Aggressive deportation tactics are popular in theory, but not when people see the consequences.

More than 600 migrants cross English Channel in single day On Saturday, 602 people arrived on nine boats, marking the second busiest day so far this year.

Yesterday, the BBC covered 600 people crossing the channel in small boats on Saturday, noting it was the 2nd highest in a day so far this year. What they'd didn't add was that even including the 600 people, crossings are down 35% compared with the same time last year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Israel's hegemonic ideology is Kahanism: pursuing a Jewish non-democratic one state where Palestinians are subjugated, expelled or dead.
Some say this is an inevitable continuation of Zionism, others that it is a corruption of Zionism.
I disagree with both accounts, but don't mind either.

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The significant year on year fall on boat arrivals is broadly unreported by BBC or other media. It has less to do with imminent government changes currently going through than a fall in "push factors" that is Europe-wide

Paper, Proof and Precarity In Assam: The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Part I) I am writing this Substack post not primarily from an academic standpoint, it includes my thoughts which I have been returning to in my own notes over time.

Shameless plug of my fiancée who has a new Subtack writing about the precarity of citizenship in Assam following India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act

open.substack.com/pub/ipandcli...

Mahmood’s migration changes will deliver fraction of claimed savings, data suggests Exclusive: Analysis of government figures indicates public finances will gain £600m not £10bn if migrants’ access to benefits is reduced

My analysis of the fiscal impact of the "earned settlement" proposals, based on government's own data.

The direct savings are a fraction of the Home Secretary's misleading claims, and likely to be offset by the substantial costs of lower work-related migration.

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

We spent a year investigating billionaires for @washingtonpost.com.

We found: the wealthiest 100 Americans gave $1.1 billion to influence the 2024 elections — 140x more than they did in 2000. And almost all of that giving boosted Republicans.

washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Our @jakepuddle.bsky.social is speaking on a webinar panel (Weds 29 April, 12:00 pm) as part of Global Intergenerational Week, exploring how to strengthen connection between generations. Sign up here:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e16be0...

While I agree on the concern about Bluesky’s decline, my sense in the UK is that it *lacks* engagement from left (+ conservatives). Most active and popular British accounts seem to skew towards an academic/centrist/politico crowd & most profiles I’d follow on the left/right are still largely on X

From today, for thousands of couples and families staying together in the UK just got even more expensive.

Visa fees are rising again — quietly wrecking lives.

We know that around 60–70% of many visa fees are profit

This is not cost recovery, it is excessive charging at the expense of families💔

How divided are we? YouTube video by British Red Cross

A pleasure to have joined British Red Cross for their new podcast about Bridging Divides

We spoke about our research from @britishfuture.bsky.social and our friends at @belongnetwork.bsky.social on the drivers of division and what communities can do to respond

youtu.be/wNhT6-tkqak?...

This is a great piece setting out why it's not just the backward-looking aspect of Labour's settlement proposals that are a problem - "the UK spent 75 years building something genuinely worth having: a track record of successful integration. And now a Labour government plans to blow it all up."

New in Nature Human Behaviour: How Deceptive Online Networks Reached Millions in the US 2020 Elections www.nature.com/articles/s41...

-Reached at least 37M Facebook and 3M Instagram users
-3 networks out of 49 responsible for >70% of users reached
-Exposed users older, more conservative

My god. Pure enshittification of the public sphere.

We agree that this requires a firm response. Evidence of illegal terror and hate content remaining on major platforms after it has been reported to them suggests that content moderation processes need to improve. Since the terrorist attack in Manchester, we have kicked off a new compliance programme to determine whether the biggest social media companies have adequate systems, processes and policies for assessing and swiftly removing illegal hate and terror material that has been reported to them. By April 2026 we will have reviewed one major platform’s systems, processes and policies for assessing and taking down illegal terror and hate content, including antisemitic and anti-Muslim material. We will then extend this work to other services. Necessarily this process is confidential, but if we uncover significant compliance concerns, we will not hesitate to move into formal enforcement action which will be made public.

4 months later, a good time to ask Ofcom whether its confidential investigation into how X [unnamed] deal with " taking down illegal terror and hate content" including antisemitism + anti-Muslim content (and unlawful racial hatred more broadly) found any major flaws!
www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/r...

