UK Politics

New guidance states that anyone who enters the UK illegally having made a dangerous journey, which could be via boat, but also by means such as hiding in a vehicle, will normally be refused citizenship, regardless of the time that has passed.

Looks like the UK is leading the world by shamelessly sacrificing AI safety at the altar of Trump. Appeasement never works and we have gone backwards towards again being spineless lapdogs in this special relationship.

I'm not a big fan of the headline, to be honest, but the article is a good one.

The NHS is still spectacularly failing to end its shameful institutionalisation of learning disabled and autistic people via the 1983 Mental Health Act (MHA). That is, nearly ten years on from its initial promises to vastly scale back the practice and shift to a model of supported living in the community, it’s still detaining learning disabled and autistic people at an appalling rate.

Parliament is having the second reading of the Labour Party government’s latest answer to the “hostile environment” for so-called ‘illegal’ migration, the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill. So, a migrant rights group has called on MPs to ditch the racist piece of legislation.

As first reported in the Times, it seems that Keir Starmer is taking the fight right to Reform and Nigel Farage’s front door. Like some grim reality TV show, the government is planning to:

A shocking new film which claims attempts have been made to hide Israel’s genocide in Palestine gets its first screening in Bristol on Friday 21 February. Norman Thomas, producer of the film Censoring Palestine, said:

Fire Brigades Union (FBU) general secretary Steve Wright has pushed back against Labour Party real-terms cut to fire and rescue services across England, warning that “austerity under a Labour government is still austerity”.

A second Labour MP has been suspended from the party for comments made in a WhatsApp group.

The Government is not planning to offer watering down online safety legislation as part of a deal to exempt the UK from US tariffs, a minister has said.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk supported a British MP's post arguing that a London railway station name should appear only in English after a dual-language signboard featured “Bengali” as well.

Labour has launched an urgent investigation into a WhatsApp group in which the Labour MP Andrew Gwynne posted “completely unacceptable” messages, a minister has said.

Archive link for those of us not in the antisemitic WhatsApp group.

iCloud backdoor mandated by the UK. We have to ask the question: if MI5 has access to this today, won't Reform have access to it tomorrow?

As of 2030 all private landlords will be required to meet a higher standard of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C or equivalent in their properties – up from the current level of EPC E.

On the flip side, isn't this a chance to become the defacto world leader in desalination?

Interesting gamble the government is taking here. Unusually the environmentalists are right to be cautious, SMRs have been designed since the 90s and not a one of them has ever come to anything.

A clear majority of UN member states – 125 out of 193 – support the tax reform plan which seeks to deal with global tax avoidance. Rich Anglosphere settler-colonial states, however, are at the forefront of opposing the measures. In November, for example, only nine nations voted against adopting “the terms of reference for the UN Tax convention negotiations”, according to Byline Times. These were the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, alongside Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Argentina.

Kemi Badenoch’s spokesman refused to condemn proposals by Donald Trump to “take over” Gaza and expel its citizens to other countries in the region, saying that the Conservative party leader wanted to “see more details of what is being proposed”.

Angela Rayner called Prince Andrew a “nonce” and tried to block him from ever standing in for King Charles, according to a tell-all book on Labour’s rise to power.

Speaking at an event hosted by Macmillan Cancer Support for World Cancer Day, Wes Streeting said there was a need for DEI policies, after they were criticised by public figures such as the US president, Donald Trump.

Keir Starmer has decided not to travel to Paris for next week’s international summit on artificial intelligence, despite the presence of other world leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Narendra Modi and JD Vance.

In December, Jamaica tabled a bill to become a republic and oust King Charles III as head of state. Weeks later, Belize removed Queen Elizabeth II’s images from banknotes. These moves are only the latest in a growing trend: Barbados became a republic in 2022, and several other countries are signalling their intentions to follow suit. As Natricia says, these countries are seeking to “shrug off the vestiges of colonialism and establish their own identity as a nation – in terms of culture and history, while addressing the colonial overlays that remain in society”. The footprint of colonialism is evident in the region – including in “our money, the names of roads and some of the laws incorporated from the British legal system at the time”.

