Isabelle Candy 🧡
@isacandy.bsky.social
MAT governance lead 🇨🇵🇬🇧🇪🇺
Governance, equal rights, nature, books and crafts.
Governance, equal rights, nature, books and crafts.
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
🔴I wrote about far-right attacks against refugee charities and why some are choosing to leave the sector to protect themselves. It's awful but understandable.
open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
When it's time to move on
It's toxic out there
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:32 PM
🔴I wrote about far-right attacks against refugee charities and why some are choosing to leave the sector to protect themselves. It's awful but understandable.
open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
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 Isabelle Candy 🧡
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
November 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Welfare spending is currently 1.2% of GDP *lower* than in 2012-13.
Abolition of two-child cap is best viewed as a correction than an increase.
Abolition of two-child cap is best viewed as a correction than an increase.
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
November 28, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Welfare spending is currently 1.2% of GDP *lower* than in 2012-13.
Abolition of two-child cap is best viewed as a correction than an increase.
Abolition of two-child cap is best viewed as a correction than an increase.
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
In case you missed it: Home Secretary opens consultation on “earned settlement” | Sonia Lenegan
Home Secretary opens consultation on "earned settlement" - Free Movement
The consultation document is called “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: A statement and accompanying consultation on earned settlement”. The consultation is open
freemovement.org.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:16 PM
In case you missed it: Home Secretary opens consultation on “earned settlement” | Sonia Lenegan
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
...And in terms of asylum applications per 10,000 people the UK is lower down, at 16 per 10,000 people in 2024...
November 17, 2025 at 6:19 PM
...And in terms of asylum applications per 10,000 people the UK is lower down, at 16 per 10,000 people in 2024...
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Everything about the current 'debate' around this is dismal, not just morally but because it is so stupid. For example:
It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)
It shows no understanding of why there is AS
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3
It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)
It shows no understanding of why there is AS
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3
Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says
Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Everything about the current 'debate' around this is dismal, not just morally but because it is so stupid. For example:
It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)
It shows no understanding of why there is AS
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3
It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)
It shows no understanding of why there is AS
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Helpful list of some of the people who, or whose families, Shabana Mahmood thinks should only have been allowed to stay temporarily
Famous Refugees
Famous or not, refugees bring much more than their belongings with them to their new countries.
Here's a list of public figures you might not know were
refugeeweek.org.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Helpful list of some of the people who, or whose families, Shabana Mahmood thinks should only have been allowed to stay temporarily
This⤵️
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 6:47 PM
This⤵️
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
A key point about "volunteering" is that it should be "voluntary". By forcing migrants to volunteer this government not only treats us as if we are a free resource, but also ignores everything else we go through. This policy is dehumanising and exploitative.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
UK charities condemn ‘immoral’ plans to force asylum seekers to volunteer
Making volunteering compulsory for refugees slammed as exploitative, bureaucratic and un-British
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM
A key point about "volunteering" is that it should be "voluntary". By forcing migrants to volunteer this government not only treats us as if we are a free resource, but also ignores everything else we go through. This policy is dehumanising and exploitative.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Still lots of flowers along the Otter estuary in Devon: red campion, ragwort, white flowered nettle, buttercup and yarrow
#wildflowerhour
#wildflowerhour
November 9, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Still lots of flowers along the Otter estuary in Devon: red campion, ragwort, white flowered nettle, buttercup and yarrow
#wildflowerhour
#wildflowerhour
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
This week we are celebrating the trustees and governance professionals whose curiosity and civic leadership strengthen trust culture, strategy and integrity.
#TrusteesWeek
#TrusteesWeek
November 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
This week we are celebrating the trustees and governance professionals whose curiosity and civic leadership strengthen trust culture, strategy and integrity.
#TrusteesWeek
#TrusteesWeek
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Food banks provide help when people need it most. But real change means ending the need for them altogether.
Repost if you agree 💚
Repost if you agree 💚
November 3, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Food banks provide help when people need it most. But real change means ending the need for them altogether.
Repost if you agree 💚
Repost if you agree 💚
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
This TEDx Talk questions how journalists report on underrepresented communities in the UK media.
🔎 Is our reporting designed to inform… or inflame? 🔥
Let’s take a look at last summer’s anti-immigration riots…
Watch the full talk: youtu.be/fJy__NhRqJA
🔎 Is our reporting designed to inform… or inflame? 🔥
Let’s take a look at last summer’s anti-immigration riots…
Watch the full talk: youtu.be/fJy__NhRqJA
November 2, 2025 at 10:40 AM
This TEDx Talk questions how journalists report on underrepresented communities in the UK media.
