In addition to the normative points, I am once again tapping the sign marked 'net immigration to the UK in 2029 will still be, in relative terms, very high, and the government needs to have a position that allows it to defend what the Actually Existing UK looks like'.

I think in a world revolutionized by “just-in-time” manufacturing, where militaries are infatuated with lean corporate structures and an ethos of ”agile, disruptive innovation“, we give far too little attention to the virtues of excess, and not obsessively trying to trim every bit of fat.

Mad to do this sort of campaigning when you’re the pitch hitter for the government’s transphobia

"ILR period will be extended to 10 years, people on ILR will lose it and be forced to reapply their visas if they don't contribute to their community, contribution means doing unpaid volunteer work" has a *very* foul smell of just reinventing serfdom

Getting mighty tired of the meme on here of “oh, it is just so difficult for the government to set the agenda”. The government (which literally employs thousands of press officers) is setting the agenda - it’s just that it is setting it on toxic ground it can’t win.

the entire trans community has head lice now and I've changed my mind on the whole carceral discourse I'm now extremely pro drowning circle

Dehumanisation as policy. It ignores people's actual lives and experiences in favour of some sick idea that migrants are just resources to be used and discarded at will. It is incredible how Labour has become, in practice, the most anti-immigration government in decades. news.sky.com/story/shaban...

This is precisely what I was worried about before and why the *context* in which digital ID is being introduced actually matters - anti-trans organisations absolutely see it as a way to undermine the GRA even more, and to provide a way to make the upcoming EHRC guidance more enforceable

Increasingly I'm just a bit like, I don't think of myself as a vanguard of some PMC liberal metropolitan elite. I'm a middle-class but struggling at times tranny academic who lives in Newport. I'm not really at the centre of anything. I just believe in things.

Patrick's essay is excellent. Naturally I agree with his view on the intolerable ideological confusion and vacuum at No 10. The anonymous green ink screed, which he reveals is being shared by some in the PLP, is steaming horseshit.

Have these guys ever met a Fabian? We're like the anglers of socialists. Not interesting enough for a stereotype to develop

Patrick is absolutely right that Labour lacks a sufficient intellectual culture - but instead of reading race-war Whatsapp essays from anonymous crackheads, Labour MPs should subscribe to @renewaljournal.bsky.social for serious and informed strategic analysis and argument

One old lag’s opinion, but the only way you could “approvingly” read ‘What did we learn on our summer holiday?’ as a Labour MP is if your brain is, to put it mildly, absolutely cooked

What an utterly crazy thing to say. In comparison to other European countries, Britain is an example of multiculturalism and integration done right! We should be proud of being home to several diasporas! Which Blue Labourite moron wrote this?! Glasman? Hinder? Carden?

Oh, joy! It's another Labour politician taking the chance to London bash! /s Between Burnham's "Everyone in London is rich" and Blue Labour's "London is the epicentre of woke degeneracy", it seems that the party really despises its London voters (who have elected 58 Labour MPs and a Labour mayor!)

I regret to inform you that this is obviously someone who's cooked their brain on postleft ideology

Professional Managerial Class okay American politics welcome we have imported you

This essay (the bad one) is shockingly shit. Written by someone who's cooked their brain on X.

I do think this has been a week in which new levels of 'why don't senior Labour politicians understand we can ALL hear them' have been reached. Why would Andy Burnham do a 'I'm gonna hike taxes on London and the south, you're all rich!' Why would Steve Reed use 'regional politician' as a putdown?

It speaks volumes about how unmoored Labour has become from the people who actually voted for it in 2024 (i.e. people in work) that the line on digital ID cards is just an obvious lie to anyone who has changed jobs in the past decade!

What’s extraordinary about this (which is presumably aimed at… telegraph readers?) is that its rhetoric and analysis seems to be lifted entirely from internal government memos about positioning/tactics

64 Votes Bridget Phillipson 34 Lucy Powell 29 Abstained 1 Which is pretty close considering the speakers were 70% pro Bridget.

