All great charities, but the work of @thelinkingnetwork.bsky.social & Who is Your Neighbour are particularly close to my heart. The Linking Network links schools across ethnic & class divides, and undertakes intergenerational linking. Who is Your Neighbour undertakes community dialogue in Yorkshire

At @britishfuture team meetings in the dark days of COVID we used to wear hats to keep up morale. A legacy of those days - for me - is an interest in millinery and I've just made my first hat. Lots of steam & stretching is involved; the process has barely changed in hundreds of years #BringBackHats

Is citizenship education up to scratch? Last week we and @uclspp.bsky.social hosted Hattie Andrews @politicsproject.bsky.social, Emma Connolly @uclspeechlab.bsky.social and Hans Svennevig @citizenshippgceioe.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social to discuss how the subject can be strengthened. Watch 👇

The Home Office has released refugee employment statistics today, too. Important data, as the proposed Protection and Work and Study visa will reduce wait prior to settlement being granted. But employment rates for refugees are low and better employment support is needed.

We mustn't forget the capacity of football to bridge divides in Israel. There are many sports-based peace initiatives in Israel eg Football for Peace. Hapoel Tel Aviv has had Israeli Arab players throughout its history & has a large Israeli Arab fanbase This doesn't deny racism in Israeli football

Two years after 7 October and the kidnap of my parents, hate is in fashion. For all our sakes, we need compassion | Sharone Lifschitz

"Are you representing an organisation here?", I asked a Muslim attendee. “I’m here as a Mancunian mate,’ he replied. “That’s what I’m representing.” Our Avaes Mohammad's reflections from Friday's vigil in Manchester following the appalling Synagogue attack. www.britishfuture.org/im-here-as-a...

Labour's post-conference bounce benefits Reform and the Greens

Hollow words when almost every weekend in London protestors shout 'globalise the intifada' and 'Khaybar, Khaybar ya yahud' and nothing is done by your police to address antisemitism and extremism.

Great to see Lisa Nandy announce a new ‘Town of culture’ competition - something British Future’s been calling for since our 2019 ‘Crossing Divides’ report by @sundersays.bsky.social @jillyrutter.bsky.social. Culture’s not just for cities! www.britishfuture.org/publication/... #LPC25

I also think the Government has made a big mistake in pushing this through when trust in democratic institutions is so low. As of 10.40 this morning 1.7 million people have now signed the parliamentary petition opposing digital ID card.

Arguments for digital ID include faster, streamlined verification. But the Government's main argument is that it reduces unauthorised migration. Yet there's no evidence from outside the UK that it does this. This false promise means I DON'T support digital ID petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

After years of making the running on immigration, Farage may this week have handed the initiative back to his opponents'. @robfordmancs.bsky.social for @ukandeu.bsky.social on the unpopularity of Reform's proposals on ILR ukandeu.ac.uk/reforms-radi...

18 September 1932 | A French Jewish girl, Rosa Farber, was born in Paris. On her 10th birthday, she was deported from #Drancy to #Auschwitz. She was murdered in a gas chamber after the selection. --- The first two gas chambers of Birkenau - Bunkers I & II: https://youtu.be/Rr6lF75fDmU

Most councils are taking a sensible approach to flags. They ate discouraging painting on roundabouts and building on grounds of safety/vandalism but keeping up the flags. Councils are also talking to residents on this issue.

Asylum protests have now taken place or are planned at 62 locations. With the exception of Epping and Norwich, (Bowthorpe) where a more local people are involved, most protests were small last weekend, c20-100 people. Most people who feel frustrated/angry about asylum policy don't attend protests.

This weekend's protests are smaller, even in places such as Nuneaton. Also, fewer women in pink and a bigger proportion of outside activists. I did some interviews in Horley: while there is opposition to the hotels, people's concerns about potential violence stops them going to the protests.

Winning an appeal would help the Government deal with housing challenges, but there could be big impacts for community cohesion in this current febrile climate. The Epping protectors would certainly be vocal.

This is a good blog in Eastern Eye about rising racism and what is a legitimate concern.

From Jan-Jun 2025, there were 19,982 small-boat arrivals to the UK. Some 65% were males aged 18-39 years. Top five countries of origin for boat arrivals were Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Syria and Sudan - all countries with poor human rights records and high refugee recognition rates.

This suggestion leaves large group sites eg RAF Wethersfield, as the only housing option, unless the Government opens refugee camps. Leaving people homeless and on the streets is also highly undesirable - for asylum seekers themselves and for wider community cohesion.

There have been protests in 36 different locations in the last 2 weeks involving c4,500 people. All but 4 protests have been small - <100 people & far-right organised. They have been larger and have involved more local people where triggered by a rape or assault: Nuneaton, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Epping

Dave Rich's substack which calls for an end to the suffering in Gaza, the return of the hostages and a viable peace @daverich1.bsky.social Desperate times open.substack.com/pub/everyday...

