Nervous Social Democrat
@nervoussocdem.bsky.social
The display name is pretty self-explanatory. My politics are a mix of left-liberalism and social democracy. I’m also a history geek. I am anonymous so I can give opinions without worrying about doing so: despite this, I promise I am mild-mannered.
It's a pity that there isn't a sensible Green Party, either in England and Wales or in Scotland. They'd be a useful contribution to the political ecosystem if they weren't completely bonkers.
Zack Polanski has invited Zarah Sultana to defect from Your Party to the Greens
Zack Polanski invites Zarah Sultana to defect from Your Party
www.thenational.scot
November 23, 2025 at 8:46 PM
It's a pity that there isn't a sensible Green Party, either in England and Wales or in Scotland. They'd be a useful contribution to the political ecosystem if they weren't completely bonkers.
This is a good example of how quite similar political instincts work well if 15% would be a stunning GE triumph for you and appallingly if you need 33-38% to be a success. Though I do wonder how the NATO stuff goes down with their Home Counties Lib Dem as opposed to their urban Corbynista vote.
I did fall into the trap of "What's his angle with the NATO stuff?" before realising it's not that deep it's just what he believes as a fundamentally unserious individual.
November 23, 2025 at 11:12 AM
This is a good example of how quite similar political instincts work well if 15% would be a stunning GE triumph for you and appallingly if you need 33-38% to be a success. Though I do wonder how the NATO stuff goes down with their Home Counties Lib Dem as opposed to their urban Corbynista vote.
It is deeply depressing to think that the last Tory government was better at drawing some basic anti-racist lines in terms of public rhetoric than the current Labour government, but that actually is where we are.
As soon as politicians stop enforcing norms things can unravel very, very quickly. Currently the Starmer legacy based off the last six months of total capitulation and ceding of ground, bar one decent speech in September.
November 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
It is deeply depressing to think that the last Tory government was better at drawing some basic anti-racist lines in terms of public rhetoric than the current Labour government, but that actually is where we are.
From an EU plus European NATO perspective, the lesson of the Trump-Witkoff plan is the one we should have absorbed in 2016-21 and again in November 2024. We cannot trust, but remain dependent on, the US. Until the dependency changes, when push comes to shove, we will have to do as we’re told.
November 22, 2025 at 9:26 AM
From an EU plus European NATO perspective, the lesson of the Trump-Witkoff plan is the one we should have absorbed in 2016-21 and again in November 2024. We cannot trust, but remain dependent on, the US. Until the dependency changes, when push comes to shove, we will have to do as we’re told.
I find it remarkable how the UK, whose integration record is in relative terms actually pretty good, is effectively throwing the whole notion of focusing on integration to the winds in favour of a glorified, far less successful Gastarbeiter model.
Home Office media release on new settlement rules.
5 years to settlement for family members of British citizens; BNO Hong Kong visas + public sector workers
Keir Starmer's government proposes 15 year, 20 year + even 30 year settlement routes: deliberately off the charts of any precedent anywhere
5 years to settlement for family members of British citizens; BNO Hong Kong visas + public sector workers
Keir Starmer's government proposes 15 year, 20 year + even 30 year settlement routes: deliberately off the charts of any precedent anywhere
November 21, 2025 at 11:01 AM
I find it remarkable how the UK, whose integration record is in relative terms actually pretty good, is effectively throwing the whole notion of focusing on integration to the winds in favour of a glorified, far less successful Gastarbeiter model.
I am torn between thinking ‘screw them, they bloody well deserve it’ and thinking ‘but it’s a disaster if they just open the policy floodgates and the hard right still ride high’. Thanks for the Zugzwang moment (as well as the hideous and cruel policy), Labour.
VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it
November 20, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I am torn between thinking ‘screw them, they bloody well deserve it’ and thinking ‘but it’s a disaster if they just open the policy floodgates and the hard right still ride high’. Thanks for the Zugzwang moment (as well as the hideous and cruel policy), Labour.
The UK is unusual in European terms in how low its direct taxes on most people are, not really in how much tax the wealthy pay. By all means aim to make them pay more (without endorsing this particular way of doing it), but pretending you can deliver Scandinavia just by doing that is empty populism.
At the Budget, the Green Party's message is clear: Cut Bills. Tax Billionaires.
November 19, 2025 at 9:58 PM
The UK is unusual in European terms in how low its direct taxes on most people are, not really in how much tax the wealthy pay. By all means aim to make them pay more (without endorsing this particular way of doing it), but pretending you can deliver Scandinavia just by doing that is empty populism.
This is good - and brave, given his constituency. He strikes me as an MP worthy of considerable personal respect.
