That’s it Shabana, getting those immigrants to volunteer, that’ll get you the racists’ vote.

Shabana Mahmood speech has some very good bits and some really worrying bits. Sections of it could be summarised as: "Lemme give you a small dose of authoritarianism now, without fussing, in order to immunise the country against it." Umm. No.

The Home Secretary just told people seeking safety "your only route into the UK should be a safe and legal one". She's right. Everyone should be able to seek sanctuary safely. But it's her Government that refuses to create safe routes - forcing people to risk dangerous ones.

I do wonder if all the analysis about Labour’s misplaced tactics in tacking to Reform misses the reality that some of the people around Starmer actually believe this stuff

It really is just relentless the constant dehumanisation in this country. Prove you deserve to be here. Prove you deserve to be cared for. Prove your gender. Prove you deserve to have human rights. Prove you deserve to stay after a whole decade. It just chisels away at your humanity

It really only is a short step from this to vetting ILR applicants for their political views and social media activity. #AuthoritarianLabour thttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m4g3zvy02o

Trump loses the Ryder to Europe. Putin loses Moldova to Europe. Good night.

Starmer can’t think on his feet. A skilled politician would have found a way of dealing with this. It IS possible to say the policy is racist without alienating Reform voters by telling them they’re racist. But he’s so worried about accidentally saying the latter he undermines the former.

"What Farage is willing to say now is not the same as what Farage would be willing to do if he held unchecked power in five years’ time, especially if the MAGA movement finds a way – democratic or otherwise – of retaining power." They go on to break down how to defeat him, and he's literally DJT.

Labour are punching down on immigrants again. It's been several seconds since they last did that... www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Labour 4 PR rarely so interesting

Excellent post by Richard, as his posts invariably are. Please read, and share widely.

Starmer can’t think on his feet. A skilled politician would have found a way of dealing with this. It IS possible to say the policy is racist without alienating Reform voters by telling them they’re racist. But he’s so worried about accidentally saying the latter he undermines the former.

Bit late to this great campaign by @scotrefugeecouncil.bsky.social but the cause never goes away. #partofthebiggerpicture

We all need light in the darkness A beautiful sign that goodness is stronger than evil

We’ve a battle against international fascism to fight. Do Labour MPs really think Keir Starmer is the best person to lead it? My piece for @bylines.scot

Whatever his other attributes, Keir Starmer is not the right man to take the fight to Nigel Farage's far right | Richard Haviland

The simple fact is that if Starmer believes Reform poses an existential threat, he has a remedy to hand: PR. Using the threat of Reform to push for Labour as the binary choice under FPTP is cynical opportunism and doesn’t avoid disaster for the UK

Starmer is a follower not a leader. He's letting Reform decide his agenda.

We’ve a battle against international fascism to fight. Do Labour MPs really think Keir Starmer is the best person to lead it? My piece for @bylines.scot

I will freely admit I didn't realise quite how thick and impressionable some pretty important people are. I really thought it would take more than just putting random tweets by White Anglish Patriot 88 on their newsfeed to make MPs and journalists go off the deep end

A must read from @rfhaviland.bsky.social “We need to be clear-sighted. What we see happening now in the US is what Farage would like to see happening in the UK.”

Lucy Powell: Labour has handed the megaphone to Nigel Farage – it must end now 👏 inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Danny Kruger and his friends are the ones who’ll be telling us how to live if we let them anywhere near power.

Michael Crick, journalist: “It depresses me how much fellow political journalists are down-playing this - a dranatic story not just about Russia corrupting a British politician - as they've done in Germany & France - but also about the character judgement+relationships of Reform leaders Farage+Tice”

Can someone please explain to the Labour comms team that if you say something to the Telegraph, they don’t keep it a secret.

Is it a surprise that voters question what Starmer really believes in when he says <picture 1> in the evening after having said <picture 2> in the morning?

Good to see this important research getting a wider audience. Hope Labour advisors listen and learn

Kind of feels like a big deal that a Reform/Brexit Party former MEP has been convicted of taking bribes to promote Russian interests in Ukraine, and it feels like a bigger deal that this isn’t being treated as the major scandal that it clearly is.

This man has left his nation in a state of total isolation. He is disaster for Israel's international standing and security.

“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...

"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.

My message to Reform supporters

So Starmer’s idea of a ‘progressive fightback’ is to write an article for Telegraph readers with the usual tropes about migration, but omitting the phrases ‘squalid chapter in our history’, ‘island of strangers’ and ‘shutting down the lab’. Anyone else available to lead Labour? Just asking.

After the London march organised by Tommy Robinson + the epidemic of racist flag raising, Starmer's response is to accept the premise that too many people were allowed into the UK.

This Labour government seems to determined to create all the tools necessary for a future government of the far-right to control, surveille, and discipline the entire population.

Worth remembering this when you hear Reform talking about swans, autism and ‘science never being settled’.

Autumn on Loch Ness

An “it’s Labour or Reform” election requires you to explain why voting Reform is a bad idea, and that requires using the word racism.

"People are confused about what they [Labour] stand for… And I kind of feel the rise of Reform is in part because of that. They only look so big and like this big juggernaut because everyone else is on their knees at the moment" @fisherandrew79.bsky.social on the Labour govt. and the rise of Reform

If you listen with your eyes closed this guy sounds like a hapless villain from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon

Part of the 'no strategy, only tactics' problem this government has is: once you have made a manifesto commitment to bringing down child poverty, indeed, once you are *the Labour party*, you were going to have to do the thing that actually reduces it. Much has been wasted thru dallying for a year.

It is WILD to me there are still people in Europe calling the Trump regime "isolationist." He's propping up far-right regimes and opposition parties across the world. He's threatened to invade Denmark, Panama, Canada & Venezuela. MAGA has global ambitions.

forgive the double quote tweet, but... I increasingly feel like a big problem is the loss of the language of morality in politics? We're scared of it because awful people have historically used moral condemnation to be awful, but I do feel like you sometimes have to just go "this is just wrong"

This excellent piece by @liamthorp.bsky.social focuses on Farage. But as it correctly says, the much more immediate threat is that *Labour* will move the goalposts. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

This. It takes some creativity to think ‘both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch are such impressive individuals that the only conclusion we can draw from their lack of popularity is that politics is just all too difficult these days’.

'Today, Nigel Farage said that all mice are gay and they're from space. We ask experts whether there is any truth in the claims'.

Quite. So many Labour people on this website visibly have no idea of just how bad things have got for ethnic minorities since they came on, and how their visible indifference lands.