It’s worth asking the question why British politics is trying so hard to copy American politics when the same policies aren’t even popular there, let alone here.

On principled grounds, we should protect the rights and freedoms of minorities But if principle isn't your thing: normalising the bending and then breaking of democratic practices and institutions, of dismissing rights and freedoms, rarely stops with unpopular minorities

Some will say: ah yes, but ppl *feel* or think false, malign things abt migrants & we must appreciate/respond to those feelings as genuine Which concedes: -A pessimistic view that humans cant be swayed from lies, rationally or morally -That you are unwilling to argue for what you know to be true

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

When I interviewed older South Asian British people about their retirement decisions over a decade ago, a large number said they had kept a passport and land in India and Pakistan 'just in case' When I asked 'in case what?' they responded 'in case we are told to leave Britain'

An important and very consequential finding for the wellbeing and lives of lower income households & for intergenerational social mobility It also impacts students from these backgrounds going to university, who won't have family financial support to cover the increased cost of living in HE

Musk accuses the LibDem leader of "cowardice" for opposing Musk's advocacy of pre-emptive violence (interethnic conflict, anti-migrant violence & partisan violence) to kick off a British civil war. This shows that Musk just has no idea of the gravity of advocating political violence & civil war

Appreciated this link being shared. Watched the first series, covering the earlier period of 1936-1968 Remarkable early BBC TV coverage, interviews with Black British actors and intellectuas, MLK Jr discussing immigration numbers, white directors talking frankly, and Powell's negative impact

Only 4 countries in the world have higher incarceration rates than the US: El Salvador Cuba Rwanda Turkmenistan Arresting and imprisoning more people seems unlikely to improve political freedom or crime, but I appreciate correlation isn't causation nor is evidence in fashion

Recommending racial discimination and vioence, but in a cultivated accent or measured words, is not 'civility' Plenty of university graduates & even professors think discrimination is justifiable & deny the civic rights of others Racism is a moral error, not an intellectual or 'tonal' one

I'm old enough to remember when it was Israel telling Jewish people not to go to the World Trade Centre, or an elderly Muslim man on a train cryptically warning about visiting London on 7/7.

One niche (apologies philosophers) implication of moving apprenticeships from the Education to the Work department is that the government takes the view that 'knowing that' and 'knowing how' are distinct A less niche version is that 'knowledge' and 'skills' are different & require different policy

Musk is more extreme than Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech in addressing citizens, not just government policy "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming for you ... fight back or die" legitimises violence (against government, police, asylum seekers, minorities) bsky.app/profile/pale...

I think Musk's comments to a rally of 100k people are the highest profile advocacy of political violence in the UK since the end of the Northern Ireland conflict. Does anybody have a counter-example? "Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die."

People who think defending 'Western civilization' is shouting racist abuse and deterring families going to the National Gallery. Not that the racists are much interested in Leonardo da Vinci or Hans Holbein. By the 'West' they mean whiteness but not intellectual, cultural or humanistic heritage

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔 on.ft.com/3K05vhS

Moral principles are typically universal and impartial Everyone has rights and is owed respect Murder is wrong That others are incapable of living up to those values doesn't mean we should

It was and remains a mistake to treat people's conception of the good - moral views about the best way to live - as analogous to equality or ascriptive characteristics such as race It is not a 'hate crime' to use the term 'anti-vax' to describe a person's views

New @resfoundation.bsky.social report on savings. Families with savings of less than £1,000, by income decile: www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Apparently Justice Kavanaugh is unaware that some American citizens are indeed stopped and held for up to hour, including with a 4 month child, told that our phone should be tracked, asked why we call our parents - on multiple occasions I am no jurist but I can confirm racial profiling ain't fun

US universities in Qatar (wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... ): -Arkansas St -Carnegie Mellon -Georgetown -Northwestern -Texas A&M -Virginia Commonwealth -Weill Cornell Medical College UK universities in Qatar: -Aberdeen -Northumbria -Liverpool John Moores -Ulster

Was very happy to highlight this research to Polly Toynbee at the Guardian (link next post) - hopefully this proves a rare and valuable example of timely research informing an ongoing political discussion

Always fascinating to read about replication before the 20th century. Here it's Pasteur doing a live demonstration of the efficacy of his animal anthrax vaccine (the third vaccine ever developed).

Essentialism & relativism are linked Those who believe in cultural & biological essentialism think that some cultures & people just are inherently & fundmentally different Most think that difference=conflict They are also then relativists, opposed to rights or freedoms or equality being universal

Who could possibly have foreseen?

