All the supposedly progressive people saying 'Nigel Farage's racism doesn't matter. His fans love it'. It matters whether the leader of the party leading all the opinion polls is an outright racist. It matters if he called black people 'wogs' and said 'gas them' to Jews. Not everything is a game

Just an excellent explanation of what the budget is on BBC Newsround just now. A little bit more of that on the grown-up news, rather than endless horse race stuff, would really help contextualise it. Takes focus back to the substance rather than smarty pants politicking

Very much liking the Anthology 4 versions of Free As A Bird and Real Love. The latter esp is great, sounds like a proper song rather than an offcut demo, turns it into a wonderful track and that very rare Beatles phenomenon: a John and George number

Nick Robinson uncharacteristically under-briefed for this interview and letting the minister get away with talking bollocks basically

Fwiw, I believe Labour might have been able to successfully execute a 'mixed' strategy on immigration that reduced the threat from Reform without alienating liberal/left voters it needs. Avoiding rhetoric of the right while letting the numbers fall as they were already doing would have been a start.

On the BBC row, IMO critical question is Did The Board Stop An Immediate Apology For The Edit? Personally seems EXTRAORDINARY that experienced BBC journos wouldn't have said 'Yeah, apologise quickly, kill the story'. To delay is to tie the Beeb news team to tracks to be run over by the train (1/2)

Not resiling from this one iota in spite of the feeding frenzy, the resignations, and the talk of a billion dollar law suit of the last few days. If those on the right in this country seriously think that lining up with Donald Trump against the BBC is a good call, then I say good luck with that.

Mamdani is a fabulous communicator and hugely charismatic...but am I missing something about the result: A solid win but 50% vs 42% for Cuomo who's (a) a terrible pol and (b) a sex pest, isn't the blowout win that's currently being written? If Silwa had pulled out, would've been close

Wholly correct position. Wait it out. Even if it takes decades, Gen Alpha will be the avengers for Gen X and Millenials and banish the Gen Z madness of shorts, socks and, for me worst of all, sliders. What went wrong in the last decade for kidz to model their look on Hyman Roth?

On Pochin Labour took the lead and went hard against her, not on day 5, but from the start: the result has been a Tory and Reform smash up. It would be nice to hope lessons have been learned.

Wes Streeting on Reform’s Sarah Pochin: “She’s only sorry that she’s been caught & called out & she said the quiet bit loud. What we’ve seen in recent weeks/months is a return to 1970/80s racism. I think what she said was racist” #bbclaurak

The Tories once claimed to be One Nation. Now they’re flirting with a policy the BNP would be proud of: deporting people legally here to make Britain “culturally coherent”. It’s grotesque. Families would be torn apart. We are a compassionate country and we must stay that way.

Katie Lam’s comments stink of desperation. This crass racism used to mean she’d be kicked out of the Tories but not now. The Conservative Party seem to be falling all over themselves to chase the tail of Tommy - two names - Robinson. It’s becoming like the BNP in a twin set & pearls.

The Enoch Powell (+!) strategy is now a route to advancement rather than exile. And that is why by the time the battle for supremacy on the right is over the Conservative party will be unrecognisable - if it even exists. God knows what this battle will do to the country. But it won't be good.

Twin features of the folk I know who've gone bananas online (a) Personal grievance - Feelings of not getting what's deserved, turbocharged in 40s/50s with what used to be called midlife crisis (b) Praise - Online validation from loons saying 'yes, you've been cheated, you're right,they blocked you'

V good summary of the predicament. Makes me think Treasury soon in same zone as Osborne 2012 when considered big migration liberalisation to boost growth. Think OBR model has net 100k=0.1% pa. Only mechanical way to increase growth forecast if urgent need to back-off bond markets

As might be reasonably expected, Goodwin is talking bollocks here. This is what I think he's referring to in the US census.

For the first part of Starmer's speech I thought he was going to be hit for ChatGPTing. But it got better, some good passages and his section on race & immigration was great. Even tho it set out what should be basic norms, given where we are, he nailed it. No Tory PM would've, prob not Brown either

I thought the Friday Starmer speech was inadequate in terms of meeting the moment. Felt like it was drafted to respond to the Robinson march, basically ignored Reform's mass deportation plan. Much better this morning, finally called it right 'racist and immoral'

Exactly the right language and tone from Starmer here -no nonsense about "legitimate concerns" or weasel words about cost/practicality. Now government needs to put his money where the PM's mouth is (in policy terms)

Literally after every par, there's a silent 'Parklife'

If Tel piece is the speech: 1. How can Starmer not take on the mass deportation argument. Is not about immigration (e.g. new arrivals), these are people here legally, paying taxes etc. 2. How does piece square with an econ policy hinged on 300-400k pa net migration? Ineptitude or madness. Who knows

Reform’s immigration plan falls apart on hard contact with evidence, economics and any form of engaged brain. Never be afraid to stand up for this country and its decency and future by giving them short shrift.

