The notable thing about Mahmood's divisive asylum proposal is that it doesn't divide the PLP on a left–right basis.
Many of the most pro-immigration MPs are on the right of the party – and that's a problem for a PM whose party management style has relied on co-opting the right when in a tight spot.
Many of the most pro-immigration MPs are on the right of the party – and that's a problem for a PM whose party management style has relied on co-opting the right when in a tight spot.
I'm afraid to say that large parts of the soft left are just *like this*
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
November 17, 2025 at 1:03 AM
The notable thing about Mahmood's divisive asylum proposal is that it doesn't divide the PLP on a left–right basis.
Many of the most pro-immigration MPs are on the right of the party – and that's a problem for a PM whose party management style has relied on co-opting the right when in a tight spot.
Many of the most pro-immigration MPs are on the right of the party – and that's a problem for a PM whose party management style has relied on co-opting the right when in a tight spot.
I'm afraid to say that large parts of the soft left are just *like this*
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
November 17, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I'm afraid to say that large parts of the soft left are just *like this*
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
I feel like I'm getting flashbacks to the Miliband campaign in 2015
Reposted by N 🌹
The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says
Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by N 🌹
when I hear Starmer speak about immigration and race he's spitting in the face of the Labour voters I knew growing up in Manchester, who put themselves on the line against the National Front - and often the police - in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ultimately the vision of britain that starmer has is profoundly cynical, nasty and just not true. He thinks that abidicating his responsibility in showing that another option is maturity and doing the difficult thing, but he's literally just creating the hateful country he is so afraid of
November 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
when I hear Starmer speak about immigration and race he's spitting in the face of the Labour voters I knew growing up in Manchester, who put themselves on the line against the National Front - and often the police - in the 1970s and 1980s.
Reposted by N 🌹
Notable how many Blue Labour figures have spent all their adult lives in London and their assumptions about what the core Labour vote elsewhere is and was is based primarily on ignorance and snobbery.
November 16, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Notable how many Blue Labour figures have spent all their adult lives in London and their assumptions about what the core Labour vote elsewhere is and was is based primarily on ignorance and snobbery.
Reposted by N 🌹
Mo Farah, trafficked to UK aged 9 in 1992. Teacher Alan Watkinson secures citizenship after 8 years here, 2000 (aged 17) so he could travel abroad as GB athlete
Under future rules
Renew status? 1995, 98 x6
Eligible settlement after 20 years (2012)
Citizenship 2013
news.sky.com/story/sir-mo...
Under future rules
Renew status? 1995, 98 x6
Eligible settlement after 20 years (2012)
Citizenship 2013
news.sky.com/story/sir-mo...
Sir Mo Farah reveals 'the truth' about how he came to the UK
The Olympic star was warned speaking out could put his British citizenship at "real risk" - but it is understood the Home Office is taking no action against him.
news.sky.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Mo Farah, trafficked to UK aged 9 in 1992. Teacher Alan Watkinson secures citizenship after 8 years here, 2000 (aged 17) so he could travel abroad as GB athlete
Under future rules
Renew status? 1995, 98 x6
Eligible settlement after 20 years (2012)
Citizenship 2013
news.sky.com/story/sir-mo...
Under future rules
Renew status? 1995, 98 x6
Eligible settlement after 20 years (2012)
Citizenship 2013
news.sky.com/story/sir-mo...
For what it's worth, I'm pretty happy with the ward I got (for reasons I won't go into on here because it narrows it down too much)
Well I definitely picked a good year to be a first time Labour candidate lol
less than six months to the May elections lads
November 16, 2025 at 12:57 AM
For what it's worth, I'm pretty happy with the ward I got (for reasons I won't go into on here because it narrows it down too much)
Victoria Wood's 1981 television play Happy Since I Met You has a very misleading title, because it's possibly the saddest thing she ever wrote
November 16, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Victoria Wood's 1981 television play Happy Since I Met You has a very misleading title, because it's possibly the saddest thing she ever wrote
Well I definitely picked a good year to be a first time Labour candidate lol
less than six months to the May elections lads
Shabana Mahmood tells Sunday Times it should take 20 years for somebody granted refugee status in UK to secure permanent status (ie, reapply 6 times) if came without permission.
