RIP to MEL magazine, the only outlet that would ever dare to commission nea to write this story and the only one that would ever allow me to say something like this for it

Wow, it’s been five years since i was commissioned to write this melmagazine.com/en-us/story/...

and again - literally just the hobby horse of some random anonymous Twitter accounts, enraging how quickly they managed to turn their horrid posting into actual government policy and rhetoric

This is something that really bothers me in so much talk about benefits including from some policy wonks. Not everyone who is given something from the state is Oliver Twist, nor should they be. The state should provide help to all sorts of people in different circs, not just gruel for the needy

It's IMO quite revealing that Rachel Reeves' section about school spending has more to say about 'Britain in the 90s' than 'England in the 2020s'.

Okay i got to "we beat the forecasts before, we'll beat them again!" before it was too embarrassing to continue watching.

Excited to say that’s it my very first day as Head of Publishing Administration for the Office of Budget Responsibility. Exciting things to come!

lol here’s the full OBR book someone pressed publish early here’s the budget obr.uk/docs/dlm_upl...

Pretty sure by the end of today we'll be speculating on the next chancellor.....

One thing that doesn't matter at all in any way shape or form but is kinda funny is that the number 1 emoji react to 99.99% of all the HM Treasury posts on Discord (yeah I don't know why they have one either) is the the Trans Flag

what the fuck

And I feel like every time I bring this up with non-trans people (I can't even use the neutral word "cis" to describe them anymore it feels like because this has been politicised) they react with at best concern and pity but no answers for what on earth we should do.

I actually think it's bad that the law thinks that calling a 17 year old a "sissy porn-watching scumbag", a "groomer" and a "disgusting incel" in public is not a crime, and indeed I do not think criticising this would constitute "[picking] sides in the debate about sex and gender identity".

Forseeing a time when the judiciary is infested by the same "Rishi Sunak isn't even English" radicalisation that's taken the right, and some people are blindsided because they thought "this trans girl said she was alarmed and distressed, but I don't believe her" was impartial application of the law

every left wing alternative to labour needs a new, even more terrible way of doing whipping

My taxes bring all the boys to the yard. And they're like "this is bad approach to fiscal policy".

All the personality comms in the final run up to this budget had baffled a lot of people in the City

this is why moving to Britain is the best possible move on my part. I'll have fucking catch phrases in no time. there'll be a webshop with crop tops that have the Sloppy Head Enjoyer logo (TM) on them. I'll be living the life of your dreams, but not mine.

This will be a good one to refer back to in the coming months

Just seen another 'but you don't get it! Raising income tax would be unpopular!' It certainly would. I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:

It's been clear for a while that Labour has no coherent vision for what the strategic purpose of the higher education sector should be. In all likelihood it lacks any coherent vision for the strategic purpose of quite a few economic and public service sectors.

Reeves: There’s nothing progressive about paying high debt interest. That’s why I’ve decided to barely increase my headroom with a bunch of slated tax and spend changes in several years’ time while still borrowing a lot right now. There’s nothing progressive about asking me how that makes sense!

I do think it's worth addressing that the intellectual lodestar of this government is a gibbering idiot.

Ridiculously funny that Powell is +18 to Starmer Deputy Leadership contest really didnt help her standing

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to remember all those who have been victims of vile hatred and transphobia. With the recent Supreme Court ruling and concerns over upcoming EHRC advice, now is the time to double down on our support for our trans community.

Aka “British state no longer competent to perform basic functions of governance, so will begin stripping citizens of their rights to try to disguise this”

This #TransgenderDayOfRememberance, we remember the over 280 trans people killed globally this year and the many more lost to suicide. They deserved to live safely, without fear, and to be fully who they are. May their memories move us to keep fighting for a world where all trans people are free.

