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THIS. I always find it shocking. Incredible to me how this has become so normalised that it’s invisible to the Westminster/Whitehall bubble. Because it sure as hell is visible to those outside it.

I remember from my time at the Guardian (15 yrs ago) a similarly not so latent Germanophobia among some pretty senior commentators. 'The EU is simply another attempt by Germany to dominate Europe', that sort of thing, often said in complete seriousness.

"hah lol aren't the French weird and mean" as a British mindset is not a strong basis for getting strategic outcomes that the UK needs.

It also makes it easier for other EU member states when talking with the Brits to conveniently deflect blame on the French.

Sometimes wonder whether UK politics and policymaking towards the EU would improve markedly in quality and outcomes if more British diplomats and academics trained in the Oxbridge style followed UK MOD's lead CJEF lead in having to do a year working for French policy institutions in Paris

At policy and politics events in London too often a latent francophobia shines through that British political and intellectual elites no longer have the luxury to afford

Parents of SEND children should fear what Starmer is planning This Government seems intent on shredding the rights of the vulnerable

Is this really why Labour MPs think they were elected: to strip some of the most vulnerable children in the country of their right to a decent start in life?

My @theipaper.com column on looming SEND reforms inews.co.uk/opinion/pare...

Yet why has this rubbish from Hannan never really cost him to date?

It’s been a far rougher decade (or two) for everyone aware of his considerable limitations to have had to be exposed to him spouting this sort of rubbish while not himself be being questioned or challenged on it.

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Shamima Begum was the beginning of something in so many ways, one of which was 'the last government's inability to just do its job properly (in this case by passing legislation that would have allowed it to prosecute her here at home) and instead going 'no option but to undermine all our rights'.

Anyone who’s ever actually spoken to a single asylum seeker about their experiences in any country in Europe simply could not honestly conclude that what would improve things would be to further reduce their human rights protections.

It’s vile scapegoating unworthy of us & it needs to end #r4today

Because of course Henry had got the full roll call from Dulwich College and of course Trevor Phillips couldn’t even be bothered to read the stories he’s writing about

It can serve as an excellent Boxing Day breakfast!

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.

This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.

Rechtsextremismus: Wir haben Euch gewarnt Ein brennendes Haus in Solingen. Eine vierköpfige Familie stirbt in den Flammen. Brandstiftung. Die Schlagzeilen sind nicht von 1993, sondern von jetzt. Schon wieder.

»Wir haben vor der AfD gewarnt, als sie am Horizont auftauchte. Keine Reaktion. Im Gegenteil – ihre Vertreter:innen saßen in jeder Talkshow, bevor die AfD auch nur ein einziges Landtagsmandat hatte. Mit dem Erfolg, dass sie nun eine einflussreiche Partei ist.« www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2024...

Brutal

The decision to learn a foreign language, John le Carré wrote shortly after the Brexit vote, is "an act of friendship... It's a promise to educate - yes - and to equip. But also to awaken; to kindle a flame that you hope will never go out ... Al might offer precision. One day, through headphones or brain implants, it may offer immediacy too. But speaking a foreign language tells your interlocutor that you are humble and committed enough to come into their world.

Rather lovely piece by @henrymance.ft.com on why language learning still matters to him in a world of AI translation
on.ft.com/3Jviyry

Shortfall Teachers training compared with target in selected subjects (2024-25) Physical Education 209% Biology 119% English 101% Mathematics 72% Modern Foreign Languages 43% Computing 37% Chart: The Times and The Sunday Times • Source: Department for Education

The government managed to recruit only 43 per cent of its target number of modern foreign language teachers for initial teacher training in 2024-25.
www.thetimes.com/article/df90...

Critics of this proposal argue that the problem is not one of unsustainability but of under-resourcing. Language departments are easy targets because they tend to be relatively expensive to run, as they usually offer a large amount of contact hours and need comparatively high levels of staff. Yet the skills and intellectual rigour they foster are worth saving. As Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy argues, we need to 'safeguard' our language provision: 'It would, for example, be geopolitically unwise to find ourselves without capable Russian or Chinese speakers. While it's easy to turn off the tap, it's much harder to turn it back on. Foreign language degrees may not be the most traditionally lucrative, but do we really want to be a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?

I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...

We have to be able to hold tech platforms accountable for fraud Algorithms ensure that people who click on scams are likely to see more of them

"Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — or $16bn — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show" - Reuters www.ft.com/content/4560...

The Starmer government has not produced an uptodate hate crime strategy (which last existed in 2016-2020) or a cohesion plan

If the government had an analysis of the causes/drivers of racism & hate crime × a strategy to respond, these comments could be more informed & sound less instrumental.

Tinkering with ECHR definitions will not help the government The proposed changes to Articles 3 and 8 in asylum cases will achieve little or nothing

Tinkering with ECHR definitions will not help the government

The proposed changes to Articles 3 and 8 in asylum cases will achieve little or nothing

By me, at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.

After another week of banging on about immigration, Keir Starmer's ratings fall to their lowest ever level.

At what point do Labour strategists start to think that maybe this isn't quite the winning strategy they believed?

Or it is enjoying a tax system not fit for purpose

If you’re a mum raising a child alone, your childcare has got more expensive, your food shop has got more expensive, and your cash transfers have been cut, you are worse off than under the old policy mix regardless of whether your job is “shop assistant” “arts administrator” or “banker”.

In 2020 Keir Starmer and Alf Dubs urged the then Conservative Government to restore their commitment to family reunion for child refugees, saying there was a “moral argument” to protect desperately vulnerable young people.

Five years later Dubs condemns Starmer for doing the complete opposite