Ben Whitham
@drbenwhitham.bsky.social
Senior Policy and Research Officer at Refugee Action | Research Associate at SOAS | Assistant Instructor at Tiger Crane Kung Fu, London | Trade unionist, martial artist, antifascist. Views my own.
https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/ben-whitham
https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/ben-whitham
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust
NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.
Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
The BBC happily calls anyone from swastika-waving, streetfighting American neo-Nazis to broadly liberal, one-nation Tory peers "conservative" but simply cannot arrive at a "clear definition" when it comes to democratic socialism?
November 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
The BBC happily calls anyone from swastika-waving, streetfighting American neo-Nazis to broadly liberal, one-nation Tory peers "conservative" but simply cannot arrive at a "clear definition" when it comes to democratic socialism?
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Mamdani responded to the smears by putting out an ad in Arabic and speaking Arabic in his victory speech. The lesson is to never apologize for who you are and never cede to your opponents the idea that their voters are somehow more legitimate than your own voters.
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Mamdani responded to the smears by putting out an ad in Arabic and speaking Arabic in his victory speech. The lesson is to never apologize for who you are and never cede to your opponents the idea that their voters are somehow more legitimate than your own voters.
Reposted by Ben Whitham
when people tell you who they are, several times, from a loudspeaker with closed captions, consider believing them
Genuinely interesting how quickly so many pro Israel influencers on Twitter pivoted to also being pro RSF
November 4, 2025 at 4:51 PM
when people tell you who they are, several times, from a loudspeaker with closed captions, consider believing them
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Also genuine recognition that there are different types of voters/constituencies who have a valuable voice in elections. UK politics speaks only to perceived voters and ignores everyone else. Large part of why we are in the position we are in today.
Zohran is stone cold man. Putting out an ad in Arabic after all the Islamophobic shit that’s been thrown his way? Pure swag.
Dems don’t need to copy his politics or even necessarily his campaign strategy, they need to learn how to grow a fucking spine.
Dems don’t need to copy his politics or even necessarily his campaign strategy, they need to learn how to grow a fucking spine.
أنا اسمي زهران ممدان وعم رشّح حالي لأكون العمدة الجديد في مدينة نيويورك
November 4, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Also genuine recognition that there are different types of voters/constituencies who have a valuable voice in elections. UK politics speaks only to perceived voters and ignores everyone else. Large part of why we are in the position we are in today.
The Greek edition of Global Politics (with a slightly longer title than the English one) is out now!
November 4, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The Greek edition of Global Politics (with a slightly longer title than the English one) is out now!
Raising higher and additional rates is one thing but surely even this so-far nightmarish Labour government wouldn't seriously think the answer to 14 years of Tory austerity, an ongoing cost of living crisis, and deep, deadly poverty is to pile a basic rate income tax hike top of their welfare cuts?
November 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Raising higher and additional rates is one thing but surely even this so-far nightmarish Labour government wouldn't seriously think the answer to 14 years of Tory austerity, an ongoing cost of living crisis, and deep, deadly poverty is to pile a basic rate income tax hike top of their welfare cuts?
This statement in defence of the ECHR on its 75th anniversary has achieved huge support from organisations across the migration and asylum, human rights, racial justice, and other sectors. Attacks on the rights of migrants harm everyone.
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/almost...
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/almost...
Almost 300 organisations express support for ECHR on 75th anniversary - Liberty
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk
November 4, 2025 at 12:16 PM
This statement in defence of the ECHR on its 75th anniversary has achieved huge support from organisations across the migration and asylum, human rights, racial justice, and other sectors. Attacks on the rights of migrants harm everyone.
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/almost...
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/almost...
Well we know the colour of his skin and country of his birth because that was the information police deemed it most important to share yesterday, immediately upon announcing his arrest. Which is a terrifying indictment of how far the British state has capitulated to far-right political movements.
November 3, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Well we know the colour of his skin and country of his birth because that was the information police deemed it most important to share yesterday, immediately upon announcing his arrest. Which is a terrifying indictment of how far the British state has capitulated to far-right political movements.
Matthew Goodwin, who is still welcomed by the BBC and other mainstream media outlets, now explicitly promotes a white supremacism identical to Enoch Powell's ("the West Indian or Indian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman ... in fact he is a West Indian or an Asian still")
November 3, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Matthew Goodwin, who is still welcomed by the BBC and other mainstream media outlets, now explicitly promotes a white supremacism identical to Enoch Powell's ("the West Indian or Indian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman ... in fact he is a West Indian or an Asian still")
Confected national "migration crisis" vs. real socio-economic one: "only 26% of people said immigration and asylum was one of the three most important issues facing their community... half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest problems facing the country as a whole" news.sky.com/story/manufa...
