Sam McDermott

I'll bite. What is the benefit we gain from politicians being able to 'thoughtfully' say in private 'blacks, British Bangladeshis, British Pakistanis, British Indians, mulattos....all the same, and clearly from the look of them not-integrated?'

Time and again the UK Right is desperate to ape the US. Anyone in possession of a brain wouldn’t want politicised judges or indeed an ICE-style ‘removal force’. I doubt it’s a vote winner (although obviously some really bad things do win votes).

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

Why is Keir Starmer obsessed with Nigel Farage?

You may have heard of "Miranda Rights'.

It now looks like there is now another phrase in the lexicon, named after the illiberal supreme court judge who authorised them: 'Kavanaugh stops'.

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

There is no such thing, as Starmer well knows, as a "golden ticket of resettlement and family reunion" for people who have been granted refugee status. This is meaningless guff aimed to play to populist fantasies that refugees get provided with everything. 1/

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

If a party puts a racist who called for people to be burned alive on its conference platform and she gets a hero’s welcome, I think there are valid inferences that can be drawn.

Ok. They’ve pissed me off.

I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:

1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.

If ever there was a time not to normalize Trump’s authoritarian fever dreams, this is it.

This should be impeachable. ‘War ravaged’ Portland? He’s insane - & insanely power hungry. The script is set - call an imaginary group a terror group and then send in the troops.

Reform UK's ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.

How is this not front page news?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The success of the far right is not only measured in votes and seats but in its impact on rhetoric, policy and ideology. The fact that a (nominally) social democratic head of government with a huge majority choses to say and do this is maybe the biggest success of the far right in Europe yet.

My suspicion is this will end up as another failed UK attempt to introduce ID cards because Starmer won't last long enough to implement it and his replacement will be the candidate promising to abandon the scheme, not least given the way it has been sold.

This can't be shouted loud enough, Reform are guilty of working for a foreign state that sees the UK as an enemy. It's not just laughable, it's insulting that they pretend to be in any way patriotic or acting in this country's best interests.

Introducing slightly less cruel/damaging version of Farage's plans would not "outmanoeuvre Reform";would be an economic/ political own goal

Far better to attack Reform/Tories for Powellite ethnonationalism & say migrants who come here, contribute & *choose* to stay are welcome -and become British.

'Today, Nigel Farage said that all mice are gay and they're from space. We ask experts whether there is any truth in the claims'.

What Do We Have To Lose If Keir Starmer won’t even make a moral case against deporting our friends and neighbours, then what is the point of him? Plus: some natural borders; and the non-existence of grey, and other letters.

"You don’t fight the politics of violence by quibbling with the details. You stamp it into a million pieces! You draw a f*cking line!"

If Keir Starmer won’t even make a moral case against deporting our friends and neighbours, then what is the point of him?

Explained exactly this yesterday.
In the same studio

Given a choice between cosying up to Trump and an honest answer Farage chose the former.
Farage's interests aren't the UK's. His eyes are fixed on the USA and Donald Trump.

A lot of sensible people get squeamish at labelling Nigel Farage “far-right”, but his policy of cancelling the legal status of tens of thousands of settled immigrants can not be politically described as anything else.

Reform are campaigning on a policy of cruelty & xenophobia.

Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins?

He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.

So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?

More than anything, the MAGA phenomenon is about letting an incredibly stupid man have near-absolute power.

donald trump is going through full brandonization at an alarming rate

OLIVER: “I’d argue @disney & Bob Iger need to stand by @jimmykimmel and his staff — history is also going to remember the cowards who knew better. Giving the bully your lunch money doesn’t make him go away, it just makes him come back hungrier each time.” 🎯

Farage's proposal here would crash the economy. An economy already struggling as a result of Brexit. Not only are the numbers false but it takes rights away from migrants who have lived and worked in the UK for years. Many who have British partners and children born in the UK.

Farage’s plans to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain would ruin lives and tear families apart.

Rather than dismissing Reform’s xenophobic proposals as 'unrealistic' or 'unaffordable', our government should be clear that they are cruel and unjust. We must stand up for migrants' rights.

The average main applicant who received a visa 2019-2023 made about 45% more than the average person in the UK. The average dependent who received a visa 2019-2023 made about 25% less than the average person in the UK. The average person who received a humanitarian visa made about 33% less than the average person in the UK. When we take a weighted average of all categories of 2019-2023, the average new migrant who arrived 2019-2023 made £24,881 in FY 2023-2024. This is about 4% more than average earnings - even when I have made optimistic assumptions about native-born earnings and excluded any self-employment income for migrants.

Putting all this together, @lgilbert.co find the following.

It's not that Farage is (just) exaggerating/overstating - he is simply lying about migrants, jobs, wages and benefits.

Media should be very clear about this.

www.laurenpolicy.com/p/are-recent...

As well as the fantasy £234 bn, journalists should also be clear Farage's claims most new migrants don't work, and those who do are on low wages, are entirely false.

In fact, 1.8 million recent migrants are on payrolls (others will be self employed).

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/co...

The Labour Party has a tradition of antiracism campaigning. It’s supposed to be in the party’s DNA. That they cannot say it’s just straightforwardly wrong to alarm families who choose Britain to live, work and raise children in is a total moral failure.

Reform's ‘plan’ to revoke the legal status of millions of UK residents is morally abhorrent & economic madness

The public believe in fairness & mutual respect, not this cruel Trumpian policy that would leave us all poorer. We are not America - we must resist this dangerous turn in British politics.

It would be good if the only political pushback against Nigel Farage's plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbours, friends, family and colleagues didn't just come from a handful of backbench MPs and one regional mayor