“the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans”

“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations … before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.”

“If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.”

What would Sun Tzu have made of the US-Iran war?

Hell is reigning already

Thanks to Jawaahir Daahir for sharing the journey and the message.

Went to Parliament today, to say how damaging the earned settlement model would be in highly diverse places like Leicester.

It’s obviously not a great record from a democratic perspective, but still not a hopeless one./

And of course there have been many examples of debates in the Lords on ‘motions of regret’.

There have though been a couple of debates via urgent questions in recent times (2021 and 2024). Also, we have seen many Westminster Hall debates on the substance of Rules changes.

The thing which has not happened since 2008 is a debate on a ‘motion to disapprove’ a statement of changes to the Rules.

While I agree with the basic point that it’s difficult to get the Immigration Rules debated in the Commons chamber …

Salma Yaqoob @SalmaYaqoob Almost feel sorry for the haters who are trying to spin Muslims voting for a woman in a party led by a gay Jewish man is evidence of Islamist sectarianism In fact it's evidence of genuine tolerance, rejection of superficial identity politics and ability to prioritise tackling common concerns of cost of living, protecting public services and rejecting war mongering. And the promotion of mutual respect and individual freedoms. The coming together of people is terrifying for the ruling elites.

Totally this.

The rightwing hate “journalists” are spinning Muslims voting for a woman in a party led by a gay Jewish man as Islamist sectarianism.

It’s truly bizarre to describe the election campaign of a white English woman as ‘sectarian’ because she sought and gained support from Muslim voters.

It would be ironic if Mr Yusuf’s own British citizenship depended on one or both of his parents having had ILR when he was born, or their having acquired it afterwards.

Ps to previous thread. I am curious to know how Zia Yusuf himself became a British citizen.

He was born in 1986, and online sources say that his parents moved to work in the UK in “the early 1980s”.

Taking away ILR would require a replacement rule of some kind in nationality law- but what would that be??

At present,
(1) ILR is a prerequisite to naturalisation as British citizens by adults;
(2) ILR enables non UK born children to register as British citizens;
(3) the holding of ILR by a parent enables a UK born children to become a British citizen.

Q2. If they plan to abolish ILR, how then will people here become British citizens?

ILR was created by the Immigration Act 1971, on 1 January 1973; and some people still alive will have had an equivalent status even before that.

Q1. Do they seriously plan to withdraw ILR from everyone who has it, no matter their age, and how long ago they obtained it?

Someone needs to start pushing for the details of this policy (which looks totally under-developed). Here are a couple of basic questions to start off.

So basically … set it in the present day (why not exactly?) or be clear with the audience that history is being played with.

Do the creators themselves even know this?

Ten minutes into this Lord of the Flies, Ralph tells Piggy that his father is a petty officer in the Royal Navy … but the Royal Navy had a colour bar until 1947.

Really agree with this:
The issue isn’t casting actors regardless of skin tone, which is a normal thing to do …
In some specific cases, however, such casting blocks an understanding of colour lines in the past.

The BBC’s Lord of the Flies shows why diverse casting doesn’t always work | Darren Chetty William Golding’s classic tale is about civilisation, ‘savagery’ and empire – can a colour-blind cast do that justice, asks writer and academic Darren Chetty

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Irish person here, a bit hazy about English history.

I learnt earlier from Radio 4 that Andrew was the first royal to be arrested for more than 300 years.

I gather that the last case was in 1649. What was that about then?

Aren’t there two distinct Epstein scandals?

One is about sexual abuse and trafficking, the other about cronyism at a very high level.

Each needs a thoroughgoing response, separately.