🔎 Is our reporting designed to inform… or inflame? 🔥
Let’s take a look at last summer’s anti-immigration riots…
Watch the full talk: youtu.be/fJy__NhRqJA
🔎 Is our reporting designed to inform… or inflame? 🔥
Let’s take a look at last summer’s anti-immigration riots…
Watch the full talk: youtu.be/fJy__NhRqJA
Forgot to add #WildFungiHour!
Fungi yesterday at Yarner Wood, #Dartmoor, #Devon.
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
October 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Forgot to add #WildFungiHour!
Fungi yesterday at Yarner Wood, #Dartmoor, #Devon.
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
October 26, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Fungi yesterday at Yarner Wood, #Dartmoor, #Devon.
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
After watching tonight's episode of Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles, I wonder what they look like illuminated by UV light.
Would love someone to identify what they are too.
#WildFlowerHour
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter?
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...
October 10, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter?
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...
1/ If Nigel did his homework, he'd find out that all state schools in England are required by law to promote the fundamental British values of:
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Who's the poisonous one here?
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Who's the poisonous one here?
Nigel Farage says UK teachers are ‘poisoning our kids’ and predicts strikes as PM
Nigel Farage says UK teachers are ‘poisoning our kids’ and predicts strikes as PM
Exclusive: Reform UK leader, speaking at event for private US college, also claimed the ‘Marxist left’ controls education
Nigel Farage has predicted teachers would go on strike within weeks of a Reform UK government, and accused them of “poisoning our kids” by telling them that black children are victims and white children oppressors.
The Reform UK leader set out his view on British schools in an event for a private US Christian college in Michigan, claiming the “Marxist left” was “now in control of our education system”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 9, 2025 at 7:11 PM
1/ If Nigel did his homework, he'd find out that all state schools in England are required by law to promote the fundamental British values of:
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Who's the poisonous one here?
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Who's the poisonous one here?
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
🧵🚨
The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.
Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
1/11
The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.
Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
1/11
UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation
Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.
www.ucl.ac.uk
October 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
🧵🚨
The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.
Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
1/11
The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.
Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
1/11
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
October 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them
Reposted by Isabelle Candy 🧡
"Britain is not broken because of migration. Britain is broken because of inequality. Because of an economy that allows billionaires to hoard wealth while millions struggle to get by. Because of a political class that has lost its nerve and forgotten its purpose."
This is fucking outstanding from Zack, I was punching the air at practically every sentence
Migration is Britain’s superpower. Our future depends on embracing that truth, not denying it | Zack Polanski
Labour has lost its nerve. At our party conference this weekend, we’re gathering to set things right, says Green party leader Zack Polanski
www.theguardian.com
October 3, 2025 at 7:20 PM
"Britain is not broken because of migration. Britain is broken because of inequality. Because of an economy that allows billionaires to hoard wealth while millions struggle to get by. Because of a political class that has lost its nerve and forgotten its purpose."
This ⤵️
🚨Contribution and citizenship.
In her speech at the #LabourPartyConference, the Home Secretary outlined plans to overhaul the rules for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).
We're extremely concerned that this will create a two-tier system that punishes people for needing support.
1/🧵
In her speech at the #LabourPartyConference, the Home Secretary outlined plans to overhaul the rules for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).
We're extremely concerned that this will create a two-tier system that punishes people for needing support.
1/🧵
October 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
This ⤵️
A thread well worth reading.
Going to stick my neck out and say this policy will never be implemented, or will be successfully challenged if it is, leaving the government blundering around (not for the first time) infuriating its former/ potential supporters and getting no credit from its opponents 1/
Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK
New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 30, 2025 at 7:09 PM
A thread well worth reading.
I couldn't agree more!
And I say this as someone who has been a volunteer, paid NI or both during over 3 decades of being a UK resident.
And I say this as someone who has been a volunteer, paid NI or both during over 3 decades of being a UK resident.
Just fuck off with this. How about start the conversation by highlighting how much immigrants contribute to the UK - not least by propping up the NHS and social care system!
Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.
Also - forced volunteering is not volunteering, it's unpaid labour.
September 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
I couldn't agree more!
And I say this as someone who has been a volunteer, paid NI or both during over 3 decades of being a UK resident.
And I say this as someone who has been a volunteer, paid NI or both during over 3 decades of being a UK resident.