Imogen Shaw
@imogenshaw.bsky.social
Public affairs & policy at SEC Newgate; occasional writer; enjoyer of cats, green energy and horror/fantasy novels
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
If someone has travelled thousands of miles, paying everything they own to an exploitative people smuggling gang, risking their life in a deadly channel crossing, I do not want to be the person who takes their last valuables – a mother’s necklace? A gift? – from them. And nor should the rest of us.
November 17, 2025 at 8:52 AM
If someone has travelled thousands of miles, paying everything they own to an exploitative people smuggling gang, risking their life in a deadly channel crossing, I do not want to be the person who takes their last valuables – a mother’s necklace? A gift? – from them. And nor should the rest of us.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
A strong immigration system doesn't need to be a cruel one.
It shouldn't need saying - but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.
This daughter of an immigrant is proud of our British and Labour values of respect and not turning our backs on people in real need.
It shouldn't need saying - but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.
This daughter of an immigrant is proud of our British and Labour values of respect and not turning our backs on people in real need.
November 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
A strong immigration system doesn't need to be a cruel one.
It shouldn't need saying - but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.
This daughter of an immigrant is proud of our British and Labour values of respect and not turning our backs on people in real need.
It shouldn't need saying - but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution.
This daughter of an immigrant is proud of our British and Labour values of respect and not turning our backs on people in real need.
*Looking longingly through a portal into the alternative timeline where Reeves broke the tax pledge at Labour’s first Budget, when they had vastly more political capital.*
Polling from the time showed most voters expected Labour to break it anyway!
November 17, 2025 at 11:59 AM
*Looking longingly through a portal into the alternative timeline where Reeves broke the tax pledge at Labour’s first Budget, when they had vastly more political capital.*
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
I simply do not understand how the govt can simultaneously believe (1) they don’t have enough political capital to breach the manifesto on tax and (2) they have enough to political capital to pick an unwinnable fight with their own MPs on immigration.
November 17, 2025 at 11:01 AM
I simply do not understand how the govt can simultaneously believe (1) they don’t have enough political capital to breach the manifesto on tax and (2) they have enough to political capital to pick an unwinnable fight with their own MPs on immigration.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
In the interests of accountability:
These proposals are trying to set up claiming credit for the likely fall in net migration. This misunderstands the media environment and voting patterns; it will help Farage while losing votes for Labour. They are also morally objectionable and costly. (1/2)
These proposals are trying to set up claiming credit for the likely fall in net migration. This misunderstands the media environment and voting patterns; it will help Farage while losing votes for Labour. They are also morally objectionable and costly. (1/2)
November 17, 2025 at 8:53 AM
In the interests of accountability:
These proposals are trying to set up claiming credit for the likely fall in net migration. This misunderstands the media environment and voting patterns; it will help Farage while losing votes for Labour. They are also morally objectionable and costly. (1/2)
These proposals are trying to set up claiming credit for the likely fall in net migration. This misunderstands the media environment and voting patterns; it will help Farage while losing votes for Labour. They are also morally objectionable and costly. (1/2)
Bleak, and accurate.
"[T]he [dividing] lines it is drawing are not challenges it can meet in reality,...the campaigns it is running are against its own, & that far from providing the government with...direction, all it does is accelerate the demise of a directionless & paranoid administration" @stephenkb.bsky.social
Brain-dead Labour retreats to its comfort zone: campaigning
Downing Street’s bizarre war on itself is a symptom of a government whose ideas dissolve on contact with reality
www.ft.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Bleak, and accurate.
“Taxes on wealth are essential politically, but they are insufficient for a resilient social-democratic politics and a truly better society. Taxation is the downpayment that we as citizens all make to live in a fair and cohesive society“ - could not agree more.
November 10, 2025 at 8:32 AM
“Taxes on wealth are essential politically, but they are insufficient for a resilient social-democratic politics and a truly better society. Taxation is the downpayment that we as citizens all make to live in a fair and cohesive society“ - could not agree more.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
New - Louise Haigh and Vicky Foxcroft are reviving the Tribune group to do organising in the PLP along the soft left. Key figure in the welfare rebellion are formalising their organising power ahead of the Budget.
