Luke Cooper

Over this weekend, we have pushed the @calaisappeal.bsky.social fundraiser to almost £10k!! 🥹🥹

Let’s give it a really big push this week🙏

I feel sure we can raise more than the far right did to send over their thugs to harass people ❤️💪

www.justgiving.com/campaign/tog...

Celebrating a big win for seasonal farm workers: Scotland commits to new housing standards – Worker Support Centre Today, WSC is celebrating a major campaign success shaped directly by the leadership and determination of the seasonal farm workers with whom we partner.

Good news from Scotland! Standards are to be introduced for seasonal agricultural worker housing, addressing current issues with many workers reporting poor conditions such as cold, unsafe caravans and high salary deductions
@workersupportc.bsky.social
workersupportcentre.org.uk/2025/12/03/c...

And, no, you can't repay the loan at that level of earnings as you're just servicing the interest. This means that they in effect face that tax rate in perpetuity (or rather 40 years at which point its written off) if they remain at that income level. An utterly shocking policy from a Labour govt

One more way the government lets inflation do its dirty work As well as being the bane of many taxpayers, frozen thresholds can also hit graduates and current students

This is good on the grim £5.7 billion transfer in the budget from working class graduates to the state, leading to a situation where graduates working a 40 hour week on the minimum wage are now set to face an effective tax rate of 37% (20% income, 8% NI and 9% loan)

www.thetimes.com/article/9e71...

The EU stumbles to an imperfect solution for funding Ukraine Europe has cards. But will it manage to play them?

Great essay from @martinsandbu.ft.com highlighting the stumbles Europe is making - born of the usual conservatism on risk sharing - on Russian assets. Citing our @peacerep.bsky.social report on the Russian economy he points out, Europe has leverage but lacks the will.
www.ft.com/content/fb01...

A particularly good report by @zoejardiniere.bsky.social here on genuine ways in which to fix what is, objectively, a broken system. Hint, making life harder for migrants isn't the way to do it.

Time For Change: The evidence-based policies that can actually fix the immigration system A new report from prominent migration expert Zoe Gardner has been enthusiastically welcomed by senior Labour backbenchers.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: Time for Change is here!
Sick of the constant demonisation of migrants?
Want to see an alternative plan?
Our new report by @zoejardiniere.bsky.social outlines 9 steps to a system that delivers dignity for all.
Read it here: www.anothereurope.org/time-for-cha...

ASylum: -Safe routes -Right to work & faster decisions -A not-for-profit accommodation system Migrant workers rights: -Reform labour inspections and close exploitation loopholes -Scrap employer-sponsored visas -Integrate asylum seekers into a points-based system Integration: -A simplified, universal 5-year path to settlement -Reintroduce birthright citizenship & reduce barriers for child integration -Embrace a positive narrative about immigration, diversity and belonging

⏰ It's time for change on immigration policy - We all agree on that much!

Labour so far have got it all wrong, chasing hostile headlines that will only make our system crueller, society more divided & immigrants easier to exploit.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!!
My 9-point plan for a system that works👇

Thanks so much to Volodymyr Vlasiuk and his Ukraine Industry Expertise colleagues for the extensive collaboration on this Ukraine Industry Expertise and @lseideas.bsky.social and LSE CCRG report for PeaceRep.

In any case, the Russian economy is in difficulty and should not be treated as a metaphysical entity somehow uniquely able to transcend the reality of Russia's material position.

Another, not necessarily counterposed, possibility is that the regime calculates it can make predatory gains in relation from the peace process with a friendly White House that is can't make on the battlefield.

One possibility is that the regime is not entirely unresponsive to the reality to the problems in its domestic economy and may be looking for a way out.

Russia has appeared to be stepping back some of its most radical demands (eg. regime change, full Ukrainian withdrawal from Kherson and Saporizhia oblast, de jure recognition of Donbas) in the talks. This begs the question why a regime on the front foot militarily would make any concessions?

Even the official rates of inflation and GDP growth in 2025 show Russia to be in "stagflation". So, the war is economically challenging for Russia and this means that Ukraine and Europe should be regarded as having more leverage in the talks to end the war than is generally assumed.

