Sun headline about £500k compensation for migrants, discussing human rights, and public outcry over payouts.

Did you see this headline?

Did you feel the requisite anger and rage at asylum seekers that The Sun was asking of you?

Did you maybe blame Starmer because.... um... it was probably his fault🤷‍♀️

Would you like to know the reality behind the headline?

Course you would!😜

Let's take a look

🧵

1/25

Yes, quite. It's the biggest scandal of this administration, so far, probably. It's an average Tuesday under Johnson.

What does a Labour government ever do for you?

Well here are 14 things they have done TODAY!

How many can you say other parties even have the first clue about?

1. Upgrades to more grass roots sports facilities

2. 450,000 disadvantaged students to be supported by new AI tutoring tools

1/8

Well - I wish it wasn’t so but the hard reality is that if you waste your vote on a candidate that can’t win then you might in some small way be sending a message to Labour (if they’re best placed to beat reform in your constituency), but in a big way you’ll be doing a lot more to help the far right

That’s just not true - Labour have been poor and it has been a calamitous error to lean into appeasing the far right

But to say they are ‘the same’ as reform or the tories is just not correct

There is no suggestion of corruption or self-enrichment with Labour - contrast that with the last lot

They don’t, they’re never happy

If anything it’s the opposite. The right are very good at putting aside their differences to vote collectively for an outcome they prefer to the alternative

It’s the left that engages in idealism and luxury politics, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good

Couldn’t disagree more

Reform have a united vote - ‘left-behinders’ plus most of the traditional right wing

The anti-Reform centre and left are split between Lab, Green, Lib Dem, Plaid, SNP and even soft Tory

The story isn’t Labour - it’s about doing whatever it takes to keep Reform out of power

And those votes would be completely wasted.

Under FPTP if you don’t want Reform you vote for the candidate best placed to beat them, whoever they are and whatever party they belong to

The Greens want to leave NATO - madness at the best of times, even worse in the current circumstances

Polanski wants to leave NATO - should be an absolute dealbreaker for anyone thinking of voting Green

In the current climate, NATO is more important than ever. Without the USA the remaining liberal democracies need to pool their resources for mutual defence

Just inconceivable that he can’t see that

I guess the problem is many are so transparently not making decisions based on conscience but on naked ambition

Gone is any sense of statesmanship or duty above their own self-interest

Things have changed and the rules should also - including bans on second jobs and an enforceable ethical code

Looking more like the Tories TBH with all the infighting, factionalism and naked ambition on display

Yeah

He just came out on top in a poll of who people would prefer as PM in a coalition government, with Lib-Lab the preferred combination.

No, he wants to curtail it because he and Lammy are desperate to cut the backlog in the criminal courts without spending any more money and they, wrongly, think this will help

It’s nothing to do with abuse of power

There’s plenty to criticise the gov for without making things up that have no basis

Europe needs to look after itself, that’s what

How far does ‘softly softly’ go?

Putin bites off huge chunks of Ukraine in 2014 and we responded ‘softly’. All that did was encourage him to take more

The same with Trump

Allies of Denmark should start to station forces in and around Greenland

True - but appeasing Trump makes an invasion of Greenland more likely

Sometimes you have to say enough is enough.

Maduro was the Venezuelan’s problem to resolve. There was no threat to the US from Venezuela. Trump needs to be told he is in the wrong

Sliming up to him just makes him more dangerous

Somebody becomes PM at the end of the day though. Realistically, barring leadership changes, it’s going to be Starmer, Badenoch or Farage.

If you don’t vote for the candidate best placed to defeat the tory/reform candidate then you’re doing nothing but helping them

I don’t know about your constituency but in mine it flips regularly between red and blue, so if you want to avoid blue you vote red. Voting green or LD just means the tories/reform have to gain one less vote to win

Depriving Labour of a vote just to make a point helps nobody but the right wingers

Neither the Greens nor the LDs will get a majority at the next election - it just won’t happen. So whilst I agree that Labour have been atrocious in their tone and messaging and weak on policy (inexcusable really given their majority), they remain the best potential gov of the realistic options

You would have to wait until year 125,206 to have as much money as Elon Musk.

General voting intention also hides the reality of tactical voting.

Reform could get 25% in every seat and might be enough to win under FPTP if other votes are split.

But if anti-reform votes coalesce around Labour/Lib Dem/Plaid/SNP candidates in those seats then probably not.

Come on now, that’s just not true

We’re all disappointed with Labour but claiming they want to destroy the NHS is just not correct

There’s plenty to legitimately complain about without making up stuff that’s clearly wrong

Imagine if you were recruiting for the role of PM, or even an MP

Putting together a basic job description would instantly rule out 90% of all politicians across the board, starting with good communication skills

Parties would be a lot better off if they picked people who had the basic competencies

So tell me again how Nigel Farage, who just took the largest ever political donation, from a Tory mega-donor, and another donation from the Viscountess wife of the non-dom owner of the Daily Mail, is planning to "take on the establishment"

With Germany’s president visiting the UK, we asked Germans what they think about Brexit.

👀 "It's just so stupid to cut the branch you're sitting on," one person said.

Here's what else they had to say ⬇️

David Miles (of the OBR) at the Treasury Select Committee: Reeves’ speech was not inconsistent with the OBR’s assessment.

Lol, BBC apologising to him for damaging his reputation whilst simultaneously publishing breaking news articles about his links to a paedophile sex trafficker

It just doesn’t make any sense anymore

Everyone knows he incited that riot - time to start pointing out that the emperor is in fact naked

Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?