'Manufactured panic': Immigration not near top of most people's concerns, poll suggests
The cost of living, health, crime, and housing are much higher on people's lists of personal worries, a YouGov survey has suggested.
news.sky.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Confected national "migration crisis" vs. real socio-economic one: "only 26% of people said immigration and asylum was one of the three most important issues facing their community... half the 52% who said it was one of the biggest problems facing the country as a whole" news.sky.com/story/manufa...
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Shocked to learn that press and politicians aren’t faithfully reflecting the spontaneous lived concerns of ordinary folk: "for most people, concerns around immigration are not based on personal experience”
'Manufactured panic': Immigration not near top of most people's concerns, poll suggests
The cost of living, health, crime, and housing are much higher on people's lists of personal worries, a YouGov survey has suggested.
news.sky.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Shocked to learn that press and politicians aren’t faithfully reflecting the spontaneous lived concerns of ordinary folk: "for most people, concerns around immigration are not based on personal experience”
Son of a toolmaker. Human rights lawyer. Prime Minister. Arms dealer to autocratic, authoritarian and genocidal regimes. Complainer about people displaced by those regimes seeking asylum in his country. Remover of refugees' rights to asylum, citizenship, family reunion, dignity. What a journey.
October 30, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Son of a toolmaker. Human rights lawyer. Prime Minister. Arms dealer to autocratic, authoritarian and genocidal regimes. Complainer about people displaced by those regimes seeking asylum in his country. Remover of refugees' rights to asylum, citizenship, family reunion, dignity. What a journey.
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Hey Keir Starmer, get the memo?
We’ve delivered thousands of messages to Number 10 from our supporters, with the help of some digi-vans!
People are fed up with politicians choosing failed policies and scapegoating over investing in all communities. Time for real change.
We’ve delivered thousands of messages to Number 10 from our supporters, with the help of some digi-vans!
People are fed up with politicians choosing failed policies and scapegoating over investing in all communities. Time for real change.
October 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Hey Keir Starmer, get the memo?
We’ve delivered thousands of messages to Number 10 from our supporters, with the help of some digi-vans!
People are fed up with politicians choosing failed policies and scapegoating over investing in all communities. Time for real change.
We’ve delivered thousands of messages to Number 10 from our supporters, with the help of some digi-vans!
People are fed up with politicians choosing failed policies and scapegoating over investing in all communities. Time for real change.
Reposted by Ben Whitham
This is what happened to my Grandfather in Frankfurt, Germany on 9th November 1938, commonly known as Kristallnacht.
In Portland, Oregon, masked ICE GOONS abducted and vanished US citizen Gonzalo Catalan last week. Tragically, his family remains unaware of his whereabouts and has not received any communication from him as of today.
October 29, 2025 at 4:13 AM
This is what happened to my Grandfather in Frankfurt, Germany on 9th November 1938, commonly known as Kristallnacht.
My contribution to the i's piece on "asylum crisis". It's not a crisis of "border security" but of people seeking safety suffering and dying at the border and in the asylum system. As they are mainly people of colour, it's also a crisis of racial justice. inews.co.uk/opinion/fix-...
October 29, 2025 at 8:42 AM
My contribution to the i's piece on "asylum crisis". It's not a crisis of "border security" but of people seeking safety suffering and dying at the border and in the asylum system. As they are mainly people of colour, it's also a crisis of racial justice. inews.co.uk/opinion/fix-...
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Just landed back in UK and immediately see Labour trying to house asylum seekers in barracks. A strategy that was horrendous under the Tories and opposed by Labour at the time. Labour aren't in charge of themselves at this point, Reform are. There's more than these options but they won't listen.
October 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Just landed back in UK and immediately see Labour trying to house asylum seekers in barracks. A strategy that was horrendous under the Tories and opposed by Labour at the time. Labour aren't in charge of themselves at this point, Reform are. There's more than these options but they won't listen.
Good thread on the ideological contortions through which people otherwise opposed to imperialist state violence strive to justify refusing support to Ukraine's self-defence - and the danger this obscure political tendency within the Left poses to "Your Party" at its founding moment.
We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers' rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ys...
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October 28, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Good thread on the ideological contortions through which people otherwise opposed to imperialist state violence strive to justify refusing support to Ukraine's self-defence - and the danger this obscure political tendency within the Left poses to "Your Party" at its founding moment.
