Claire Kumar

Worth a watch. Great to see @migobs.bsky.social stats being put to good use.

Some key stats on UK immigration

French coastguards demand halt to ‘deadly plans’ to intercept small boats Union says UK-French Channel deal is inhumane and contravenes international conventions

Unsurprisingly, people who actually have to deal with dead bodies in the water are more reluctant to embrace risky and dangerous methods than grandstanding politicians are.

The Guardian view on Conservative immigration policy: the threat of mass expulsions is abhorrent | Editorial Editorial: Tory plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain in pursuit of greater ‘cultural coherence’ resemble the most extreme ambitions of far-right fringe parties

"The result would be removals on an epic scale. The comparison with Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians is not one many Tory MPs welcome. Some appear unaware their own policy was that monstrous, until Lam spelled it out in a newspaper interview"
- Guardian
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A mother with settled status whose child is disabled. The father is British by birth. They have received DLA for the child. A Tory government would deport her?

I'd really like any Conservative who has ever talked about the "party of the family" to explain why this is the right thing to do.

To be absolutely clear, it is impossible to vote for a party that cannot bring itself to unequivocally defend the rights of people living and working legally in this country. Because arbitrary removal of legal rights, or sudden varying of terms, for some is ultimately a threat to everyone.

To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?

Amazing story in The Times. Reform UK failed to pay VAT to HMRC on its sales (tickets, merchandise). About £400k in all.

Not tax avoidance. Not tax evasion. They just didn't realise when you sell stuff you have to charge VAT.

Some good news/

Home Office evaluation of the Refugee Transitions Outcomes Fund - pilot schemes to help employment, housing and integration for newly recognised refugees.

Substantially improved employment outcomes & had positive fiscal impacts.

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Russian tech workers rethink UK ties after settlement rules change Digital entrepreneurs turn to US in search of higher pay and opportunities in test of Labour plan to lure ‘global talent’

Huh. If you say you’ll mess with indefinite leave to remain rules it turns out talented migrant workers start looking at their other options. This could never have been predicted!
on.ft.com/3JiZxbM

Your regular reminder that scrapping ILR for people who have come here and played by the rules, which is what Lam proposes here, is a position supported by 3% of the public

#NoKings Miami!

Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica | CNN Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate,” raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been und...

Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the #Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an "astonishing rate", scientists find, raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been underestimated.

edition.cnn.com/2025/10/10/c...

One of the less understood beauties of a transition to a renewable economy is: you cannot invade a country and steal its sunshine and its wind, and you will not need to. The uneven distribution of fossil fuel, esp. oil, has corroded geopolitics for more than a century....

Kidnapping of children by government thugs described as "efficient"...

Between 2019 and 2024 in real terms EU exports grew by 11%.

UK exports also grew. By 0.89%.

That's the total. Goods exports were lower in real terms in 2024 than in 2014.

Hey Grok, What's a Waste of Energy? AI amidst the climate emergency

Data centers are "shaping up to be the mother of all political issues...pretty much everyone pays electric rates, & under Trump they’re starting to skyrocket...he’s simultaneously accelerating demand w/ his support for data center buildout, & constricting supply by shutting down cheap solar & wind."

UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.

🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

1/11

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

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.

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

The Kent Reform group have been surprised to find that their intuitions & messages about profligate and pointless spending which could be painlessly cut were an imaginary projection
bsky.app/profile/jame...

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

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’

So if I’ve grasped the galaxy-brained strategy here, it’s:
✅ Day 1: reassure target voters that migrants are a problem & you’re ready to make them suffer
✅ Day 2: tell target voters their ideas are racist
✅ Day 3: reassure target voters that migrants are a problem & you’re ready to make them suffer

Reform’s radical gamble on Indefinite Leave to Remain may backfire - UK in a changing Europe This week, Reform UK proposed abolishing the Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status for migrants coming to the UK. Rob Ford explains that this proposal of permanent exclusion is not at all popular wi...

The government has put forward no credible rationale for this at all, apart from an entirely unevidenced claim that public opinion demands it in the name of "control" - which @robfordmancs.bsky.social demolishes here:

ukandeu.ac.uk/reforms-radi...

Some good news.

London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces.

The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

Labour’s plan for migrants to ‘earn’ permanent residency turns belonging into an endless exam In this hierarchical system, migrants are kept on extended probation and judged by standards never applied to British nationals.

Labour’s plan to make migrants earn permanent residency by doubling the wait to 10 years & adding new tests turns belonging into an endless exam.
🔗 theconversation.com/labours-plan...
#ShabanaMahmood
#LabourConference

NYT in 2028: “Some legal experts have argued a dictatorship is not compatible with the US Constitution”

”We find that the European Union’s recent approach to asylum policy creates spillover effects that undermine its role on the international stage, diminish its attractiveness for third country labour migrants and create a fully-fledged internal rule of law crisis.”

In this new article in the European Journal of Migration and Law, @judithkohlenberger.bsky.social, @dansaracino.bsky.social & I explore how EU asylum policy affects the EU’s international relations, respect for the rule of law, and capability to attract labour migrants. brill.com/view/journal...