Forum menu
I have just heard the current "Labour" Home Secretary on the BBC Nick Robinson politics programme say that she doesn't want the Royal Navy** to be, quote, "a taxi service" for those trying to get the UK.
Nigel Farage isn't in the studio but he doesn't need to be because he is dictating the subject being discussed with the Home Secretary, ie immigration and refugees, and our Labour Home Secretary is obligingly using emotive rhetoric which he would personally totally approve of, eg suggesting that the Royal Navy is acting as a taxi service for illegal immigrants.
Labour really have slipped from the gutter into the sewer as they enthusiastically dance to Nigel Farage's tune.
**she actually said the "British navy"....... would she fail the citizens test? I think most patriotic Brits know the correct way to refer to this country's navy.
I cant think of anyone who does want the RN to be a taxi service for illegal immigration. I dont want the RNLI doing it either, or any other well meaning charity. The people smuggling industry uses it as part of its business model to make more money and de risk the journey, thus making it more appealing to a wider range of people. Thats not what I want to see happen, I dont want the smuggling industry supported
They are not a taxi service, that is the language of hate hidden behind a façade of civility. Because the alternative is watching people drown because you don't think their lives are worth saving because they are immigrants, because they are brown and because they are not British.
Anyone promoting the idea that they are a "taxi service" should hang their heads in shame, they are a ****ing disgrace to the human race.
How about just let them get onto a ferry - £92 from Calais to Dover and much cheaper and more importantly safer than paying someone for a dinghy space.
They are not a taxi service, that is the language of hate hidden behind a façade of civility. Because the alternative is watching people drown because you don't think their lives are not worth saving because they are immigrants, because they are brown and because they are not British.
Anyone promoting the idea that they are a "taxi service" should hang their heads in shame, they are a ****ing disgrace to the human race.
No it’s not, it has nothing to do with hate, or are we all supposed to celebrate people acting illegally or is it just when they break laws you dont like?.
It’s pointing out the reality of the smugglers business model to attract more customers. If it’s not a taxi service then what else is it? It’s not a rescue service as the smuggling business relies on it as an essential part of its logistics process. A rescue service is there for when things go wrong when people had set out properly prepared and something went wrong, not deliberately going to ssa with an expectation that you will automatically be picked up half way.
How about just let them get onto a ferry - £92 from Calais to Dover and much cheaper and more importantly safer than paying someone for a dinghy space.
Probably a better solution than having the Navy do it with the added advantage of it then being easy to meet and process the asylum applications in a more timely manner
I've often thought that.... If it's genuinely about stopping the boats and smashing the gangs, just lay on a free ferry a couple of times a week. Would that cost less than pursuing the people smuggling gangs and patrolling the navy all the time!?
How about just let them get onto a ferry
Because they don't have a visa. Because you can't apply for and receive a visa for the purpose of seeking asylum in the UK once you arrive in the UK.
It wouldn't improve processing times.
How about just let them get onto a ferry
Because they don't have a visa. Because you can't apply for and receive a visa for the purpose of seeking asylum in the UK once you arrive in the UK.
It wouldn't improve processing times.
How is that any different to the RN, Border Force or the RNLI transporting them to the UK
The alternative is watching people drown
The alternative is the UK and France getting their act together amd stopping organised crime groups from running a highly dangerous and lucrative business to transport people from France to the UK.
Agreed, but what’s in it for France. I dont suppose they are any keener on sorting out their real immigration status than we are
Just finished watching Years&Years. Highly recommended. It’s relevant to every recent post in this thread. On Netflix currently.
. I dont want the RNLI doing it either, or any other well meaning charity.
The RNLI only do one thing - save lives, they don't do anything else. So you are saying that you don't won't the RNLI to save the lives of those seeking asylum in the UK and are at risk of drowning.
The hard-right who lack basic humanity are becoming bolder under the present climate, I blame Nigel Farage in part for that with him stirring hatred against immigrants and refugees but we have to be honest and admit that the Labour Party is now also part of the problem.
It isn't all Nigel Farage's fault.
And if should anyone doubt that senior "Labour" politicians are attempting to steal Nigel Farage's thunder with their own dog whistling and the same offensive rhetoric against refugees:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8dejyg4l37o
The RNLI has faced accusations from some on social media, including Nigel Farage, that it was acting as a "taxi service" for people trying to enter the UK illegally.
Could Labour and Reform possibly be singing more from the same hymn sheet when it comes to refugees?
The RNLI only do one thing - save lives, they don't do anything else.
In reality though they have accidentally become part of the smugglers business model and an essential part of the process.
