Badenoch has previously claimed that people from Northern Nigeria (in more Muslim areas) were her 'ethnic enemies'. Feels like that was a moment which passed without much comment...
Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP in Harrow East, took his parliamentary oath on the Bible *and* the Bhagavad Gita... despite not (to my knowledge) being Hindu. I assume that Badenoch will have a word with him too!
Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.
I agree with you. But I do think that if an organisation is going to make these sorts of claims then it should include more information on its methods etc... In the immediate aftermath of what was always going to be a 'heated' by-election, it comes across as a bit naive.
Though I think the jump from this to racialisations of South Asian women is also quite troubling. I have seen too many commentators (who should know better) not doing the necessary work when reporting the accusations of family voting.
UNGA vote showing UK and Mauritius voting to support 'lasting peace in Ukraine' and USA choosing to abstain.
Not the most important feature of this UNGA vote but UK and Mauritius voting for 'lasting peace in Ukraine', while USA voted to abstain. Maybe the British parliamentarians who have appealed to the Trump admin to upend the Chagos deal need to be introduced to this thing called 'reality'
All those listed here had parents who were elligible to reside in Britain because they were born in parts of the British Empire/(New) Commonwealth. I think it is open to interpretation how much of an 'outsider' they are to the British class system.
A lot has been missed about citizenship rights. Since 2022 it has become a lot easier for Chagossian descendants to get British citizenship. I think the recent arrival of more Mauritians/Chagossian descendants to parts of London (e.g.Hillingdon) is based on the fear that this will not happen anymore
The EU that 'legacy-remainers' might seek to rejoin could have very different vibes (to put it mildly) to the EU the UK left. Enjoyed this invitation to think through the hypotheticals by @blaisebaquiche.bsky.social
I think the 'no compromise' approach to funding medals over the past decade + has created other issues as well, related to fairness and athlete well-being. The below was written by an international level fencer on their retirement. There are many countries where a similar situation would be illegal.
I think the UK Sport approach to funding elite sport is one way of doing it. Other nations have tried maximising Olympic qualifications or trying to make sporting pathways that run from grass roots to elite level and keeping people more broadly engaged in various sports.
The UK Sport approach to high performance is genuinely fascinating. Find 'quantifiable' power based sports where late specialisation is possible. Preferably a sport which has multiple medal events. Fund it intensively for 4-6 years. Otherwise rely on sports which are 'self-sufficient' like sailing..
That may be the case. But I think it is fair enough to discuss the balance of money between the funding of high performance sport and grassroots/community sport. From my own experience, some of our European neighbours have the balance very differently.
Back in 2019, before the Telegraph cared about the Chagos Islands, I wrote this piece for a Mauritian newspaper (Le Mauricien). Some of the facts, and indeed complexity, of the case have been lost since.
www.hisnameissatya.co.uk/post/12th-ma...
Back in 2019, before the Telegraph cared about the Chagos Islands, I wrote this piece for a Mauritian newspaper (Le Mauricien). Some of the facts, and indeed complexity, of the case have been lost since.
www.hisnameissatya.co.uk/post/12th-ma...
Mauritius is also quite close to India - one of the outer islands (Agalega) hosts an Indian military presence. And last time I checked, India was part of the 'Quad'. Telegraph's reporting on this topic bears little relation to actual existing reality.
Keir Starmer's Substack post about his trip to China
Keir's substack has big 'what I did on my holiday' school report vibes.
Javid has had a strange career in politics. Such a spectacular CV, and yet so little to show for it. Does he feel satisfied by what he achieved? “Given the opportunities I was given, it would be churlish to say I wasn’t satisfied. That said, did I achieve what I wanted to achieve? I wanted to be prime minister. And I tried.”
One of the, inadvertently, revealing responses he gives. It was not how I read the question. Another politician who wanted to 'be someone', rather than 'do something'.
BISA’s David Feldman on antisemitism in Britain and what can be done
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Any politician who refers to 'ethnic enemies' as a serious and legitimate part of political discourse should not have been taken seriously in the first place.
Feels like a job for Blair's '3 second, 30 second and 3 minute' platonic ideal of political communication
Gains in historical understanding often come from the defeated - forced to confront the reasons for failure. Whereas victors rarely feel the need to evaluate success in a similar fashion, seeing victory as inevitable or pre-ordained. An observation Eric Hobsbawm used to make. Always seems apt!
A recent trip to visit family in Mauritius had me reassuring family concerned for my safety that London was not in fact a dangerous crimehole. Quite a lot of reputational damage for not much gain, I guess.
Putting together a module reading list on the history of the family in Modern Britain. Anyone got any recommendations of good scholarship on impact of immigration controls on family life in late 20th / early 21st century Britain?
Hope it's not too gauche to suggest an article of mine in 'Modern British History' on Punjabi men working and living in Southall and how life there changed. Might be of interest!
academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...
It seems ethnic minority politicians who are anti-immigration become unpopular pretty quickly. And the online right appear to take a strange pleasure in using Badenoch's full name/maiden name. Something which Sunak didn't face. Linked to his gender and Badenoch's personal immigration story.
I guess the minimum wage going up might have a status perception effect on those sort of middle class professions. Like the BMA advert about barista wages at Pret a few years ago
