Robin Wilson

Live Updates: U.S. Employers Cut Jobs in Sign of a Shakier Economy

The #TrumpSlump is arriving. In an economic environment where mercantilism has replaced Ricardian comparative advantage and and a political milieu in which warmongering has substituted for a Kantian cosmopolitan peace, any rational capitalist will withhold investment: www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

BBC says ‘irreversible’ trends mean it will not survive without major overhaul In opening response to charter review, corporation points to ‘mismatch’ between TV licence rules and viewing habits

The BBC needs sustainable funding which does not come from a regressive levy fewer & fewer pay. In the absence of a written UK constitution, it needs legislation to fund it via progressive income taxation, with a guarantee of increases at least matching inflation: www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

Shabana Mahmood accused of mimicking Trump as she announces asylum plans Home secretary’s proposals to overhaul immigration system include end to permanent refugee status

A social-democratic (and cheaper) asylum policy would provide for safe & legal entry and promote early integration into the workforce (including for unsuccessful claimants). Ironically, that would--as Spain's xenophilia shows--boost Labour's totemic 'growth': www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

This is a life and death story for the UK – so why is it being brushed under the carpet? | Aditya Chakrabortty The news that healthy life expectancy is in decline in Britain exposes a serious truth about the state we’re in, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

In western Europe's most unequal country (Gini coefficient of income), healthy life expectancy is falling--and that doesn't even make the news: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #inequality #health

El 68% de los españoles rechaza la guerra de Trump y Netanyahu Más de la mitad de los entrevistados en una encuesta ‘flash’ aprueba las actuaciones del Gobierno. Feijóo solo recibe el apoyo del 18%. Abrumador repudio al presidente de Estados Unidos

Two-thirds of respondents to poll in Spain express little or no agreement with the US war on Iran, while the way Pablo Sanchez has handled it it attracts four times as much support as does Trump (and more than twice as much as the conservative leader, Feijoo): elpais.com/espana/2026-...

Leak: EPP sparks row with rival deportation bill ahead of crucial parliament vote "It has become evident that the necessary majority for a compromise has not materialised," the centre-right MEP François-Xavier Bellamy said in an email to his counterparts, seen by EUobserver, ahead ...

It's not only despicable that Europe's conservatives are fuelling a moral panic at the expense of the benefits a Europe of hospitality (recognised in internal free movement) would enjoy. It's also politically stupid to legitimise the far-right rivals gobbling them up: euobserver.com/205757/leak-...

Social media plays 'huge role' in promoting traditional gender views, say experts Women's rights' groups worry about consequences of this shift in attitudes.

Nearly one third of young men globally, socialised in a world of unregulated 'social' rather than professional media, now believe a woman should 'obey' a husband--more than twice as many as among men over 60, affected by the earlier feminist movements: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #misogyny

Asylum seekers waiting over a year for claim in UK may be allowed to work under new measures Shabana Mahmood hopes to reduce number of claimants in hotels by enabling them to support themselves

One of the oddest subtexts of populist #xenophobia is that some of its outriders are themselves of a migration/refugee background, which clearly they can't integrate and so project on to the detested Other--cf also eg Trump (German) and Farage (Huguenot): www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

How the EU is building a dystopian, surveillance-driven, deportation machine Like much recent EU migration legislation, the proposal was presented without a comprehensive fundamental rights impact assessment. Sixteen UN experts have already raised concerns about its compatibil...

Excellent critique of the official xenophobia in the EU institutions, reflected in the deportation proposals, nullifying the non-refoulement principle for asylum-seekers and pursuing compulsory deportation of failed claimants rather than, eg, labour-market integration: euobserver.com/205537/how-t...

Senegal: Stop jailing people for who they are People in Senegal are being arrested and jailed for who they are. Now a bill could raise sentences to 10 years and criminalize so-called “promotion”. Privacy, equality, and freedom from arbitrary arre...

People in Senegal are being arrested and jailed for who they are. Now a bill could raise sentences to 10 years and criminalize so-called “promotion”. Privacy, equality, and freedom from arbitrary arrest must apply to everyone. Sign. a.allout.org/s/Pa3jX/

Iran Crisis Proves Europe Cannot Delay Its Industrial Transformation The US–Israeli strikes on Iran lay bare every fault line in Europe's energy dependence, industrial fragility, and strategic exposure — and demand an immediate policy response.

Driven by corporate lobbying and conservative leadership, the @ec.europa.eu is driving ideologically for deregulation--just when the #polycrisis demands public investment in, and an industrial policy for, a Europe which can offer a safe haven in a troubled world: www.socialeurope.eu/iran-crisis-...

US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges Religious freedom group says 200 troops sent complaints of superiors using extremist Christian rhetoric to justify war

As Gramsci wrote, every war is a religious war. There is no better way to sanctify the Self and demonise the Other. So it's in a way irrelevant that Trump can't come up with one coherent rationale for the war on Iran among the several he has advanced: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Europe’s voice of moral sense speaks Spanish European leaders have been carefully drafting cautious statements urging 'de-escalation' and 'respect for international law'. But one voice has sounded different. And it speaks Spanish.

Europe's one remaining (for the moment) credible liberal-left leader in power remains its one credible opponent of the far-right duo of Trump and Netanyahu: euobserver.com/205336/europ...

Mahmood’s move to make asylum temporary ‘may undermine refugee convention’ Law Society says home secretary’s review of refugee status after 30 months is in tension with UK’s legal obligations

UK Home Office rehearses the evidence-free claim that 'pull' factors bring asylum-seekers to Britain--the least generous welfare state in north-western Europe--as excuse to abrogate its commitments to refugee integration under the Geneva convention: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Trump Administration, in Apparent Reversal, Tries to Continue Fight Against Law Firms

In a bizarre reversal, Trump's Department of Justice has withdrawn the withdrawal of its appeal against court rulings in favour of law firms he had sought to avenge by decree for perceived personal slights against the monar ... sorry, president: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...