Not wanting illigeal immigration into the UK is not hard right, and calling it hard right is just a way to try and shut down debate in the same way Isreal calls everything antisemitism it doesnt agree with.. We have already established on this thread that approximately 1/3 of those who have applied have had asylum granted meaning the remain 2/3 are not asylum seekers and are therefore economic migrants. Why should they be able to illegally enter and stay in this country. Would you expect to do the same and arrive in France and just set up home and say well this is where I want to live.
We have already established on this thread that approximately 1/3 of those who have applied have had asylum granted meaning the remain 2/3 are not asylum seekers and are therefore economic migrants.
No, you assert that is was it means... it does not.
The point is they are all claiming asylum, the % don't really matter, they are all people and the fact that some people give the impression they are happy for them to suffer or even worse drown just because they may be chancing it says it all about those people.
Not wanting illigeal immigration into the UK is not hard right, and calling it hard right is just a way to try and shut down debate in the same way Isreal calls everything antisemitism it doesnt agree with.
Not wanting illegal immigration into the UK is not hard right. In fact, I've never heard anyone say, 'Do you know what this country needs? More illegal immigration!'
What is hard right is de-humanising illegal immigrants and advocating for them to be left to drown.
In fact, I would say not letting people drown who could have been saved is a basic British value. If you want to argue that anyone who says 'illegal immigrants should be left to drown' be deported regardless of nationality then I'm listening.
Not wanting illigeal immigration into the UK is not hard right
No of course it isn't. Any sensible person wants immigration to be lawful and legal.
That has absolutely nothing to do at all with your criticism of the RNLI which is that they are saving the lives of those seeking asylum.
Criticising the RNLI for saving the lives of refugees is definitely a hard-right stance.
Saving immigrants is the humane modern way. My uncle left his not inconsiderable fortune to the RNLI - I'm pleased to see it being used well. I mean we don't even hang people for treason anymore:
Surprised this interview hasn't been posted yet - it's all over socials!...
I cant think of anyone who does want the RN to be a taxi service for illegal immigration. I dont want the RNLI doing it either, or any other well meaning charity. The people smuggling industry uses it as part of its business model to make more money and de risk the journey, thus making it more appealing to a wider range of people. Thats not what I want to see happen, I dont want the smuggling industry supported
Upon seeing a bunch of human beings in manifestly unsuitable vessel at sea there is no way that any sailor will do anything other than everything they can to get them to land safely. RN / RNLI / merchant marine, they'll all do the same thing, that's how it works at sea. Nobody is going to leave them to drown, which is what you seem to be suggesting.
I am lovin' this article by Jonathan Rutherford who is on the hard-right of the Labour Party :
Best of all I like this line which sums up the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the Labour Party's hard-right:
The Home Secretary is a rare Labour politician who believes exactly what she says
Here is his beloved Shabana Mahmood in 2014 :
https://twitter.com/ShabanaMahmood/status/498076170328760320
And here she is today as UK Home Secretary accusing supporters of Palestine on demos of being nothing less than "unbritish" and "dishonourable".
This total turnaround helps to explain why the current system works so well and why it is practically impossible to fundamentally change anything. Power corrupts and Mahmood provides an excellent example of how it does that. Take a yong radical politician, give her one of the Great Offices of State, provide her with a huge salary and a ministerial limousine, and suddenly they become the champions of the status quo.
Ann Pettifor substack
Central Banks and Government Budgets - As If Democracy Matters
https://annpettifor.substack.com/p/central-banks-and-government-budgets
It is accountancy that leads politicians to bewail the existence of “black holes” in the budget. And, even though the government owns the state’s most powerful institution - the Bank of England and its money creation powers - politicians and journalists yell hysterically into the void: “there is no money”.
Like households, the government is deemed to be short of cash and to have overspent. Unlike households or even the most powerful financial institutions, the government is in possession of some of the most valuable collateral in the world. The bond markets live in fear of the Bank’s power - real life bond traders have told me so. And yet the accountants (and technocrats) treat the Bank as impotent and unable to provide finance for a democratically elected government confronting private economic failure and political instability.
Repeat after me: government budgets are not like household budgets. They do not have to balance. The state - and in particular the British state - has enormous (collateral) power to mobilise the finance needed to meet the economy’s needs, as we learnt during the GFC and the pandemic.
Mahmoodism will save the Labour Party
Labour Party members don't appear to share Jonathan Rutherford's enthusiasm for her Reform-lite policies!
https://labourlist.org/2025/11/labour-cabinet-league-table-november-2025/
Shabana Mahmood’s approval among Labour members has plummeted since her announcement on reform of asylum policy, exclusive polling for LabourList has revealed.
