Net migration high - 'Terrible! Send 'em home! Etc.' Net migration low - 'Terrible! Bring 'em back! Etc.' Farage is and always will be a complete charlatan.

TBI is fatally compromised, and should just dissolve itself.

The most consequential idiot in human history.

How long are we going to hear about “legitimate debates and concerns about immigration?” It’s time we told the truth and deal with it. Net migration is low, we need more migrants, we are an ageing population. Highly skilled and low paid jobs are dependent on migrants. We need safe and legal routes.

It's quite extraordinary that they thought any of these people would do a better job than Karen Pierce, who did not need to be replaced! It wasn't like there was a vacancy that had to be filled.

Obviously zero reflection in any of this on how operating the largest empire in human history may have turned us into a multicultural nation. We are here because you were there. #Empireland www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is an extraordinary interview in which the former FCDO perm sec basically tells No 10 not to appoint Antonia Romeo to be cab sec, and that they should talk to him about her record.

Rarely mentioned but about much of Ratcliffe’s business ‘success’ is based on draining public money (very common among these ‘self made tycoons’) Eg democracyforsale.substack.com/p/ineos-set-...

Very pleased never to have purchased any Ineos products, supported its sports teams, or missed an opportunity to mock his risible ‘cars’.

Yes.

"History is women following behind with the bucket." So Morgan McSweeney has been replaced by Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson. Antonia Romeo is about to take over from Chris Wormald. Steph Driver may return to fill Tim Allan's vacancy. Sense that now there's a mess to mop up, get the women in

This, as my recent report shows, is because Reform supporters are more likely to live in areas where the high street is run down.

The United Kingdom has allowed people who hate it and want to see it collapse control over most social media and their own TV channel. Weak and unserious.

oh hello

Absolute must-listen. @eliothiggins.bsky.social is so clear about the issues we’re grappling with. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

Welcome to Blue Labour who fantasise about a working class that hasn’t existed for decades and long for an economic policy that was divorced from reality when Benn first suggested it, never mind now.

We've slowly absorbed the 1970s New Right idea that the state is inherently useless, and our enemy. It makes terrible mistakes, but this idea is a disaster. Latest for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social (based on my @futuregovforum.bsky.social report, Power Failure) www.thenewworld.co.uk/phil-tinline...

When one tries to really computationally reason through what a belief in the possibility of AGI must entail and/or assume, it becomes mind-bogglingly obvious how little thought goes into the formation of those beliefs

We all live in Jeffrey Epstein's world now. That's what we can't face. It's our world. Where sexual desire for children is protected, victims receive no justice & the President of what used to be called the free world is Jeff's friend. This is Jeff's World now. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

There's a joke among sustainable transport nerds that every multi billion high tech mega futuristic CGI rendered invention that douchebros claim will REVOLUTIONIZE transportation would be more efficient, convenient, safe, affordable, accessible and eco friendly if it were a bicycle or train.

‘MBE’

Spanish PM Sanchez: "Social media has become a failed state, and when democracies start to impose order, their owners get nervous. We will move forward despite their threats."

Counting the cost of money in politics ft.trib.al/sAx2W1p | opinion

My scorching hot take is that anybody who values London as a great city for pedestrians should stop using all these companies.

Furious clarity from Jude Wanga www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We must protect European human rights values from extremist ideology

We should be clear: Reform are the quisling's party and just a extension of Trump. This should be everywhere

Ordinary young people with ambitions and hopes. Imagine if they had been able to travel by plane, train or ferry as we take for granted. Cause of death: being prevented from travelling by normal means

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back to a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” IT SAVES PUBLIC MONEY to house people.

If Reform-aligned 'think tanks' take money to promote 'American values', they should be honest about what those values are. The death penalty? Bullying universities? Opposition to abortion? Gleeful racism? Shooting protestors? Then they should explain why they don't want to promote British values.

My read tonight including what I think is an growing belief among the 2024 intake that none of current options for leadership are up to it, and they are starting to look among their own ranks www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

On WHAT??

"Laurie Laybourn, at the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, said: 'We are currently living through a paradigm shift in the speed, scale and severity of risks driven by the climate-nature crisis. Yet many regulations and government actions are dangerously out of touch with reality'.”

As a party member who gave so much time and energy to getting this government elected, it's all thoroughly depressing

The British mainstream media is busy trying to oust Starmer, again, and yet they seem not at all interested in a much bigger and more serious Epstein story involving Farage, Putin, and Brexit. Fortunately, @bylinetimes.bsky.social is.

It's hard not to feel like a crazy person when I've been shouting about this at the top of my lungs for 5 or 10 years (even back on the platform where I nominally had half a million followers) and ... nothing happens. (I know @chrislhayes.bsky.social knows, but I'm not sure why it never resonated.)

I think it's best for everyone to understand that the unified class project of billionaires right now is to do to white collar workers what globalization and neoliberalism did to blue collar workers.

An awful but deeply revealing story about the structural power of wealthy patriarchal networks is in danger of becoming a story about some... powerful men. Ever noticed how quickly relegated and decentred women and girls in these stories are?

This is right, and urgent.

Another of those increasingly regular @samfr.bsky.social must-reads to understand what's happening in the States. And we have to assume there is the potential for an analogue here.

"Disease, like machine-guns, kills indiscriminately the genius and the fool, as the institution of inheritance protects indiscriminately the fool and the genius." R.H. Tawney, Equality p. 194

Always remember. Not defeating Russia is a choice that Europeans and Americans are making. Nothing more, nothing less.

In her Landecker Memorial Lecture at @blavatnikschool.bsky.social @anneapplebaum.bsky.social pointed out that the Trump Regime wanted to break up the EU because it was the only power on earth capable of regulating US tech companies. Interesting though these initiatives are at country level.

One by one, Europeans mentioned in the Epstein files who still hold political office are beginning to resign or are being forced out of office. Meanwhile, ruled by an administration almost entirely made up of Epstein associates, the US carries on as if nothing really happened.

Donald Tusk says that Poland is now investigating connections between Epstein and the Russian Secret Service

It's fascinating that medics are making the effort to switch to anaesthetics with less greenhouse effect while people are driving alone in SUVs

Have been reading Tawney again. Am struck by his acute observation that, in effect, the rare success of those from disadvantaged backgrounds is used to provide bogus justificatory cover for a system fundamentally rigged in favour of the privileged.

These must be right. Is there any sign that the government is actually thinking in these terms, let alone crafting a story to sell to the voters?

Further evidence that neo- liberalism is destroying itself. Privatisation has resulted in less house building, more expensive infrastructure and public transport, generated inter - generational inequality and hollowed out state capacity to respond.