Problem with Labour framing it as a binary choice between Labour and Reform is the growth of Reform shows it isn't. With Starmer only offering Reform Lite, and getting less "lite", Labour is hemorrhaging more voters to progressive parties, with ability to gain enough ground for a coalition. #r4today

BREAKING: The FBI has fired agents photographed kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest that followed the death of George Floyd, AP sources say.

Whether or not digital ID is a good long-term policy, the politics of it are that Labour just set up a battle with its own party and all the others, promising to achieve something this scheme probably can't, at an obvious actual and opportunity cost.

On Radio Ulster in a moment to talk digital ID - very interesting listening to vox pops from Ulster residents on the topic of "Britcard", national identity, and whether this should be top of the list right now.

How do we organize to get rid of the masked ICE thugs? Who do we need to call? Public pressure got Kimmel back on the air. How do we get ICE off our streets? Honest question.

Whatever you think of his proposals, I cheer any candidate who talks about women’s health as a campaign issue. Who in UK politics would issue a video like this?

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?

A youth mobility deal with the EU will be modestly positive for growth and public finances. However unlikely to offset the negative impact of falling non-EU migration. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Where did that squirrel go, #sophiefromromania?

We don't live in a world anymore where you can do one piece for the Telegraph and an interview with the Guardian + appeal to two different audiences with different messages. Anyone interested can see what you're doing.

This still hurts. I’ll never forget how somebody played this 💩 video as I was on shift in NY where we were fighting to keep deadly ill COVID patients alive. While NY was going through unimaginable horror, these people had nothing better to do than produce disinformation. 🤬 And yes, they always grift

This only happens to you once

Estimates of the size of the "shadow economy" France 7% Germany 7% Italy 8% ..even Estonia 7% UK: 5% Idea that ID cards are some kind of panacea... www.ey.com/content/dam/...

Chilean artist and illustrator Paulina Silva Chala, born in Santiago de Chile in 1990 #WomensArt

There are credible reports that federal agents may be replaying the 2020 playbook and surging into Portland with the goal of provoking conflict and violence in my hometown. I am in close contact with state and local officials to monitor this activity.

#Fox by Helen Ahpornsiri, who creates intricate collage artworks created with real pressed flowers and leaves. #WomensArt #Autumn #Fall

I think of digital ID cards as akin to the voter ID laws passed by the Tories. It fuels a lie that there are a lot of illegal immigrants unfairly working or claiming benefits, and if only we had the instrument we could find them and stop them. Not true!

Whether you're personally for or against digital ID, yesterday's announcement raise some important Qs: How will it be governed? Will it create new barriers to work for people on low incomes? Will it reduce the number of small boat crossings before August 29? www.careful.industries/blog/2025-9-...

BREAKING: Dozens of delegates have staged a walk out of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations

Bless those who think the Home Office can successfully carry out a huge IT procurement exercise for digital ID cards for implementation before the next general election.

The Sikh Federation have launched a letter writing campaign resulting so far in hundreds of letters to over 200 MPs. campaigns.sikhfeduk.com/campaigns/go...

Here's the press release for digital ID and it is quite the shopping list of features. My first concern here is for the team who need to deliver quickly against the mix of a general purpose "do everything" app and a fairly specific set of features set out here www.gov.uk/government/n...

'Probably the biggest misspending scandal in the UK of all time' - ITV's rigorous & powerful film 'The Covid Contracts, Follow the Money' is a must-watch. Pleased to contribute to this film for @transparencyuk.bsky.social alongside @suehawley.bsky.social & many others. www.itv.com/watch/the-co...

Look, I agree there is nothing wrong with ID cards in principle. Many countries use them. If you are implementing them to simplify things and create better inclusion, great. This isn't that. It's directly aimed at being exclusionary, both in purpose and method of implementation. 👇

#sophiefromromania and I are hard at work writing papers today

Just rechecked, and digital ID and immigration don't feature in Labour's missions. So this week the government isn't motivated by the missions. But next week it might be. And the following week something else. And that's toxic for delivering major changes.

