Presidential Election 2025

Connolly is a leftist of the old-school, in the sense that being firmly anti-war is a core tenet of her worldview. She has made no secret of the fact, even if she has sometimes erred in doing so (even as a fan of hers, I'd absolutely concede the Syria photo op was an obvious error).

And yes, from that viewpoint, it is important to express serious skepticism and concern about the rapid re-militarisation of the world - Europe very much included. Of course, there's no denying the likes of Russia have been aggressors in recent times. But equally, we have repeatedly seen quite significant failures of diplomacy. I would argue that Europe has failed to make any meaningful effort to achieve peace or a ceasefire in Ukraine, happy to let the war continue for now despite the ever-mounting human cost. It has perhaps even undermined attempts to progress peace talks. And I say that being fully on the side of Ukraine and believe Russia was the obvious, imperialist aggressor when it invaded the country. More countries have joined NATO - an obviously provocative act, no matter the motivation - and European NATO countries have happily ceded ground to Donald Trump in terms of pumping more investment into defence. Not to mention Europe's total failures around Gaza.

You don't have to be a Putin puppet or apologist to be concerned about any of that.

When there's a rush to massively increase defence funding over any meaningful attempt at peaceful, non-aggressive solutions - and I'm not for a second saying those solutions would be 'easy' - then yes anyone with true anti-war principles is right to be concerned, even alarmed by what's unfolding not so far from our own borders. And all this happening against the backdrop of the slow-motion failure of neo-liberal politics and the institutional, chronic underinvestment in areas that make the average person's life tangibly better (from healthcare to housing). Connolly has said very little in that respect that I'd disagree with.