Katwala again so insightfully, and almost single-handedly, showing the Government how to fight back against the racist, misogynist, violence-inciting, neo-Nazi, child sex abuse image generating hate-site that is X/Twitter
The government has a range of different tasks on social media

1. UK government has a core responsibility to ensure X is under effective pressure to operate within the law.

Go broader than child abuse + non-consensual stripping. Link to racist abuse, incitement to violence, hate crimes of all kind
January 9, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
2. The platform has much more usage among opinion formers than general public. It therefore drives a lot of the media + political conversation. This government has a strategic self-interest in reducing that over the next 3 years, because the site owner is committed to weaponising it against them
January 9, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Diamond Ashiagbor
For those keeping score, Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team, & Washington Post's Visual Forensic team have all published analysis showing the ICE shooter wasn't in the path of Renee Nicole Good’s vehicle when he shot her, contradicting statements by the President & his cronies
January 8, 2026 at 3:35 PM