(yes this is one for the nerds)
Story here - www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
(yes this is one for the nerds)
Story here - www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Labour MPs revive ‘desperately needed’ soft left group to take on Reform
Exclusive: Tribune hopes over 100 MPs join group led by Vicky Foxcroft and former cabinet minister Louise Haigh
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
New - Louise Haigh and Vicky Foxcroft are reviving the Tribune group to do organising in the PLP along the soft left. Key figure in the welfare rebellion are formalising their organising power ahead of the Budget.
(yes this is one for the nerds)
Story here - www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
(yes this is one for the nerds)
Story here - www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Did women ruin the workplace? Should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Blue Labour?
November 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Did women ruin the workplace? Should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Blue Labour?
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
BBC News bulletins leading on the story of an Algerian man being mistakenly released by the prison service.
Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government
Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government
November 5, 2025 at 2:55 PM
BBC News bulletins leading on the story of an Algerian man being mistakenly released by the prison service.
Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government
Funnily enough I don't remember these cases ever leading the bulletins when an average of ten prisoners were mistakenly released a month in the final year of the last Government
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Centre-left politicians worried about anti-car policies polling badly in the short term need to remember: every measure that pushes people to cycle or use public transport ultimately creates more centre-left voters; every measure that leads to more people driving creates more right-wing voters
There should be a tax on ridiculously bloated road boats registered in urban areas, because (a) they cause obvious problems in such areas (b) they are bad for the environment (c) they are dangerous for children (d) they are awful, and driving them should be expensive and socially stigmatised.
Cars the U.K are up to 55% larger today than they were in the 1970s and there are twice the number of motors on our roads as there were 30 years ago, but anti-Low Traffic Neighbourhood and anti-cycle lane campaigners keep claiming they 'cause congestion'.
Okay.
Okay.
November 6, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Centre-left politicians worried about anti-car policies polling badly in the short term need to remember: every measure that pushes people to cycle or use public transport ultimately creates more centre-left voters; every measure that leads to more people driving creates more right-wing voters
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 6, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Exactly this. Found it chilling a few weeks ago when a BBC journalist asked Starmer if he would be comfortable with his daughter walking past an asylum hotel. Mainstream broadcasters seem to have decided it is not worth questioning the assumption Rob describes here.
It's obviously a bad thing if any prisoner is released by mistake, but why is it worse if it's an asylum-seeker?
It seems just to be taken for granted now that someone is more dangerous because they're an asylum-seeker than because they're a criminal.
Something very dangerous is building here.
It seems just to be taken for granted now that someone is more dangerous because they're an asylum-seeker than because they're a criminal.
Something very dangerous is building here.
Well, that was a very weird deputy PMQs. James Cartlidge asking the same question five times – could David Lammy guarantee no other jailed asylum seekers have been accidentally released rather than deported – and Lammy each time instead condemning the Tories' record on prisons and justice.
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Exactly this. Found it chilling a few weeks ago when a BBC journalist asked Starmer if he would be comfortable with his daughter walking past an asylum hotel. Mainstream broadcasters seem to have decided it is not worth questioning the assumption Rob describes here.
I used to run the Labour Campaign for Childcare Reform X account. We abandoned it as our supporters stopped seeing our posts, and we stopped seeing much from potential supporters.
We did, however, start getting funnelled a lot of content about the merits of the racist ‘white replacement‘ theory.
We did, however, start getting funnelled a lot of content about the merits of the racist ‘white replacement‘ theory.
"The X algorithm prioritises sending new users right-wing leaning content", a Sky News Data and Forensics investigation reveals
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:35 AM
I used to run the Labour Campaign for Childcare Reform X account. We abandoned it as our supporters stopped seeing our posts, and we stopped seeing much from potential supporters.
We did, however, start getting funnelled a lot of content about the merits of the racist ‘white replacement‘ theory.
We did, however, start getting funnelled a lot of content about the merits of the racist ‘white replacement‘ theory.
Available in paperback for anyone who wants to share the experience of reading an excellent book and feeling malaise about the Labour Party!
books.google.co.uk/books/about/...
books.google.co.uk/books/about/...
Re-reading @colmpm.bsky.social’s marvellous “Futures of Socialism”. A very different experience to reading the proof in 2023 and having a horrible feeling of dread, as opposed to now where you go “well, yeah, my worst fears have been realised and exceeded”.
November 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Available in paperback for anyone who wants to share the experience of reading an excellent book and feeling malaise about the Labour Party!
books.google.co.uk/books/about/...
books.google.co.uk/books/about/...
