Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Need to see the actual white paper tomorrow but my sense is the rhetoric is a lot tougher than the actual changes to the system. And therein lies the problem. 1320615
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/05/2025What Labour should be doing is creating a new narrative about immigration - about welcoming people who make a contribution but reducing the numbers who don't. Pretending to be super tough pisses off liberals and won't be believed by Reform voters. 45810164
Bill Moore @btm9876.bsky.social · 11/05/2025And let’s face they Will probably go more Tighter as the week goes on as Reform and Tories are not happy 030
Steve Griffiths 🏴 @cymry.bsky.social · 11/05/2025My experience of the care sector is a bunch of small and large companies exploiting migrants to make huge profits, can't we aspire to do better? 100
lozzadarlo.bsky.social @lozzadarlo.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Labour should be calling out fascism. But they won't. Funny old world innit? Easier to discuss "messaging", "presentation", "voting strategies" ... anything except fascism. Who knows? With a bit of luck it might go away .. www.politico.eu/article/uk-m...politico.euUK minister: I wouldn’t call Trump a fascistUK’s Lisa Nandy distances herself from Kamala Harris amid row between Labour and Trump campaign. 000
Cathie Wood @cathiew.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Why are they refusing to create these narratives? It's basic stuff. 041
Ant ‘meeware’ Miller @meeware.bsky.social · 11/05/2025It just reinforces reform talking points. Stupid evil policies. 020
Jeff @jeffm2018.bsky.social · 11/05/2025I cannot believe that the comms from MP is not going back into Labour HQ, this is the bit that puzzles me. 010
James @dune400.bsky.social · 11/05/2025It's the McSweeney approach. He's obsessed with Reform & it shows 120
Lorenzo C. @lorenzogc.bsky.social · 11/05/2025There's something profoundly unfair in an ethically stunted imbecile having been selected to be the secretary of state of one of the most complex and critical ministries of the British government 000
tadaaa.bsky.social @tadaaa.bsky.social · 11/05/2025bsky.app/profile/tada...@tadaaa.bsky.social@tadaaa.bsky.socialI am actually in an out patients reception at addenbrookes hospital, as I type this - the contrast between the patients (100% elderly white) & the nurses (100% ethnic) is stark 010
D.Moore @d-moore.bsky.social · 11/05/2025🎯 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...theguardian.comHow Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soarAs immigration has increased, GDP has surged and unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008 0117
afternetman.bsky.social @afternetman.bsky.social · 11/05/2025When did Yvette Cooper go from ‘first female leader of the Labour Party’ to ‘the white Suella Braverman’? 030
robredotruthe.bsky.social @robredotruthe.bsky.social · 11/05/2025the migration advisory committee disagrees right- they think that low skilled immigration has the potential to harm low skilled workers, whilst offering little/no wider macro benefit, and that the UK should focus on high skilled immigration which boosts productivity + earnings of everyone... 110
Zoe @zbris.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Are people coming to the UK on care visas and not working in care? 000
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Media/political narrative: we will bring numbers down. I expect white paper policy narrative is control [we decide what is in our interests/& our values, please] + contribution [we welcome + value contributors/but is contribution solely fiscal, eg care] + cohesion [which seems sketchiest about how] 2160
Steamed Buns @aremay.bsky.social · 11/05/2025It's the "Stop The Boats" problem again, and I'm baffled why they have not paid attention to that clear lesson. 110
Jo Hutchinson @jojohutchinson.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Numbers should be possible to model: ‘We will allow people to enter who save you money and improve your quality of life, such as care workers, who save us £X an hour per worker doing jobs citizens don’t want, adding up to £Y billion in total, so we can spend this saving on hospital waiting lists’. 100
Elliot Grant @heritagestanley.bsky.social · 11/05/2025So what's stopping them? It has struck me more and more over the past few years that the people who are supposed to be masters of the dark arts of politics don't seem to be all that good at politics 030
Steve G @talismanbassman.bsky.social · 11/05/2025I don’t get where they’re going with the tactic of chasing the Reform vote. Surely they’ll lose more progressive votes than they’ll gain given Reform/Tories will still be there? IMO they must have the courage of their convictions & go big on ‘good, Labour policies.’ Does Starmer have convictions? 250
