Three Paths of Change Ruminations on the way to the mountains

open.substack.com/pub/sebastia...

it’s not surprising exactly but it is still shocking just how fast we’ve moved from “woke was excessive” framing to open and explicit white male supremacy

All but three (!) of the 1,651 refugees admitted into the United States in the three most recent months we have data are white South Africans.

For comparison, in 2024, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees. It's an explicit white supremacist project.

www.rpc.state.gov/documents/Re...

And what about acronyms?

I'm a public health doctor. In my world we have eg Directors of Public Health and Consultants in Communicable Disease Control.

DsPH and CsCDC.

Yet most people write DPHs and CCDCs. Euurgh.

Deep Dive: Labour’s Immigration Crackdown Is Hurting Britain - and Won’t Win Them Votes An 80% drop in migration is deepening crises in care, housing and higher education - while Reform voters remain unmoved and Labour’s base drifts away

open.substack.com/pub/iratusur...

Deep Dive: Labour’s Immigration Crackdown Is Hurting Britain - and Won’t Win Them Votes An 80% drop in migration is deepening crises in care, housing and higher education - while Reform voters remain unmoved and Labour’s base drifts away

Excellent article articulating clearly why the far right anti-immigration policy and its adoption by the Labour government is not only petty, deliberately divisive, and immoral, but objectively harmful to all of us. open.substack.com/pub/iratusur...

Government response to the recommendations from the independent review of Arts Council England

Government response to the recommendations from the independent review of Arts Council England - GOV.UK share.google/vrQx4r2aqYxj...

I just can't see how it is possible to run for Labour leader on quadruple settlement for refugees (20 years) or triple it for care workers & their children

But that isn't really just a party vs public thing: nobody has found public support for the 15 year & 20 year timeline proposals

The lunatic quality of these proposals is persistently underestimated. They are far, far worse than people recognise.

Sorry, we are cross-posting! Thank you for clarifying that.

Perhaps you intended to suggest that was what the person whose post you were replying to was saying. It can be unclear in media such as this what people are saying or responding to. But I'm sure you were the one who first used the expression "antisemitism".

You asked "So, should we include tolerance of antisemitism in this broad church?" in response to a posting about the use of torture by the state of Israel. I think you meant that it is antisemitic to object to torture when Israel is the torturer.

Viktor Orbán is backed by Trump, Putin, and now Netanyahu.

Authoritarian scoundrels may not care about the people in their countries, but they *do* care about each other.

“We just want to war”

Are you saying it is antisemitic to oppose torture?

Israel systematically torturing Palestinians in custody, says UN expert Report by Francesca Albanese says 'torture in detention used on unprecedented scale as punitive collective vengeance'.

This is what evil states do - torture - mass torture of people in detention.

“Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale “that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent”.”

Even Express, following up the Mail on Sunday "threaten to resign" rumour says the *most controversial* part of policy is to make people already here wait "five years longer"

It will be +10 years for more

Those advocating this rarely mention 15 years (or 20)

Those reporting it may not even know

Home Secretary's speech on immigration: 5 March 2026 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research on immigration reforms.

Home Secretary speech: government version, with extensive political content redacted [but the relevant claims that the government will avoid a £10 billion fiscal cost of settlement]

This is a rather bad example of policy-based evidence-making.

www.gov.uk/government/s...

If the person in charge of the Home Office openly and brazenly lies about asylum seekers and refugees, how do we know her employees are not lying in asylum hearings?

The tories and Reform are both attacking Starmer for taking a principled stand regarding war with Iran. I think - I certainly hope - that most people, including many of their own supporters, would disagree with them.

No, it is the children who are wrong This week: Keir Starmer has decided that he blames the voters. Also: some golden age anti-car propaganda; and some new maps of British living standards.

"Where’s the soul searching about why voters might have defected to a challenger from the left? Why, in God’s name, did anyone think it was a good idea to imply a large chunk of Labour’s coalition is, in fact, stupid?"

Newsletter out. Bit angry.

The Moral Basis of Civilization Trump is actively destroying it

Trump, and his war in Iran, epitomise immorality. open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

There is just something deeply disturbing and offensive about watching a Labour govt keep kicking the most vulnerable in our society.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Does anyone think that this - effectively describing people who came here at *our* invitation to work in care homes as would-be parasites on the welfare state - is what she meant?

Starmer needs to get on the phone to Trump and ask him to set out a plan to protect civilians and support a democratic transition in Iran.

We've seen before that bombs don't bring about democracy and regime change without a plan just leads to more chaos and suffering.

Farage emulating ‘his hero Trump’ in deriding byelection results, says new Green MP Reform leader says without evidence that his party’s candidate came first among UK-born voters, as Hannah Spencer takes seat in parliament Nigel Farage has been accused of Donald Trump-style election denial by the Green party’s new MP for Gorton and Denton, after he claimed her Reform rival “came first” among British-born voters in last week’s byelection. Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England last week after winning 14,980 votes, more than 4,400 ahead of Reform’s candidate, who came second. Continue reading...

Farage emulating ‘his hero Trump’ in deriding byelection results, says new Green MP

Nigel Farage lied multiple times at his press conference today - including saying no-one who voted Green in Gorton and Denton has a job and he's "certain" Reform won most British born voters in the by-election, based on zero evidence, and yet not a single journalist there pushed back on them

Nigel Farage's Long History of Crying ‘Fraud’ Whenever His Party Loses Elections The Reform UK leader has a long record of blaming his own party's election defeats on "cheating" by ethnic minorities, yet no evidence of it can ever be found

Every time Nigel Farage's parties have lost an election he has blamed it on "cheating" by ethnic minorities and every time he receives huge amounts of media attention for doing so.

The only problem? No evidence of cheating is ever found
bylinetimes.com/2026/03/02/n...

Hegseth: 'We didn't start this war but under President Trump we're finishing it' The remarks are the first to reporters since the U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran began Saturday despite weeks of talks designed to stave off a conflict.

Who... who does he think started it? www.npr.org/2026/03/02/n...