The poll, conducted by Survation, saw a 32 point drop in the Home Secretary’s approval, from +26 in September to -6 now.
It looks like Starmer adopting the Tory tactic of having a brown Home Secretary talk tough on immigration and refugees is proving to be no more successful than it was for the Tories. Who would have thought it ?
The latest poll out by Opinium gives Reform UK a 13% lead over Labour.
It is almost as if Labour feeding into Nigel Farage's anti-immigration anti-refugee narrative is helping Reform !
I dont understand the constant obsession over polls. The next general election is 3 years away. Given the current parliamentary majority Labour have then polls are irrelevant for at least the next 2 years.
Not really, it shows what people think of them and what they are doing. It appears the public don't think much of them or what they are doing so Labour need to either listen to that or just carry on with their aping of Reform and get wiped out at next election.
I dont understand the constant obsession over polls.
Normally I'd agree but we're not talking about a drop of a few points into second place against the official opposition. It's a complete collapse of support where they're now in 4th place. That doesn't just mean out of govt, it means only having a few MPs in parliament.
I dont understand the constant obsession over polls. The next general election is 3 years away. Given the current parliamentary majority Labour have then polls are irrelevant for at least the next 2 years.
Tell that to Starmer and McSweeney, I think most pundits are agreed that they are in a state of panic.
As is the Parliamentary Labour Party and the growing number of Labour MPs who are convinced that Starmer must go.
If it isn't the opinion polls and the fact that Nigel Farage's party has been leading every single one since mid-April what do you think might be the cause of this panic?
The locals will be terrible for labour, so its right for them to be worried about the polls (obviously reacting by punching down on immigrants is an idiotic way to deal with it)
Anyway after years of protecting motorists from budget increases the government will apparently be freezing rail fairs, which on a personal level is great, but also makes a lot of sense on an environmental front
Anyway after years of protecting motorists from budget increases the government will apparently be freezing rail fairs, which on a personal level is great, but also makes a lot of sense on an environmental front
Quite. Although a cynic might reasonably think that it is in reaction to a new and growing threat
https://twitter.com/ZackPolanski/status/1765375204610482257
The centrists are now, as you might expect, facing attacks from both the left and the right. And as centrist they deal with the political threats from their opponents by trying to come up with some sort of fudged response.
The problem with trying to please everyone is that you invariably end up pleasing no one and pissing off most people.
I think the werid reality is Labour somehow don't understand what their supporters & members actually want.
They have just for some reason decided that the best course of action is to chase the people are Reformed voters (see what I did there) rather than giving the kids something & increasing their vote share among the demographics where they have traditionally been popular.
I do also think not being in the pocket of the press doesn't help them as they cannot control the narrative, that is being controlled by Reform leaning Tories -hence why all we hear about day in day out is immagrant this, immagrant that.
They have just for some reason decided that the best course of action is to chase the people are Reformed voters
Even then its only a subset of those voters.
I think the primary problem is they dont want to make those tough grown up decisions and hence go for the easy right wing rag targets of immigrants and co.
Although a cynic might reasonably think that it is in reaction to a new and growing threat
That “threat” is also from Labour Regional Mayors showing what can be done with public transport. In addition, the government has to begin to deliver obvious and measurable advantages to the public as it rolls out nationalisation. There has to be a pay off, just changing ownership isn’t enough. And results need to start being delivered early; it’s clear people won’t wait ‘till changes deliver direct results. The public has no patience.
hence why all we hear about day in day out is immagrant this, immagrant that
I’m the first to blame this on the press, but this government is making all the running, and all the headlines, on this at the moment. They are as responsible as anyone (and as they are in a position to change and deliver policy… arguably the most responsible currently).
i see priti patel praising israel as a beacon of democracy 😥 😱 🤡 🤮
Latest poll out, fieldwork carried out yesterday, yet again puts Labour in fourth place. Large sample too....2.5+k
https://twitter.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1993992748605558920
... Find out Now are the company that try to identify reluctant voters who may vote given the more diverse political landscape with a second go after recording an initial don't know. This increases the vote share for challenger parties. Compare with yougov give who use a more traditional methodology and so Labour "do better".
As I said on a different thread the polling companies will be struggling to some extent given the new landscape as there are potentially a lot of reluctant voters who may turn out to vote if they feel green or reform better represent their views than traditional parties.
The elections in May next year will help to calibrate to some extent but it's still going to be a bit of a punt until the next GE
That said the broad thrust of the polls is similar and catastrophic for Labour and Tories as it stands
Both Find Out Now and YouGov overestimated support for Labour at last year's general election, Find Out Now slightly more, 5% to YouGov's 4%. I don't think that Find Out Now have changed their methodology as a result of that.
