Stephanie McKenzie

"Fewer immigrant workers means a smaller economy"

This was the point I was making in the Observer yesterday and on Today this morning.

the political system with a modern constitution, and closing off the loopholes in political funding. But almost no one wants to do that as too many British politicians like the power that the Westminster system bestows 2/2

My reaction on seeing that poll was that those figures would change rapidly back in a referendum when it’s a dark money funded, bullshit spreading R/W movement facing a half hearted Rejoin campaign that pretends that questions like the € can be fudged. As you say we need to completely rebuild 1/n

large parts of UK politics are swinging far-right with very, very frightening speed, and racists are getting increasingly open about expressing their bigotry.

Oh dear!

@johnkerry123.bsky.social starts by not realising that my avi is a 40 year photo of Annie Potts in Ghostbusters, and then forgets who it’s pretending to be after just a few hours.

Whoever came on the morning shift at the botfarm didnt read their notes

#SpottheScammer

Astute observation.

Apparently only 9 million babies were born in China last year, an article I read this week featured a businesswoman who was converting her chain of private nursery schools into nursing homes.

Like the antivaxxers who are queuing up to have Neuralink chips implanted into their brains…

Yes the New Labour scheme was originally meant to be a simple card for proof of age and would replace things like National Insurance Cards and driver’s licenses. But it morphed into a much more complex scheme that included biometrics

I’ve always been willing to have one, problem is that it gets sold as a magic bullet which will solve all sorts of other problems, which it won’t. Which was one of the reasons why opinion turned against Blair’s scheme

Many more than killed by wind turbines?

So it wasn’t a windmill…

Shared rooms, rancid food, no clothes: new report lays bare shocking conditions of those seeking refuge in UK Asylum seekers are enduring conditions worse than prison as they wait in hotels for claims to be processed

It certainly doesn’t help when media don’t report that conditions in these hotels are horrendous. Just because it was a 4 * hotel when open doesn’t mean they’re getting complimentary champagne and use of the spa 🙄 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023...

>would she have been inclined to take on the miners and be as radical as she was after 1983?

I think I read that the last pre-invasion poll had a narrow Tory lead. People remember their nadir in the wake of the riots and assume that was still the position in March‘82. In fact they’d been slowly recovering through that winter, the real ‘What if’ is if she’d had a majority of about 50 >>

60/ Netherlands gave women the ability to stand for election two years before giving them the right to vote, leading to Social Democrat Suze Groeneweg being elected as an MP in 1918 without holding the right to vote.

When they were refurbishing it they discovered the bricks are really yellow but had been stained by decades of pollution. As the dark colour is so iconic they decided to leave it as it is!

I can remember from a 1980’s Guinness Book of Records that in the 19th Century an MP was elected despite having died in the West Indies months before the election was even called!

48/ Because of the delay in counting votes in the 1945 election (to allow service votes to be flown home), two dead people were elected MPs (Tories Edward Campbell and Leslie Pym). Labour's Alfred Dobbs also died before parliament met, but after having been elected.

The property vote remained in Northern Ireland until the late 1960’s which was the reason why Unionists continuing to run places like Derry which were majority Nationalist

I hardly speak with my neighbours, they’re pleasant but they have their own lives. The whole idea of “popping next door for a cuppa” has barely existed outside of soaps and sitcoms for a very long time.

💀

I read an article this week that only 9 million babies were born in China last year. It’s demographic collapse will likely be even more dramatic than Japan’s. All those universities that are expecting a continuing flood of Chinese students to sustain them are pretty much cooked…

I take it Danny isn’t referring to our corporate laws, enforcement of which often seems to be “theoretical” 🙄

I’ve often thought about this, being the largest party on both sides of the border would mean a de facto UI without having to go through the potential pitfalls of creating a de jure one.

These are the top replies, being financially rewarded for posting this stuff, and the explanation offered by the site’s own AI for why it’s like that.

Anyway just flicking through the Sunday newspapers reading about some minor content infractions that Ofcom might look into at the BBC/Channel 4.

As you can see from my avi, I concur! 🥰🥰

Demonising migrants won’t fill jobs or boost falling popu... ‘Stop the boats’ is a popular refrain but it obscures the real issues rich countries across the world are facing

My feature for @theobserveruk.bsky.social on global migration trends and why the battle between economic wellbeing and nationalism is only going to get more intense.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

That was fascinating Robert, thank you! Love the photo of you and your niece ☺️

Apparently that of John of Patmos, an early Christian banished to a Greek island, who was still coming down from a really bad trip after an excess of wine or magic mushrooms. Martin Luther called it “the work of a madman!”