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Thought the Times had been hoaxed. Turns out to be so much better than that
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Thought the Times had been hoaxed. Turns out to be so much better than that
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Quite why is unclear at this point. Clearly this place is a bit of an echo chamber. It’s just an echo chamber full of people previously inclined to support Labour and half the journalists and think tankers in the country.
I just realised, the Labour Party doesn’t even have an account over here?!
October 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Quite why is unclear at this point. Clearly this place is a bit of an echo chamber. It’s just an echo chamber full of people previously inclined to support Labour and half the journalists and think tankers in the country.
The main difference between the UK and our European counterparts who enjoy cheaper energy bills is that where we add levies directly to energy bills, they often fund the same things through general taxation instead.
Did you know that government levies have driven more than half of the rise in electricity bills in recent years?
@jonnymarshall.bsky.social explains a better way of doing things ⤵️
Read 'Splitting the bill' to find out how the Government can cut costs for three-in-four households ⤵️ buff.ly/sHhw6L1
@jonnymarshall.bsky.social explains a better way of doing things ⤵️
Read 'Splitting the bill' to find out how the Government can cut costs for three-in-four households ⤵️ buff.ly/sHhw6L1
October 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The main difference between the UK and our European counterparts who enjoy cheaper energy bills is that where we add levies directly to energy bills, they often fund the same things through general taxation instead.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
Nice summary of the fiscal situation in the UK. I’ll add this - over recent elections the pattern between income and vote choice has broken down. Labour, without quite realising it, have become a party whose younger, graduate, professional voters are now the ones paying much higher marginal rates.
Britain has become a country of high taxes for the few and low taxes for the many and that settlement is now breaking down. www.newstatesman.com/politics/mor...
Is Britain a high-tax country?
Even as overall taxes have risen, most have been paying less
www.newstatesman.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Nice summary of the fiscal situation in the UK. I’ll add this - over recent elections the pattern between income and vote choice has broken down. Labour, without quite realising it, have become a party whose younger, graduate, professional voters are now the ones paying much higher marginal rates.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
I think this is absolutely right. Also, so many of these guys do actually understand that 'a mixed-race family in an advert' is there to sell people things. They absolutely cannot stand that some minorities are successful. It is resentment all the way down.
Think one of the key things why adverts are such a thing with them is that people in ads are usually enjoying themselves and having a nice life; seeing non-white people be happy is something that drives your typical racist absolutely mad
Something I can't get over with the Sarah Pochin comments is that it's not just racist, it's also pathetic? Like oh wittle Sarah doesn't like the wittle adverts is it? Get a grip, you're a grown woman and member of parliament, stop being a snowflake and find a real problem to deal with
October 27, 2025 at 8:46 AM
I think this is absolutely right. Also, so many of these guys do actually understand that 'a mixed-race family in an advert' is there to sell people things. They absolutely cannot stand that some minorities are successful. It is resentment all the way down.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
"It is striking that Calgie’s apology went down far worse with the population of X than his original offence. Perhaps the conservative soul has changed. But if the right’s problem is ideological hygiene, then perhaps it’s because it’s swimming in an open sewer."
The British right is swimming in an open sewer
We are drifting into territory that once would have seemed extreme
www.newstatesman.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM
"It is striking that Calgie’s apology went down far worse with the population of X than his original offence. Perhaps the conservative soul has changed. But if the right’s problem is ideological hygiene, then perhaps it’s because it’s swimming in an open sewer."
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
🙃
And people say the British press doesn't know anything about Ireland. They got this scoop, didn't they.
October 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
🙃
Union affiliates‘ impact on turnout important - I’m actually quite surprised turnout wasn’t lower.
Congratulations to Lucy Powell on being elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party
Powell: 87,407 (54%)
Phillipson: 73,536 (46%)
Only 161k voted (16%). Probably mainly a very low turnout among union affiliates; I would guess > 50% among actual members
Powell: 87,407 (54%)
Phillipson: 73,536 (46%)
Only 161k voted (16%). Probably mainly a very low turnout among union affiliates; I would guess > 50% among actual members
October 25, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Union affiliates‘ impact on turnout important - I’m actually quite surprised turnout wasn’t lower.
Reposted by Imogen Shaw