Paper says Denmark has toughest settlement timeline (8 years) but UK govt wants longer
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Paper says Denmark has toughest settlement timeline (8 years) but UK govt wants longer
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
November 15, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Well I definitely picked a good year to be a first time Labour candidate lol
It's incredible just how many different political tendencies come out with the 'abolish the Treasury' line
it's fascinating to think what Blue Labour's ideal Britain looks like
November 15, 2025 at 11:09 PM
It's incredible just how many different political tendencies come out with the 'abolish the Treasury' line
The more interesting case than Central Devon IMO is the sort of seat where the LDs are too far behind to win, Labour is a close second to the Tories, *and* there's a high rump Tory vote that's not going to swing behind Reform.
Those are the ones where you're going to see some really random results.
Those are the ones where you're going to see some really random results.
Aiming specifically for frontbenchers often hasn't worked in the past, but then their seats aren't normally quite as marginal as Mel Stride's is.
November 15, 2025 at 5:11 PM
The more interesting case than Central Devon IMO is the sort of seat where the LDs are too far behind to win, Labour is a close second to the Tories, *and* there's a high rump Tory vote that's not going to swing behind Reform.
Those are the ones where you're going to see some really random results.
Those are the ones where you're going to see some really random results.
Circling back to this from earlier, I'm not convinced it will actually resolve in the way that Labour and Tory politicians want it to, because Reform is *already* doing pretty well among economically insecure Gen Xers
I think subconsciously, a lot of politicians are sort of looking forward to the Gen X pensioner poverty problem, because it will probably make their electoral coalitions more psychologically comforting to them again.
November 15, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Circling back to this from earlier, I'm not convinced it will actually resolve in the way that Labour and Tory politicians want it to, because Reform is *already* doing pretty well among economically insecure Gen Xers
Meanwhile, ambitious Labour politicians are doing things like this
November 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Meanwhile, ambitious Labour politicians are doing things like this
Reposted by N 🌹
Just from a basic political economy perspective, there is no route to a different state that doesn't involve macro-economic policies that means that middle-class white collar households earn more, social policies that mean they get more, and tax policies that mean they pay more.
November 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Just from a basic political economy perspective, there is no route to a different state that doesn't involve macro-economic policies that means that middle-class white collar households earn more, social policies that mean they get more, and tax policies that mean they pay more.
Reposted by N 🌹
From 2010 to 2016 there was an incredibly successful bid to shrink the scope of what the state did, while cutting taxes for median earners and transferring more costs onto the highest earners and to businesses. Can't unpick the damage of the former without addressing the latter.
November 15, 2025 at 11:29 AM
From 2010 to 2016 there was an incredibly successful bid to shrink the scope of what the state did, while cutting taxes for median earners and transferring more costs onto the highest earners and to businesses. Can't unpick the damage of the former without addressing the latter.
Much of what the media will present as certain parts of the country abandoning one party for another is just demographic change plus differential turnout.
The number of people who have gone from being core Labour voters to Boris/Farage voters is pretty small.
The number of people who have gone from being core Labour voters to Boris/Farage voters is pretty small.
What you quickly learn canvassing in Red Wall type areas (and I guess I sort of knew it instinctively having grown up in a Red Wall adjacent area) is that Labour voters in those areas are really not that different to Labour voters elsewhere
November 14, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Much of what the media will present as certain parts of the country abandoning one party for another is just demographic change plus differential turnout.
The number of people who have gone from being core Labour voters to Boris/Farage voters is pretty small.
The number of people who have gone from being core Labour voters to Boris/Farage voters is pretty small.
