And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.
Will Ford
@willfordosblaw.bsky.social
Legal aid solicitor specialising in housing, welfare benefits, public law, and community care. Also interested in nature and the great outdoors. Recovering X user.
The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world" That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims
When was the last time you heard a politician in the media asked anything like- -How will you make sure asylum seekers can reach the UK safely & refugees are protected? -How will you make sure people coming to this country to work or study are treated equally & with respect? I cannot remember.
Zoe Gardner@zoejardiniere.bsky.social · last yr.Where else could this very smart & bound to succeed approach to “beating” the far right be happening then?
Over 1.6m children are now impacted by the Two-Child Limit - 11.6% of all children This is a cruel policy that unnecessarily drags children into deeper levels of hardship It needs to go, and the longer it is kept, the greater the scarring effects on children's health and education will be
Katie Schmuecker @katieschmuecker.bsky.social · last yr.The latest @jrf-uk.bsky.social cost of living tracker (May 2025) reveals the depth of hardship among low income families with 3+ children 🛑Almost 9 in 10 (88%) went without essentials in the previous 6 months 🛑 8 in 10 (82%) were in arrears 🛑7 in 10 (71%) held a loan taken out to pay for essentials.
The real test of Starmer is how he reacts to this rebellion. Two options: listen to the rebels and decide to govern like a Labour PM, or go all-out Blue Labour Faragist. One wins. The other makes Farage PM in 2029.
I broke my phone (but not my brain), saw 27 acts, walked for about 40 miles and wrote about it all for the New Cue
The New Cue@thenewcue.bsky.social · last yr.@dorianlynskey.bsky.social takes over TNC today and delivers the only review of Glastonbury you need. He got a lot of steps in: thenewcue.substack.com/p/the-new-cu...
One reason the revolt on disability benefits is looking so substantial is the line being used to defend it lacks any integrity. To claim that the purpose of cutting PIP - a non-means tested benefit - is to help people back into work requires saying something untrue.
BBC's Arabic radio service in Lebanon closed after 85 years as part of a £28.5m savings drive. 'Just months later, in October 2023, the Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency took over the frequency. Its news bulletin opened with “This is Moscow”, replacing the previous “This is London” intro.' 🙄
BBC warns Russia is taking over World Service radio frequencies
Russian propaganda is filling the void where the BBC has closed World Service radio services due to cuts
inews.co.uk
I am constantly baffled by the inability of people making this argument to treat children as humans. Take a family. You think they shouldn’t have had a third child. Maybe they did, in fact, make a bad decision. You win. Now, what do you want the child to eat: is your scolding especially nutritious?
Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · last yr.Jason Cowley loves to quote Jo White because they are both terrible in precisely the same way
"We don't understand. We've tried everything; writing op-eds declaring the Far Right are bang on & repeating their slogans; giving speeches with all the Far Right buzz words & rhetoric; changing laws and policies to give effect to Far Right demands; and... STILL people want to vote Far Right??"
A question that I haven't heard a good answer to: if cutting migration by a third in a year hasn't changed the narrative on it at all - what would make you think cutting it by another third (or half] would?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last yr.Immigration fell by a third in the 9 months after General Election. (From 1.2m visas to 800k in year to March 2025). The new lower headline migration figure (the 12 months of 2024) will come out 10 days after the white paper. Saying net migration is 700k (last stat: year to June 2024) is out of date
Today the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration)(Amendment) Regulations 2025 come into effect, restoring an escape fee for welfare benefits legal help cases. Fixed fee is £208 and the escape threshold is now £624.
What Farage says about where his votes are coming from is also horseshit, of course. Latest YouGov poll shows Tories have leaked 20% of the 2024 support to Reform, but Labour just 6%. Though that still matters, it’s just a third of what Labour’s losing to Lib Dems and Greens…
Tom Baldwin@tombaldwin66.bsky.social · 2y agoJust watched the Home Counties private schoolboy Nigel Farage telling northern voters how he understands steelworkers because he used to work in the “metals business” himself. He was, ahem, a commodities trader at the London Metal Exchange in the City.
What we saw today was two jumped up thugs and their bootlicking sychophants laughing at the US Constitution, the supreme court, and the idea that anyone can stop them from doing anything they want www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here
The Supreme Court told the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. So far, the administration is pretending to comply while re...
theatlantic.com
Amending regs to the legal aid Remuneration regs now out and take effect from 1 May 2025. Reintroduces an escape fee for Welfare Benefits legal aid casework. Very pleased to have played a role in bringing about this change. www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/41...
legislation.gov.uk
I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.
To mark publication day of Maybe I'm Amazed, I've done a long read for the New Statesman about one of the book's elements: the inhuman, cruel grind of the Special Needs system & how it's collapsing... one of the things that James's love of music got us through t.co/GZhqO6E13i
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2025/03/the-special-needs-trap
t.co
Today let's remember that austerity kills. 🧵 Researchers at the University of Glasgow, found that an additional 335,000 deaths occurred in Scotland, England, and Wales between 2012 and 2019 compared to what was expected based on previous trends. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Over 330,000 excess deaths in Great Britain linked to austerity, finds study
Research comes as government signals fresh round of public spending cuts
theguardian.com
Yet again *another* Times columnist - this time Emma Duncan - makes a blatantly false claim about disability benefits "At present you can get signed off sick simply through a phone consultation with a GP." Just shockingly bad journalism, again and again and again. archive.ph/It3VS
I know we all love a dose of hopium, especially now. But the take, which I see all across here, that the far right was defeated in Germany tonight because 80% of Germans voted for other parties is very misleading and unhelpful. Understanding this really matters. 🧵
📣 Important High Court ruling paves way for legal aid for school exclusion appeals 📣 Our Stephanie Harrison KC & @olliepersey.bsky.social, instructed by Sabrina Simpson & Mital Raithatha of @cclcuk.bsky.social, represented the Claimant. Read on here 🔽 gardencourtchambers.co.uk/important-hi...
This should be changed asap. If we give someone refugee status, it can't be right to then refuse them route to become a British Citizen. To say they can have a home in our country, but never a place in our society and be forever second class. freemovement.org.uk/good-charact...
Good character guidance amended to block refugees from naturalisation - Free Movement
There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the
freemovement.org.uk
What you are seeing this morning over the refugee decision is Labour alienating and offending its remaining liberal supporters without bringing any new voters onside.
“This is bad, full stop. It creates a class of person who are forever excluded from civic life no matter how long they live here. It’s also a clear breach of the refugee convention.” Damn straigt, @colinyeo.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK to refuse citizenship to refugees who have ‘made a dangerous journey’
Home Office accused of shutting out refugees, as new guidance says those applicants will ‘normally be refused’
theguardian.com
My grandparents entered the UK illegally.
Colin Yeo@colinyeo.bsky.social · 2y ago2. This is the basic change: "Any person applying for citizenship from 10 February 2025, who previously entered the UK illegally will normally be refused, regardless of the time that has passed since the illegal entry took place."
Disabled man self-harms in public and dies after losing PIP The Treasury: let's cut disability benefit www.disabilitynewsservice.com/disabled-man...
Disabled man self-harms in public and dies after losing PIP, but DWP silent on 30 years of safeguarding failures
A disabled man who was plunged into poverty after his disability benefits were removed died hours after self-harming in public, apparently in protest at his treatment by the Department for Work and…
disabilitynewsservice.com