There is no evidence that stripping refugees' rights one by one will have any impact on people crossing the channel.

Taking jewellery from refugees is akin to painting over murals for refugee children.

These repugnant ‘deterrents’ did not work for the Tories, and they won't work for us.

People coming here now have nothing resembling a ‘golden ticket’. They have overt hostility and - if they get to work - brazen exploitation by employers who seem to think the normal employment rights don’t need to apply to them. It’s crushingly hard. Made harder every day by rhetoric like Mahmood’s.

Private Eye has the measure of them… of course.

It’s all so deeply pathetic. Turning themselves into victims because they’re unable to cope with being the shits in the room.

Same with the Times.
Just look at this brazen stick-and-carrot offering from them today…
Be deeply unjust to refugees and we *may* give you a fairer hearing on other issues.

Sunday Times Opinion piece today makes it very clear that this latest set of Reform-style proposals amounts to nothing more than a grubby negotiation for more favourable coverage from the right wing press. Who may…. or may not… grant it.

Very long-winded way of answering ‘Yes’ to that question.

Not sure how that sits then with Mahmood’s previous demands that refugees must integrate and contribute to their communities. Much harder to do that if you never know how long you can stay.

Depressing in its dull-witted cruelty.

Yes. Many come to the UK because of family or language and yes, cultural ties…

The idea that our responsibilities cease because we lie further west than France (who already take in more asylum seekers than us) is also a misreading of the ‘first safe country’ principle.

fullfact.org/immigration/...

Isn’t this a sinister opinion piece in the Sunday Times? Pretending to be concerned about children, but actually calling for them to be subjected to more long-term harm.
And if Labour ‘neutralises’ the ‘crisis’, the very Tory Times *may* reward them with a fair hearing on other matters. Ugh.

Shall we run a national poll, Liz, on who the British public respects more… you or the BBC?

I don’t think you’d actually register a percentage.

If people no longer want to come here, it’ll be because the country is fucked. Not because we’re a success story but have closed our borders to immigrants.

Ps. We will not be a success story without immigration.

These sensitive and wise souls will be listening to Labour/Mahmood’s latest Reform-appeasing-anti-refugee policy with real interest, analysing the detail… ready to change their vote any minute now… any minute… now…….

They’re relying on us feeling like we have to vote Labour to block Reform and that’s just dismal. I’m not a political purist and I realise we need to vote tactically to overcome an undemocratic voting system but this is shite politics with terrible outcomes for the country. Beyond sick of it.

Mamdani and Polanski (and Davey to be fair) are showing how it can be done… an alternative vision, opposing the status quo, challenging the lies and corruption of the right… that has broad appeal. Take the polling and shred it by being different, not the same.

I guess - if I were a moral idiot - I would try to offer Reform voters what I thought they wanted.
But if I had some integrity and a vision, I’d call out Reform’s abject clownery, tell the country the truth about why we’re failing and implement some policies that could observably improve lives.

The only way to defeat extremism is to be radical; radically honest and determined. Not take this shit any more. Tell people the truth. Why we need immigration. Why Brexit is a shitheap. Why our public services can’t cope. Why our economy is stuck…
Anything other than that, Nigel is laughing at you.