Jonathan
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callimachus05.bsky.social
Jonathan
@callimachus05.bsky.social
Classicist and Lawyer. Staunchly anti-Brexit 🇪🇺. Time for PR (2 party politics are obsolete).
Reposted by Jonathan
As Labour proposes limiting the protection of the ECHR, we must remember what it was set up to do; protect us all from abuses of power by our govts.
Be v wary then of anyone calling to do that. You may not be the target now. But why shouldn’t you be next?
bestforbritain.substack.com/p/why-we-and...
Why we - and the Home Secretary - disapply the ECHR at our peril
By Jessica Frank-Keyes
bestforbritain.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Plans to leave refugees in a state of perpetual uncertainty about where and if they can rebuild their lives are not just performative cruelty, they are counterproductive to integration and the economy. It doesn’t have to be like this - 1/2
November 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
When is this government going to acknowledge that it has nothing to offer, that it is not up to the job, that there is no question to which it is the answer?
November 17, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Asked about Tommy Robinson supporting her asylum plans Shabana Mahmood replies that "Tommy Robinson doesn't even think I'm actually English, so he will certainly not be supporting anything I've got to say."

But he is supporting what she's got to say. That was the point of the question
November 17, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Remember when they insisted that Starmer's 'island of strangers' speech was a mis-step or just misunderstood? They were wrong.
November 16, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Beginning to wonder if Brexit-Labour has anything more to offer. There is certainly not much legislation to show for its tenure so far. Just lots of raised taxes, Reform style rhetoric, plot conspiracy, likely to be missed targets (housing, growth …). Not sure this is the desired “Change”.
November 17, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Astonishing to see Brexit-Labour once again devoting time, energy and resources to tackling a Reform agenda at the expense of almost everything else. Reform voters will want the “real thing” (Farage). Labour’s base will rightly look elsewhere.
November 17, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Jonathan
Shabana Mahmood on the BBC this morning talking about desperate people fleeing war and persecution as being given a "golden ticket" and "handouts" and saying she's got a "moral mission" to take them away from them

Indistinguishable from the rhetoric of Reform www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Shabana Mahmood and the Politics of Extortion
Labour's strategy of telling its supporters to back Reform-style policies, or get a Reform Government, is the politics of the protection racket and it is not going to work
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Jonathan
Congratulations to whatever party this Government is.
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Anyone else out there wanting up see the back of this dismal Labour government? Across the range (fiscal competence/tax, Brexit, green policies) it has absolutely nothing to offer to the centre-left voter. On immigration/protest it is another RW rump eager to appeal to Reform voters and failing.
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Scrapping green subsidies is short-termist sabotage – and as usual the consumer will pay | Camilla Born
Scrapping green subsidies is short-termist sabotage – and as usual the consumer will pay | Camilla Born
Weaning ourselves off gas is the only way to reduce energy bills long term. Cutting support for this is exactly the ‘sticking-plaster politics’ Labour promised to end, says CEO of Electrify Britain Camilla Born
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Once again Brexit Labour, which asks taxpayers to fund commercial aviation tax breaks, whilst backing airport expansions and taxing EVs, makes clear its position that tackling climate change and backing the environment is just not a priority.
November 13, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
Did you know the government spends £2.7 billion a year on tax breaks for oil & gas companies?

I've written to Rachel Reeves to tell her to end this scandal: stop propping up declining oil & gas companies and back workers instead

Join me: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/en... @38degrees.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 10:43 AM
All I see here is Labour’s disarray and the fast emerging absence of any shred of competence in office. Certainly nothing I see here even remotely inspires me to vote this party back in power in 2029 or any intervening election.
Keir Starmer has launched an investigation to find the No 10 adviser who briefed that Wes Streeting was plotting against him
November 12, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
⬇️ Brexit has led to 1.8 million fewer jobs in the UK.

🇪🇺 Want better jobs? Encourage investment from business and knock down our disastrous trade barriers with our largest and closest market.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxrp7znkdlo
UK unemployment rate rises to 5% as jobs market weakens
Latest official data ahead of the Budget later this month shows it is the highest rate since 2021.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
“tell the nation not only that it is time we recognised the folly of Brexit but also that it is in our trading and budgetary interests to apply to rejoin the single market and the customs union.”
observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Reeves can no longer ignore ‘mammoth in the broom cupboard’ | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
It can’t make any sense to tax electric car drivers for not burning fossil fuels while allowing people that fly to pay no tax for burning fossil fuels. The answer is simple, extend the charging per mile to the airline industry. Fair, climate effective and tax raising - all at the same time.
November 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
That the UK - one of the architects of this fund, designed to save the world’s forests - is now refusing to put any money into it is frankly shameful. Starmer’s claim that he still continues to back the fund is meaningless without resources - so much for climate leadership
November 6, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Difficult to fathom the rationale for this proposal. In the meantime one notes that aviation fuel duty relief remains untouched, the government gives the green light to airport expansion plans, no wealth tax on extreme personal wealth … more disappointing news from Labour.
November 6, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Jonathan
A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants
November 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
It’s very simple: if Labour wishes to avoid making “the necessary choices”, including the obvious choice of taking the UK back into (at least) the single market, my vote will go elsewhere.
November 4, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Jonathan
YOUNG PEOPLE. LISTEN UP.

Today Nigel Farage said the government should cut the minimum wage for young people

...to “raise aspiration” and “boost business"

It's £10ph FFS!

Lower your pay so you’ll dream bigger

DO YOU SEE IT NOW?

Spread far & wide.

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/03/n...
Nigel Farage Says Minimum Wage Should Be Cut for Young People
The Reform leader said cutting the minimum wage for young people would boost business, as he attacked plans to raise taxes on the wealthy
bylinetimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Jonathan
City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache
Poor output since the leave vote has landed Rachel Reeves with a bigger-than-forecast budget spending gap
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:36 PM