Today we announce the Independent Commission on Inclusion and Belonging in Multi-Ethnic Newham commissioned by @rokhsanafiaz.bsky.social, chaired by @sundersays.bsky.social. Newham residents can share their views on social cohesion via this survey qualtricsxml86vqtd2v.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

25 foreign ministries have made a joint statement calling for "the war in Gaza to end now", including the UK, much of the EU [not Hungary], Canada, Japan, Norway, Switzerland www.gov.uk/government/n...

I used to run a citizenship PGCE course. For me, improving political education in schools should be a higher priority. This should include critical thinking and media literacy, to build resilience to mis/disinformation.

Statue of Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians Tamworth. Born c870 and died in 918, she was daughter of Alfred the Great and aunt of Aethelstan. Aetthelflaed played an important role in her own right in unifying England, but is one of our forgotten queens.

The report also talks about social fragmentation. While most of us feel that our neighbourhoods are places where people generally get on, that isn't true for all of us. About 1 in 8 people live in deprived, high population churn, low trust neighbourhoods.

We found that the combination of the cost of living crisis, pressures in the NHS and housing, concern over immigration and asylum, declining trust in politicians and the reach of divisive social media risks the unrest of last summer happening again. This should be a wakeup call for the Government.

Very excited that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to the UK. All its colours - which have survived 950 years - come from an iron modifier and three plants: madder (red), weld (yellow) and woad (blue). I grew these plants in my garden in 2023, but Noman dyers and embroiders were more skilled than me.

Happy to be in Colne this morning where I am speaking at a conference on community cohesion organised by Building Bridges Pendle, a geat organisation. Good to hear from the communities minister Lord Wajid Khan.

Belong - the Cohesion and Integration Network - is holding an event on 20 May to launch a big research programme on the drivers of inter-ethnic contact. This will be useful in informing government and council cohesion policy. www.belongnetwork.co.uk/parallel-liv...

Very good thread about Labour voters who might turn to Reform. Older, non-graduates, socially conservative, want action on channel boats, but still close to Labour on economic issues. Also broadly support net zero.

YouGov's polling shows Reform ahead in the Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire Mayoral elections, and a tight contest between Greens and Labour in the West of England. The Conservatives are ahead in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

On 24.4.2013 1,138 people were killed when the Rana Plaza clothing factory in Bangladesh collapsed. Today the International Accord on Fire and Building Safety is meant to make factories safer. Lots of brands have signed, but #Nike #Northface #Decathlon #Timberland are among those that haven't 🧵

The good citizens of Port Talbot might be justified in feeling dissatisfied with the performative industrial strategy of Labour and Reform UK. Once one of the largest steelworks in the world, its furnaces closed in Oct 2024, after its loss of EU markets and a failed rescue plan.

British Future, a non-aligned thinktank, previously called for an annual migration plan to be presented to Parliament for debate, mirroring Budget Day. It also called for a programme of public engagement and deliberation to feed into the annual migration plan.

A good report. @britishfuture.bsky.social also called for an annual migration plan in 2018 - a recommendation of the National Conversation on Immigration. We also called for the public to input into an annual plan, to give them more voice in decision-making. www.britishfuture.org/publication/...

Reform currently has 120 councillors - 13 by-election wins and 107 through defections from other parties. On 1st March 2025, the party had 78 councillors. Another 6 Reform Derby councillors sit in Derby as a separate party,

Maldon is the type of area where Reform might expect to do well. Despite much campaigning by Reform, the Conservatives won this seat.

Carney could emerge with a clear mandate from Canadians & with a significant influence on the anti-Trump forces in the US and beyond too

There are now 116 Reform councillors, but the party has lost people who joined just a few weeks ago. The ex-Reformers include Rosemary Trollope-Bellew, now Independent in South Kesteven and Cllr Maria Bowtell (East Riding) who stood in Bridlington & the Wolds in 2024 & also chaired its local branch

Nearly five years on, and among people who aren't the most politicised, the famous Barnard Castle 'testing his eyesight' trip still comes up in focus groups.

Looking forward to hearing more detail when Robert Putnam speaks about this, later today at the RSA. It has used Meta data from Facebook, Insta etc to look at cross-class friendship groups. Not sure how representative this is: nearly 30% of people in UK are non-users or low users of the internet

The numbers of Reform councillors continues to rise through defections, with 113 councillors today, including one Labour and one LibDem defection. Reform has only won 15 seats and has a considerably smaller presence in local government than do the Greens with 851 council seats and LibDems with 3032

While the media focuses on the Farage-Lowe spat, there are interesting developments in local government. There were 47 Reform councillors 5 weeks ago; today there are 108. These gains are mostly through Tory to Reform defections, but Reform has also gained councillors who sat as independents.

A very comprehensive report, with sections on the riots and the rise of Reform.

The meeting room at the old Spode Factory in Stoke-on-Trent is the loveliest location ever to run a focus group. #Stoke

I'm in Yorkshie this week, running focus groups for the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion livingwelltogether.org.uk

The public sees international students as good for Britain. My colleague @heather-rolfe.bsky.social on the new @britishfuture.bsky.social research on public attitudes to students coming here & staying after they study & how universities and policy-makers could respond ukandeu.ac.uk/the-public-s...