Alasdair Mackenzie

Number of refugees allowed to settle in UK under UN schemes falls 26% in a year Refugee Council says Home Office figures show safe and legal pathways are ‘disappearing when most needed’

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government is committed to protecting genuine refugees who are fleeing war & danger”.

This isn’t a serious response. The no of people they’ve resettled under the Mandate scheme in last yr is smaller than a 5 a side team.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

On World AIDS Day, I’m reminded of all the positive folks who have fought, and continue to fight, secrecy, stigma, and shame. HIV is a chronic illness conditioned by state violence, poverty, inequality, and discrimination. We can end HIV by cultivating better healthcare and more inclusive societies.

Immigration judges targeted by far right after Tory MP’s campaign | The Observer

Appalling and incredibly corrosive of democracy and the rule of law.

Jenrick’s attempts to wriggle out of responsibility for the mob he incited are pathetic

The best description of the Telegraph you'll read this week.

Agree with this but also we have much weaker checks on government power. A party with a parliamentary majority can do pretty much what it likes. US institutions eg states & Supreme Court have proved inadequate to combat the far right, but in the UK they are basically lacking in power or nonexistent

Not the main point of the piece incidentally but wtf is this? “The far right are issuing credible death threats but some people on the left think the establishment is against them and there was this cartoon, so probs some fault on both sides”?

Immigration judges targeted by far right after Tory MP’s campaign | The Observer

Appalling and incredibly corrosive of democracy and the rule of law.

Jenrick’s attempts to wriggle out of responsibility for the mob he incited are pathetic

Pollard started out by writing anti-migrant screeds for the Mail and Express. *Of course* he supports Farage

How artificial intelligence is reshaping college for students and professors This year’s senior class is the first to have spent nearly its entire college career in the age of generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, like text and images. A...

I wish journalists would stop making misleading claims like: "As the technology improves, it's harder to distinguish from human work, and it's shaking academia to its core with some very big questions" - the similarity is superficial, the gulf from human work massive. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Pollard started out by writing anti-migrant screeds for the Mail and Express. *Of course* he supports Farage

This is how the Mail has covered a 70% fall in net migration.

The Government should stop kidding itself it will ever get credit for being anti-migration. They could cut numbers to zero and there would still be front pages blasting them for making the UK a socialist wasteland no one wants to come to

Sultana and Corbyn act like they were put together in a competition by Simon Cowell and now they're contractually obliged to go on tour

Government to ban asylum seekers from using taxis The ban is set to come in February and any exemptions will have to be signed off by the Home Office.

Dismal framing. Every aspect of most asylum seekers’ lives is controlled & paid for by the Home Office. They can’t work, are told where to live & have no autonomy or dignity. So they aren’t *choosing* to use taxis & don’t need to be “banned” from doing so. The HO just needs to get its act in order.

Doughty Street Chambers’ response to proposals to curtail trial by jury Trial by jury is a deeply entrenched constitutional principle and anchors our liberal democracy. Jury trials enable people to participate and have a say in their criminal justice system.

“We are firmly opposed to the proposals to remove trial by jury for all but the most serious of crimes. These proposals are wrong in principle, and there is no evidence that they will resolve the current Crown Court backlog.”

Seems like there may be some of that going on but fundamentally it’s the way the system is designed, if people were able to stay in one place rather than relocated all the time, and if they were allowed to work or at least given money for public transport, there’d be less of an issue

So the BBC did a news story on the horrible conditions in the hotels were people seeking asylum are forced to live and instead of the media talking about humanity and compassion about improving conditions and letting them work, this was the outcome:

Oh yes fair point

Asylum seekers certainly aren’t doing anything wrong, it’s the Home Office’s refusal to give people any autonomy or control over their lives which is at fault. Not sure the taxis are overcharging for such long journeys?

absolutely

UK asylum seekers to be banned from taking taxis to medical appointments Move, which is part of crackdown on costs, comes after it emerged Home Office spends £15.8m a year on service

Guardian also reporting that asylum seekers are being “banned” from doing something they were being forced to do, it apparently being compulsory to help the Home Office blame refugees for its own errors

UK asylum seekers to be banned from taking taxis to medical appointments Move, which is part of crackdown on costs, comes after it emerged Home Office spends £15.8m a year on service

Guardian also reporting that asylum seekers are being “banned” from doing something they were being forced to do, it apparently being compulsory to help the Home Office blame refugees for its own errors

UK asylum seekers to be banned from taking taxis to medical appointments Move, which is part of crackdown on costs, comes after it emerged Home Office spends £15.8m a year on service

What the government keeps missing is that asylum seekers want to take buses! It gives them autonomy. They can get to appointments, drop their kids to school, live some semblance of a normal life.

Roll out free bus passes and it'd save a fortune.

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

Wow - this guy must be really, REALLY bad with money if an extra £208 per month will “ruin” his retirement.

Let’s take a look at his situation based on what he told the @Telegraph

Because this does NOT add up!

No, this is not a “poor pensioner” scrabbling around for pennies…

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Sadly not!

HO press release here makes clear it’s in response to the recent BBC report

We now get Home Office press releases about immigration nearly every day. Interesting to note the language. They obviously want to be seen to be taking action, but “illegal migrants” are not the same as “asylum seekers”

This started pretty much immediately, I have already heard several examples, as well as people looking to withdraw change of conditions applications and decideling not to apply. Families will be left destitute

Ah @ng1978.bsky.social has unearthed the press release and fancy that, the media are indeed parping out the Home Office’s attempts to blame asylum seekers for a mess of its own creation

Ah @ng1978.bsky.social has unearthed the press release and fancy that, the media are indeed parping out the Home Office’s attempts to blame asylum seekers for a mess of its own creation