The reality is that had any poll shown Labour in fourth place whilst Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader the centrists in the Parliamentary Labour Party would be hyperventilating as they ranted before TV cameras about the damage he was doing to the party.
Contrast that with barely a whisper from them as everyone watches Sir Keir Starmer reduce support for Labour down to the level of a fringe party.
Liz Truss's disastrous premiership in which support for the Tories collapsed to their lowest level in 200 years, and from which they have yet to recover, is used as a textbook example of how a prime minister can screw their own governing party.
And yet whichever opinion poll you look at right now Sir Keir Starmer has at least matched the damage Liz Truss on her party, if not actually exceeded it.
The significant difference though are the consequences. Liz Truss's disastrous premiership eventually led to a landslide victory for the Labour Party, whilst Sir Keir Starmer's disastrous premiership looks increasingly likely to hand the keys of Downing Street to Nigel Farage and Reform.
Worse than all of this is the timescales it's taken.
It must be the fastest decline of party from hero to zero in months.
Imagine coming to power and thinking despite all the Tory decay you are going to be given an ounce of room.
People thought they were voting to get rid of this version of capitalism only to find we now have an enhanced continuity version. Keeping the same OBR treasury-brained way of doing things is an utter farcical embarrassment. Anything created by George Osborne is not the basis of good "independent" economic thinking. There is no such thing as an independent economic institution. Absurd.
I mean, everyone hates austerity - yet here we are with the savagely incompetent OBR and ploddingly backwards BoE deciding the direction of the UK - into a contracting economy.
Literally by their own forecasts.
Suggestions to rename to OBI. Office of budget Irresponsibility.
Worse than all of this is the timescales it's taken.
It must be the fastest decline of party from hero to zero in months.
Imagine coming to power and thinking despite all the Tory decay you are going to be given an ounce of room.
People thought they were voting to get rid of this version of capitalism only to find we now have an enhanced continuity version. Keeping the same OBR treasury-brained way of doing things is an utter farcical embarrassment. Anything created by George Osborne is not the basis of good "independent" economic thinking. There is no such thing as an independent economic institution. Absurd.
I mean, everyone hates austerity - yet here we are with the savagely incompetent OBR and ploddingly backwards BoE deciding the direction of the UK - into a contracting economy.
Literally by their own forecasts.
Suggestions to rename to OBI. Office of budget Irresponsibility.
Worse than all of this is the timescales it's taken.
It must be the fastest decline of party from hero to zero in months.
Imagine coming to power and thinking despite all the Tory decay you are going to be given an ounce of room.
People thought they were voting to get rid of this version of capitalism only to find we now have an enhanced continuity version. Keeping the same OBR treasury-brained way of doing things is an utter farcical embarrassment. Anything created by George Osborne is not the basis of good "independent" economic thinking. There is no such thing as an independent economic institution. Absurd.
I mean, everyone hates austerity - yet here we are with the savagely incompetent OBR and ploddingly backwards BoE deciding the direction of the UK - into a contracting economy.
Literally by their own forecasts.
Suggestions to rename to OBI. Office of budget Irresponsibility.
I mean, everyone hates austerity
To be fair from at least 2010 until 2015 the majority of voters felt that austerity was a necessary evil. The Tories and the LibDems played a blinder with regards to convincing voters of that.
Helped massively by a Labour Party which backed austerity but at half the pace of the Tories and the LibDems. Austerity-lite was the easy cop-out that Labour resorted to when faced with the combined force of the Tories, LibDems, and right-wing press.
All that changed during 2015-17 when the Labour Party became an anti-austerity party and forced the then Tory prime minister to claim that austerity was no longer necessary.
Austerity has now become a dirty word which no party wants to be associated with.
Some sense! It’s going to be 6 months of employment before unfair dismissal rights kick in (rather than 1 day). Getting rid of the awful 24 months needed currently with something that works for employees without putting the brakes on recruitment. More “uturns” like this please (AKA listening).
Some sense! It’s going to be 6 months of employment before unfair dismissal rights kick in (rather than 1 day).
Why on earth is 6 months better than one day?
https://twitter.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1994103030166266359?t=ktbsQllGbCrSz6WgRRVFyA&s=19
This government is horrendously unstable with it's constant trying to appease moving targets.
Key manifesto pledge.
"This willi include banning exploitative zero hours contracts; ending fire and
rehire; and introducing basic rights
from day one to parental leave,
sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal."