Category: UK Immigration
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COMPETENCE ANYONE? Last week’s dominant headache was the collapse of the high-profile Chinese espionage case. Pressure landed on the CPS to explain itself; intelligence figures publicly signalled frustration and the story is now being treated less as legal process and more as a test of governmental competence. For a prime minister who built much of…
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SHRINKING SPACE FOR DIALOGUE, REDUCING PERSONAL LIBERTIES, NO MONEY ANYWHERE. “Repeat protest” curbs really do start to threaten freedom of expression Newish Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood extemporised new plans to curb “repeat protests” after nearly 500 arrests at more pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The idea: if you protest too often, the Home Office can decide you are…
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Neverwhere by (Neil Gaiman) Kemi Badenoch, dreaming of a land where anyone might care what the Conservatives might come up with anytime soon. Even as an enthusiastic A-level History student I found Kemi kicking off with 1780s Manchester a little bit too historical. Badenoch managed to tie this back, in the context of Thursday’s murderous…
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by (Jane Austen) Keir Starmer, aged 10 The Prime Minister’s claim to love this country while he presides over a party and government that muzzles opponents and random eccentrics rings hollow. As he pays to give away historic and useful overseas military bases while he claims that investment in defence is “vital…
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LABOUR PULLS THE EMERGENCY CORD In their Immigration White Paper “Restoring Control over the Immigration System” published in May 2025, the Labour government proposed extending the qualifying period for “Indefinite Leave to Remain” (ILR) from 5 years to 10 under its “earned settlement” reforms. The proposal did not stir massive controversy at the time. The…
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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BAREFACED Nigel Farage waved his calculator around promising billions in “savings” from ripping up the UK’s “Right to Remain” while Keir Starmer tried to look statesmanlike by recognising Palestine. Meanwhile, HMG quietly admitted that its big anti-harassment law is still gathering dust. Add in grim inflation figures, a giant…
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Immigration and asylum is significantly less important to younger UK voters than their elders. It does not even feature amongst younger peoples’ “Top 5” issues (I discussed this in a previous post on UK Youth Issues in June, sorry.) However, when conflated with the “Small Boats” crisis, immigration has become the most incendiary issue in…
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STORMCLOUDS GATHER Hot on the heels of last week’s Welfare Reform climb-down and the forewarning of incipient rebellion gathering amongst Labour backbenchers over Education policy changes involving SEND, comes an underwhelmed reaction to the announcement of the Anglo-French “One In, One Out” illegal arrivals pilot scheme. Then a spat between the Deputy Prime Minister and…
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O CANADA! King Charles popped over to one of his other gaffs for a whirlwind 48-hour tour. He met First Nation representatives and heard some impressive drums, inspected various groups of Mounties, went to a community festival, laid a wreath at a war memorial, dropped a hockey puck, chatted in the sunshine. So far, so…
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POST-BREXIT “RESET” On 19th May Keir Starmer hosted Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa (he’s the EU Council President) for a “Reset Summit” at Lancaster House in London. Negotiations were reported to have gone down to the wire, but they announced a post-Brexit agreement encompassing defence and security cooperation, fisheries, agrifood barriers, carbon border…
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IMMIGRATION, ASSISTED DYING, BENEFIT CUTS (+ THE CHAGOS, UNIVERSITIES) It’s been one of those weeks in UK politics where the leakers and the sneakers conspire together to “warm the pot” on some issues that will boil over in the coming weeks before the House rises and Westminster moves to the South of France on 22nd…
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UK-US TRADE DEAL + UK IMMIGRATION “RESET” A “game-changing” US-UK trade deal and a “significant” UK immigration reset, or an enormous confection of nothingness? US-UK Trade: worse than it was, better than it might have been. On 8th May Donald Trump and Keir Starmer announced a hoooooge trade deal in a cringe-making joint press conference…