This is an important thread by @colinyeo.bsky.social that both explains how the current system works and why he supports ID cards as an anti-discrimination, pro-migrant measure.

We really need Starmer to say this, but what's the point when, in announcing the ID card policy (whatever its general merits), he frames it solely in terms of, precisely, the populists' "lies" & “industrialised infrastructure of grievance” about "uncontrolled" migration & asylum seekers? 1/2

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

"The political logic of treating migrants as permanent second-class citizens is not clear." @robfordmancs.bsky.social shows making it harder for migrants working and paying taxes to settle here is *incredibly* unpopular. Also applies to Labour/Tory proposals! (1/2) ukandeu.ac.uk/reforms-radi...

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...

So now I'm reading that this is Labour's big pre-conference announcement, and I'm wondering how politics evolved into a series of "government-as-usual" announcements hyped up to a level they can't deliver (same happened in trade). Which substitutes for real substance.

Seems like a pretty good attack line to me

On anti-Faragism, the point of the Lib Dems and Ed Davey finding himself unmarked in front of an open goal www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The “Ed Davey is obsessed with Farage” takes are weird. A) The media is obsessed with Farage B) If the next election looks anything like the polling, it will basically be a progressive/populist bloc election. Labour won’t be Davey’s enemy. They’ll be his path to govern.

Our politics and media have become viciously obsessed with immigration. Farage has made sure of it. And in that obsession, they’ve all lost sight of the people they target. Fellow human beings trying to live and belong somewhere. Shame on everyone responsible for this daily inhumanity (Letter,Times)

Having pondered it all morning, I'm still incredulous that all that Today programme coverage of migrant hotels at no point (unless I missed it) mentioned why people were here, what they might be fleeing from etc.

When the most powerful man in the world goes about the place spreading very dangerous nonsense about paracetamol and vaccines, millions of people will sit up and listen. It's consequence free for him but this is going to kill a lot of kids and make a lot more children very ill indeed.

There are 4.24m people with Indefinite Leave to Remain (or equivalent). 82% are in work, compared with 74% of Britons 3.8m are in relationships with Britons They have about 2.4m British-born children. This bullshit is never going to happen. Again. But... www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

A lot of sensible people get squeamish at labelling Nigel Farage “far-right”, but his policy of cancelling the legal status of tens of thousands of settled immigrants can not be politically described as anything else. Reform are campaigning on a policy of cruelty & xenophobia.

The Labour Party has a tradition of antiracism campaigning. It’s supposed to be in the party’s DNA. That they cannot say it’s just straightforwardly wrong to alarm families who choose Britain to live, work and raise children in is a total moral failure.

The true question right now is whether you believe in the moral character of the British public. If you do, you'll want to have the fight with Reform. You'll believe that the public will hate the idea of breaking up families, spying on & deporting people who've worked here for years.

I wrote something about feeling like a guest in a country that is my home. bestforbritain.substack.com/p/my-place-o...

'Farage's core claim is that he somehow speaks for the British people, that his views reflect the “commonsense” views of the silent majority. It’s not true. On issue after issue, including those that define him, he is out of step with most Britons.' Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

There is another country. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog discussing the thuggery, sanctimony and hypocrisy of the last fortnight, and how Starmer should lead in articulating an alternative version of patriotism to that of the far-right: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/09/ther...

Observe the actual outcome from the Trump UK state visit - no change on tariffs, no change on regulation, one non-binding agreement that a former UK Ambassador for some reason thought essential, and few others care about, and the usual "investments". Slim pickings all round.

Piece from me on the three reasons why the UK should break with Trump * Trump’s US won’t protect us from Putin * Labour must stop Vance and Musk interfering in UK politics * Bowing to Trump and the far right is driving Labour voters away open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

Why Maga’s next project is to fix ‘Broken Britain‘. V good analysis.