There is something fundamentally dishonest about pretending to meet net zero by moving flights or fossil extraction onto other countries, so we can enjoy the benefits without the emissions being set against our ledger. It’s a-too-clever-by-half scheme that impresses few but risks costing hundreds of thousands of people their jobs and impoverishing the nation. Sir Keir Starmer should admit he made a mistake, seize the opportunities for growth in not just Britain’s skies but its seabeds too, and tell Ed Miliband to focus on getting more solar panels and wind turbines built.

Archive link: https://archive.is/NjIkK

Three new routes connecting China’s Xinjiang province to major U.K. airports have opened up since last summer.

A right-wing priest has been defrocked after mimicking Elon Musk’s controversial salute while addressing a pro-life convention.

Suella Braverman has suggested that the UK could become “the first Islamist nation with nuclear weapons”.

LONDON (AP) — The BBC has apologized to staff members who felt unable to complain about the conduct of actor and comedian Russell Brand because of his status after an internal review found that concerns about his behavior weren’t handled appropriately.

Rwanda has put $1bn of global aid under threat by taking part in the invasion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said.

Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has dispatched two surveillance planes towards Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, Declassified can reveal.

I'm unsure as to why this is surprising? When the cost of living increases and people struggle just to survive, they turn to crime. Governments need to stop obsessing over maintaining the short-term status quo and focus on long-term investment that will ensure things like this are a lot harder in the future.

Rachel Reeves will say the so-called “Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor” has “the potential to be Europe’s Silicon Valley" in a major speech she will give in Oxfordshire today.

The United Kingdom’s military collaboration with Israel during its assault on Gaza, as well as its support through arms provisions, logistical aid, and direct military interventions in Yemen to support Israel’s objectives, could constitute a breach of international law, a new report reveals.

*The country’s biggest civil service union has written to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to express its “disgust” that it has entered into a media partnership with *The Sun*newspaper, which it accuses of “demonising benefit claimants”. *

We wrongly said that a study on behalf of Thames Water showed “1 in 12 Londoners is an illegal migrant” (News, Jan 23). In fact the study covered only 7 million people in specific “water resource zones”, not the whole population of London, which is closer to 9 million. 1 in 12 was the highest of a range of estimates for the proportion of “irregular migrants”, but these estimates included some people who are not illegal immigrants, such as those given indefinite leave to remain, as well as some British-born children of migrants with irregular status.

Do you think the UK should seek ties with Europe instead of with the US?

Title is stolen from this London Economic article, but I found the article itself to be pretty vapid so swapped the link for the Best for Britain publication they're referencing.

US President Donald Trump has said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has done a "very good job thus far" and that the pair have a "very good relationship".

The paper titled "An Agenda for UK-China Climate Cooperation: Why Joint Action Can and Should Transcend Political Challenges" was released on Jan 16 by Chatham House, an independent London-based policy institute.

The Government has said it will not launch a fresh inquiry into wrongdoing by the press – despite an admission from the publishers of *The Sun* that private investigators working for the newspaper “undertook illegal activity” between 1996 and 2011 while probing Prince Harry’s private life. At the thirteenth hour, the landmark trial of The Sun owner, News Group Newspapers, has been settled through an agreement with Labour peer Lord Tom Watson and the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry.

The expansion is inconsistent with decarbonization.

London's Metropolitan Police (Met) chief, Mark Rowley, has said that his force imposed unprecedented restrictions on a major pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday that led to 77 arrests.

Sir Keir Starmer is embroiled in another row over Donald Trump after the Labour mayor of London warned of a “resurgent fascism” on the eve of his inauguration.

Jeremy Corbyn has agreed to be interviewed under caution by police following a pro-Palestinian rally in central London, Sky News understands.

The London Metropolitan Police arrested one of the organisers of the pro-Palestine rally on Saturday in central London after imposing restrictions banning protesters from marching towards the headquarters of the BBC.

"There are big parallels between TikTok and what happened with China's Huawei and Russia's Kaspersky that indicates it's just a matter of time until a creeping ban takes affect," says Emily Taylor, Editor of the Cyber Policy Journal.

This quote is a good summary of the article:

Donald Trump is not a warmonger and most people in the world are glad he is back in power, David Lammy said ahead of his inauguration on Monday.

Ed Davey has urged Keir Starmer to create a new visa route so that Americans seeking to flee the Trump presidency.