Reformers already think this is a step to Chinese Social Credit, anyone with a brain knows the posture around this being a solution to undocumented labour is absurd, trans people like me view this with suspicion as the government is rabidly transphobic and openly want bathroom bans via ID checks

ID is a consistently popular policy that should be an easy sell of "what if you didn't need this fractal mess of paperwork to navigate society", but instead government comms has made it anti-immigrant bullshit to appeal to voters who march in the street demanding Starmer's death

Over 50% of Reform voters and nearly 50% of Tory voters (and a good 10-15% of other voters) are people you cannot trust to honour a contract. This is what our politicians are pandering to: liars and cheats.

The rebranding of reactionary gender and biological essentialism as “heterodox and challenging ideas to which liberal students must be exposed” is one of the greatest achievements of our stupid era. Congratulations to the reactionary centrists who helped make it happen - you dupes, you utter dolts.

Zack Polanski, "Rising anti semitism and rising Islamophobia in our country" "These are two sides of the same coin. When they come for one community they come for the other" "The only authentic response to all of this is solidarity between those communities"

I have come to the conclusion the EHRC guidance on single sex spaces should not even come to Parliament. It is misleading and has caused distress for my trans constituents. I urge @bphillipsonMP to reject it on grounds of practicality and human rights. sianberry.org.uk/publications/l…

This is the laziest bullshit imaginable. It is quite simply less accurate about the UK than any other European or Anglosphere western democracy. A cursory look at education, income and national identity data makes this simplistic nonsense untenable

So far there have been zero trans women reported as having visited epsteins pedo island. But lots of people who want you to think trans women are threats to children seemed to have gone there at some point. Curious...

Good news! Starmer has achieved harmony among the parties of Northern Ireland! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What a bizarre world it is in Labour tech policy, with TBI recommending sharing your official ID to report a pot hole and Labour Together thinking everyone's health records are online.

My last post about digital ID today, but reading this Independent piece (in which I'm quoted) and what is this quote from Morgan Wild at Labour Together? Using the NHS app doesn't mean "your data is online". If this is the level of digital understanding of people writing digital policy, god help us

"How many traitors are in Farage's new party?" would, I suggest be a better line than Digital ID. To beat Reform, make wavering voters ashamed to back them.

“Let’s call it for what it is: bullshit. The truth is, politicians have talked about little else but immigration for decades and in the most dehumanising ways. Polanski added: “Stop the boats’ is all we hear. Well, today I'm saying ‘stop the bullshit’.” www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Starmer says past governments have been "squeamish" talking about immigration. Bullshit. Starmer isn't bravely breaking a taboo. He's blaming vulnerable people & deflecting attention from the super rich who hoard power & wealth. Want something better? join.greenparty.org.uk

It would make currently unworkable plans for anti-trans toilet and changing room bans enforceable and lead to anyone who isn't white getting the "papers please" treatment on a regular basis. The performative cruelty it will enable is the point. That, and the money everyone involved will make.

You are concerned about the privacy issues and the potential creation of a panopticon society. I am also concerned about this, but I am also really quite viscerally annoyed at successive UK Governments' desire to pretend the digital is always superior to the tactile.

To be quite frank, as someone from a country that has ID cards, I'm still against this nonsense from UKG because the very point of an actually useful ID card is that it is physical and you can keep it in your wallet.

One of the unexpected things I've learned from my advocacy for trans people is how malignant parts of the State can be, how it can misuse data for positively evil purposes. It's taught me people can't be safe with a digital ID card and so I've signed this. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

These false beliefs do not arise in a vacuum. Yet we seem collectively incurious about their origins.

More than this, the issue is not that potholes aren’t reported! It’s that local government finances are utterly fucked and they can’t afford to fix them!

It's kind of insane how you can split opinion on the British immigration system into "people who know *anyone* who has to interact with it" and "everyone else"

I think killer in a UK context is it's never just "here's a card and pls keep us up to date with changes of address", it's "what if we tied the card to all the data we've gathered on you, and also we use it as a frontline immigration enforcement tool" and that's what rings the civil liberties alarm

Ok. They’ve pissed me off. I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards: 1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.

First thought, was I know I'm tired but I didn't realise I'd slept for 3 years. This is an absolutely crazy way to use and report polling. It should not be getting this kind of priority at this stage in an electoral cycle.

I think at this point the mantra that applied to the US media - they like Trump and want him to win - also applies to our media with Farage.

Keir Starmer's aides are reportedly telling him not to go to the COP30 climate conference, because Reform would attack him for it. Yes, they might. And he should wear it as a badge of honour. Standing up for humanity, for science and a habitable planet. Where's the hazard in that?

There is a certain type of party political tribalist who if Starmer announced a policy of mandatory puppy kicking would still claim this was the most left wing government in decades.

"ignored for too long"? Labour has been talking about immigration for as long as I've been aware that there was a political party called Labour. Feels like half the time it's been claiming it hadn't ever talked before but was _now_ talking about it. But _this_ time it'll work, sure.

“Ignored for too long” and then it’s the policy that has dominated the political conversation in this country for my entire adult life

see how settled science suddenly gets turned into something unclear as soon as conservatives make it a political issue? this has happened on dozens of issues.

After being used in WW2 compulsory ID cards were abolished in 1952 because of the widespread sentiment that they are fundamentally at odds with British values and civil liberties. That was true then and it’s true now. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Everyone: What's government doing about the cost of living crisis, the climate crisis, and the unfolding genocide in Gaza? Labour: "We will mandate people carry Brit cards". This government's priorities are painfully out of touch and increasingly authoritarian.

Emotion is absolutely one of the best albums ever made. The B sides/bonus tracks are probably my faves. That's it. That's the skeet.

After many years of political attacks on EDI in HE, a majority of the public still supports it. We should always aim to lead rather than follow public opinion - but it is good to remember that, despite these many years of attacks, the majority of the public still support it! There is yet hope!

Even back in the 70s and 80s when I could be hassled by the police for walking while trans, no one ever tried to stop me pissing in the Ladies or tried to make me change into my swimsuit among men. There is no dignity or respect involved in taking away rights I have exercised freely for forty years

What on Earth is this? An "in depth" BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed. How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action / Just Stop Oil? Gob-smacking. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Can’t explain it but of course they want to take away one of the only painkillers that’s safe for pregnancy, a condition that causes weird and unusual pains. these people WANT pregnancy to be a punishment and handicap. they want to control.

There's a wrong way and a right way to report this

we should be very blunt and call RFK Jr. what he is—a eugenicist who does actually believe that certain kinds of people are “undesirables” who should be eradicated from the population at any cost

Have any of these people ever held a real job in their lives? As someone who does work in the private sector my main interaction with HR is emailing them to ask how many days holiday I have left

Oi. BBC. Many experts are not skeptical. It is utter bullshit and you should call it out as such. This is the MMR bollocks x 1 million

Imagine you're in a weird romcom where Paul Hollywood is your rival. Do you go "let's have a bread baking competition" or do you emphasise your own relative strengths? Because that in short has been the central problem with the traditional two's approach to anti-immigration voters and Reform UK.

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 quite like immigration.

Only 1 person in the whole study went from identifying as trans to not identifying as trans. The 1/5 number came from youth going between the binary and non-binary spectrum. This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.

The truth: we need migration. The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it. Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality. Reject it. Draw the line.