"The ECHR issue is strikingly similar to the EU debate before Brexit. It's something that people didn't really care about before but do now because it has been tied to immigration." @anandmenon.bsky.social on debates about UK membership in the European Convention on Human Rights

Column: UK foreign policy is an all-in bet on an idea of America that doesn’t exist anymore. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Great long thread from James here showing how deep the hole is for Labour but also with some concrete evidence on the way out - raise taxes, be more pro-EU, deliver improvements on the economy and public services

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

Cities may well be centres of growth but issues of inequality and deprivation remain. There was a reason why Liverpool used to be an Objective One area and European funding has never been replaced. Money isnt everything, but it doesn’t half help. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday. As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.

Not that anyone in politics listens to research, but there is a bucket of research (including some excellent recent studies) which show exactly this. Voters listen to leaders and respond to what they say.

The myth that racism is primarily driven by economic conditions must die, especially on the left. It is a misdiagnosis and a kind of excuse

Important piece by John Simpson in @theobserveruk.bsky.social, on the American money funding Yaxley-Lennon and the far-right in Britain. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

A statement to the Guardian is a start, I suppose, but this does feel like maybe this is a "ffs show your face on TV" sort of a moment

Same thugs we've been dealing with all my life. Utterly shameful and frankly dumb that one or both of the PM or his main advisor think you appease these people.

Really disturbed today to see, for the first time, not just roundabouts but miles of roads in N. Herts/ S. Cambs with St.G flags on every lamp post. The effect was sinister and threatening. Not remotely a symbol of Britain "coming together" (Yvette Cooper): www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09... 1/4

Neo-fascists sticker & march to intimidate Faversham. "Sieg heil" chants, despoiling the flags of the country that defeated fascism www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Unpleasant, ignorant and error-ridden rubbish from Jenni Russell in the Times, arguing for the "remigration" agenda of Jenrick/Lowe Below quotes nonsense numbers from the Centre for Policy studies that the CPS has itself admitted are fictional.. archive.ph/S6YuV

"He and his ministers knew what they were doing, and what the consequences would be. They consciously opted to ramp up net migration for economic reasons." As I have been explaining for some years, immigration was an adrenaline shot by Johnson explicitly intended to disguise the Brexit damage. ~AA

When Farage makes such claims people should recall that this is exactly how the Brexiters dismissed the NI border issue pre-referendum. 'Oh it will be easy, nothing will change, don't forget there's a CTA' etc. It then became maybe the central & still enduring problem for delivering Brexit.

Rayner’s exit is a bombshell. But the real crisis for Starmer may have only just begun | Jonathan Freedland

Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.

NEW: Here is the full verdict from the PM’s ethics advisor. - Rayner acted with “integrity”, but.. - She did not seek *expert* tax advice - As such she must take responsibility for failing to pay enough stamp duty - She therefore fell short of standards and broke ministerial code

From Brexit to Brexitism. New post starting the 10th year of my now retitled Brexit & Brexitism Blog, analysing the current politics of Brexit, this summer's confected crisis, and the new terrain of post-Brexit politics. Long read: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/09/from... 1/2

This is terrifying

What makes this even more frustrating is the Tories did exactly the same thing, and it was one of things that destroyed them at the expense of Reform. The mechanism is so obvious.

As we prepare for the next tidal wave of nonsense around Reform in the UK, two points should stand out as the core rebuttal - economic issues the UK faces are the same as many other countries - populist right policies have made those issues worse

Worth reading The Times' editorial on Powell from 1968. Contrast it with last week, when it pointed out that Farage's deportation proposals would "undoubtedly find favour" and other parties "better come up with something radical." A truly contemptible descent for a once-great newspaper.

Democratic politicians humiliated Nigel Farage in Washington today. But if you look hard, you can still see why he may take power in the UK Piece from me open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

Labour's weirdness over flags is deranged, not patriotic. It's like witnessing a nervous breakdown inews.co.uk/opinion/labo...

Government has absorbed, correctly, that there is a conscious project to roll back a half century of making Englishness and Britishness identities based on more than ethnicity, but has no plan beyond going 'I too like flags' to defend it.