note that it's the right-wing parties, who have complained that UK should have joined US strikes on Iran, who are now also demanding the Labour government steps up household help with energy bills
It is better not to say anything. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
@anniechave.bsky.social will help you connect with @somersetccc.bsky.social I’m sure!
No more erasure. #Herstory #IWD
“Brexit.. caused the biggest voluntary loss of rights in British history, and economically was somewhere on the spectrum between a mistake and a disaster… The old voted to jeopardise the economic prospects of the young.”
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
Austerity, Brexit, Covid & Climate Change, house prices, pensions, education..
“Our state, our politics, behaves as if the past and the status quo are more important than the future. But the future is more important than the past. The settlement between generations needs to reflect that truth.”
So many good moments.
But the Rajan town cryer is a thing of pure, hilarious joy.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Apart from the fact political donations clearly undermine democracy, it is absurd to argue -as Reform do- that foreign born ppl who pay their taxes here shouldn’t have the vote, but ppl
who left the uk to enjoy an easier tax burden, should be able to fund parties & buy political influence.
In the second half of 2025, one man accounted for almost 40% of all money donated to political parties in the UK: a crypto-billionaire who lives in Thailand.
Britain desperately needs to rewrite its party funding rules.
observer.co.uk/news/the-sen...
As we listen *again* to handwringing questions about Starmer spoiling the special relationship, let’s just take another look at the list of insults on the Uk from Trump this term so far. #r4today
No legal basis. No clear objective. No exit. And much of Britain’s political class spent the week calling Starmer a coward for noticing.
Latest substack from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The Representation of the People Bill contains some useful measures, but it must go further – put proportional representation on the statute books, shut loopholes that let dark money in, and modernise media platform oversights to stop misinformation and disinformation.
I see Farage is off to Mar-a-Lago to talk down Britain and suck up to Trump.
There's nothing patriotic about cheering on a foreign leader whose illegal war is sending British families’ energy bills through the roof.
This is also worth a read on Paul Marshall’s right wing ecosytem which exists to back a populist right wing takeover of the UK, whether it’s in Conservative or Reform clothing app.thenewworld.co.uk/story/143582...
What disgusting hypocrisy. @thespectator1828.bsky.social publishes malicious falsehoods to suggest my university and I personally indoctrinate students while its owner funds fellowships specifically to embed right wing indoctrination.
alanlester.co.uk/blog/smearin...
Also hypocritical of Creasy to criticise blue labour for factionalism and repudiation of N London elites when she herself - as head of labour mvmt for Europe - has sneered at pro Europeans for being “beret wearers”.
Labour needs to get back to values & arguments, rather than identity politics.
Great work and well deserved recognition.
Am still hopeful that although they poll as the most popular party, they also poll as the most disliked. It’s my coping strategy.
The performative cruelty of repeatedly demanding that refugees prove they are still refugees - or else face deportation - cannot be understated. It is also a waste of money given that so few refugees, when retested, will change status. At nearly Elbn, this is money that could be better spent on foreign aid programmes to tackle the conflicts that create refugees. The home secretary is also attempting to bypass parliament altogether - using "Henry VIII" powers to push these changes through with minimal scrutiny. This policy emanates from the current incarnation of Blue Labour. The group blames London liberals for cannibalising British identity, values, cultures and ways of living. It demands that progressives disavow those who stray from these norms as "the other" nurtures a nostalgia for a nation that only ever worked for the few. It is not just refugees who will bear the brunt of this kind of thinking. Blue Labour also parrots the "lump of labour" fallacy that immigrants come here to take jobs rather than help make them, and seeks to deter them accordingly.
Infighting is another massive problem for labour. Does any other party have such sneering hatred between its different factions, which puts some kind of misplaced *authenticity* above values and human rights?
“It used to be that we won elections by making an argument. Then we just won elections by not being the Tories. Now we are at risk of losing both the argument and the election”
The absence of a narrative & refusal to make an argument are a huge problem for labour
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
World book day.
A trip to the library.. Billy & Boots. A book about a boy, a dog, love, loss and companionship.
Out in April.
Link in bio.
Hi! Immigration lawyer here! Mahmood's view of the Refugee Convention as providing temporary protection just isn’t correct & AFAIK isn’t one anyone has ever adopted.
On the contrary, the Convention is clearly predicated on a long-term need for protection.
1/🧵
God.
On a far lesser scale, that reminds me of when my then 16 year old was telling me in Jan 2020 that there wouldn’t be GCSEs - everyone was saying it.
Maybe we need to listen to them. Rather than our hoping strategies.
The number of commentators/journalists salivating at blaming Starmer for ruining the “special relationship” is genuinely pathetic
If anyone ruined it- if it even really exists- here’s a reminder of who did it.
“For all we know, we could be in the middle of Keir Starmer’s finest hour”.
Starmer’s critics say he is imperiling the UK’s special relationship with the US...
But is it Donald Trump who's doing the damage?
“Whatever it takes to make everyone a person again, in the eyes of the discourse: let’s fight for that.”
Yes.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Not sure there can be many more terrifying things than Hegseth warming to his theme of epic fury.
It sounds like not having a plan for what comes afterwards is sold as an advantage…
Delegitimize Muslim voting, undermine trust in elections & in all of that there is ofc a loud Trumpian appeal to MAGA’s deep pockets that the blood and soil nationalism it advocates is being destroyed.
Very dangerous.
