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Sunder Katwala (sundersays)

@sundersays.bsky.social

36K followers 5K following 19K posts

Director of @britishfuture.bsky.social Author How to be a Patriot https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/how-to-be-a-patriot-why-love-of-country-can-end-our-very-british-culture-war-sunder-katwala?variant=40518936559694 Evertonian

harpercollins.co.uk

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 2d

I spoke to The Guardian's Steve Rose for this wide-ranging interview about identity issues: flags & patriotism, the far right & racism online + offline, control & compassion on asylum, and still looking for the common ground in polarised times
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’

The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the U...

www.theguardian.com

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Rupert Lowe says that he would also propose to deport most of the legal migrants in Britain - but that this will be a future research paper. Susan Hall and Gavin Williamson remain on team Lowe.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Lowe would hope to deport 1.8 million people in two years - but is sure he can do it in three.

(There are unlikely to be 1.8 million people without legal status)

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

The Restore Britain costs have gone up to £58 billion - (kept down to £58 billion by assuming three-quarters of people leave voluntarily, though Lowe says maybe even more would do so)

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Rupert Lowe proposes a new law requiring the government to purchase 5-10% of seats on airlines to specific countries for deportations

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Deport 60,000 people granted refugee status in the last decade
+ Deport 60,000 people currently in the asylum system (without hearing the merit of their claim)
+ Take no refugees at all in future

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

Restore Britain's convoluted way of calliing for Britain to take no refugees at all.

UK should only ever give refugee status to genuine asylum seekers from neighbouring countries, which, given every one of our neighbours is a safe country "would effectively mean scrapping our whole asylum system"

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Restore Britain (Rupert Lowe, backed by Conservatives Susan Hall and Gavin Williamson) propose to strip 56,600 people who have been granted refugee status in Britain over the last eight years of that status and deport them.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Lowe wants to pay bounties for those who report people without status for deportation

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Lowe thinks his mass deportations would cost £30 billion over a parliament - about quadruple the £8 billion that the Conservatives think this would cost. (He is assuming about 3/4 of people will go voluntarily, via hostile enviroment, to try to keep this number down to £30 billion)

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3h

Lowe wishes to quadruple the cost of a visitors visa to UK - esp for people from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and China - to fund mass deportations to those countries.

(In the hypothetical world where Lowe is running a British ICE, he may be overestimating the visitor numbers/revenue)

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

Restore Britain propose to "resolve the Northern Ireland question by maintaining in Britain’s domestic law only the small slither of ECHR precedent that has a bearing on the rights of Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland" (!)

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

The Thames Water study had several Telegraph, Times and Ipso corrections: the maths was exaggerated, and the count included legal migrants (again).

Restore Britain quote the debunked figures, and add our hunch is its probably more than that anyway

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

Restore Britain say: "In Sept 2020, Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford reported that there could be anywhere between 800,000 and 1.2 million illegal"

Actually, Migration Observatory showed that Pew estimate included legal migrants with ILR: So Pew withdrew it down to 700-900k

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

This paragraph manages to use two different reports which have both been withdrawn!

It ignores that they have been withdrawn - and says they were probably underestimates anyway.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

Lowe's deportations plan, Published today
assets.nationbuilder.com/restorebrita...

assets.nationbuilder.com

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

The deportation plan will cost "tens of billions"

"but savings from reduced public spending and revenue from fixed penalty notices and taxes on remittance payments will no doubt offset such costs" (!)

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

This is silly gibberish on UK-EU relations and ECHR

Leave ECHR (which is the foundation of justice and home affairs cooperation) + say it needed "a lick of paint" anyway.

But "call for imaginative new partnerships with the EU on border security and much else" anyway!

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

Europe should take no refugees

"In longer term, we push for a new worldwide status quo that would impose an obligation on self-described refugees to seek asylum in their home continent"

"This would reduce cultural conflicts & give world leaders a stronger incentive to support regional stability".

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

I emailed the local police officer to note the new incident + why I see this case as a way to illuminate these Qs

"Why do the most incessant racists feel they have impunity for sustained racist harassment? What are the impediments to bringing racists within the law, and how can they be overcome?"

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

Another notification on the questions X will be asking to adjudicate this one

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

X are going to look into where they stand on "You're going back P____" from this racist stalker who is evading their earlier ban

(It looks like a tricky one!)

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

My racist stalker "John Smith" is back.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

The officer agreed to try to pursue that.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5h

Kent Police told me (June 10th) they wanted to see this through to a prosecution, given the serious + sustained nature of this racially aggravated harassment.

But X had refused to give up the user details, so they would have to file it. I advised that it would be v disappointing if they gave up

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 11h

The very sharp dip is interesting partly because it does not correspond to new change in constitutional preferences