Simon Dunbavand #FBPE

1 September 2025 is the day Labour went FULL REFORM.

They're dead as a party. The next few years will be spent on twitching and rigor mortis, but they're done. Today was the finale.

Astonishing. Who could have dared predict it when they swept to power with a massive majority just over a year ago?

Yet another capitulation to Reform, when all the evidence shows that following the far right agenda is a disaster for centrist parties. Politics 101, which Starmer has once again entirely failed to grasp.

Brexit was sold as a way to get rid of immigrants. It was as a lie

Now we are being asked the same again, to give up our rights to control immigration

It was a con then, and it is a con now

How do you stay hopeful in todays often monstrous times?

I don‘t.

🫳🎤

"Asked a German woman why Germany produced so many legendary physicists / mathematicians and her response was basically "'have you considered educating people who aren't rich 😭'" Ken Klippenstein

‘Resolute 1850’: Reform UK Ltd’s MAGA plan to turn Britain into Little America Right-wing US interests are pushing a plan to bend the UK to their will, ‘DOGE’-style – in Farage’s Reform UK they have an eager little helper

"In December last year, Resolute 1850 Ltd was incorporated in the UK.

With a thinktank soon to be launched and funds from MAGA, American Big Tech and the US religious right already pledged, it seeks to use Reform as a vessel to bring Project 2025-style policies to the UK."

How Brexit has made studying abroad less accessible Freedom of movement enriched the lives of many young people before Brexit; it's far more complicated and therefore restricted now

"One of the most damaging consequences of Brexit is the loss of freedom of movement. UK citizens could previously study and work in Europe indefinitely, visa-free...

For those from less fortunate backgrounds, these challenges could prohibit studying abroad."

Look at this graph.

The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened.

This is why we must build back union power.

Let’s celebrate the real England England is not the far-right fringe - it's a nation of compassion, protest, and progress. The people show who we are

"There are those out there who submit to the false narrative, peddled by politicians and media alike, that the far-right xenophobes that exist on the fringes of English politics somehow represent the entire nation.

...The truth, however, could not be any more different."

I don't think I've used this word much, if ever, to talk about public policy. But some of the things being both said and implied about migrants are evil. And we should say that.

Silencing the drumbeat again: seeking asylum is legal Hundreds protested in Ashington against so-called "illegal immigrants" - though seeking asylum has been legal since 1951

The term of ‘illegal migrant’ has been nurtured and the media repeat it as fact. It’s designed to whip up hate & dehumanise - there needs to be a pushback

Seeking asylum is legal & has been for 74 years, since the UK signed the UN Convention on Asylum Seekers in 1951

@northeastbylines.co.uk

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians

“The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy”

eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/jus...

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy

“The ECHR isn’t Brussels meddling. It’s the foundation that protects you from your own government.” 👏👏👏

Silencing the drumbeat again: seeking asylum is legal Hundreds protested in Ashington against so-called "illegal immigrants" - though seeking asylum has been legal since 1951

YES! Thank you...

Say it again, and again, and again. They are not "illegal immigrants".

- seeking asylum is legal and has been since 1951.

NATO warships arrive in Riga to support Baltic Sentry Two NATO warships have docked in Riga, Latvia.

Two NATO warships have docked in Riga, Latvia.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk/nato-warship...

Only 1.5% of universal credit claimants are refugees, and 0.7% arrived in the UK via safe routes such as Ukrainians. 83.6% are British & Irish nationals. The Department for Work & Pensions said most foreign nationals can claim only after 5 years residency, with exceptions for modern slavery victims.

This graphic says it all. Hey flagshaggers, ever heard of the Dublin convention? Thought not. #Brexit created the small boats issue and access to a floating #EU population an EasyJet flight from home was replaced by permanent migration from outside #EU. Thanks #Farage and those who believed his lies

Bluefin tuna are miraculously returning to UK shores – only to be tormented for ‘sport’ | George Monbiot A tournament in Cornwall will pit anglers against these magnificent creatures, as part of a rising trend for so-called ‘sportfishing’, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

1. Out of curiosity, I went through the feeds of some habitual tuna tormentors. I found they’re big on:
- fox hunting
- Reform UK
- antagonism to asylum seekers.
In other words, the same few antisocial (psychopathic?) men, turning up in all the bad places.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
🧵

NATO warships are currently tracking a Russian submarine off Norway.

If it does we’re in uncharted territory. It could get quite wild.

Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low-likelihood, study finds Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout

This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …

Screen shot of Neil Fish posting "your dad shouts at hotels" is an insult the kids at my nephew's school use on each other.

I'm ded 💀 😂 😂 😂

We should never underestimate the extent to which the BBC changed this country by giving endless airtime to Nigel Farage, other far right extremists and the Tufton Street junktanks, while shutting out progressive voices.

I posted this 20 months ago in an unmentionable place. It has become no less true.

If Labour begin preparations for negotiating to rejoin the EU, we could be back in by around 2030-2031, turbocharging Labour's second term.

If they stick to their Brexit maximalist stance then we're not going to be rejoining until the 2040s or later, after the horror of a 2029 Reform government.

An important point about Brexit, you were lied to relentlessly by the Media and Politicians, lies which they knew were lies when they said them, even then they barely won

The problem is that they were allowed to do this, and they continue to do it, with no consequences at all

The Green Party and Plaid Cymru have 4 seats each, the same as Reform.

Sinn Féin have 7 seats.

SNP have 9

Independents have 21

LibDems have 72.

Why is every media channel constantly blasting out Reform propaganda?

@skynewsrss.bsky.social @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social

The slippery slope towards fascism we were on just became a vertical cliff.

Labour can't finesse or equivocate this. They have to repudiate the notion entirely, and stampede back towards civilisation.

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

It would be a thousand times better for Labour and for Britain if the national debate were about whether to rejoin the EU or not, rather than how hard to punch down at immigrants.

Instead, Labour chose to propagate Farage's argument for him by accepting it had SOME validity and trying to nuance it.