Graeme McGregor

Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system

Apart from this cartoonish, performative cruelty, has the government even considered the time, staff and resources required to review people's refugee status every 2.5 years? That's a massive, costly undertaking, and will obviously prevent refugees from building a stable life here.

Wasn't he arguably the star of Requiem for a Dream?

Do I? That's weird, because some people I love very much are landlords. Thanks for that very informed and not at all presumptuous on your part. Not sure why you're asserting that when we agree on the need for social housing.

You've argued here against renter's rights being expanded and upheld, as in the Renters' Rights Bill. Those rights haven't been protected in law and enforced yet. Once again, the housing crisis will be solved by building social and affordable housing, not by pandering to landlords.

Then I'd recommend advocating for social and affordable housing, not reduced rights for tenants.

Imagine being proud of this nonsense. Have you shut your ears to hip hop, RnB, techno, pop music or rock 'n' roll, as well? Have you avoided all films or TV featuring or made by British people of colour? Do you boycott all sporting events? Do you just live in a joyless hole in the ground?

Except it is. The landlord lobby is large and significant and has obstructed numerous positive reforms that would have made many people's lives much better. Private landlords have had an undeniable negative effect on the cost of housing, by buying up a disproportionate amount of available housing.

I don't consider private landlords to be as free of blame for these societal ills as immigrants. That feels like an odd - and mistaken - comparison to make. But I do agree that housing is a mess, and Thatcher and neo liberalism are to blame. We simply need social and affordable housing.

I'm not obviously against anything. You're just making that assumption so you don't have to engage with my actual argument. I agree social housing is needed, and is the solution to high rents, poor living conditions in rental properties, and the inability of most to own their own homes.

Right, so the answer is to build affordable housing, not let landlords hoard properties and drive up rents.

Wow.

You have a very low threshold for what qualifies as a mental health issue. To the extent that it seems you're using accusations of mental illness as a personal insult and way to put people down. Not very kind or professional behaviour.

I learned a new word today.

I believe my exchange with him is on the other place somewhere. I still find it entertaining, even though my media skills were lacking and my hair looks mad.

Are you suggesting that opposing AI generated imagery and the imposition of LLM content is a mental illness? That's a new one.

Why?

I debated asylum issues and the UK-Rwanda policy with Sam Ashworth-Hayes on Sky News once. He was an embarrassment, even for those of his ilk. His contribution was "I lived in Australia and it was nice". He totally froze when I spoke about deaths in Australian offshore detention camps.

Does US academic also produce AI slop?

How are most landlords not hoarding homes that otherwise would be available to buy? The vast majority of landlords are either companies or people using a second property as a form of investment.

Well, the answer to the problem of low home ownership and high demand for rental properties is to build more houses. Not to have landlords hoard them.

What real problems do people actually have that can be or are being solved by AI?

Tougher in what ways? It's already awful in many large UK cities.

I think there are a significant number of people with a disproportionate amount of political and social influence who fundamentally do not like people and avoid being around them. (Looking at you, tech billionaires.)

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

I'd also find it reassuring for him to clarify that "working class" is not synonymous with "white", which he comes close to doing in his new interview with Zach Polanski. But the man doesn't think Trump or Farage are racist or fascist, so I won't hold my breath.

A really bad, poorly informed take from Gary Stevenson? Who'd have thought.

It is racist to support a racist political party, with racist policies, led by racist politicians.

But being racist is not the whole of a person's identity, and people who are being racist can learn to stop being racist.

Are people being racist if they support a racist political party, with racist policies and racist politicians? I'd say yes.

Can those people also be misinformed, manipulated and marginalised by people with more wealth and power? Yes.

We can address the latter without ignoring the former.

Thanks for the response! Super helpful and a really useful briefing. I hope the MOJ figures you requested can shed some more light.

Thanks for this latest briefing. Really useful. Do some of these statistics count individual people while others count individual convictions / charges? Does this have any affect on the collated numbers and on comparisons across nationality or citizen / non-citizen?