Chaminda Jayanetti
@cjayanetti.bsky.social
Freelance journalist covering British politics and public services - NHS, education, care, housing, disability, benefits. Not a tribalist.
I like good things and I don't like bad things.
I like good things and I don't like bad things.
Pinned
New asylum policies making homeless refugees “targets for the far right”
Labour’s abrupt return to the 28-day move-on period is pushing vulnerable people into rough sleeping and exposing them to fraud and abuse.
national.thelead.uk
The government’s decision to halve the time limit for refugees to leave Home Office accommodation is driving people into homelessness and exploitation, according to migrant rights campaigners and homelessness charities
By me, for @theleaduk.bsky.social national.thelead.uk/p/new-asylum...
By me, for @theleaduk.bsky.social national.thelead.uk/p/new-asylum...
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
They frame it as asylum seekers living high on the hog, but you click through and it turns out the people in question got arbitrarily moved to the other side of the country and the home office didn’t update their GP so they had to drive back. Layers & layers of cruelty and incompetence
This is just revolting cruelty, done to pander to racists who won't give it the time of day. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Government to ban asylum seekers from using taxis
The ban is set to come in February and any exemptions will have to be signed off by the Home Office.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:07 AM
They frame it as asylum seekers living high on the hog, but you click through and it turns out the people in question got arbitrarily moved to the other side of the country and the home office didn’t update their GP so they had to drive back. Layers & layers of cruelty and incompetence
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Every case study like this should be balanced by one such as a 15-year-old with suicidal ideation unable to receive any help because CAMHS has been cut to virtual non-existence.
Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
November 29, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Every case study like this should be balanced by one such as a 15-year-old with suicidal ideation unable to receive any help because CAMHS has been cut to virtual non-existence.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The Home Office’s absurd taxi bill results entirely from its insistence on forcing people to move round the country without choice or notice, & to live on the breadline so they can’t afford public transport. That Mahmood didn’t know about it till the BBC told her shows how appallingly the HO is run.
November 29, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The Home Office’s absurd taxi bill results entirely from its insistence on forcing people to move round the country without choice or notice, & to live on the breadline so they can’t afford public transport. That Mahmood didn’t know about it till the BBC told her shows how appallingly the HO is run.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
“Devastating” and “punitive” tax changes to the #Motability scheme that will add hundreds of pounds to upfront payments to lease cars are “baffling” and “unjust” and threaten to “lock disabled people out of daily life”, say campaigners.
#Budget2025
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/budgets-mota...
#Budget2025
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/budgets-mota...
November 29, 2025 at 7:30 AM
“Devastating” and “punitive” tax changes to the #Motability scheme that will add hundreds of pounds to upfront payments to lease cars are “baffling” and “unjust” and threaten to “lock disabled people out of daily life”, say campaigners.
#Budget2025
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/budgets-mota...
#Budget2025
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/budgets-mota...
I say this as someone who is very much anti-intellectual - few politicians in this country did more to make anti-intellectualism central to political communication than Tony Blair
He wasn't anti-intellectual himself, but New Labour was very self-conscious about cultivating a "common touch"
He wasn't anti-intellectual himself, but New Labour was very self-conscious about cultivating a "common touch"
November 28, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I say this as someone who is very much anti-intellectual - few politicians in this country did more to make anti-intellectualism central to political communication than Tony Blair
He wasn't anti-intellectual himself, but New Labour was very self-conscious about cultivating a "common touch"
He wasn't anti-intellectual himself, but New Labour was very self-conscious about cultivating a "common touch"
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I'd liken placating the press' anti-immigration bent to paying the Danegeld, but the Vikings did actually leave for a bit once they'd been paid
November 28, 2025 at 8:20 AM
I'd liken placating the press' anti-immigration bent to paying the Danegeld, but the Vikings did actually leave for a bit once they'd been paid
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I'm near speechless at this framing of overall immigration falling by, like, 60%
Asylum seekers now make up nearly half of net migration to the UK and the number housed in hotels has increased despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to end their use ⬇️
Asylum seekers account for almost half of net migration
New statistics showed a fall in net migration as British citizens and non-EU migrants left the UK, but the number of asylum seekers in hotels has grown
www.thetimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:18 AM
I'm near speechless at this framing of overall immigration falling by, like, 60%
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The Blue Labour right have become the Militant of 2025 - a tiny but hyperactive and densely networked sect working relentlessly to drag Labour towards their niche pursuits and away from the values and priorities of core Labour voters.
November 28, 2025 at 10:44 AM
The Blue Labour right have become the Militant of 2025 - a tiny but hyperactive and densely networked sect working relentlessly to drag Labour towards their niche pursuits and away from the values and priorities of core Labour voters.
we'd only just given this year's Fell For It Again Award to Labourites who got excited at Starmer's party conference speech
*literally yesterday* people (you know who you are) were telling me 'well actually i think kemi is turning a corner here'
November 28, 2025 at 12:27 PM
we'd only just given this year's Fell For It Again Award to Labourites who got excited at Starmer's party conference speech
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
*literally yesterday* people (you know who you are) were telling me 'well actually i think kemi is turning a corner here'
November 28, 2025 at 12:16 PM
*literally yesterday* people (you know who you are) were telling me 'well actually i think kemi is turning a corner here'
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
NEW ARTICLE
I was asked by the great @lordbonkers.bsky.social to write a piece for Liberal England on where Lib Dem electoral strategy should go from here.
So read on if you're interested in an outsider's perspective on what voters the Libs should target, and how they get above 15% in the polls.
I was asked by the great @lordbonkers.bsky.social to write a piece for Liberal England on where Lib Dem electoral strategy should go from here.