Lebanon: UN experts call for international independent investigation into Israel’s killing of journalists GENEVA – The targeted killing of three Lebanese journalists constitutes another egregious attack on press freedom by Israeli forces and must be promptly, fully and independently investigated by an int...

Israel has killed at least 259 journalists since 2023.

"We denounce strongly what has now become a standard, dangerous practice of Israel to target and kill journalists and then claim, without providing any credible evidence, that they were involved with armed groups."

Stella Creasy asked 3 straight questions that govt is simply refusing to answer (!)
- When do fiscal contributions + fiscal costs arise?
- What impact does that have on the fiscal rules for 5 years?
- How much would the proposed delay save (or not?)
questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

there is no essentialist reading of israel's behavior compatible with reality. what we're seeing is exactly what happens when a nation becomes completely committed to its own ethnonationalist mythology while holding absolute untouchable power over other nations. it's serbia or apartheid south africa

No movement on EU sanctions, as Israel passes ‘apartheid’ death penalty "I say to the people of the European Union who have applied pressure ... We are not afraid," said Israel's Ben-Gvir, while wearing a noose lapel-pin.

The European Union, which is the leader of the international coalition for Doing Nothing, will continue to Do Nothing in response to Israel's emboldened apartheid system.

Wearing a noose lapel pin. Truly obscene. When will our government and commentator class stop being wilfully ignorant of this government’s open wish for ethnic cleansing

Earned settlement: retrospective change is wrong but prospective change is even worse Changing the rules for migrants already here is wrong and unfair but only affects a finite group of people. Extending default settlement to 10 years or more for everyone is a social policy disaster.

A rare Substack piece from me on the biggest problem with the earned settlement proposals. It's not the unfair treatment of those already here, as bad as that is. It's the forward-looking, permanent change for all future migrants. open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...

Young men, bad data and moral panic Before we build another national conversation around what young men supposedly believe, it is worth asking whether the data underneath it is any good.

After YouGov retracted their poll on young people going to church more, I wrote about why polling young people, especially young men, has become increasingly challenging.

It's a growing problem, and the market research industry needs to respond.

chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/young-men-...

Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters Nigel Farage has called Tate an ‘important voice’ for young men and held back from criticising his misogynistic views

Some of our data in this - Many online right figures v unpopular not just with wider public but also swing Reform voters. Robinson has a + 15 positive with 2024 Reform voters a - 11 with newer ones down to -15 with women. Tate at -51 with new female reform voters

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

A large, dense crowd of protesters fills the frame, many carrying placards and banners. In the upper center, a banner reads "St Albans TOGETHER Against Racism & the Far Right." The foreground and middle ground are dominated by large, bold white text overlaid on the image that reads "HALF A MILLION STRONG," with a smaller "TOGETHER" logo above it. Various smaller signs are visible throughout the crowd, including some with "Refugees Welcome" and others supporting different unions and causes. The overall scene conveys a large-scale political demonstration or march.

Today, we’re showing up.

For our neighbours.
Our friends.
Our family.

And anyone who has been scapegoated by the far-right.

Half a million strong. Together.

This is just the beginning.

#Together

Receiving refugee status in the UK should be a moment for people to celebrate and finally start rebuilding their lives in safety, after escaping war and persecution.

Instead, they have to overcome endless bureaucratic hurdles and the threat of homelessness.

Civic-minded pensioners make the world go round Policymakers need to think about the costs of having a generation of retirees not on the property ladder

My column this week: on how pensioners hold up our civic life (and why Gen X pensioners won’t be able to easily replace them)

Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention, 22-23 March 2026

Reform UK: 23% (-2 from 15-16 Mar)
Labour: 19% (+2)
Greens: 18% (-1)
Conservatives: 17% (=)
Lib Dems: 13% (-1)

yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

People are biased toward beliefs that align with their in-group.

"Beliefs function so as to be detected by others and manipulate their behavior, primarily for the benefits that accrue from favorable tribal self-presentation."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

"MattGPT" is a *splendid* name for him...

Why supporters of the Mahmood-Starmer settlement reforms need to own "MOSTLY from 5 to 15 year" - instead of [false] euphemism of "mostly 10"

Keir Starmer's Labour govt propose to triple timeline esp for most black + brown migrants (but more rarely for those who are white) + quadruple for refugees.