In fairness this is probably the best thing the home office has done in years

This government's anti-asylum policies are inhumane, dehumanising and dangerous. Its announced proposals today put already vulnerable individuals at increased risk of mental and physical harm, along with exploitation. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Also why politicians should lead and explain to people that sending them back when their country’s safe is difficult because people develop lives in their new home. Polling can inform but elites have the power to lead public opinion — and isn’t this why most go into politics in the first place?

France to deliver eight SAMP/T air defense systems to Ukraine defence-blog.com/france-to-de...

Does anyone have info on the timing and scale of the SAMP/T order?

Plans to leave refugees in a state of perpetual uncertainty about where and if they can rebuild their lives are not just performative cruelty, they are counterproductive to integration and the economy. It doesn’t have to be like this - 1/2

Excellent piece - and another book for the reading list .

Immigration policy needs to be taken away from the home office. They’ve failed to balance economic effects, humanitarian obligations and border control. It is so cross cutting it should probably go to the Cabinet office . The HO can then focus on the borders bit while the policy is done elsewhere

2025 Mahmood seems to like living in the edge

Because her life is better than yours?

At least when the Tories tried extreme and cruel immigration policy people like Nick Timothy believed in it. And other better Tories like Nicky Morgan blocked some of his more fanatical initiatives. But no Labour minister can possibly believe the substance of this. Yet none is resigning.

My most woke opinion is either We should have open borders for people; immigration controls are as indefensible as hereditary aristocracy. We won’t agree to it. It will eventually be imposed on the West as its relative power declines & other countries demand freedom for their people to move here.

Asylum claims have been around 100k/year for the last few years. (Around 3/4 eventually get their claims approved) Gross visa grants: work migration+dependants are around 400k Live births are around 600k/year These are gross figures (immigrants and ppl born in UK also leave) 1/n

I popped on @euronews.com new Brussels My Love podcast this morning. Migration, the EU’s democracy shield and whether the EU should support struggling artists (DG Garret?) Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/5WZ1...

Did they have detailed plans to attack Ireland too? @edwardburke.bsky.social might know. (I know they had detailed plans to attack Blackpool and a friend even did a BBC radio thingy on it)

And fast-mode thinking is what LLMs do. I wonder if people who overdo fast mode thinking are also the ones who think LLMs are so useful because they under appreciate structured reason.

Maybe it’s just the Humanities professor in me, but let it be noted that events of today (ahem) have demonstrated the value of being able to assess a large volume of qualitative data and do careful textual analysis with deep attention to context.

It’s not really the main topic but the whole thing about the EPP “seeking majorities” with the far right is a red herring. The EPP want to deregulate on principle and regret having to agree to regulation because of parliamentary arithmetic last time. 1/2

I’m going to start a running thread to catalogue the examples of the Government refusing to use power to safeguard itself, and British democracy from the obvious right wing populist threat. Call it #WeimarStarmer 1/n

It’s practising falling out of windows

🙈

I’m going to start a running thread to catalogue the examples of the Government refusing to use power to safeguard itself, and British democracy from the obvious right wing populist threat. Call it #WeimarStarmer 1/n

If only he’d said so at the time…

🧐

Together with Denmark’s arms procurement and Sweden’s Gripens initiative the old Kalmar Union’s really stepping up. Impressive!

The transition is now being driven by technological change in power generation and storage. Grids etc need policy intervention but continuing to support outdated technology than enriches hostile fossil fuel producers and cooks the earth is hardly forward looking.

Ah, all those first year essays: “X, but critics say”…and trying to teach the v students it matters who is saying it, and when, and if there’s the evidence, why The unit of thought in the humanities and social sciences isn’t the article, it’s the paragraph, the equation or the graph.

Why of course.

People with the drive to up sticks and move across the world to improve their lives earn more than those that stay put. 🧵

Once more: The incoherence of the Trump administration should not be confused with incapacity. Trump inherited structures of incomparable global power and is unencumbered by calculations of consequence. This power may dissipate, but the costs in the interim will be immense.

Ahem…

Don’t. Run. A strategy of polarisation. From the centre-right against the left. To outflank a far right party. It NEVER Works. Republicains. Tories. Forza Italia. It’s like these parties have a suicide gene or something. Why does everyone think they dan be Franz-Joseph Strauß?

That’s one way of seeing Abigail Spannerger’s 15 point victory in VA…

Sometimes called NatSec democrats, they can also be called Service Democrats, since they come from the military and other professions that asked them to take oaths, swearing to be of service to Americans. They will be an important force in the future

European who’s been working on Hungary, Poland etc here: Don’t overthink it Dems. Make sure you pick a charismatic candidate who connects with voters believes in the constitution and has the energy to restore it. Their exact views on things that seemed important in 1998 or 2013 won’t matter.

In Russia and China any business of reasonable size has a risk of being under heavy state influence. Doing business with such companies is not normal capitalism but mafia work & should raise big red flags in compliance, anti-money laundering and w security services.

CLR James would like a word :)

Erm…has he read any of Wole Soyinka’s work. ;)

Ahem https://conservativehome.com/2016/06/16/garvan-walshe-vote-remain-or-risk-turning-britain-into-argentina/

The new Lib Dem heartlands…

We liberals disagree with this analysis as it presents us as people of no principles. As much as Mudde might like the left to win on its own it can’t and needs to make alliances with other supporters of democracy against including the centre and the right.

founded…to take part in a severe contest between reason, which presses forward, and a cruel timid clickbait

D66 gives one of four important wins for liberals in the last few months together with Romania, Moldova and the surprising success of Neos in Austria. Of course far right populism hasn’t been defeated - it’s not a flash in the pan that wl go away. But it shows liberalism can win 🧵

This is nuts. Left liberals top the poll and can clearly form a coalition with right liberals centrist CDA amd either groenlinks or weak populists of JA21. It’s a stunning comeback by the liberal centre and we should take the win. We know the far right would.