So read on if you're interested in an outsider's perspective on what voters the Libs should target, and how they get above 15% in the polls.
GUEST POST Understanding the views and worries of the city of Oxford Lib Dem
William Lane has discovered a new political category: the Oxford Liberal Democrat. Who is she and what does she want from us? It was with g...
liberalengland.blogspot.com
November 28, 2025 at 11:57 AM
NEW ARTICLE
I was asked by the great @lordbonkers.bsky.social to write a piece for Liberal England on where Lib Dem electoral strategy should go from here.
So read on if you're interested in an outsider's perspective on what voters the Libs should target, and how they get above 15% in the polls.
I was asked by the great @lordbonkers.bsky.social to write a piece for Liberal England on where Lib Dem electoral strategy should go from here.
So read on if you're interested in an outsider's perspective on what voters the Libs should target, and how they get above 15% in the polls.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
She is also this dril tweet come to life
November 28, 2025 at 11:48 AM
She is also this dril tweet come to life
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
She is so profoundly intellectually incurious that I find myself fascinated how she ever learnt how to *speak*.
Also the Romans literally had a welfare system that included cash transfers for poor children. (And subsidised grain for low income workers...).
There was no state. Who does she think crucified him, an anarchist collective?
November 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
She is so profoundly intellectually incurious that I find myself fascinated how she ever learnt how to *speak*.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Welcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!
Foreign doctors trained by the NHS face deportation under visa rules
Foreign doctors trained by the NHS face deportation under visa rules
www.thetimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Welcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
It's part of the electionification of everything, which is why we as a country are failing to have a proper conversation about our actual problems. It's bad for the left *and* the right.
It's such a bizarre framing. Labour MPs think taking 450k kids out of poverty is putting the country first! That's why they wanted it to happen! It's not because they personally benefit.
Headline on The World at One just now:
"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".
Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".
Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
November 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
It's part of the electionification of everything, which is why we as a country are failing to have a proper conversation about our actual problems. It's bad for the left *and* the right.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
70% of the additional spending from removing the two-child limit will go to families who are in work. This is targeting support for low-income working households who are being priced out of a decent standard of living despite doing everything asked of them.
November 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
70% of the additional spending from removing the two-child limit will go to families who are in work. This is targeting support for low-income working households who are being priced out of a decent standard of living despite doing everything asked of them.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Public Law Project's latest report finds that the average universal credit sanction is hundreds of pounds more than a criminal fine.
Universal credit sanctions more 'severe' and 'damaging' than criminal fines
www.bigissue.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Public Law Project's latest report finds that the average universal credit sanction is hundreds of pounds more than a criminal fine.
the only national newspapers that don't churn out bullshit ragebait about employment tribunals are the ones that don't report on them at all
The Times’ reporting on employment tribunals is routinely awful. The headlines are clickbait claims which the body copy often contradicts. In this case the issue was not the use of the word “fireman” but failing to challenge a campaign of persistent offensive behaviour. And he wasn’t fired. He left
November 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
the only national newspapers that don't churn out bullshit ragebait about employment tribunals are the ones that don't report on them at all
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I say this mostly because Reform and certain journalists friendly to them seem determined to start a “white flight” narrative since net migration has dropped so dramatically.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
November 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I say this mostly because Reform and certain journalists friendly to them seem determined to start a “white flight” narrative since net migration has dropped so dramatically.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
The number of British citizens emigrating hasn’t increased, btw. Outward migration is up, but the increase is mostly non-EU migrants leaving the UK.
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
November 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
The number of British citizens emigrating hasn’t increased, btw. Outward migration is up, but the increase is mostly non-EU migrants leaving the UK.
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
NEW - the government poised to water down flagship workers rights bill, ditching day one rights to unfair dismissal but reducing qualifying period from two years to six months.
But in concession to unions, government will remove provisions for up to nine months probation.
But in concession to unions, government will remove provisions for up to nine months probation.
November 27, 2025 at 4:57 PM
NEW - the government poised to water down flagship workers rights bill, ditching day one rights to unfair dismissal but reducing qualifying period from two years to six months.
But in concession to unions, government will remove provisions for up to nine months probation.
But in concession to unions, government will remove provisions for up to nine months probation.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
beat rachel reeves - devalue your 2 million pound house by spraying PAEDO LIVES HERE on the front of it
November 27, 2025 at 11:45 AM
beat rachel reeves - devalue your 2 million pound house by spraying PAEDO LIVES HERE on the front of it
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
I'm not sure how much it is appreciated that there will be significant emigration coming. Those here on graduate visas coming to an end, the toughening up of skilled worker rules re. salaries/sponsorable roles and the 'earned settlement' changes to come. Lots of people are going to leave.
November 27, 2025 at 11:08 AM
I'm not sure how much it is appreciated that there will be significant emigration coming. Those here on graduate visas coming to an end, the toughening up of skilled worker rules re. salaries/sponsorable roles and the 'earned settlement' changes to come. Lots of people are going to leave.
Reposted by Chaminda Jayanetti
Spot on. The terms of the plan 2 loan are utterly usurious. Notably the budget has not frozen just the threshold for repayments at a marginal rate of 9%, dragging more and more graduates into it, but it also freezes the interest of those loans which is as much as 6.2%! Which is ridiculous!!
I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax
The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax
www.newstatesman.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Spot on. The terms of the plan 2 loan are utterly usurious. Notably the budget has not frozen just the threshold for repayments at a marginal rate of 9%, dragging more and more graduates into it, but it also freezes the interest of those loans which is as much as 6.2%! Which is ridiculous!!