This table is v interesting. If we take the chaos of Windrush as a guide, anyone with a South Asian, Chinese, African or Arabic surname is going to be in trouble under Reform's plan. Millions of people, those with ILR and those with the wrong name, will be dragged into this in some way

Why Keir Starmer's refusal to explicitly condemn Nigel Farage's immoral plan to tear thousands of families and communities apart will only help clear the Reform leader's path to Downing Street bylinetimes.com/2025/09/22/w...

Thought the Starmer article in the Sun was good. But Lab's lines on Reform & sums not adding up appalling. Is totally different to other migration debates, this is about rounding up people who're here legally, have built lives & contributed, and expelling them. No point to Lab if don't fight on this

More of this please. And relentlessly. We can drive this lot to the edge and beyond. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm a pretty solid Labour loyalist for this govt, I still think Starmer is the best leader. But even I am getting pretty effed off at the inability to call out far right racism. What is difficult about this? This is like the late 1970s, fgs SAY SOMETHING

This is interesting. "Pick someone outside the bubble for deputy leader" Time to extend the choice for deputy leader beyond Westminster and use all of Labour's talents. Let Mayors, devolved leaders and experienced ex-pols run labour-uncut.co.uk/2025/09/05/p...

'Immigration doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else' – Everyone. This is what happens when the media runs away with Hard Right narratives.

Round the corner from my house there is a leak from a water main the size of a smallish stream running down the road. Thames Water know about it because it’s been there constantly since 2021. I’m sure deleting family photos will fix it tho

Us Gen Xers have finally found our political and cultural purpose. We can actually remember the 1970s/80s. And we're going to remind the "Broken Britain" morons of the reality. And we are also going to get them to own the unnecessary harm they have done/will do.

Masterly stuff from the Jezzta here, bigging up a fake story for the Tories. The sureness of touch that brought us pretending to watch the Queen's Speech, Jezfest and 'the real fight starts now'.

Peter Kyle's Farage line great comms. News cycle flow: (i) Reporting of Kyle comments (ii) Condemnation of comments (iii) Media asking OSA opponents their their alternative to stop paedos. At which point it's a win because the frame is about stopping paedos and oppos have nowt better than the OSA

Completely right. Build FGS. Yes, developers are often poor humans. Yes, it would be nice to have full community amenities. But ask someone who is languishing temp accommodation or trapped in bad rented and the answer will be v clear. No more the best being the enemy of the good

100% this. The last time real household income grew consistently for 3 years was a decade ago. For 4 yrs, 20 years ago. It used to be the norm in the 1990s and 2000s. Politics bubble folk underestimate how revolutionary even a little YoY income growth will be for politics

Sooner or later something terrible is going to happen at one of these hotels and the politicians and media outlets who have spent the past year whipping it all up will have to carry the blame

This Judeo-Christian nonsense again. Traditionally, the "Judeo" reaction to people talking about "a Christian restoration" is to start thinking about getting the suitcases out of the attic.

"Vote Reform for massive power cuts" is going to be a completely legitimate attack line at the next election. Because it will force them to explain and (a) when you are explaining you are losing and (b) the explanations will make them look like the lunatic fringe crackpots they really are.

A novel tack with the polite ethnonationalist is to ask if white South Africans are South African? See the first sparks of 'does not compute' as their emotional instinct for white supremacy in SA conflicts with their racial definitions for England. Next step is whether white Aussies are Australian?

Terrific read

My bit on why the Labour gloom is being overdone. Progress on what *really* matters to voters - cost of living and NHS - is being ignored for SW1 psychodrama. History shows that if this progress continues, Labour will be well placed to win again labour-uncut.co.uk/2025/07/04/t...

My bit on why the Labour gloom is being overdone. Progress on what *really* matters to voters - cost of living and NHS - is being ignored for SW1 psychodrama. History shows that if this progress continues, Labour will be well placed to win again labour-uncut.co.uk/2025/07/04/t...

A corrective from me on the excessive gloom around Labour's first year in office - The case for hope: Why Keir Starmer’s situation isn’t as bad as reported and Labour victory at the next election is now MORE likely after the past year labour-uncut.co.uk/2025/07/04/t...

This is SO important and gets so little space. If we're looking at cultural underpinnings for this nightmare, late night minicab culture feels v relevant vs some notion of Pakistani culture (its only been a country since 1947 fgs and like India, culture varies wildly by region e.g. Lahore vs Mirpur)

English People Encounter Pizza for the First Time 🧵

Two ways of being a progressive patriot. "National community. We are all one national family." (Coronation) "Nation at ease with its modernity projecting out into the world." (London 2012) Perhaps Labour should give version two a go - not least bcs Reform can't. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/o...

This may well be an unpopular view but having spent years in the 00s with black cabs pretending their lights were off when I said I was going to Hackney despite having stopped and literally having black cabs refuse to take me to Brixton bcs you know I became less sentimental about them.

Always thus. Wife went to Sandhurst and apparently when they were unhappy with your marching would scream THIS ISN'T THE AMERICAN ARMY, followed by several hours of extra drill