JWexTheSpa

No more blatant example of Question Time’s bias than this.

Goodwin is a Reform activist and GB News presenter - you’d have to be intentionally blind to think he’s an academic

Più Venezia …

Cheers 👍

Venezia

Allowing victims a hallowed status in British politics ignores the fact that state failures are collective scandals. Hillsborough could easily have happened at another stadium to other fans. Grenfell was not the only tower caked in flammable material. Grooming gangs were so widespread that any vulnerable girl could have been dragged in. When victims play such a large role, what should be society’s problem becomes an individual one. What is left is a mangled Thatcherite philosophy: there is no such thing as society, only victims and their families. In this way British politics becomes an autocracy of lived experience, in which politicians advise and victims decide. For a politician as vapid as Sir Keir or as cynical as Mr Farage perhaps this is no bad thing. A world in which rape victims are compelled to argue with each other over the future of a government minister, cheered on by elected politicians, is a depressing one. But it is the one Britain inhabits. It is a final dereliction of duty to people the state has already failed once and now does again

Crikey - Bagehot is going to upset and outrage a lot of people with this. Takes (the proverbial) balls of steel to go up against conventional wisdom like this.

Halloween and New Year's Eve - the two crappiest days of the year.

Esther Palomera sobre la comisión del Senado de hoy a Pedro Sánchez. 👌

"El presidente del Gobierno ha salido ileso porque el PP se ha equivocado al elegir a un discípulo de Ayuso y al utilizar las peores formas que hemos visto en muchos años en el Congreso y en el Senado ".

👇

Han costado más baratas que el pelo nuevo, la cirugía ocular y los tres pinchazos de botox de Feijóo.

We all know, don't we, that Andrew is just the first one to have been caught?

Genius move for Badenoch to end the day with her being asked about her admitted law breaking while Reeves receives an apology from her estate agent.

Ha! 👍

You could see this happening from space

If the right does take power in the UK I would volunteer for deportation on the grounds I share literally none of their cultural or political values. Send me to Spain.

And isn't Brooklyn a Dutch origin name for marshland?

This is what the right does with power when it can. It understands that if you control the judiciary you control everything. Coming to the UK in 2029, if we are not careful.

So why does the BBC label the academic and economist Faiza Shaheen an "activist" but refuse to do the same for the former academic, turned anti-migrant activist Matt Goodwin?

That's a key firewall. Reform could destroy the UK's democracy on 27% of the vote. Wilders could not do that in the Netherlands.

The Greens would be absolutely mad to go near them.

It is always disconcerting to see Janan Ganesh hit the nail on the head. But he does here. It's perfect.

The owners of the right wing press and their fellow travellers in the media are terrified of having to pay their fair share of tax.
That's why the gloves are off. Hell hath no fury like the rich facing the prospect of parting with their wealth.

The Greens would be certifiable if they did any kind of deal with this shower.

The main one is firewall your democracy. Don't give the far-right the opportunity to dismantle it.

Being as charitable as possible, Vance is a deeply peculiar man with a highly selective belief in the Christian gospel.

Can you imagine the market reaction if Reeves went because of this? It would show how entirely unserious the UK is. This is not a Rayner-like error, it's clearly nothing more than a minor (and understandable) oversight.

Highly predictable.

There is a decent arguement, I think, that prefabs on bases might be a better solution for asylum seekers than hotels.

But the idea it would be more acceptable for the anti-asylum twats was for the birds. It entirely misunderstands what is driving them.

Honestly, the more these people opine on how awful the UK is, the more I am reminded of how much - for all its problems and indisputable weirdness - I really rather love it.

In less febrile, more sensible times everyone would admit what they know to be true: Reeves and her husband made a simple mistake and one that was very clearly not designed to enrich them. Of course it's not a reason for her to resign. Badenoch did much, much worse.

I keep being told spending cuts are easy. Honest proposals such as those recently outlined by Policy Exchange show they are not

My column www.ft.com/content/f086...

This is a great point to make. It's important to recognize many news orgs go against their readers interests and lobby on behalf of advertisers. But it's difficult to find a case more blatant and hideous than this one

Public concern about immigration remains unusually high and has not yet caught up with the reality of falling immigration. However, by the 2029 general election there will have been several years of low net migration. A sharp fall in immigration could impact Reform UK, who are currently leading opinion polls, especially if asylum seeker numbers also fall. However, a fall in net migration of 300,000 a year would increase the deficit by about £2o billion. The government are already having to make unpopular tax rises and spending cuts in the upcoming budget, but would have to make more if the deficit increases. A fall in international student numbers will put further pressure on universities that are struggling financially, especially the 22 universities expected to lose their sponsor license.

Reducing immigration will not necessarily increase the number of jobs available for British people as some employers are responding to tightening immigration rules by increasing outsourcing. Some job vacancies will become harder to fill, particularly in care homes. This will be even worse if a lot of people emigrate because they do not want to wait 10 years for ILR. Conclusion Net migration will fall very sharply in future years as a result of immigration restrictions brought in by both the current and the previous government. Furthermore, emigration will continue to increase, particularly of people with graduate visas. Any political benefit the government may gain from this fall in immigration could be jeopardised by the economic damage that it causes.

Hey, look where years of scapegoating immigrants and devising punitive immigration policies gets you…
Further into debt, collapsing universities, tax rises and spending cuts.
Prejudice and govt dishonesty have high price tags.
Slow hand clap to all those responsible.