Trump Administration Abandons Efforts to Impose Orders on Law Firms

Trump's Dept of Justice abandons appeal against court ruling blocking his childish personal retribution against law firms he deems to have wronged him: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...

Trump and Netanyahu’s attack on Iran is an illegal act of aggression | Kenneth Roth Their actions are no different from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine or Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Eloquent critique of the illegality and malevolent consequences of the war by Trump and Netanyahu by @kenroth.bsky.social : www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Refugee status to be temporary as Shabana Mahmood rips up rules on UK asylum Home secretary announces 30-month protection limit, with refugees required to leave if their home countries are later judged safe

Britain's Labour government has elected to copy the anti-asylum policies of its Danish counterpart--though, as my interviews for a collection on social democracy across Europe a few years ado showed, Denmark is recognised as an outlier by others on the left: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Far-right prejudice now ‘normalised’ across Europe, warns EU anti-racism chief Michaela Moua, the European Commission’s anti-racism coordinator, is anxious. “Independent of what's happening in the US, we’re seeing the normalisation of hatred and racism, and that is extremely wor...

It's frustrating that the @ec.europa.eu withdrew from joint support of the @coe.int Intercultural Cities programme. Anti-racism has as a result remained marginal for the EU and nor has it offered any positive vision of integration to counter the populists' #xenophobia: euobserver.com/204737/far-r...

Shabana Mahmood to announce asylum system changes to take effect From Monday, asylum seekers granted refugee status in the UK will be offered only temporary protection.

Asylum-seekers, often traumatised, are already left in limbo in the UK, with long waits for adjudication, while they cannot work & must be sustained by the taxpayer--all to deter arrivals. To review refugee status & delay naturalisation would just prevent integration: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Revealed: The emails the Government tried to hide from public over Kneecap funding decision Government departments worked together to block funding to rap trio Kneecap — with the Northern Ireland Office in full agreement.

The real #Kneecap tragedy is that life in west Belfast could be so untransformed by the 'historic' NI 'peace agreement' that 3 young men think it's 'radical' to invoke the macho symbolism of the IRA--specifically, its brutal abuse of 'anti-social' children: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politic...

Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton | Sadiq Khan The threat to the party in some parts of our country is now existential. But we can progress, as we have in London, by being bold and strong in our core beliefs, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

London's Labour mayor is absolutely right: if Labour weren't so post-imperially insular, it would have learnt from wider European research showing that lost social-democrat votes have gone mostly not to the xenophobes but in disillusionment to greens and the left: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A political killing risks tearing the French left apart – and the far right is taking full advantage | Philippe Marlière The fallout from the violent death of Quentin Deranque exposes Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s flaws – and leaves the wider left facing an impossible dilemma, says UCL professor of European politics, Philippe Ma...

For some years, the authoritarian @jlmelenchon.bsky.social has been an embarrassment to the French left. If @lafranceinsoumise.bsky.social is to have any future it must oust him and become a 'normal', participatory radical-left party: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

American money is destroying the Irish economy from the inside Ireland is dangerously overdependent on a small number of companies for far too much revenue

Ireland's beggar-my-neighbour policy on corporation tax hasn't just contradicted its good-European stance (and the European goodwill it has enjoyed). It has also made it dangerously dependent on revenue from 3 US corporate behemoths: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts Care roles hit particularly hard by UK’s lurch to the right on migration, according to analysis of Home Office data

The moral panic in Britain about 'immigration' in recent years--ie about the human resources attracted to the UK in an era of globalisation and individualisation--has legitimised a #xenophobia massively deterring labour urgently needed in health and social care: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Fiscal Consolidation Costs Europe Jobs and Deepens Inequality New research reveals that EU fiscal tightening reduces output, raises unemployment, and widens income gaps — especially during recessions.

As this piece shows (yet again), the arbitrary EU fiscal rules about public deficits and debts not only lack any economic foundation but also defy basic Keynesian insights on the negative multiplier effects of reduced public investment, especially in a downturn: www.socialeurope.eu/fiscal-conso...

Racism in Irish sport: ‘We didn’t feel safe playing. We just left football completely’ Irish sports stars Rhasidat Adeleke and Edwin Edogbo have been subjected to racist abuse – but it happens at every level, including to children

Very disturbing piece about #racism towards black sportspeople in Ireland, evidencing as elsewhere that the US 'social media' corporations--and the 'free speech' absolutism of their owners--have given licence to every authoritarian personality to vent their spleen: www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Who Was Behind the Largest Cyberattack on Polish Energy Infrastructure in Years? Initial suspicion fell on Sandworm, the rowdy, sabotage-prone cyber wing of Russia’s GRU military intelligence. But the latest findings point to a different actor – and Europe should pay attention.

Putin may be a clueless autocrat domestically but, with his background as KGB officer in East Germany and later FSB head, he knows how to cause chaos in western Europe--not just Ukraine: balkaninsight.com/2026/02/26/w...

Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives

Super piece on the emerging alternatives to US tech monopolies, including this platform, which have enclosed the digital commons--with a shout-out for the ethical Fairphone, rightly picked out as the progressive (and very effective) smartphone: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Brussels calls it ‘simplification’ – it’s actually a rollback of workers rights Brussels’ drive to cut digital “burdens” is spilling into labour law. A recent paper by lobby group BusinessEurope calls for a sweeping “labour market omnibus” to reduce obligations under EU social la...

For the European Commission of @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu, 'simplification' has become a cipher for #deregulation to undermine social and environmental safeguards. The main European employers' federation has now adopted it to weaken workers' rights: euobserver.com/204473/bruss...