Loved this so much. I have such vivid memories of listening to Life in Cartoon Motion as a kid and the sheer joy it brought me.
youtu.be/vIedyQUmm1I?...
youtu.be/vIedyQUmm1I?...
'Grace Kelly' with Mika | Queer the Music with Jake Shears
YouTube video by Mercury Studios
youtu.be
November 14, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Loved this so much. I have such vivid memories of listening to Life in Cartoon Motion as a kid and the sheer joy it brought me.
youtu.be/vIedyQUmm1I?...
youtu.be/vIedyQUmm1I?...
There's a lot that it is obviously not biblical, but the thing that immediately lept out at me was the mismatch of tenses
AI slop now making up saccharine Bible verses that do not exist
November 14, 2025 at 10:34 PM
There's a lot that it is obviously not biblical, but the thing that immediately lept out at me was the mismatch of tenses
I found this very interesting
open.spotify.com/episode/0BlZ...
open.spotify.com/episode/0BlZ...
Inside No. 10: The creaky house that runs Britain
open.spotify.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:28 PM
I found this very interesting
open.spotify.com/episode/0BlZ...
open.spotify.com/episode/0BlZ...
Was speaking to a Labour friend last night about next year's locals, and we agreed that we think they'll be worse for us in London than in the other major cities, for a number of reasons:
November 14, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Was speaking to a Labour friend last night about next year's locals, and we agreed that we think they'll be worse for us in London than in the other major cities, for a number of reasons:
Reading this, for a split second I thought 'wait, are bin collections are not weekly in some areas?'
Then I remembered. But it does make me realise how fortunate I am to have a well-run council.
Then I remembered. But it does make me realise how fortunate I am to have a well-run council.
Everything they do should be about what best sets up whichever fresh-faced MP becomes the leader in January 2029 to go 'I'm new! Inflation is down, interest rates are down, bin collections are weekly, GP appointments are up and the police catch criminals again!'
November 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reading this, for a split second I thought 'wait, are bin collections are not weekly in some areas?'
Then I remembered. But it does make me realise how fortunate I am to have a well-run council.
Then I remembered. But it does make me realise how fortunate I am to have a well-run council.
Can someone help me out, I genuinely have no idea what this person is on about
November 14, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Can someone help me out, I genuinely have no idea what this person is on about
It's the 'be social democratic, not labourist' thing that needs stating again and again.
Trying to be a hyper-class-conscious stakeholder party never was a particularly successful electoral strategy, but attempting it *in 2025* is absolute madness.
Trying to be a hyper-class-conscious stakeholder party never was a particularly successful electoral strategy, but attempting it *in 2025* is absolute madness.
And then New Labour were able to come in, hold thresholds down below wage growth, then use tax credits to effect redistribution to low income families.
Which was a partial step towards becoming a proper social democratic party rather than a working class labourist party.
Which was a partial step towards becoming a proper social democratic party rather than a working class labourist party.
November 14, 2025 at 12:11 PM
It's the 'be social democratic, not labourist' thing that needs stating again and again.
Trying to be a hyper-class-conscious stakeholder party never was a particularly successful electoral strategy, but attempting it *in 2025* is absolute madness.
Trying to be a hyper-class-conscious stakeholder party never was a particularly successful electoral strategy, but attempting it *in 2025* is absolute madness.
Coming round to the view (which IIRC @willcooling.bsky.social has posted about before?) that it would be useful if we reintroduced the 10p income tax rate
November 14, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Coming round to the view (which IIRC @willcooling.bsky.social has posted about before?) that it would be useful if we reintroduced the 10p income tax rate
I don't disagree with the broader point here, but it's important to note that the personal allowance under New Labour, adjusted for inflation, was roughly *a third* lower than it is today
November 14, 2025 at 10:57 AM
I don't disagree with the broader point here, but it's important to note that the personal allowance under New Labour, adjusted for inflation, was roughly *a third* lower than it is today