Ian Dunt

Any country should be grateful to have a family like this come stay - people who are enamoured with the place, eloquent, highly educated. But instead we shoot ourselves in the foot.

The treatment at the airport is one thing. But it is a bit heartbreaking to hear him allude to British people in the comments - internet muck - killing off his dream of living in Britain.

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I find this guy one of the most perceptive and generous foreign commentators about the UK. So I suppose that it should come as no surprise that he's having a rough time now he's spending time here www.instagram.com/reel/DVW6Mpf...

Who faced a damn sight more pressure to intervene than Starmer did

Keir Starmer criticised over stance on US-Israel strikes on Iran UK prime minister has adopted a much more ambivalent approach than other western allies

Lord Peter Ricketts, former head of the Foreign Office:

“If you’re going to attack a country you have to show it is in self-defence and that there is some kind of imminent threat. You can’t make that case here…An indifference to international law is dangerous.”

www.ft.com/content/b988...

“We cannot say that the United States’ actions are against international law, but we condemn Iran’s retaliatory actions as against international law,” is neither a coherent nor a compelling position.

I suppose it's impressive that Starmer managed to maintain the correct moral and political position for all of ten minutes. Some kind of record.

We have no "partners in the Gulf". Israel and the US are both de-facto rogue states which do not represent our values or share our interests.

Kind of incredible. I was just sitting down to write about how Starmer should be given credit for keeping us out of this mess when he does this. Unutterably foolish and obsequious. Why in God's name should we have anything to do with this shortsighted madness.

YouTube video by Origin Story 15-Minute Cities – How Urban Design Entered the Culture War | Origin Story

This is so good, we wish WE had made it! The history & lunacy of the disinformation campaign around 15-Minute Cities, by 2 “non experts” @iandunt.bsky.social & @dorianlynskey.bsky.social who show how experts SHOULD be communicating. Thanks to the @originstorypodcast.bsky.social podcast. #UrbanTruth

Thanks very much. Really flattered by that.

I think the logical and likely response is that bourgeois supporters (who make up most Labour MPs, members and voters) will sacrifice Mahmood over migration.

Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton | Sadiq Khan The threat to the party in some parts of our country is now existential. But we can progress, as we have in London, by being bold and strong in our core beliefs, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

"Trying to compete with Reform not only feels inauthentic... but a betrayal of what Labour is supposed to represent. We must address the concerns and fears of voters, not play on them."

Damning stuff from Sadiq Khan

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have not seen this discussed yet
bsky.app/profile/sund...

Obscene.

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

And on Monday's order paper is a written statement on "asylum changes". Next week would also be when the Spring statement of changes to the immigration rules are often laid.

Several canvassers say the *settlement* reforms (make over a million voters wait 10-15 years for settlement, not 5, is a top of mind concern for those affected & friends, family

A basic fallacy in Home Office citing more in common polling on asylum reform - a different issue - and net migration

This is terrible from Starmer. Just absolute trash. And any normal voter looking at the new MP and then reading this description will think him mad.

Labour's ugliest-ever political strategy has utterly failed The Gorton and Denton by-election must be a wake-up call for the party – or it is doomed

The Gorton and Denton by-election must be a wake-up call for the party – or it is doomed inews.co.uk/opinion/labo...

Gorton and Denton results. labour comes third. Ouch.
Greens: 14,980
Reform: 10,578
Labour: 9,364

FUCKETY BYE CUNT

Reform’s crusade for ‘Christian values’ offers false comfort The announcement by Reform UK that they will “restore Britain’s Christian heritage” and that the nation must “uphold its Christian values” captures the contradictory essence of modern populist politic...

Reform's call to "restore Britain's Christian heritage" captures the contradictory essence of modern populist politics. It's a scramble to weaponise a religious identity that the British public themselves have left behind. 🧵

Gross

So I started looking into this to outline the conspiracy theory. But what I found was a genuinely beautiful piece of practical idealism. A small, attainable progressive change that would hugely improve people's lives. I was inspired by it.

Mm. Except I left the UK yesterday, literally the day it improved, so now I know i am cursed

It genuinely works but it would also be very pompous.

(Incidentally your review following it is exceptional, really enjoyably provocative and illuminating)

I'd never seen it this way before. I so desperately want to construct a tortured metaphor from it about liberal institutions and I can't promise I won't.

I'm a recent convert to the TLS but I adore it and learn a massive amount each issue. This is from a review on a couple of books about time and it has just scrambled my mind.