Andrew Curry

And the next thing you’ll be bleating about is why people are cynical about politics. Proscribing an organisation on dodgy grounds while a genocide is being committed to help out the arms industry is about as cynical as it gets.

Revealed: How Palestine Action was banned Exclusive: Documents seen by Declassified reveal serious concerns within the UK government and MI5 about proscribing Palestine Action.

Because even your security advisers (checks notes) didn’t think that Palestine Action met the test for being proscribed. #Gaza

www.declassifieduk.org/revealed-how...

Memo to Downing Street: when you’re in a hole, stop digging. #Gaza

How do you know when the @ukhomeoffice.bsky.social is talking nonsense? A spokesperson opens its mouth and their lips move.

Five Leaves Left: how Nick Drake came of age Andrew Curry writes: There’s not been that much released in the way of Nick Drake’s music beyond the three records that he released before he died in 1974, so the arrival of The Making of Five Leaves ...

I’ve been listening to the tracks on The Making of Five Leaves Left—I thought it might be more #NickDrake then I really needed to hear, but it’s illuminating.

I have a post about it on Salut! Live. #folk

www.salutlive.com/2025/08/nick...

Taking flight: the creation of Pentangle Andrew Curry writes: Over at our Facebook group Pentangle was our artist of the month in July, and while I was researching the post there were some things that I hadn’t realised about the band that di...

ICYMI, my post on the making of Pentangle—the most interesting #folk band of the late 60s took ages to break through. It’s on the Salut! Live blog.

www.salutlive.com/2025/08/taki...

5 August 2025: Shade | Water Investing in shade // The case against reservoirs [J2T#646]

Investing in shade // The case against reservoirs. In Andrew Curry's #JustTwoThings [J2T#646]

@nextwavef.bsky.social

justtwothings.substack.com/p/5-august-2...

On the Salut Live #folk music blog, my colleague Steve Peck on Henry Parker and David Ian Roberts’ new record of guitar music, Chasing Light.

www.salutlive.com/2025/07/song...

Having the @ukhomeoffice.bsky.social responsible for small business employment is a certain way to stifle the UK economy.

Chippie owner given ‘devastating’ £40,000 fine by Home Office for allegedly illegal hire Surrey chip shop staff left ‘terrified’ by immigration raid as ministers called on to lower penalties for small businesses

The @ukhomeoffice.bsky.social is feral and no longer fit for purpose.

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

Israeli plan for forced transfer of Gaza’s population ‘a blueprint for crimes against humanity’ Military ordered to turn ruins of Rafah into ‘humanitarian city’ experts call an internment camp for all Palestinians in Gaza

Important that you keep any protests against this quiet and discreet, so that nobody notices.

Immigration is down, should the government be happy? - UK in a changing Europe Jonathan Portes analyses the latest ONS immigration statistics. He argues that net migration has dropped significantly, but that this will expose the...

If the government wants to find the money (£7bn or so) to make up for its welfare U-turn, there's an easy answer - just don't implement the Immigration White Paper.

ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration_...

The GOP wants to give ICE
💰 $100 BILLION 💰
That’s more than the ENTIRE military budget of France, Germany, or Japan.

You read that right—
ICE gets more than actual armies.

📲 Blow up 202-224-3121
Tell Congress: HELL NO

#VoteHellNo

The Guardian view on Palestine Action: if red paint is terrorism, what isn’t? | Editorial Editorial: Labelling direct action as an act of terror criminalises dissent, chills speech and redefines nuisance as extremism under the banner of national security

Every time the Labour government has to make a moral choice, it comes down on the wrong side.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

23 June 2025. Beavers | War Beavers are the great ecologists // Long distance war [J2T #643]

My Just Two Things newsletter today: [1] on beavers as ecologists, and [2] the strange nature of the war on Iran.

justtwothings.substack.com/p/23-june-20...

UK Home Office tells parents their children should return to Brazil alone While Ana Luiza Cabral Gouveia and Hugo Barbosa can remain, letter says sons, 11 and eight, must go back to Brazil

The @ukhomeoffice.bsky.social is feral and no longer fit for purpose. (Yet another reminder.)

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

Bob Fox: fittingly (amid Sunderland joy) Artist of the Month Colin Randall writes: last Saturday, as deputy editor Andrew Curry reported here that morning, he and I took time off from Salut! Live duties to join 82,000 people at Wembley to watch our team Sunderl...

Bob Fox, a terrific figure of British folk, is Salut! Live’s Artist of the Month (and not just because he supports #safc) #folkmusic @nextwavef.bsky.social www.salutlive.com/2025/05/bob-...

@elizacarthy.bsky.social In case of interest.

@angelcakepie2.bsky.social - May be of interest!

Hi Rodrigo, Quite a complex question, since, as you know I’m not a fan of Future Shock, which just bundled together a lot of change without analysing it properly. Are you looking for a book or an article?

Angeline Morrison and Songs of Sorrow Andrew Curry writes: Despite its progressive sensibilities, folk music isn’t that diverse. Unlike the blues, there are not a lot of non-white folk musicians around. Angeline Morrison is a rare excepti...

Our #folk album of the month at Salut! Live is Angeline Morrison’s exquisite 2022 record Songs of Sorrow, which reimagines the folk music that might represent black British experience. Without being preachy.

@topicrecords

www.salutlive.com/2025/05/ange...

From the Guardian: Starmer’s migration speech ‘completely different’ to Enoch Powell’s, says Yvette Cooper Home secretary says PM talked about strength in diversity, after criticism from MPs over ‘island of strangers’ rhetoric

When the Home Secretary is having to argue that the Prime Minister's speech was "completely different to Enoch Powell's", it may be time to pause and reflect on ... lots of things.

I already have!

AND acknowledge that a large pool of British potential care workers is not readily apparent (~130K vacancies in care sector).

As the daughter of UK migrants, as someone who works with 1st & 2nd gen immigrants across health & academia, I am also v offended at language of "incalculable harm". 3/3

Palantir's NHS data platform rejected by most hospitals US spy tech firm's £330million software isn't much cop, experts say

"The fact that - on top of everything else - Palantir's NHS offer is just not very good does make one wonder about the source of Wes Streeting's enthusiasm for it. And why the hapless Keir Starmer was dragged along to endorse them by Peter Mandelson." open.substack.com/pub/democrac...

This chart from Immigration White Paper illustrates quality of government's underlying "analysis."

1. Numbers are completely wrong (in fact non-EU employment in health/care rose by over 100K).

2. Doesn't say what time period this is.

3. Footnote to source says data is from OECD (it's from HMRC)

Or you could just admit that Labour party policy has been captured by a group that is obsessed by small numbers of Reform/Labour shifters, and don’t really care about the consequences of that for the rest of your base. Or the actual evidence on migration. Or the impact on the rest of your ‘agenda’.

This is also the most utterly predictable consequence of a speech like Starmer’s: it just gives new permission to those on the right to air yet more racist tropes.

Also trying to work out if anyone in the room when they were writing the speech paused for a moment to ask if it was a speech that a social democratic politician should make. Or whether it might have consequences with the majority of Labour voters who aren’t in favour of racist tropes.