Big presence on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 too.

A reminder of how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party in 1983, an era featuring much more widespread racial prejudice in the public, approached the issue of race and national identity:

The Tories are focusing too much on culture wars, according to former long-serving Conservative MP Sir Nick Gibb In an interview with PolHome, the former schools minister also said the UK should lead efforts to reform the ECHR, not grab at the “most immediate superficial solution" of leaving it

This photo from Portland by @reuters.com's Carlos Barria 👌

So true.

Not even a literate one. You can only say that "the whole point of a status like... indefinite leave to remain is that it is still a live conversation" if you do not know what the word indefinite means.

Funny as ever, but also totally on the money in wondering how and why the Tory Party would ever think heralding ICE as something to emulate would be a good thing. Have they all actually just given up and gone home?

Barely a fortnight has passed since Kemi Badenoch’s reflexive and incredibly OTT hostility to the government’s proposals for digital ID.

🤦‍♂️

Oh FFS. So far we’ve had 1) rowing back on climate commitments, 2) leaving the ECHR and now 3) this. ICE aren’t even popular in the US (even among most Trump supporters). Why would you use them as a model for a policy announcement here??

Yes, parties talking sh*te while being egged on by idiot papers like the Express.

Hard to disagree…

Well this is a shock - after a pointless period of prevarication the party announces its plan to do the thing it was always going to do.

This from @lewisgoodall.com is the best analysis yet of the PM’s strangely well received conference speech. Hope they read it in No 10. Always seemed odd that the best they could do was steal a line from Biden, who was not exactly a success substack.com/@lewisgoodal...

This is very moving. My heart goes out to Emma Barnett and to everyone affected. And I think about my children. And about how I would feel if taking them to church meant fearing for their safety.

Well said TM.

1. "Boriswave" is an invention of the online extreme right. 2. Those people came here legally, paying huge fees to do so, to fill essential roles. 3. They won't get ILR unless they apply, jump through hoops, & pay more fees. 4. The Times is reporting on them as a criminal burden on society.

This is a good example of something that *could* be a line drawn between Con & Ref, where Con voters are, broadly pro-environmental measures and they are popular with the broader public. And yet...

Labour’s theory that voters they lose on their left flank will rally back to them to block Farage is misguided but at least makes *some* sense. The Tories entirely ignoring the Lib Dems as a threat…even less so. They lost 60+ seats to them last year! They need them back! This *will not do that*!

No rank hypocrisy going on here guys

Brilliant. It’s funny because it’s true.

Probably unpopular reflection from this Labour conference - mainstream political parties including this one are no closer to being able to understand how delivery in government can lead to popularity. Just as there have been no obvious paths to growth since 2008.

Funny how suddenly so many on the right now see hurty words as a problem, and how suddenly expansive their notion of incitement has become.

The football analogy is a great one. The PM's speech was basically passable. That it's been written up so well largely reflects the quality of what's gone before.

An example of the crisis in political journalism on both sides of the Atlantic. It's all about the 'game' and not about what's actually right or important.

If you don’t like being called a racist, maybe don’t make a career of saying things that appeal to racists, don’t create a political party that keeps attracting racist candidates, don’t fawn over racist world leaders, and don’t make a convicted racist the guest of honour at your party conference.

Good piece generally this - but this seems particularly important. Turning up and wanting to win might be regarded as the bare minimum in politics but not a huge amount of it about these days. It's the main reason Reform are doing so well.

Can someone ask Farage or Zia Yusuf why, if they're so concerned about incitement to violence, they had Lucy Connolly as a guest star at their conference?

There is not a single person in that room who would have described their job in those terms or who likes hearing this buffoon say it.

I work with Veterans. If I told them that they "killed people and broke things for a living" they would (rightfully) tell me to go to hell. Those that have had to kill someone in the line of duty most often view it with sadness, regret, and one of the worst experiences of their lives.

Weird how The Times had Farage's "shocked" reaction to Starmer's speech published before Starmer's speech.

this guy has no idea what the american military is (the most sophisticated logistics operation ever assembled in human history)

Constantly amazed at the desperation to make “young men love Reform a thing”, despite all evidence to contrary

I’m not saying Britain has gone entirely batshit crazy but a Reform councillor in Wales has just stormed out of a local Torfaen Council meeting in Gwent because it failed to acknowledge the killing of a man in America. In other news, Britain has gone entirely batshit crazy.

Like Starmer, Badenoch missing an open political goal. And also like Starmer, she is trying to win over voters who will never vote for her.

I’m old enough to remember when Conservative Party leaders believed in law and order.

This is astonishing. Just astonishing.

A lot to agree with here. Many good policies (on any coherent definition of good) are unpopular, many popular policies are not good.

Bear with me, I anticipate your disagreement. There is a clear pattern to the advice given to those who want to press back against rising racism. What it boils down to is that if you point out that racism is often being dressed up as “legitimate concerns” you will alienate people. /1

"Legitimate concerns"

This is just objectively the exact opposite of the truth. Every serious effort to actually quantify the ideological valence of political violence has found the reverse of what Vance claims.

Good. Bye bye.

If Starmer goes on the offensive against the far right and all those who echo their arguments it will absolutely liberate him politically - as well as it being the right thing to do. He will feel a tailwind from moral clarity. Go for it.

Suggestion for any parliamentarians who see this. Put down a PQ to the Cabinet Office to ask them if an assessment has been made of whether use of X is compatible with GCS propriety rules, the Civil Service Code and the PSED. And if not, why not.

Taking the temperature down requires the government to actually do something about the rise of hate and extremism.

A man whose patriotism is so fragile that he refused to watch his national football team because he didn't like them taking the knee.

When centrists adopt far-right rhetoric, they don’t make themselves stronger. They make themselves look inauthentic, legitimise the far right, and shift the political debate onto terrain defined by their opponents. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

A few years ago on College Green I said to a former Tory Minister that I was concerned the party’s response to Brexit was ruining its reputation with young people. “Don’t worry”, he said, “people always get more Conservative as they get older”. Well…

This is true - they’re totally beatable. But you’ve got to want to beat them. And at the moment it’s not obvious anyone has the hunger to do so. We talk a lot about strategy but even just matching their effort would be a start.

Farage promise to "stop the boats within two weeks of winning gov't" unravelling. Apparently, it means "after passing laws", "as quickly as possible", he "believes", the boats will still cross, but all will be deported "if necessary" and "sensible", "unless we have a duty of care". Bravo, Beth! 👏🏽