Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21h

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

4 20 64

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7h

Thank you Paul

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7h

This may be the idea that Badenoch is getting at with not wanting the debate to be on "how many faces people see on the street and what they look like"
bsky.app/profile/sund...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

Badenoch both defended Jenrick - for just making observations - but also said: “I don’t think this is where the debate should be, about how many faces people see on the street and what they look like.”
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

1 1

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7h

I put five tests of how to define a "legitimate concern"

(4) was my challenge to talk about integration in a way that can resonate with white, black, Asian and mixed race people in Britain - not in ways that only make sense to one group
www.britishfuture.org/understandin...

2 1 7

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

1 2 3

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

Yet that probably makes sense to many white British mainstream conservatives aged 55-65+ even while seeming a very static 'them and us' way of thinking about this country to second and third generation Britons born a generation or two after that, as well as to liberals from the majority group too

1 4

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

I wrote this in 2013 about David Goodhart's The British Dream - on the "counting heads" approach to treating the white British % as the key indicator of integration
www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemoc...

1 4

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

"The people of Smethwick certainly don't want integration" was the view of Tory Peter Griffiths in his notorious 1964 election contest, explaining why he would never criticise children chanting *that* slogan about n-word neighbours

("Integration" in 1964 as 'woke' social engineering+race mixing)

2 3 11

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

On LBC at 23.20 to talk with Ben Kentish about the impacts in Britain of the two years since October 7th 2023

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

So the new policy is this speech of 7th March 2023 but outside the ECHR

Claim is verybody could be returned within one week (because the government would start to open negotiations on a Rwanda-style scheme with Rwanda or somebody else!). Will hit similar capacity ceiling
www.gov.uk/government/s...

1 1

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

I am agreeing that a populism that pitches to 25-30% (with some respectability credentials and reputational shields) is a different proposition to a Tommy Robindon party, and is now pushing the boundaries right on mass deportations and remigration of legal and even permanent settled migrants

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

Chris Philp says starting Rwanda would have stopped all Channel boats immediately (which is v unlikely given its 1% scale). But it couldnt deter the 30k people in hotels and the 50k people in the UK, who the last government was pledged to refuse forever & renove, with no real world option for where

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14h

Chris Philp reply

3 4 17

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

The UK has some societal strengths. They mean a UK populism needs somewhat stromget very basic overt racism boundaries than the AfD. But clesrly a fragmented 6-8 party system is vulnerable to a populism that pitches to a third of the public rather than a tenth of it, if they manage those tensions

1 4

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

I think Farage is right to see Tommy Robinson and the street football lads as electotally toxic. But that also makes Farage more effective. He has clearly moved right since November (Trump, Musk, Lowe, Robinson) There are few or no Reform moderates and lots of pro-Trump anti-system radicalisers

1 1

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9h

Thanks Dave. It is complicated. I was saying the overt racist 3% are shrinking (and lashing out at so much diversity at the top). Robinson is clearly mobilising his 4% bsse & 10-12% casual support which is the "what has Tommy ever said is racist" latent but clearly racialised grievance group

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

bsky.app/profile/sund...

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

Trump's standing on immigration tends to deteriorate when his push for mass deportations dominates the news, though he has a large minority base for his approach

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

American polarisation is much starker than in Britain, where most people are balancers on immigration. But even in America, attitudes tend to be thermostatic: hardening under Biden, seen as lacking control, now softening under Trump (as in his first term) because of chaos, cruelty and violence

2 6

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

Source: Archie Hall's thread for the deeper dive
bsky.app/profile/arch...

Archie Hall @archiehall.bsky.social · 10h

For the first time in about 70 years, net immigration to America could be zero. Beneath the noise of tariff and budget fights, migration may well be the biggest economic story of 2025.

My latest for @economist.com: Welcome to Zero Migration America

Link: www.economist.com/finance-and...

🧵 below

1 1 4

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

Donald Trump has delivered zero to negative net migration for the first time in 70 years. The chaos and cruelty mean most Americans disapprove of Trump on immigration now - and the US public overall are more *pro" immigration than ever before

1 18 38

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

I don't think they are paying so much attention to politics but I will attempt an update after all of the conferences

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

There was only one 2024 constituency where the Conservatives won 50% of the vote: Harrow East, which is also one of only two Conservative-held seats (with Leicester East) where most voters aren't white

1 2 11

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10h

It is partly Reform-aversion. Scottish Tories are Unionists who value institutions/norms, so face risks from disruptive populism

Ethnic minority Tories [voters] are more centrist on immigration & race - pro-migration (legal), pro-integration, moderately pro-blm - than ethnic minority commentators

1 1 17

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

This is partly because in the longrun Scottish Tories (a quarter or sixth of Scots) and ethnic minority Tories (a fifth/sixth of ethnic minorities) are counter-zeitgeist to start with. Smaller groups, more loyal/resilient.

1 1 9

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

The Conservatives are obviously in a lot of political trouble, because they have lost support after their 24% worst ever result

A quirk that has not been noticed: resilient/loyal Conservatives are more likely to be ethnic minorities and Scottish voters than white British voters in England!

8 15 82

Reposted by Sunder Katwala (sundersays)

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 12h

This statistical fact is also obvious across so many domains: politicians, sport, economics, media, neighbours, partners, children

Does any adult in Britain (20, 40, 60 or 80) really think, has genuinely experienced, *less* interactions across ethnicity than they did as a child or younger afult?

4 10 69

Reposted by Sunder Katwala (sundersays)

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 12h

Here's the relevant chart from the above report. It's rare to see such a clear, consistent slope in any social trend. That segregation is decreasing is perhaps the best evidence, least controversial social fact of modern Britain

3 22 76