Sue Lukes

A £10 billion hole in the economy and a deepening care crisis — to appease the far right (which will never be appeased anyway)

Also, astronomical levels of over-purchasing during the pandemic.

💥The previous government brought nearly 9years stock of Gowns (at sky high prices).
💥52% of which were unusable

This Includes the PPE Medpro gowns.

Link to report: www.gov.uk/government/p...

🚨Latest report from the Covid Commissioner confirms what I revealed in viplanebook.com ⤵️

💥£10billion losses on PPE
💥11billion items of PPE unused
💥3 x amount spent each year on maternity & neo-natal care

Scandalous!

@bylinetimes.bsky.social @goodlawproject.bsky.social @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Government has now - belatedly -published the impact assessment for the changes to skilled worker and care worker visas announced in May.

Impact is estimated between -£2 billion and £-10 billion (central - £10 billion).

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6937e6...

Interesting that the BBC will call National Rally "Far Right" (in an article about Bardella meeting Farage) - when they would never use that term for Reform. Their policies are very similar. If anything Reform's are more authoritarian.

Lammy’s new restrictions on jury trials won’t end the backlog By Russell Fraser On 2nd December 2025 the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, finally made a statement in the House of Commons on ‘criminal court reform’. As with most ministerial statements much had been briefed to the press in advance, despite the Ministerial Code requiring announcements of policy be made in the House before anywhere else. Perhaps Lammy considers such things quaint, as with his newfound view of the place of juries in our criminal justice system.

Lammy’s new restrictions on jury trials won’t end the backlog

By Russell Fraser On 2nd December 2025 the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, finally made a statement in the House of Commons on ‘criminal court reform’. As with most ministerial statements much had been briefed to the press in advance,…

For much much more on the profiteers behind Britain's catastrophic pandemic failure, check out 'VIP Lane' by @russellscott1.bsky.social

All books are currently 15% off with code: TISTHESEASON

👉 subscribe.bylinetimes.com/product/vip-...

this is insane

The London mayor dismissed "dystopian visions" and "caricatures" of the British capital shared by Trump and the online right, saying they were not borne out by evidence

"The experience of Londoners is very different to the experience of those who demonise my great city," he said

London’s Mayor Says Mamdani’s Victory Mirrors His Own

In an interview with Sadiq Khan last month, I asked the London mayor why he thought that London - and him personally - had become such a target for Donald Trump and his supporters

"London is the antithesis of everything they stand for," he said.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/n...

They’re assuming reducing net migration is a good in itself?

The Home Office also recognise that this may have an impact on user of care services who are likely to be older people and those with disabilities. The Home Office believes that despite these points the changes are justified for a number of policy reasons including reducing net migration and ending reliance on overseas recruitment.

Home Office Ministers state publicly, on the record, that they are deliberately making life worse for older people and people with disabilities who depend on care services, but it's worth it because it reduces net migration.

This "overdiagnosis" rhetoric is getting too frequent for my liking. The absence of politicians refuting this narrative, is quite telling and alarming to say the least.

Covid scheme fraud hit almost £11bn but much 'beyond recovery', report says The response to the pandemic led to

Will there be any *political* accountability for this costly mess? Nope, thought not. If you're hoping to see or hear Rishi Sunak MP - the man in charge of the Treasury at the time - being interrogated about it on the Beeb and other broadcast outlets today or tomorrow, I have a bridge to sell you.

London is #1 graphic.

Once more for the haters...

The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud | Jess O’Thomson Since the supreme court decision, organisations have faced lobbying and legal threats. But trans people are protected by discrimination law too, says Jess O’Thomson of the Good Law Project

Me, in The Guardian today:

"This is a moment that requires bravery in standing up for what is right. Organisations that value trans people should know not just that the law is on their side – but so, also, are many people who will step up to defend them if they have the courage to take a stand."

Govt estimates fiscal cost of its visa reforms to be £5-10 billion. It wants to reduce numbers further & faster, according to Home Secretary and Prime Minister, but to let them rise nodestly, according to Treasury fiscal forecast
https://www.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F2b6077ab-8b95-4957-92e9-45f5cf705fb5

Hard Agree.

And its even got ME in it! What more could you want...?

🙄🙃

This is what chasing Reform voters gets you 😡👇

The plaque underneath this sign and the window above are dedicated to the trader of enslaved African people, Edward Colston (1636-1721).

You can attain great power and wealth even as you commit unimaginable evil in your lifetime.

But one day, history will come for you.

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

This is where all the money goes 👇

Well, that and the fact that Sadiq Khan is a muslim, so they can't countenance that he might actually do a good job

Surely has to be some sort of projection. I've been all over the UK and US and I've never seen inequality, poverty, or destitution of the type or at the scale that I've seen it in some American cities.

Pushing policy to new and never-before-seen boundaries of craziness. London is a great city! Not as good as Manchester, sure, but you can't have it all. That some Americans have convinced themselves that it is a dangerous hellscape is bizarre.

Farage’s attack on the BBC tells us who he really is His response to allegations of racist behaviour reveals more than we could have guessed—and why the Beeb needs to protect itself

"Farage's savage attack on Emma Barnett and the BBC is a tawdry echo of the tactics his friend in the White House deploys against any reporter—particularly, but not only, female reporters—who dare to ask robust questions."

https://bit.ly/4oJD3j1

Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison

They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.

This doesn't make sense. For starters you can't "extend" ILR, the second paragraph doesn't make sense and a fee waiver doesn't take over a year to be decided.

Seaham Reform councillor's firm fined over illegal worker Durham councillor Andrew Harrison says the worker was legal and he is appealing against the fine.

Reform UK councillor Andrew Harrison's business was fined £40,000 for hiring an "illegal immigrant."

Almost like these people are shameless, two faced hypocrites isn't it

www.bbc.com/news/article...

New US security strategy aligns with Russia's vision, Moscow says The Kremlin welcomes the starkly worded document, which does not cast Russia as a threat to the US.

Cold War replaced by Cold Sweat.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...