65 per cent of Britons are owner-occupiers. General elections are won in the Midlands. Most people have a middle class occupation. The United Kingdom's comparative advantage is in services. These aren't facts that Philip Gould invented in order to make Labour feel sad.

Important essay from Alison Wolf on the apprenticeships we need to tackle the youth unemployment crisis. If you know a 20-25 year old you'll know six who are struggling; it's such an urgent problem as.ft.com/r/00566fe0-5...

Everyone loves apprenticeships. So why can’t Britain create more of them?

With a million young people out of work, we need to revive the tradition of ‘learning on the job’

as.ft.com

Having spoken to social care workers affected by the changes, I *hate* this language. Party management/vibes is a terrible way to make policy at the best of times but when the futures of several hundred thousand people is at stake, unforgiveable.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Politco suggests the Home Secretary is finally going to concede/retreat on the central plank of the settlement reforms - as a "sop" to the left - to try to stay in her post. This sop is not making it impossible for a few hundred thousand legal migrants to retain legal status in the UK after 2028

I haven’t reached an internal consensus on an u-16 ban yet but feel very strongly that 16-25 year olds are having both rights and responsibilities stripped from them and this is a Bad Thing.

Northern Ireland, functionally, has no immigration. Net immigration last year was about 8000 people in a population of 2 million, and that was a record.

SpinningHugo@spinninghugo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Really? That is your view? Really?

Thursdays @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

I know we shouldn't respond to the trolling, but Vance implying that Sikhs are part of a "mass invasion of migrants", when they fought in tens of thousands for the British in two world wars and even THE INDIAN MUTINY is 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

I don't think it's a good idea to legally privilege someone else's discomfort over another person's rights.

Fundamentally, a lot of the problems in British politics comes from a political generation being forced to do something they think is a bad idea, to appease voters they think are wrong with beliefs they don't really understand.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Under Theresa May, that babytalk was a way of dancing around “the prime minister’s personal view is that Brexit is a terrible idea*, and in particular she thinks as a former home secretary she is not going to put a border on the island of Ireland, but she has to dance around this”.

this really does make me despair. this is a woman who has just got elected as a Reform councillor. she works for the NHS and wants to know “where the money is going”. it’s going on social care, babe

The “Blue Labour” strategy still being promoted by some on Labour right is premised on being able to win social conservatives while holding on to social liberals. Failure state for this strategy is failing to win social cons while alienating social liberals. Here is a map of that failure state:

This policy, the replies to this, Keir Starmer’s ‘the petrol retailers are being naughty’ statement, Ed Davey’s fuel duty tax cut, Kemi Badenoch’s fuel duty tax cut, John Swinney’s price controls…is there anyone in British politics who understands “the Iran war means we have less stuff”?

Matthew Holehouse@matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Green Party’s pivot from environmentalism to class politics in action: a demand to “prevent British holiday makers from being hit by jet fuel shortages”

Just one more attempt to do social policy by putting costs on developers, bro, just one more.

Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I’m at an Ed Davey press conference where he has announced a new policy which would mean developers would need to guarantee and pay for GP surgeries to cover new housing developments. Currently, he says, it is a major problem - and a spur for nimbyism.

A lot has bothered me about the reporting of the Kanye West banned. Firstly how it has been framed as all about it the Jewish community - but we should all be against Nazism! This country fought Nazis. Songs called Heil Hitler should not just be for the Jewish community to object to. And secondly…

Good for Rayner. Glad to see someone in the party stand up against what I agree is ‘un-British’ - changing the rules arbitrarily on people who made big life commitments. It’s about keeping your word.

Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social · 5mo ago

- nods to disgruntled MPs saying they need to “rebuild this party” as well as the country. - says it’s “un-British” to move the goalposts on indefinite leave to remain - puts her at odds with govt’s key immigration policy. - attacks Reform saying they’re on side of those who rigged the system.

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

youtu.be

Age gating VPNs is a truly horrible idea. Teenagers deserve some kind of private access to the internet – which might mean LGB resources, or access to contraception or abortion advice, or resources to help with parental abuse. Shutting them off puts them in greater danger. This is just bad policy.

Craig Grannell@craiggrannell.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I and many others predicted this long ago. VPNs now headed for UK age gating. Amendment 94a is also massive, given its potential scope. reclaimthenet.org/uk-house-of-...

A perfect theory. In my experience a Krokodil, though not red, would also be acceptable.

Jo Kibble (Political Animal)@politicanimal.bsky.social · 7mo ago

My recipe for world peace is that all these people should get to Davos by a nice ride on a little red Rhätische Bahn train, rather than airport transfer or helicopter or whatever. No-one has ever been in a bad mood, or felt combative after a nice ride on a little red Rhätische Bahn train.

Really good and thoughtful write-up of one of the most positive changes Labour is attempting to make, this:

Sam Dumitriu@samdumitriu.bsky.social · 8mo ago

NEW: Labour just announced the biggest change in planning policy in 80 years. My breakdown of the key measures and whether they will succeed. www.samdumitriu.com/p/labour-are...

We are moving inexorably to the end point of electoral chaos - five parties all tied on 19% in the polls, election to be decided by blindfolded chimps chucking coloured darts at a constituency map

Election Maps UK@electionmaps.uk · 8mo ago

Westminster Voting Intention: RFM: 25% (-2) LAB: 19% (=) CON: 18% (+1) GRN: 16% (-1) LDM: 15% (+2) SNP: 3% (=) Via @yougov.co.uk, 23-24 Nov. Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.

Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient. International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.

The fuss over who appears in TV adverts misses the point...

People who have come to the United Kingdom legally, played by the rules and made it their home do not need to “go home”. This is their home. I've written to Kemi Badenoch to give her the chance to reject these divisive calls from her frontbencher Katie Lam.

A young opposition politician once compared housing policy to a game of Buckaroo! - pile on too much and the donkey throws it all off. Have we reached that point? I've tried to answer that in this post (and you'll find out who the politician was...) 👇 👇 👇 longwall.substack.com/p/buckaroo-t...

You can't have a successful economy by kowtowing to bigots who want to close the country to the rest of the world. It'd be nice if a politician had the brains or guts to point this out.

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Wilful ignorance of how trade and migration actually work in a globalised economy. The idea that the (short and long-term) movement of people -especially between India and the UK - has nothing to do with trade and investment is (obviously) wrong. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Right, that's it. I'm founding a new populist party of the centre called Go Outside!

Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The UK is “madly left, madly liberal, hyper-progressive”, Syed says. This is a deeply odd speech, seemingly from yet another person who spends a lot of time on X. [I deleted earlier post which had the typo of saying, 'US' rather than 'UK'.]

“Nigel Farage is wrong in principle, his approach is racist, and we oppose it” “Nigel Farage is right on immigration, but he doesn’t have the skill or experience to deliver his plans” At some point, the government has to pick *one* of these narratives, instead of veering wildly between the two.

I don't think Labour's policy agenda is a winning one, but combining some quite traditional leftwing economics with, essentially, not being willing to talk about how you are leftwing feels like the worst *possible* way to govern and campaign:

Memo for Labour: globalisation is good, actually

This government is in many ways the party returned to its factory settings. But the product was faulty in the first place

ft.com