Citizenship is a right, not a privilege. Our new briefing with @reprievehq.bsky.social reveals a shocking racial disparity in citizenship stripping practices.
3 in 5 people of colour are at risk of having their UK citizenship stripped, at the discretion of the Home Office 🧵👇
A step forward for millions of workers: @josephevans.bsky.social responds to unfair dismissal policy changes and calls for urgent action on the Employment Rights Bill. Read the full response here 👉 www.ippr.org/media-office...
For those of you who do not know me, I grew up in a town named Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. So when I write about policy, devolution, or Scotland’s direction, it’s not abstract. It is personal. It’s about the place I call home! 🏠
Want a wee break from all the budget bustle?
Here’s something a bit different: my reflections on IPPR Scotland's 10th-anniversary conference - what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what Scotland needs next.
#IPPRScotland #Scotland
www.ippr.org/articles/a-r...
MIGRANTS ARE TAXPAYERS TOO GUYS.
Making settlement harder to get is not the public money saving flex the Chancellor seems to think it is.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
The UK’s 50 richest families hold more wealth than 50% of the population.
A tax on the top 1%'s wealth could raise at least £70 billion for our public services.
4.45 million children in the UK live in poverty, and nearly 4 in 10 are in families where both parents were born abroad.
My blog sets out why this must be recognised in the upcoming Child Poverty Strategy.
🔗https://tinyurl.com/yc8mp55p
No one likes tax rises. But there is a way through the Budget that’s about choices: prioritising services, investment and lower bills over blunt cuts and short-term fixes. Read the latest from us here: www.ippr.org/articles/fai...
💷 | NEW BLOG: A war on bills should be the government’s defining campaign – showing it’s on the side of consumers and tackling the cost of living from energy to food to housing. Read the latest from us here www.ippr.org/articles/a-war-on-bills
…picking back up with some news from this week 👇
The Home Affairs Select Committee has just published its report on asylum accommodation – and I’m pleased to see many of IPPR’s recommendations reflected in it.
The ten year route to settlement has already proven to be punishing for many. Listen to @amreenqureshi.bsky.social on BBC radio discussing the potential impact of increasing the default from five to ten years - on individuals, families and society.
"We do not need anti-racism to be trendy. We need it to be unrelenting. Because history was never changed by those who stayed quiet when the noise died down."
@aleishao.bsky.social on why this year's #BlackHistoryMonth theme could not be more urgent
www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/sect...
Once upon a time, optometry came with a grant and a car. Now it comes with debt and a part-time job. Vision's changed, alright! 😅
IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!
At uni, I couldn’t afford to "work for experience."
I was too busy working at Nando’s because "peri-peri chicken" was the only thing keeping me financially afloat. 🍗💸
Talent isn’t limited to those who can afford to work for free.
#UnpaidInternships #WorkingClassGrad
If you’re heading to conference too, or just stuck somewhere and fancy a read that’s a bit spicy - check out my latest Substack piece on Black History Month in a populist world:
En route to Labour conference! As a Scot, I’ll be quietly benchmarking everyone’s small talk against Glasgow standards 🤪
I am working very hard on convincing my wonderful colleague to get a BlueSky account (selfishly - perhaps for nothing else than to repost me 😂)
Wrapping up another wonderful week at @ippr.org!
The selfie speaks for itself; a mix of excitement, curiosity and that “wow, is this actually happening” feeling.
Being so close to Westminster is a daily reminder that there’s so much we can influence from the outside - and hopefully we will!
SHOCK, HORROR! 50% of columnists are privately educated. I’m not. But I know plenty of voices outside that bubble who deserve a column too - myself included 😅
We can’t pander to racists and those who will strip away our rights.
Together we will resist.
Today Aberdeenshire Councillor @fatima-joji.bsky.social shares her experiences of being a woman in politics ⬇
Our report highlights the barriers & challenges women face & outlines actions needed to improve our political systems.
Find out more: www.engender.org.uk/news/blog/en...
The Elitist Britain 2025 report is absolutely essential reading for the DfE! Tangible proof that privilege still calls the shots.
The challenge now? Turning data into door-openers. Fund state schools, back first-gen talent (like moi), and judge people by potential, not postcode.
Today’s chocolate bar is an ontological conundrum. Its substance diminished, its cost amplified, my despair compounded!
I’m on a report reading rampage this evening!!!
This IPPR North report confirms what I myself have lived through: for working-class kids particularly in the North, social mobility is a practically a myth. Until real investment reaches us, the ladder they talk about isn’t even there…
An absolute pleasure to attend the report launch where we heard from Zambia’s High Commissioner and Baroness Chapman.
As the speakers and the report rightfully points out: the Global South doesn’t need hand-outs, it needs fair partnerships. Time the UK caught up!
Foreign billionaires don’t get to incite violence against Britain.
We cannot stay silent. 1/5
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Question from me: "I warmly welcome the Leader of the House to his new role and associate myself with the support across the House for my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson). Members have raised many times the unacceptable level of threats that we face. Increasingly, abuse and threats are being driven and whipped up by one platform in particular, X, previously known as Twitter, which has become a sewer of antisemitism, racism, misogyny and dangerous conspiracy theories. Its owner has specifically targeted Members of this House. With a new director of communications in No. 10 and a refreshed Front Bench, may we have a debate in Government time on whether it is appropriate for that platform to continue to be used for official Government communications?"
Answer from Sir Alan Campbell, Leader of the House: "What my hon. Friend says about X is truly shocking. We are very much in favour of free speech, but we are also against incitement to violence. We have delivered the Online Safety Act 2025 to seek to strike the balance between user protection and freedom of speech. On the matter of the Government’s use of X, it is right that the public are kept up to date with information and a number of people still use X, although of course many are moving to other platforms. I am sure that the Government will take that into account in our deliberations in future, and we also keep our wider social media practices under review."
It melts my head that X is still used for official Government communications, and, catching up on today's news and the fact we have a foreign billionaire inciting violence on our streets, it's clearer than ever that this should end.
I raised this in Parliament last week 👇
pancakes with lots of chocolate and yummy fresh fruit!
Balancing Britain’s unrest with a balanced breakfast…
Happy Sunday everybody 🍽️🥞