"Labour must fix the asylum system - but I have two very real concerns with Mahmood's plans"
My op-ed in LBC on the Government's asylum plan
t.co/06PtJfT4NJ
My op-ed in LBC on the Government's asylum plan
t.co/06PtJfT4NJ
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/labour-fix-asylum-system-real-concerns-opinion-5HjdN4X_2
t.co
November 19, 2025 at 1:14 PM
This is good - and brave, given his constituency. He strikes me as an MP worthy of considerable personal respect.
Honestly, I'm not interested in Mahmood's performative disdain for Farage. Not even he proposed taking desperate people's few remaining valuables away before keeping them waiting for 20 years, if we do decide they merit our protection, to pay exorbitant amounts to just possibly feel secure again.
Shabana Mahmood: "Farage can sod off. I'm not interested in anything that he has to say" 👏👏✊ #ukpolitics
November 18, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Honestly, I'm not interested in Mahmood's performative disdain for Farage. Not even he proposed taking desperate people's few remaining valuables away before keeping them waiting for 20 years, if we do decide they merit our protection, to pay exorbitant amounts to just possibly feel secure again.
This is really excellent on the damage done by, and the essential cheapness of, Labour’s approach to both immigration policy and race relations.
Labour’s “we have to do it, or racism will get worse” argument is striking. Any other public policy failures British ethnic minorities should be on the hook for? Can we be blamed en bloc for Rachel Reeves’ budget next week too? www.ft.com/content/37b0...
Defence of Labour asylum policy reveals backsliding on racism
Home secretary’s framing of failures is partly low politics, but also a result of ministers’ poor approach to race relations
www.ft.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:59 PM
This is really excellent on the damage done by, and the essential cheapness of, Labour’s approach to both immigration policy and race relations.
There comes a point beyond which you have to conclude the Home Secretary is deliberately fanning the flames in a vain attempt to get credit for (she claims) getting the fire extinguisher out.
The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world"
That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims
That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims
November 17, 2025 at 11:35 PM
There comes a point beyond which you have to conclude the Home Secretary is deliberately fanning the flames in a vain attempt to get credit for (she claims) getting the fire extinguisher out.
If the Labour Party is planning to tell people that even if the authorities accept they are fleeing persecution, they will never by default feel safe again, I am really going to struggle to vote for it. Though I admittedly live in a seat where no one cares, so I can easily make a point if I want.
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays - BBC News
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:25 AM
If the Labour Party is planning to tell people that even if the authorities accept they are fleeing persecution, they will never by default feel safe again, I am really going to struggle to vote for it. Though I admittedly live in a seat where no one cares, so I can easily make a point if I want.
Re the WASPI women: I am all for taxes going up on 26 November and I think I am in a group which should be hit more than most. I emphatically do not think any of that extra tax should go on payouts to women whose state pension age was equalised with men's and never checked their state pension age.
November 11, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Re the WASPI women: I am all for taxes going up on 26 November and I think I am in a group which should be hit more than most. I emphatically do not think any of that extra tax should go on payouts to women whose state pension age was equalised with men's and never checked their state pension age.
Indeed. Many of our political elites haven’t just given up on political gatekeeping, but seem to be actively trying to blow the gate off its hinges.
Without wanting to overly romanticise the tolerance of the average member of the public, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an ordinary person say things as openly (and hatefully) racist as, just a random example, the shadow justice secretary says *on a regular basis*
November 8, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Indeed. Many of our political elites haven’t just given up on political gatekeeping, but seem to be actively trying to blow the gate off its hinges.
UK Labour will no doubt ignore the more useful lesson here - that it’s probably healthier to allow a more plural party spectrum to express itself via the voting system and then negotiate on the basis of popular support rather than trying and failing to force us all into a two-party straitjacket.
The Danish Social Democrats whose immigration policy the Labour Party wants to copy are the red line that starts at 35% in 2019 and ends at 21% in 2025
November 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
UK Labour will no doubt ignore the more useful lesson here - that it’s probably healthier to allow a more plural party spectrum to express itself via the voting system and then negotiate on the basis of popular support rather than trying and failing to force us all into a two-party straitjacket.
I still can’t get my head around the fact that he had so little shame he agreed to come back as Foreign Secretary. The prime author of the worst blow to Britain’s global position since the fall of Singapore thought he’d done so very well that he’d show us all how to do foreign policy again.
Remember that one man is the author of most of our problems. He's rich and he lives in a big house with his rich wife and he laughs it up most days. The people he demonised and punished struggle on. That's life and that's Britain.