Another key finding from the report is that around 20% of Russians have experienced sharp increases in incomes during the war - but this isn't the case for a majority of Russians. Their rising incomes have come at the expense of the interests of a large majority.

Once applied to the GDP figures this results in downgrading estimates for Russia's GDP growth from 2022-2024.

Drawing on date from ROMIR and the evolution of inflation in the full-scale invasion period, we develop an alternative "best guess" estimate for the rate of inflation.

We develop this new estimate by calling into Q the rate of inflation. Given the official inflation rate no longer tracks the development of the Central Bank of Russia's policy rate and appears un-impacted by the rapid expansion in the monetary supply, there are logical reasons to think its faulty.

Analysis Finds Russia Likely in Recession Amid Ongoing War Costs - PeaceRep A new report finds that Russia’s economy has likely contracted since 2022, with hidden inflation, shrinking revenues, and rising inequality placing significant strain on its economic position.

New report! The big headline: Russia's economy is in trouble, likely in recession and perhaps 1.5% smaller today than in Feb 2022. The growth of the war economy is at the expense of the wider economy.

peacerep.org/2025/12/02/a...

peacerep.org/wp-content/u...

Witkoff Discusses Ukraine Plans With Key Putin Aide: Transcript The following is a transcript of an Oct. 14 phone call lasting just over 5 minutes between Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s most senio...

EXCLUSIVE: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump, in audio files reviewed by Bloomberg

Witkoff has got to go.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Witkoff Advised Russia on How to Pitch Ukraine Plan to Trump US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call last month with a senior Kremlin official to suggest they work together on a similar plan for Ukraine — and that Vladimir Putin should raise it with Donald Trump.

EXCLUSIVE: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump, in audio files reviewed by Bloomberg

The Budget: Rachel Reeves’s missed opportunity A government doesn’t get many chances to make real change. Today was one of those opportunities - the chancellor missed it

“Reeves avoided tackling any of the major issues, sticking in the strictest of technical senses to the wording of Labour’s promises, and by doing so she threw away the chance to do anything of lasting impact.”

Yep 👍👍👍👍

@jamesrball.com

www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...

The problem for Polanski’s argument here is that at the present time no one would join an alternative alliance. So as a geopolitical strategy it doesn’t make sense (at the present time) and as a political position in uk politics it may create a ceiling for GP support.
bsky.app/profile/luke...

The problem for Polanski’s argument here is that at the present time no one would join an alternative alliance. So as a geopolitical strategy it doesn’t make sense (at the present time) and as a political position in uk politics it may create a ceiling for GP support.
bsky.app/profile/luke...

So, on the current poll, Farage would have a very comfortable overall majority, with no effective checks on his powers, on less than a third of the vote. @teamlabouruk.bsky.social members who still think 1st Past the Post keeps the extremists out need to re-examine the facts @labour4pr.bsky.social

An alternative position could be: "NATO is explicitly US led - strategic command in Europe always American - and the long-term direction of US politics puts it into question. We don't favour leaving but back far deeper security cooperation with European neighbours independent of NATO/US structures".

Thanks - I listened to the Newsagents where he seemed somewhere between nuanced and evasive of the topic. But I watched the BBC interview today and he was very emphatic about it. bsky.app/profile/luke...

Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg - Budget Lookahead Laura Kuenssberg talks to transport secretary Heidi Alexander, Green Party leader Zack Polanski and shadow chancellor Mel Stride. Jeremy Hunt, Sharon Graham and Andy Haldane are on the panel.

I stand corrected as Polanski does tell BBC this morning that he favours "an alternative alliance". I find this a bit puzzling from his own perspective. Why depart from the existing GP position when it's clearly not one of his policy priorities and is very unpopular? www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

“It may not include the US”. If that’s the case, then it’s questionable really that it would still be NATO. Like the Byzantine and Roman empires, technically continuous but in practice radically different. “NATO” would have to appoint a non American SACEUR for the first time in its history.

Haha yeah . I think Polanski has to communicate the position a bit differently as he’s clearly got a problem here though