Podcast: Alan Finlayson and James Butler · On Politics: The Online Right (and Left)

You may be aware already, but @profafinlayson.bsky.social is really interesting on the equality component here: www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and.... Looking forward to reading/hearing your sketches.

How UK government’s migration policy will shatter lives Behind the headlines and rhetoric, what do Labour’s immigration plans mean for those affected?

I spoke to a range of migrant people, experts, campaigners and MPs to learn how the proposed changes to immigration rules - and the recent change to asylum rules - would impact their lives.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-im...

More than 1,500 arrested amid wartime crackdown in Iran | The National Students, protesters and rapper detained as human rights groups warn of executions

Centre for Human Rights in #Iran reports huge wave of arrests in Iran during the war, while @amnesty.org warns of more executions after 4 people were executed in the space of 24 hours
www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

Compelling, heart-breaking research showing that UK ‘Stop the Boats’ policies have caused a sharp rise in small-boat deaths since summer 2023 even as fewer people and dinghies arrive in the UK.
www.borderforensics.org/investigatio...

By the Home Office’s own estimate, the pause will reduce asylum claims by around 1,400 over the next 18 months. More than 100,000 people claimed asylum in the UK last year. It’s a policy that has no operational benefit to the asylum system, while having a huge personal impact on those caught by it.

A donut chart of the gb energy mix. Renewables are at 80%, Gas is at 3.5%

Between a spiralling war with no end in sight, and the big green section of the donut, it's hard to see how the govt doesn't move to partially decouple energy prices. Already having this renewables infra makes this summer a real opportunity to conserve supplies for winter (and the global south).

Nobody understands this about the government’s settlement reforms. People think it's 10 years for most & 15 years for care workers

But its 15 years for all midskill roles, whatever the salary, if not a graduate job role classified at RQF level 6. Lab technicians, data analysts, hotel managers

This is *the* antimonopoly insight. Firms convert economic power to political power to economic power, until we step in.

“If we will not endure a King as a political power we should not endure a King over the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life.” Sen. John Sherman, 1890

‘Constant uncertainty’: Mahmood’s ‘earned settlement’ immigration plan has families stuck in limbo Home secretary’s new ILR rules mean couples such as Felix and Tessa King, from UK and US, face an insecure future

Mahmood's changes to both the immigration and asylum systems are already harming individuals and families, even before being fully implemented. The fear and anxiety these inhumane policies takes a toll. It's beyond time to scrap them all

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Starmer mulls compromise on migration reforms after backlash from MPs Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner branded the plans “un-British” in a speech on Tuesday night.

We seem to be getting somewhere here. The retrospective and inequality elements are the most egregious, so MPs are right to focus on them. But the whole package of proposals is counter-productive, mean and pointess www.politico.eu/article/keir...

Let’s hope so. 10+ years to settlement is a terrible, terrible policy. Workers trapped in tied visas, families in relative poverty, massive damage to integration and social cohesion. This really matters.

The rise of the undecided voter Exclusive polling shows how late the Gorton and Denton by-election was decided

Important data about Gorton & Denton from @bwalker.uk.

1. Only around 5% of Lab 2024 voters switched to Reform vs 36% to Greens.

2. No evidence of support for Reform among under 35s (sub 10%) - it's all over 55s

3. Progressives were undecided til last minute

www.newstatesman.com/politics/pol...

Why social infrastructure matters for economic security Economic security isn’t just about money, local connections and community support matter too. Pride in Place is a key intervention, but new analysis identifies two key challenges.

Greater economic security for families is a key aim of the Government, and my new @jrf-uk.bsky.social paper sets out the role of social infrastructure - community spaces, active community groups and everyday connections - in helping deliver this goal.

www.jrf.org.uk/neighbourhoo...

I want to say that even in this war, in these terrible and unbearable circumstances, my everyday fear of being arrested by the Islamic Republic - or being harmed by them in any way - is greater than my fear of the war itself. This is what life has been.

In my mind, the continuation of the current government in Iran means our certain destruction. War and its consequences mean possible destruction. So I feel better than I did last week. But it would be foolish to expect that we should feel "good" right now. It is something that, from this point onwards, our misery is no longer guaranteed. But only that.

I don't want to go to the north, even though I'm from there. My whole family calls and tells me to come. But I say I'm staying in Tehran. I want to be here. I want to be here on that day to celebrate it. In the middle of the street, loudly, with laughter and tears, for the end of them and for the beautiful souls of my country who were killed and won't be there to see freedom. War is bitter. Destruction is terrible. But living alongside these corrupt men is far harder. So we stand firm for the freedom of Iran.

I share the instinct that little good can come from a confused war led by bloodthirsty imbeciles.

But it also provides a sliver of hope that the brutal Islamic Republic regime could end.

My Iranian partner has translated these accounts from Iranians inside Iran.

About Iran, from an Iranian Woman No matter what happens to me in this life, no matter where I live or what language I speak, I will always be an Iranian woman.

See also: lilsmichelle.substack.com/p/about-iran...

I want to say that even in this war, in these terrible and unbearable circumstances, my everyday fear of being arrested by the Islamic Republic - or being harmed by them in any way - is greater than my fear of the war itself. This is what life has been.

In my mind, the continuation of the current government in Iran means our certain destruction. War and its consequences mean possible destruction. So I feel better than I did last week. But it would be foolish to expect that we should feel "good" right now. It is something that, from this point onwards, our misery is no longer guaranteed. But only that.

I don't want to go to the north, even though I'm from there. My whole family calls and tells me to come. But I say I'm staying in Tehran. I want to be here. I want to be here on that day to celebrate it. In the middle of the street, loudly, with laughter and tears, for the end of them and for the beautiful souls of my country who were killed and won't be there to see freedom. War is bitter. Destruction is terrible. But living alongside these corrupt men is far harder. So we stand firm for the freedom of Iran.

I share the instinct that little good can come from a confused war led by bloodthirsty imbeciles.

But it also provides a sliver of hope that the brutal Islamic Republic regime could end.

My Iranian partner has translated these accounts from Iranians inside Iran.

A must read.

The government's immigration proposals are immoral, expensive (falls in immigration already damaging our economy) and will not achieve the stated aims.

Saw this on LinkedIn. Our immigration system is morally bankrupt and economically ridiculous. Shameful.

We’ve shifted from a society where work delivered security to one where assets determine security.

If Starmer wants a reset - and not yet another U-turn when the parliamentary party balks at a policy - here is his chance.

'We want to scream': Iranians grapple with grief and anger in aftermath of crackdown on protests  | The National US-Iran talks set for this week fail to calm fears of new war

“We feel like we want to scream, but something is blocking our throats."
Amid grieving for loved ones, fear over the prospect of renewed conflict, & struggling with sky-high inflation, many #Iranians feel hopeless & angry.
My latest @thenationalnews.com
www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

OPINION: One month into nationwide protests, the Iranian people are still making history — at the cost of their lives.

The free world can no longer credibly claim neutrality in the face of what has occurred.

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/iran...

'Retrospectivity is un-British' - Labour MP @tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social told a packed Westminster Hall debate that plans to double migrants' wait for settlement must be abandoned.

'Let us be a country that always honours its debts, not just its financial ones, but its moral ones too'👏Thank you Tony

EU adds Iran's Revolutionary Guards to 'terrorist list' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says the move is a response to Tehran's deadly crackdown on protesters.

Great to see the EU add the barbaric IRGC to its terrorist list, joining Australia, Canada and the USA. Hard to see why the UK has still not followed suit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

www.economist.com/united-state...

Temporary accommodation in England is ‘torture’ for neurodivergent children, report finds Exclusive: Parents said their children had become withdrawn or hypervigilant because of uncertainty, unsafe environments and removal of support

“It’s like torture”: our new report reveals how Temporary Accommodation is harming neurodivergent children and families across the UK. Based on a nationwide call for evidence, it sets out urgent policy asks for change.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

There is money for "education" if and only if that money is being directly funneled to corporations. Anything involving actual learning, however, well there's no magic money tree

one way to think about this: the preferred (and essentially dark-utopian) post-liberal prescription for social capital -- forced top-down ethnic homogenization -- has been more or less bested by the kind of durable social capital provided by Elazar's paradigmatic moralistic state political culture

Yashar Ali m @yashar x.com BREAKING - IRAN UPDATE HRANA's latest numbers. The total number of fatalities - confirmed and under review - has now surpassed 22,000. Reminder: HRANA death confirmations take time, as they go through multiple layers of verification. The spike in cases is due to the fact that some Iranians can now communicate via messaging apps. But full internet access is still not available, so we do not yet know the extent of the carnage at the hands of the Islamic Republic. Confirmed fatalities: 5,459 Protesters: 5,149 Children (under 18): 60 Government-affiliated forces: 208 Non-protesters/civilians: 42 Fatalities under investigation: 17,031 TOTAL: 22,490 Severely injured: 7,403 Total arrests: 40,887 Arrests of individuals under 18: 325 Broadcast forced confessions: 205 cases Summonses to security agencies: 11,023 cases

BREAKING - Iran update

As some Iranians have been able to use messaging apps, confirmed fatalities, arrests, etc have skyrocketed.

Currently 22,490 fatalities have been confirmed and are under investigation.

Thanks.