Ben Sellers
@mrbensellers
“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”
Incredible display at St James’ Park today. We know how to honour our heroes & Kevin Keegan was the best of them. #RIPKevinKeegan
#RIP King Kev. Everyone will have stories. Here are a couple of my own. open.substack.com/pub/mrbensel...
Devastated at this news. It would have been so like Kevin Keegan to somehow escape this one, but cancer, man. My one genuine hero as a kid. RIP King Kev.
Shouldn’t we be talking about a New Lucas Plan? I would say so. Luckily, some of those involved in the original plan & a new generation of activists have already done a lot of the work. Here: lucasplan.co.uk
Never, ever tire of this view. Another brilliant Durham Miners’ Gala today. #BigMeeting #DurhamMinersGala
The #BigMeeting’s strength has always been the ‘big’ part - it’s the labour movement at its most expansive & least corporate. The past we inherit, the future we build. (2/4)
Really looking forward to the Durham Miners’ Gala on Saturday. It’s a special day, not just for us in Durham and the North East, but the whole movement, from all four nations & beyond. (1/4)
In 2023, 21.1% of all Britons lived in poverty (a 52.9% increase from 1970). For children, the rate was 30.5% (a 122.6% increase) and for working-age adults it was 19.3% (a 153.9% increase).” 5/7
Never mind all this politics, what about the Mandarin Ducks, I hear you say. Well, I happened to be passing the Boathouse today & spotted them, diving around all over the place, annoying the Mallards. Female & six ducklings (one less than before, but looking much bigger & very healthy). Love it.
Having a quiet celebratory pint. Not because I think Starmer’s resignation fundamentally changes anything, but just to acknowledge that this has been a long time coming. He has not just been toxic for the Labour Party, which I left in August 2022, but for the country as a whole.
Two books are key to understanding who Starmer was and what his legacy will be. They don’t paint a pretty picture & a lot of the information was already there for those who looked. They are Oliver Eagleton’s ‘The Starmer Project’ (2022) and Paul Holden’s ‘The Fraud’ (2025). (4/5)
🧵 Pretty convincing win for @andyburnham.bsky.social in Makerfield. I’m sure he’ll go on to despatch Keir Starmer - who has categorically been the worst Labour leader we’ve ever seen & is a despicable human being on top of it. 1/6
15 years ago today, I opened the Peoples Bookshop in Durham. I had just been made redundant by the TUC & decided to do something that I’d always wanted to do. Read on Substack: substack.com/@mrbenseller...
Today marks 50 years since the #SowetoUprising. I’m for reconciliation, but let's never forget, actual, real history. Because it does matter. It always matters.
The Index is a really key tool, not just for academics, think tankers & politicos, but for activists, in making the links between different parts of the crisis & the systemic response we require.
On Sunday, I’m hosting a workshop at the People’s Bookshop in Durham, using Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ as a jumping off point for a discussion about how we organise at a moment where the far right are fanning the flames of racism & Reform are winning in former industrial heartlands. 👇
Really is incredible to think that we’ve just sat through the most terrifying bloodbath, a genocide in Gaza, with a daily illustration (via live-streamed footage) of what the latest generation of weaponry & military technology can & will do to entirely innocent human bodies… 1/3
🧵 This is ridiculous. AI tutors for 450,000 pupils on free school meals to ”close the attainment gap”. So far from a ‘solution’ to the crisis in our school system, it’s beyond belief. (1/6)
🧵 Last minute reminder that this is happening today at Northumbria University, Newcastle - starting at 2pm. The Democracy Collaborative are an organisation that have focused on Community Wealth Building & economic democracy throughout … (1/3)
🧵 The reason why Tommy Ten Names legged it down to Southampton wasn’t simply to cause a riot, it was part of a targeted political campaign on so-called ‘two tier policing’: the ludicrous idea that ethnic minorities are treated better by the police than white people. (1/5)
Ok, question for you all. Who do you think were having the better time today? Those at #DurhamPride, or those sitting at home, tapping away on their phones, moaning their silly little arses off about it?
Hope there is a real, big turnout for #DurhamPride today, to stick it to our ridiculous & vicious Reform UK council, who thrive on division & hatred. ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’ - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I agree with Laura on this. Naive & enraging. But equally important, I don’t think there is anything like enough discussion about the structural dimensions of prostitution, or understanding of feminist critiques of the various justifications for prostitution.
Don’t want to be too cynical, but isn’t there just a small possibility that Josh Simons, neck-deep in the Labour Together scandal, was going to have to resign anyway & just saw an opportunity to rehabilitate himself by “putting the people I represent & the country I love first”?
It sounds obvious, but if the Labour left doesn’t want go down with the sinking ship, it’s going to have to do much more work to distinguish itself from this leadership & the party in Parliament. This isn’t a time for clever games.
We have to reverse the inevitable, dreary trajectory leading to Reform.
Screening followed by Q&A with film-makers Phil Miller and Alex Morris chaired by @LauraPidcock Saturday 9th May at 2pm | Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB Tickets here 👉 secure.declassifieduk.org/page/189526/... secure.declassifieduk.org/page/189526/...
I’m not sure the wild antisemitism allegations have the same currency that they used to. I think particular thanks should go to Asa Winstanley for writing ‘Weaponising Antisemitism’ in 2023 👉 substack.com/@mrbenseller...