Will be disappointed if he does not build his campaign for leader around a promise of "chaos"

Or rather it is because it is nowhere near high enough?

Starmer plans to ease impact of immigration policy changes after backlash from Labour MPs PM will consider exempting large numbers from proposed changes, which would leave people waiting 10 years for settled status

The thing is once you have implicitly accepted that your immigration reforms are a horrible unprincipled mess that everyone hates, you cannot try and hold on to random bits of cruelty within them without looking very foolish. And everyone will still hate them. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If this is an official position of FR, and more widespread a view among Member State governments than just them and Finland, the UK should grab this opportunity with both hands.

I had not expected this kind of invitation until the end of this decade at the earliest.

It’s the offer of the century!

Unmade road with several potholes at a medium-sozed junction in north London

Anyone surprised by this has no detailed understanding of the intellectual outlook and personal biographies of a large swathe of EU policymakers.

What you get from lack of curiosity in Whitehall about who their counterparts are in Brussels.

Spit in any direction at a major corporation or multinational and you’ll find a foundation arm doing “philanthropic” work that seeds their agenda into the spaces of culture and education.

Hope they root out the problem and it isn't just cosmetic

Most Reform members believe non-white UK citizens born abroad should be forced or encouraged to leave, poll finds Nigel Farage’s recent efforts to woo centre-ground voters may cause tension in party’s right flank, says Hope Not Hate

Are we allowed to call them racists yet or are the media and politicians still going to pretend there is anything "legitimate" about either their concerns or grievances?

This is who Labour is trying to appeal to via their own discriminatory and hostile policies.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...

Were there no issues with delivery?

THIS. I always find it shocking. Incredible to me how this has become so normalised that it’s invisible to the Westminster/Whitehall bubble. Because it sure as hell is visible to those outside it.

I remember from my time at the Guardian (15 yrs ago) a similarly not so latent Germanophobia among some pretty senior commentators. 'The EU is simply another attempt by Germany to dominate Europe', that sort of thing, often said in complete seriousness.

"hah lol aren't the French weird and mean" as a British mindset is not a strong basis for getting strategic outcomes that the UK needs.

It also makes it easier for other EU member states when talking with the Brits to conveniently deflect blame on the French.

Sometimes wonder whether UK politics and policymaking towards the EU would improve markedly in quality and outcomes if more British diplomats and academics trained in the Oxbridge style followed UK MOD's lead CJEF lead in having to do a year working for French policy institutions in Paris

At policy and politics events in London too often a latent francophobia shines through that British political and intellectual elites no longer have the luxury to afford

Parents of SEND children should fear what Starmer is planning This Government seems intent on shredding the rights of the vulnerable

Is this really why Labour MPs think they were elected: to strip some of the most vulnerable children in the country of their right to a decent start in life?

My @theipaper.com column on looming SEND reforms inews.co.uk/opinion/pare...

Yet why has this rubbish from Hannan never really cost him to date?

It’s been a far rougher decade (or two) for everyone aware of his considerable limitations to have had to be exposed to him spouting this sort of rubbish while not himself be being questioned or challenged on it.

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Shamima Begum was the beginning of something in so many ways, one of which was 'the last government's inability to just do its job properly (in this case by passing legislation that would have allowed it to prosecute her here at home) and instead going 'no option but to undermine all our rights'.

Anyone who’s ever actually spoken to a single asylum seeker about their experiences in any country in Europe simply could not honestly conclude that what would improve things would be to further reduce their human rights protections.

It’s vile scapegoating unworthy of us & it needs to end #r4today

Because of course Henry had got the full roll call from Dulwich College and of course Trevor Phillips couldn’t even be bothered to read the stories he’s writing about

It can serve as an excellent Boxing Day breakfast!

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later.

This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.

Rechtsextremismus: Wir haben Euch gewarnt Ein brennendes Haus in Solingen. Eine vierköpfige Familie stirbt in den Flammen. Brandstiftung. Die Schlagzeilen sind nicht von 1993, sondern von jetzt. Schon wieder.

»Wir haben vor der AfD gewarnt, als sie am Horizont auftauchte. Keine Reaktion. Im Gegenteil – ihre Vertreter:innen saßen in jeder Talkshow, bevor die AfD auch nur ein einziges Landtagsmandat hatte. Mit dem Erfolg, dass sie nun eine einflussreiche Partei ist.« www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2024...

Brutal

The decision to learn a foreign language, John le Carré wrote shortly after the Brexit vote, is "an act of friendship... It's a promise to educate - yes - and to equip. But also to awaken; to kindle a flame that you hope will never go out ... Al might offer precision. One day, through headphones or brain implants, it may offer immediacy too. But speaking a foreign language tells your interlocutor that you are humble and committed enough to come into their world.

Rather lovely piece by @henrymance.ft.com on why language learning still matters to him in a world of AI translation
on.ft.com/3Jviyry

Shortfall Teachers training compared with target in selected subjects (2024-25) Physical Education 209% Biology 119% English 101% Mathematics 72% Modern Foreign Languages 43% Computing 37% Chart: The Times and The Sunday Times • Source: Department for Education

The government managed to recruit only 43 per cent of its target number of modern foreign language teachers for initial teacher training in 2024-25.
www.thetimes.com/article/df90...