Dishonouring the fallen

This is courage. open.substack.com/pub/treason/...

Farage reckons kicking legal migrants out of the country will save "£234bn". So I did the sums, taking into account % of immigrants vs natives who are working, paying tax, claiming benefits, average salaries etc. If Farage is right about immigrants, then natives would cost Britain £1.92 trillion.

‘If slavery were invented today, would (Labour ministers) call it ‘impractical’? If torture were invented today, would they call it ‘ineffective’? If child labour were invented today, would they call it ‘poor value for money’?’ My piece for @bylines.scot bylines.scot/politics/sta...

No immigrant has ever sacked me, or cut my wages, or offshored my job, or closed my hospital, or stopped my mum's disability benefits, or crashed the economy. Those things were all done by white English men who went to Oxford and wore a nice suit.

Very poor/implicitly hyperpartisan reporting from @lbc.co.uk - a) uses pejorative term ('handouts') b) leaves the false impression that migrants in general receive 'handouts' (rather than those legally resident/contributing for five years) c) omits the deportation element of the policy

Unlike France the UK is a union state of four national spaces each with their own distinct politics. If Plaid and the SNP become viewed as more plausible leaders of an anti-Reform front in their nations and LibDems or Greens in specific English regions then McSweeney's strategy wipes Labour out

Hate to point this out, but every chance the majority of the electorate won't think Labour has delivered come the next election. Not least given the expectation they've set of reviving growth.

It’ll be fun 20 years from now when people clamber through the ruins of the White House, destroyed in the 2030-2035 Civil War, to see that Google and Palantir helped get us there.

Labour must finally stand up firmly against a Reform policy. Call it out for the obscenity it is. Starmer has recently finally spoken out against populism and division. What could be more populist and divisive than this? Nor for heaven's sake, don't dodge it, or excuse it. Challenge it.

The ITV exposé on COVID now turns its sights on testing. I was stunned in 2020 when Sir Paul Nurse - Director of the Francis Crick Institute - told me he’d written to the government to offer the services of the Crick (the biggest biomeolecular lab in the country) - and never got a reply…

Two thirds of Labour’s promises are on track or achieved. But sadly, politics isn’t about balance sheets—it’s about perception. Stephen McNair reports.

Brexit, writes The Bear, was built on lies so big they should have ended careers. Instead, they launched speaking tours. That tells you everything about shame in politics today.

Reform will apparently pledge today that they'd abolish indefinite leave to remain - including retrospectively, to people already granted it. Obviously this is a moral abomination but it is also a practical and legal impossibility.

I’m watching and it’s astounding. We all knew something like this was going on - but the extent of it! While so many were suffering, dying, sunk into loneliness - a few were absolutely RAKING IT IN. The COVID health crisis was a very, very lucrative opportunity for some.

A freudian slip, perhaps.

British media pumps out daily propaganda pieces for Farage, fails to offer *any scrutiny* and basically legitimises rampant racism, then puts on its ‘innocent face’ and clutches its pearls at the rise of the far right… What a grim betrayal of our democracy. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...

Malcolm Rifkind, "During the Brexit period people took such strong passionate views, either to remain or to leave" "Some of the arguments that were made were frankly dishonest" "Some of the so called advantages of leaving, or the terrors of staying" "That was a particularly bad period"

Late harvest.

Starmer, please copy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The anti war president"

On X I used data to show London does not have the highest crime rate in the world. 10 mins later a right winger linked to my book. 10 mins after that I got 40 1-star reviews from unverified accounts (previously 4.9 star avg). Fair play to Amazon - they removed them all. But that's how it works.

In which Liz Truss finally declares for the Far Right.

I have rarely seen such unadulterated bollocks. I loved Twitter, it was so important for my job. Then a mad megalomaniac took it over and made it so no one would see my posts unless I paid him money - and even if I did that I would be submerged in nazi hate. But yeah this is our fault.

I don’t know, of course but perhaps it’s easier to accept if you are a very, very, very wealthy obnoxious shite.

Your regular reminder that a NATO country shot down a Russian jet after it violated NATO airspace for *17 seconds*. What results? Russia didn’t start WW3 Russia didn’t carry on violating Turkish airspace. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ru...

Brexit: the unforgivably selfish arseholery of those who lied about what it really meant for the country while dodging the cost, hassle and restrictions they inflicted on everyone else. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

What a parade of arseholes the Brexiters are… David Davis… top chump.

A worker making $50,000 a year contributes to Social Security on 100% of their income. A CEO making $20 million a year contributes to Social Security on less than 1% of their income. Instead of raising the retirement age, we should scrap the Social Security tax cap.

Public Service Announcement: time to save the NT from astroturfing reactionary nutters, AGAIN.

Ministers really are desperate to bully just about anybody to try to get them out of the mess British politics has created.

Because nobody does track government results, ministers tend to think their announcements are actually meaningful, and are surprised to discover that they haven't shifted any economic dials whatsoever. A systemic problem that should have been addressed in July 2024.

Can't believe the geniuses who think "our children suck" is a winning message aren't 40 points up in the polls.

Reform UK intends to withdraw our human rights They want us to join Russia and Belarus as the only European states not signed up to the ECHR @sussexbylines.co.uk

It's kind of impressive to cause an ideological schism in a party that isn't a party, hasn't got any policies, hasn't decided on a name, and only has two members.

So Trump tells Europeans to increase their defence budgets & buy more US kit, & the Pentagon tells them they can’t have it. Maybe it’s time for Europe to stop thinking it can rely on the US, & start investing in a rapid build-up of domestic arms production, even if it’s slightly lower quality.

And also on Friday, two Russian aircraft buzzed a Polish oil platform in the Baltic. I’m sensing a pattern. If NATO doesn’t make the Russians take them seriously, intrusions will grow more dangerous. They need to be told if they enter NATO airspace, they will be shot down - & we have to mean it.

"Only a minority are deeply attached to Reform’s politics, but they are confident in making arguments for it to friends, etc. That is why it is winning. Labour’s instinct is to keep supporters at a distance rather than supporting them in becoming active representatives of party-thinking."

Just stop appeasing them.

We failed the drone test so he’s trying something else. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Gearing up for BBCr4 Today Programme on where the State Visit leaves us on Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. How far did the rosy glow of Royal hospitality affect discussions on the tough issues? Give us a listen at 0712

“We will change the laws so as to put lawyers out of jobs”

Unpopular opinion: 1)What is happening in America is hugely concerning. 2) It is in both Britain‘s and Europe's interest to work closely together. 3) Neither Brits nor Europeans can afford to openly break with the US right now. 4) Making the most of that impossible situation is very hard.

Psychologically healthy people rarely show racism. They don’t need to boost their identity by demeaning others. Dr Steve Taylor writes. From #TheConversation -- thanks!

Matt Frei, "President Trump is flying home happy, leaving no chaos in his wake, and propelled by an audible sign of British relief" "Asked about Peter Mandelson's ties to Epstein, President Trump said he didn't know who the sacked ambassador was"

Just showing off, really.

And you get the added bonus of not having to make eye contact with other humans because hey who needs to connect with their fellow humans and have a functioning society when we can have Meta AI glasses 🤓 🤦‍♀️

I love this Vonnegut post so much!

Just wonder whether Ministers understand that the endless churn of announcements great and small doesn't really achieve anything, and that packaging "investment" similar. Every day a deliverable, yet people demand deliverables. Maybe some food for thought?