It’s one of the war’s most overlooked dynamics: Russia and Ukraine are running two of the century’s fiercest strategic bombing campaigns at once. But do drones offer a new form of strategic bombing, or are they still trapped in the same dilemmas that stumped the bomber mafia? My latest⬇️

The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum. UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands) UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany) Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.

it's a pathetic degradation of an intellectual actually capable of serious argument and debate who basically opts to punch left to convince himself that he's still the "sensible centre" compared to the "lunatics on Bluesky" and the ethnonationalism on X

They would be insane to let this go on until the locals. The government collapsing would destroy its authority and given we've had violence more summers than not post-lockdown, the government taking it off to have a leadership election is a huge risk

Labour’s “we have to do it, or racism will get worse” argument is striking. Any other public policy failures British ethnic minorities should be on the hook for? Can we be blamed en bloc for Rachel Reeves’ budget next week too? www.ft.com/content/37b0...

Labour peer Lord Dubs: "To use children as a weapon, as the home secretary is doing, is I think a shabby thing. I’m lost for words, frankly." www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour...

Asked about Tommy Robinson supporting her asylum plans Shabana Mahmood replies that "Tommy Robinson doesn't even think I'm actually English, so he will certainly not be supporting anything I've got to say." But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question

The government should be ashamed that its migration policies are being cheered on by Tommy Robinson and Reform. Instead of standing up to anti-migrant hate, this is laying the foundations for the far-right. I questioned the Home Secretary on how she can be proposing such obviously cruel policies.

AND MOST OF ALL YOU ARE MAKING ME LOOK BAD IN FRONT OF THE FUCKING AMERICANS

Heres the thing girliepop.....besides the obvious reasons why labour mps dislike tommy robinson.....they are constantly getting emails saying ill kill u by people who follow tommy robinson.....if you think they are gonna accept this being the line youre delusional

Quite apart from moral failings, there are clearly a lot of political advisors who do not understand power.

If Lisa Nandy is awake today, she has an opportunity to both revitalise her leadership hopes and improve morale and confidence in the UK's cultural industries by resigning.

Reeves should risk it all on one last roll of the dice. Raise income tax, break the triple lock, slay the deficit, spend the money on the things she believes in. It may not work - but better than waiting for doom to overtake her. open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...

Somebody is briefing the Times that the Home Secretary finds inspiration in Kristi Noem's leading the Trump mass deportation effort - which has gone much too far for Americans What a kamikaze piece of political madness that is on the eve of their asylum package www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

the Gov is three weeks to seven months from death and instead of trying to right the ship by making key appeasements to the back-benches, we're instead seeing it go full death drive in an effort to dare its backbenches to 'put up or shut up' - and in this vanity, fundamentally break the country

the government's choice to not raise income tax and to lurch even further right on immigration is pretty clearly a "if we can survive this we'll survive anything" purity test for its mutinous backbench and to be clear no Government has ever survived throwing the gauntlet like this

Those of you who listed “financial institutions are targeting Ana” — I think you were on to something

It’s not been thought through at all. It’s back of a fag-packet hate stuff, that’s all. Incompetent as well as viciously horrible.

It can't be emphasised enough that the Government's current approach: - Increase ILR to 10 years, - Increase Asylum ILR to 20 years, - Removal "immediately" if your home country becomes "safe," - Loss of permanent refugee status, Is exactly the sort of thing they dismissed as radical extremism.

There does come a point at which pinning your hopes on "vote for us, we're not Reform!" runs into difficulties as you gear all your policies towards Reform voters.

A year and a half after far right riots stoked by anti-immigration rhetoric, the government has moved from "process cases quickly" to "refugees will never obtain permanent status" and the opposition is arguing for mass deportations, despite immigration figures collapsing in the same time.

the video goes on and on about illegal immigration and yet the new proposal will target legal migration by confirmed refugees

What's great about delay repay is that it's perfectly calibrated to throw me into a zen like state once my train crosses the free money threshold. Very happy memories of a train being a bit delayed meaning I missed a connection and had to wait an hour which meant the *whole* journey was free