"racism affects people on the level of perception, enabling them to hallucinate a reality that conforms to their predetermined expectations"
- Jackie Wang, "Carceral Capitalism"
- Jackie Wang, "Carceral Capitalism"
![Screenshot from a BBC News report: "Here in the heart of the Peak District, there is one main issue on people's minds: everyone in the laid-back spa town of Buxton, it seems, has a view on plans for a £100m redevelopment of the town centre.
As part of the redevelopment, the River Wye, currently running narrow and shallow through the centre of town, is to be widened. When the plans were posted on one Facebook group, the first comment underneath read: "Open up the river, yeah so the dinghies can [head] straight to the hotel!"
Illegal immigration, perhaps, is the second-biggest issue on people's minds - even though there are very few immigrants in this Derbyshire town of 20,000 people, known for its opera house and grand Georgian crescent. It was such concerns that helped Reform UK win control of Derbyshire County Council in May.
The rise of Reform UK in the opinion polls, and the fact immigration is now the top concern for voters across the country according to YouGov, external, is not seen only in the places with most immigration. It is apparent even in small towns like Buxton, that has very little.
In May, Reform UK won in one Buxton county council ward and came a close second to the Conservatives in the other.
It is 250 miles from here to Dover, where the small boats arrive, and there are no hotels in Buxton housing asylum seekers.
In fact, the latest government figures show that in June, of the nearly 103,000 asylum seekers being accommodated across the UK, none of them lived in High Peak Borough Council, the area that covers Buxton. Yet six months ago, in the county council elections in Buxton, almost a third of those who voted backed Reform UK."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5q5aphkryddfhrwdtbnf6nlk/bafkreihkdcshk6xlvzewqfjkzzn5u7rzluk5vyohcubsrcsyl6alacayiu@jpeg)
October 28, 2025 at 11:16 AM
"racism affects people on the level of perception, enabling them to hallucinate a reality that conforms to their predetermined expectations"
- Jackie Wang, "Carceral Capitalism"
- Jackie Wang, "Carceral Capitalism"
The UK studiously ignores the war in Sudan because its strategic allies have vested interests in the conflict and continue to profit from it. Then the UK refuses safe routes to Sudanese refugees, forcing them to make potentially lethal channel crossings, and attempts to deny them asylum on arrival.
This is the first time that I have even seen a death toll for Sudan.
“More than 150,000 people have died across the country and about 12 million have fled their homes, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.”
This is a genocide in Sudan.
This is a genocide in Sudan.
October 28, 2025 at 8:40 AM
The UK studiously ignores the war in Sudan because its strategic allies have vested interests in the conflict and continue to profit from it. Then the UK refuses safe routes to Sudanese refugees, forcing them to make potentially lethal channel crossings, and attempts to deny them asylum on arrival.
Reposted by Ben Whitham
You’ve got £9.95 to last you the whole week… what’s your plan?
This impossible choice is played out in asylum hotels. Whilst people await a decision on their claim, they are banned from working & receive just £9.95 for clothes, travel, data & more.
This is not luxury. This is a hellish limbo.
🧵
This impossible choice is played out in asylum hotels. Whilst people await a decision on their claim, they are banned from working & receive just £9.95 for clothes, travel, data & more.
This is not luxury. This is a hellish limbo.
🧵
October 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
You’ve got £9.95 to last you the whole week… what’s your plan?
This impossible choice is played out in asylum hotels. Whilst people await a decision on their claim, they are banned from working & receive just £9.95 for clothes, travel, data & more.
This is not luxury. This is a hellish limbo.
🧵
This impossible choice is played out in asylum hotels. Whilst people await a decision on their claim, they are banned from working & receive just £9.95 for clothes, travel, data & more.
This is not luxury. This is a hellish limbo.
🧵
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Reposted by Ben Whitham
What a difference a few years make.
FYI: The new ‘peace plan’ is still inconsistent with international law and human rights protections.
FYI: The new ‘peace plan’ is still inconsistent with international law and human rights protections.
October 14, 2025 at 12:30 PM
What a difference a few years make.
FYI: The new ‘peace plan’ is still inconsistent with international law and human rights protections.
FYI: The new ‘peace plan’ is still inconsistent with international law and human rights protections.
Reposted by Ben Whitham
Really important reminder of how Reform aren’t just Little Englanders, but part of an international far-right network which wants to take away fundamental rights we all take for granted - and wants to use “free speech” as a lever
NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.
www.nytimes.com
October 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Really important reminder of how Reform aren’t just Little Englanders, but part of an international far-right network which wants to take away fundamental rights we all take for granted - and wants to use “free speech” as a lever
"the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik
Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 10:17 AM
"the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...