November 8, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I still can’t get my head around the fact that he had so little shame he agreed to come back as Foreign Secretary. The prime author of the worst blow to Britain’s global position since the fall of Singapore thought he’d done so very well that he’d show us all how to do foreign policy again.
It is deeply irritating to see one part of the UK Government trumpet a reset with the EU and a return to the constructive part of the world stage while another part hammers yet another nail into the coffin of modern language learning in England.
November 7, 2025 at 12:27 PM
It is deeply irritating to see one part of the UK Government trumpet a reset with the EU and a return to the constructive part of the world stage while another part hammers yet another nail into the coffin of modern language learning in England.
While also demanding (rightly) an immediate end to the two-child cap. She’s not doing anything to make me revise my view that she’s essentially vacuous.
November 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
While also demanding (rightly) an immediate end to the two-child cap. She’s not doing anything to make me revise my view that she’s essentially vacuous.
Assuming this exchange took place as reported, it should really be a sacking offence.
Meanwhile on @lbc.co.uk Nick Ferrari telling his US guest ‘good luck with your new Muslim mayor we have had one for ten years he’s been terrible ‘.
November 6, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Assuming this exchange took place as reported, it should really be a sacking offence.
In FIFA news: the 'beautiful game' is in fact just as cut-throat and cynical as basically any other multimillion-dollar entertainment industry, probably has been ever since it got big, and this provokes lots of angst from people who put said 'beautiful game' on a pedestal it never really deserved.
November 6, 2025 at 9:18 AM
In FIFA news: the 'beautiful game' is in fact just as cut-throat and cynical as basically any other multimillion-dollar entertainment industry, probably has been ever since it got big, and this provokes lots of angst from people who put said 'beautiful game' on a pedestal it never really deserved.
I am always struck by how UK commentary zeroes in on the horror of US immigration policy - rightly so in all kinds of ways - while failing to recognise how different the starting point is. There is no parallel to 19 US states making driver’s licenses available to undocumented migrants, for instance.
Britain Is Having the World’s Most Extreme Immigration Debate
The British discourse makes even the Trump administration look moderate.
foreignpolicy.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:24 AM
I am always struck by how UK commentary zeroes in on the horror of US immigration policy - rightly so in all kinds of ways - while failing to recognise how different the starting point is. There is no parallel to 19 US states making driver’s licenses available to undocumented migrants, for instance.
Labelling the SNP a ‘national security threat’ crosses the line from attacking its positions - which are indeed very bad for national security - into implying that its leaders are personally compromised. It also lets the SNP deflect from their policy incoherence by whipping up righteous outrage.
November 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Labelling the SNP a ‘national security threat’ crosses the line from attacking its positions - which are indeed very bad for national security - into implying that its leaders are personally compromised. It also lets the SNP deflect from their policy incoherence by whipping up righteous outrage.
Raising income tax (yes, including the basic rate) would clearly be the right *policy*. I do wonder if they've spent too much political capital to get away with it, via both their manifesto and their time in power. But if they can't claim an improved public realm by 2029, they're stuffed anyway.
Could Rachel Reeves break a 50-year taboo by raising income tax in her Budget?
It is more than half a century since a chancellor chose to put up the basic rate of income tax.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Raising income tax (yes, including the basic rate) would clearly be the right *policy*. I do wonder if they've spent too much political capital to get away with it, via both their manifesto and their time in power. But if they can't claim an improved public realm by 2029, they're stuffed anyway.
I think MPs get far too scared about the public’s inherently unreasonable attitude to support services for politicians. The public will always be unreasonable about this, but it’s not a priority issue for them, and when things go wrong unreasonable ire is focused on a particular politician. 1/
Dear Government - get a team set up to do all of this for MP's so that stuff like this is either done right or not their fault.
October 31, 2025 at 6:23 AM
I think MPs get far too scared about the public’s inherently unreasonable attitude to support services for politicians. The public will always be unreasonable about this, but it’s not a priority issue for them, and when things go wrong unreasonable ire is focused on a particular politician. 1/
Does Labour not understand that if a) the two largest opposition parties back leaving the ECHR and b) it is going to play fast and loose with reforming the ECHR itself, it can’t then just take a ‘nothing to see here’ approach?
I’m told Labour MPs have been told by whips to *abstain* in the vote on Nigel Farage’s ten-min rule bill on leaving the ECHR, which has left some furious. Whips’ arguments seems to be to just ignore it. Labour MPs worry it leaves Lib Dems/Greens looking like only they care on this.
October 29, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Does Labour not understand that if a) the two largest opposition parties back leaving the ECHR and b) it is going to play fast and loose with reforming the ECHR itself, it can’t then just take a ‘nothing to see here’ approach?