The rise of Nigel Farage could lead you to believe that a more abrasive way of doing politics is popular.

So, we wanted to test: Does the public want politicians to swear more?

Should politicians try to be more colourful, by using more colourful language?

The answer is ‘no’(-ish).

A thread 🧵:

SMRs vs Big Daddy Reactors Plus has Northern Powerhouse Rail saved HS2? And we dig into a controversial digital identity proposal.

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA podcast is out now!

☢️ SMRs vs Big Daddy reactors (technical term)
🚄 Does govt support for Northern Powerhouse Rail secretly save HS2 to Manchester?
🪪 And we speak to @kmeinnes.bsky.social about "BritCard"

www.abundancepod.com/p/smrs-vs-bi...

Seems like a lot of people don't realise that UK police can - and do - stop people and ask for ID.

There is little to no connection between the state requiring that you have ID/carry it with you* and the state *giving* everyone ID.

BritCard: a progressive digital identity for Britain — Labour Together In government, Labour has committed to reducing migration. Labour Together is supporting this agenda with a series of papers looking at how to create a migration system that puts country first. In Oct...

Today @labourtogether.bsky.social called for a Digital ID for all UK citizens and residents. There are many good reasons for this - convenience, efficiency of public services, avoiding another Windrush scandal, but also the impact on perceptions of migration. www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...

I’ve never understood the irrational opposition to universal ID in this country so very happy to see this in my inbox today

Genuinely interested to know what specifically is grotesque about it in your view - surely only the state can legitimately say who is a member of it, and issue tokens of that?

Some thoughts on our report, www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...

... it’ll be because it’s well-designed and executed and actually adds value to peoples’ daily lives. I think it absolutely could do that.

The brand: I don’t think it’s necessarily jingoistic to use the 🇬🇧 or the prefix “Brit”. But I think we would agree that if this does make a contribution to any sense of national identity (which is a loftier claim than any we make in the paper)...

...but I think a mixed economy is almost certainly both needed and possible here. Some use cases feel like they should be citizen<>state; and some might be more comfortable being mediated by a private sector provider.

Impact of this on the private provider market: there are already some interactions between the Trust Framework and One Login/the planned digital credentials that need sorting out...

The costings do include roll-out and IRL support channels for people who are digitally and/or ID-excluded. I think you might be right that we missed out comms though.

We’re not asking people to prove who they are any more often than is already the case - this is to make existing checks quicker and easier

There will always be bad employers who are just not interested in doing checks. But there are also those who don’t know they need to check; or try in good faith to check, but are duped by forged or borrowed ID. This will rule out those cases, and free up resources to get to the real bad guys

This is just one part of a migration strategy - definitely not a silver bullet. Nevertheless I think it’s quite a fundamental part. I think it’s reasonable to expect the state to have a clear idea of who is and isn’t allowed to live in the country, and to issue a proof of that to those that are.

Thank you for the thoughtful critique - I do appreciate it. I think it's helpful to have these arguments in public, so here's some thoughts in response:

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He really gets her 🥹🥹🥹

There is a grey area. I am the product in some hard to reverse engineer way of everything I've read, seen and heard, yet no-one is coming at me for a share of the revenues I've generated with my own writing. Same for every other book, piece of music, work of art.

Can't stop thinking about the tepid bath of managed decline. What a weirdly intimate metaphor. I'm kind of nervous about the moment when the grumpy dripping civil service finally hauls itself out and grabs a towel

OpenAI's state of the art video generator Sora has been launched publicly in the US and "most other countries" - but not the EU or UK 😭. Brexit or no, we will keep being seen as a high regulatory risk jurisdiction until or unless we make our stance clearer

Thank you!

#5 Inside Labour: Rewiring the state means getting to grips with AI — Labour Together Congratulations to Chris Wormald on his appointment as Cabinet Secretary. As Shadow Health Secretary, I worked with Chris during the Covid-19 pandemic. I am confident he will deliver the "complete rew...

www.labourtogether.uk/insights/ins...

What's the Case equivalent of pardoning your son I wonder?

Shows how much you guys know

Ooh I don't really know but thank you for asking...

Toothpaste vibes

PLEASE someone cheer me up by explaining why this is not totally disgraceful bullshit?