Kevin Gopal

Pleased to have been able to add some northern perspectives to The Lead's comprehensive coverage of child poverty. Ultimately, children are poor because adults are poor, and lifting the two-child cap is necessary but not sufficient to end it.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

The Lead in Conversation: "Kids are in poverty because adults are in poverty" Former editor of The Big Issue in the north discusses the shameful crisis of child poverty and the regional disparities that are being driven by inequality and deprivation.

Former editor of The Big Issue in the North @kevingopal.bsky.social discusses the shameful crisis of child poverty and the regional disparities that are being driven by inequality and deprivation with @nmozz.bsky.social

Child poverty is at an all-time high in the UK according to official statistics - but it's important to look beyond the figures to who it really impacts. Last week, @kevingopal.bsky.social spoke with Sophie, a student who grew up skipping meals in Newcastle, because she saw her mum doing it.

My fave bit is "did it work?" 🤣

Touch flat footed, Zak #Ashes

“When you’re younger and you’re in it it feels normal. Where I’m from everyone was in the same boat. It’s not just my mam who was in poverty – it’s generations before that." Sophie, from Newcastle.

The pointless, performative cruelty of Jack Straw replacing cash for asylum seekers with Sodexo vouchers was so bad even Blunkett felt he had to scrap it - but there was a campaign against it too - news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1916...

Kevin Gopal (@kevingopal) As this week’s flip-flopping on income tax shows nothing is an entirely done deal - me for The Lead this week on child poverty in the North and the lifting of the two child benefit cap.

As this week's flip-flopping on income tax shows, nothing is an entirely done deal - me for @theleaduk on child poverty in the North and the prospect of the end of the two child benefit cap - substack.com/@kevingopal/...

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Investors into 79th Group bonds told “it has hallmarks” of Ponzi scheme | TheBusinessDesk.com Administrators update says likely scam could be ‘one of largest ever UK based schemes’

If it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck ...

Jaw dropping letter to investors confirms 79th Group could be UK's biggest ever Ponzi scheme www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/ne...

If Shaheen is an activist, then Goodwin, whose whole twitter feed is extreme and inaccurate far right nonsense, is definitely an activist. If Goodwin is an academic, then Shaheen, who has done more recent and more credible academic work, is an academic.

the video being projected behind all the performers on stage

lmao david byrne showed the video of the ice agents tripping over themselves while trying to run after a biker on wacker drive during the “life during wartime” segment of his chicago show tonight

Asylum seekers, housed in hotels in Manchester, are reaching out in their own words to address the concerns of the local community.

Please take a minute to read their letter, & share it with the people in your life who need to hear the truth about the people they are protesting.

Ah, right.

* reaches for that Irish passport application form *

From @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Lab govt: “The alarm bells of authoritarianism are ringing loud and clear."

Chart from https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publications/benefit-cuts-dont-have-widespread-support/ showing that the majority of people do not support planned or expected social security cuts in the UK

📢 Benefit cuts don’t have widespread support

Amongst pro-migration voters - i.e. Labour's base last year and the easiest votes to recover in future - support for this policy is...0%. Nil. Nada. Zip. Zero.

Goals don't come more open than this. Labour should be attacking this proposal at every opportunity.

Just to ring the changes from having Farage top of the list?

Shame on Downing Street for going along with this. So much for being committed to a free press

Gone by tomorrow?

Anti-Islamic US biker gang members run security at deadly Gaza aid sites BBC identifies members of Infidels MC gang hired as armed security at US and Israel-backed aid sites.

One of those "it's hard to be shocked in 2025, but...." stories. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Statement from Rachael Maskell MP after at least three racist incidents in York recently: "these flags are more than just a flag of our country, for some they have been used to rally those who suppress the rights of others and perpetrate acts of hate"

Not sure what's worse - that she's lying or telling the truth.

Labour can’t turn voters against Nigel Farage if it doesn’t attack him If government won’t call out the dangers of the Reform leader’s policies now, when will it?

"Bluntly, if the government cannot make the point that it is a bad idea to give money to the Taliban, it is far from clear to me when a better opportunity to attack Farage is going to present itself."- on.ft.com/3HKB1zO via @stephenkb.bsky.social

It's Black Sabbath country I guess

🎶gammons gather in their masses
🎶 smaller than most evening classes

Butterflies galore in the Wenning Valley

Character in Martin Amis novel!