Racism on the Elizabeth Line. Sophia Choudry says she can feel a regression in social norms this summer after the progress across generations. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Illegal working is facilitated by dodgy bosses. Dodgy bosses don't check for an NI number now, they're not going to check for an ID card ... ID cards are a solution in search of a problem

With thanks to @professorbolland.bsky.social

The UK has a real problem with enforcing our most basic laws and regulations. Police just don’t seem to care so you get situations where violations can be an open secret for years and get tackled only when it makes the papers and the police get embarrassed.

Yep, that's great. Just fantastic. We were told that Starmer would lay out the patriotic case for diversity today. What we got was an article in the Telegraph, behind a paywall, about how the left failed to tackle immigration and now we all have to have ID cards www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

As so often my expectations of Starmer’s article were so low as to be basically subterranean and he still failed to live up to them. Let’s start with the weaselly and inflammatory conflation of seeking asylum with “illegal immigration“ 1/ [text in article below]

Oh and of course ID cards, a long-held obsession with the Labour right, but basically a solution in search of a problem, and hardly one likely to appeal to sceptics of government power either on the left or the right 5/

So barely a year after being elected, the government has exhausted its stock of positive, useful ideas. As a manifesto for leadership of the fightback against the far right, this is just a gaping void. If this wasn’t obvious already, we’re going to have to do this without the Labour Party /end

Selling ID cards as the way to stop illegal immigration rather than as a tool to simplify everyone’s lives is yet another colossal and very obvious mistake.

@teamlabouruk.bsky.social @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social @heidialexander.bsky.social @darrenpjones.bsky.social Is this no more impactful, fair and cheaper likely to win over many voters? 👇

If I was a Labour politician who wanted to design a better right to work scheme, I'd (a) start by cracking down on employers who transfer the risk to their workers, (b) work with the unions to design a scheme that puts workers' rights front and centre, and (c) phase roll-out, like digital switchover

Starmer's Telegraph article says digital right to work will be compulsory *within this parliament* which is a delivery nightmare. Rolling sthg out to 35m adults in 3 years is very ambitious when 15m live with some kind of poverty and programmes like eVisa have had a bumpy landing, to say the least

@teamlabouruk.bsky.social @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social @heidialexander.bsky.social @darrenpjones.bsky.social Your gov. says there's no money to fix the NHS and schools. Yet you found cash for ID cards, already setting unrealistic timescales & possibly costs. Another NHS IT fiasco hemorrhaging money? 👇

Preparing my notes for an interview on history of identity cards, back in the news because of proposals such as Labour Together’s Britcard (left). There’s a long history (see WW2 poster, right) Here’s a thread on recent (1980s-2010s) UK ID card history, showing how Tony Blair became keen on them

Starmer’s digital ID card plan assumes that everyone can afford smartphones. In reality, millions of people in the UK can’t afford any broadband, let alone a smartphone. Will the government provide smartphones free of charge? Yet another ill-informed plan that leads to mass digital exclusion. #ux

Might be useful to point out to Downing Street that there is a very different long-standing political culture of solidarity in Denmark that meant the left's anti-immigration approach worked to some degree at least - AND IT HASN'T WORKED IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY.

There is no money for abolishing the two children cap or for disabled people, but they can splash it on feeding the racist paranoia with more state surveillance and identity cards!

Sickening behavior by this agent. The fact that Mayor Adams has rolled out the red carpet for ICE is a stain on our city.

It’s a girls’ evening in for me and #sophiefromromania as @rorycj.bsky.social is out schmoozing at a neurology conference

Be the reason someone feels less alone because you showed them kindness Image: www.instagram.com/selfcarevisu...

#SophieFromRomania is now completely okay about the bin people – such a brave girl!

Now even the prof is asking where’s today’s #sophiefromromania so here she is mounting a surveillance operation even on bin day

I encourage you to watch the entire session. You will need to keep tissues nearby, but it’s vitally important testimony and viewing. Call to Action for Palestinian Children in the West Bank and Gaza webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1o...

Iceland's UN Ambassador fights back tears at today's "Call to Action for Palestinian Children in the West Bank and Gaza." She’s not the only one.