An alarming amount of people in this meeting don't seem to realise that we're not going to win the next General Election if we don't change course. People are talking about how divided parties don't win elections as if *that* is the reason we're going to lose the next election and not... AAAAAAAAAAA

The good thing about doing CLP meetings on zoom is that you don't have to keep a straight face when someone describes the Deputy Leadership contest as us being "spoilt for choice" with Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson

Differentiated research. on.ft.com/4nF3l6t

I do feel a bit like I am going insane today, in that the sheer number of 'government sources' going 'Andy Burnham's plans don't add up!', I mean, true, but lads, can we talk about how similar they are to *your* plans?

The position on trans is even more mind-breaking, because it is one thing to be wildly complacent about a sin of omission. Whereas some people seem not to understand that if you actively *change policy*, people who lose out…will be angry.

Burnham’s positioning in the NS and Telegraph is essentially “I will continue to deny the constraints like Keir Starmer, while being even more explicitly hostile to London and the South, where a majority of parliamentary seats are”. Hard to see how that works well for Labour.

…c…could estrogen save her

it's so fascinating how Comey's expy in the novel is a woman questioning her sexuality after a divorce

MILK PLWEASE

Said friends are currently doing label mockups. If you want to be on the waitlist for Sloppy Milk (placeholder) reply to any one of of @cisgirl.space's selfies with "MILK PLWEASE". The further back the better!

“When it comes to AI adoption, many companies aren’t guided by strategy but by ‘Fomo’,” said Haritha Khandabattu, senior director analyst at consultancy Gartner. www.ft.com/content/e93e...

Is there anything more painful than being a Labour member who hates Corbyn, Starmer *and* Burnham?

...so is this a recruiting problem or is there something fundamental in the journalism profession that gives them the memory of fucking goldfish. What's the point of even arguing about morality or electoral effectiveness if journos reporting on this think this is the first time they're hearing it

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Ignore the haters, London is the 🐐

Combine that with a PM with no political project, and it means every position gets arrived at slowly, and then it is this weird noun-less 'we need to unite'. Unite against what?

This would carry more weight if you hadn't spent the last year cheerleading for the Cass Report

It's noticeable how rattled Mason sounds. He's not making an argument that the BBC has covered Reform well, he's complaining that criticism of the BBC from the left is not legitimate. This feels like a topic where a Culture Secretary could apply a lot of pressure. Wouldn't it be nice if we had one?

I think part of this is because the New Right in the UK basically are driven by the fact that Anglosphere social media is rapidly moving right-wing which in turn also shifts the energy toward escalation instead of normalizing. Rupert Lowe's grouping is basically built around this.

it's cool that contemporary American diplomacy basically works the same way as Crusader Kings 3

Reform's ‘plan’ to revoke the legal status of millions of UK residents is morally abhorrent & economic madness The public believe in fairness & mutual respect, not this cruel Trumpian policy that would leave us all poorer. We are not America - we must resist this dangerous turn in British politics.

I yearn for one major politician to just say "what a freak" in relation to Farage's bullshit, rather than getting bogged down in "well see actually you understand this just couldn't work"

Who cares about people's lives when the right of retired teachers and public affairs managers to imagine they're just like Tonypandy miners is under threat

Well it's a good thing he did all that stakeholder management in the Sun so now people can't get mad at him for this.

I think (one of) the problems that Labour has is a subconscious belief that they should be given a term of can-kicking, after all, the last lot got to can-kick for two terms! (True of the Starmer dead-enders on here, so much of it boils down to 'but why should WE have to grasp the nettle?')

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... Did you know we ran a public sector deficit of 5% of GDP last year, a figure which adds up to £150billion? The public finances are in a far worse state than anyone admits to even before you consider public works backlog, gaps in defence & public services

I quite like immigration.