Those harmed by the egging on of violent, xenophobic behaviours are first and foremost migrants and minorities It will also harm those engaged in it: no employer will hire ppl whose behaviours and actions would be a huge risk to other employees and to any organisation's reputation

In 2014, Labour abstained on the Immigration Bill, on the basis that voting against would cost votes It was never clear which voter(s), motivated against a more liberal migration policy, wd be persuaded by abstention In 2018, all parties (& voters) then expressed concern abt the Windrush injustice

RFK Jr. rolled out that old chestnut again about how healthy Americans were in the 60’s, so here’s a fact check. In 1965: -42% of American adults smoked; it’s 11% now. -The infant morality rate was 24.7/1000; it’s 5.6/1000 now. -Overall life expectancy was 70 years; it's about 77 years now.

Timeline cleanse

The Monday Club's policy programme on immigration is now apparently mainstream, 20+ yrs after Iain Duncan Smith suspended Conservative Party links due to 'distasteful' remarks on race and immigration and David Davis condemned their longstanding policy of 'voluntary repatriation' of ethnic minorities

We’re only a few years removed from creatjng a vaccine to protect against a deadly airborne virus in a matter of months. Now, we have a scion fail son running the CDC into the ground not because it failed, but because its success conflicts with RFK Jr’s eugenicist ideology.

How can you merely *look* at someone & know they are 'foreign'? And know that they are *therefore* worse people, more criminal, & less well integrated into values such as freedom, gender equality etc? I concede that hearing certain words & observe corresponding actions can incline me to judgments

A bleak assessment of learning at Feltham YOI. State institutions and practice must do more for these young people, to ensure they are safe and acquire learning & skills. Not merely to prevent reoffending but for their own wellbeing and contribution feweek.co.uk/bleak-existe...

In a 1987-88 debate G A Cohen noted an anti-anti-racist tendency to use a 'brinkmanship rhetoric of withdrawable insinuation' and warned that yes, of course, prejudice has deep psychological roots, w/ the 'power to insult, maim and kill' This sort of tendency is now very mainstream

NY Times could have taken Naziing in the spelling bee today. It's sadly a candidate for the word of 2025 (for adding to dictionaries) when it comes to words and actions, policies and practices, among too many influential decisionmakers

Nothing says 'stick it to the establishment' or hurts powerful, wealthy interests than sending refugees back to civil wars and political persecution, to torture, jail or worse Nothing says 'respect for western [sic] values, freedoms and gender equality' like cutting a deal with the Taliban

Reading the FT this week, I learned that 4 million people ride the New York subway every day

Having taken the NYC subway in every decade since the 1970s (when I was born there but only have my parents' take not real memories), being there over the last 2 weeks confirmed my take that it has been constantly if slowly improving over time (tho still lags European networks)

It is more honest* to say we should not offer aid or refuge to people suffering persecution and threat to life Than to say those people are not so persecuted or at risk (*by honest, I don't mean right, in terms of morality, legality accuracy or pragmatism)

At Roosevelt Island Freedom and rights are for everyone or they mean nothing

Many of the people who expressed outrage at the treatment of the Windrush generation never understood or really disagreed with its causes That was clear before the injustice and now just a few years afterwards, as people revert to the policies and practices they have always advocated for

A common theme amg those who deny transatlantic slavery or colonialism was a wrong w/any ongoing consequences & amg those who deny refugees are facing real injustice They deploy terms such as slavery/colonialism/political dissident to amplify what is morally wrong abt eg taxation, the EU, race hate

🚨 GCSE resits aren’t the problem. Not holding GCSEs is. There’s a lot of concern in the news about GCSE resits today. What’s missing is concern for the young people who don’t secure passes in English and maths, and what that means for their futures. Here’s the reality 🧵

'Because I notice that people look different visually *therefore* I assume they have different/bad cultural and moral practices' is apparently viewed as a not-racist argument Analytically/definitionally (whatever the argument's [sic] morality), that's obviously incoherent non-sense

It's right to celebrate those who got 7-9s GCSEs We should also recognise and congratulate those who worked hard to achieve 4s & 5s, many of whom were predicted to miss that target The many who got 3s or lower will go on to grow and contribute, and deserve as much support as the academic achievers

In our latest blog post, Mikayla Boginsky, TASO Research Officer, reviews a decade of UCAS results day trends, exploring the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on higher education acceptances and entry rates by disadvantage and region. Read the post: taso.org.uk/news-blog/uc...

TASO is proud to be a conference partner for @timeshighered.bsky.social's Student Success UK & IE 2025, 12–13 Nov in Edinburgh. Focus: improving outcomes across the student journey. Book and get 30% off with code TASO-30: www.timeshighered-events.com/live-ukie-2025

'84 per cent of UK parents or grandparents of children under 18 would be in favour of their child attending university' wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/... As the piece notes, strong evidence that most ppl do want their own child to go to university (tho that doesnt always extend to other ppl's children)

Very well written, and eye opening for many readers Not for adding to the piece, but worth reflecting on what would be required from a policy or real world perspective to enact their wild, dystopian vision Eg expelling 12 million+ people