A.Stringer @annekin1.bsky.social · 11/05/2025So much this. I think most of the time I can read between the lines. So, on the whole, their populist take doesn't really trigger my left-wing rage. But at the same time, I'm getting rather fed up having to wait for them to say, as well as do the right thing. 000
Anne @aj100.bsky.social · 13/05/2025So disappointed in Starmer. He’s a super smart guy - how can he be getting this so wrong? 030
Jonathan Username @jonathanusername.bsky.social · 11/05/2025This is probably a naive take but why can't we have immigration bargaining like wage bargaining. Publish the figures the NHS and care system need, issue Care Visas or some such marketing rot and do some id card nonsense to back it up. My inner liberal hates it but it might be hard to denigrate. 030
Hugo H @hugoh59.bsky.social · 11/05/2025This is so right. This is a fight they will not win (as Sunak found out). So they need a different and positive framing to help people understand the necessary contribution of migrants. After all without them they won’t achieve significant growth. 010
KitNCaboodle @kitncaboodle.bsky.social · 11/05/2025okay what do you define as "make a contribution?" How do you know before someone is accepted that they will "contribute?" 100
Stanthorpe @stanth0rpe.bsky.social · 11/05/2025It can be solved too: A policy of "we will get *irregular* migration (i.e. excluding people with jobs & students) down to 100k per year". If the Tories / Reform complain, you ask them: why should we treat nurses/ doctors/ entrepreneurs/ scientists like illegal immigrants? Don't you like the economy? 120
Phil Edwards @philedwards.bsky.social · 12/05/2025And pretending to be super tough on immigrants, then letting it be known that *actually* this isn't that big a change, it's just optics, will piss off those Reform voters – who are also capable of reading the press. 000
Sara B @sarabuschova.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Aren’t they beginning to scope out the narrative with the India deal, which is as a run up to the EU FTA? That migration, when managed, is good? 110
Louise Hawley @louiseah.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Would love to believe that - family in the North with limited experience of care workers/NHS staff brought in by visa still only see the boats - will take a personally-felt shock to change their views in the short term 020
Jameslet @jamesh1977.bsky.social · 11/05/2025I don’t think this would even be that difficult. That’s the frustrating thing about it. 110
Andrew Sharpe 🏴|🇪🇺 @andrew.sharpe.scot · 11/05/2025Our FM was spot on in doing exactly this. Scotland needs immigrants and most here understand that. Labour refuses to even acknowledge this. 181
Ian Malcolm @iannmalcolm.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Does current immigration help GDP per capita? No. Do most people want numbers to drop. Yes. Year after year. I think it's responsible that the national government is not ignoring those facts. 120
lila7.bsky.social @lila7.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Those who don’t are probably those who can’t. I.e. those in most NEED. 000
sweepsayer @sootysayer.bsky.social · 11/05/2025is there such a narrative? that reduces the number of immigrants who 'don't make a contribution', that would make liberals happy, and which would satisfy Reform midned voters? 000
Malt_Dismay @malt-dismay.bsky.social · 12/05/2025Starmer is determined to ensure that the electorate never vote Labour ever again. 000
John Rogers @ronnytodgers.bsky.social · 11/05/2025How about taking the 75% of students who emigrate right after their course back out of the bloody numbers or at least contextualising that properly 030
Kelli @kellid.bsky.social · 11/05/2025And they can never go far enough to satisfy the reform voters. They are saying that Reform is right and allowing them to use the narrative at the next election that Labour just didn't do it hard enough so vote Farage to get it done. They need a different story, why are they picking this one? 020
Éamann Mac Donnchada @almagroschool.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Perhaps seek advice from its Catalan comrades (a fantasy, I know) macdonnchada.substack.com/p/salvador-i...macdonnchada.substack.comSalvador Illa Teaches How To Talk About ImmigrantsEvery European politician with a tither of sense knows that we need immigrants and that anyway no democratic state is ever going to take the sort of measures that would stop them from coming. 051
fallum2.bsky.social @fallum2.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Spot on. Needs a positive counter narrative to the far right agenda... As someone once pointed out, the most important part of Anglo-Saxon is the hyphen.... 020
Charles Julian @molynj.bsky.social · 11/05/2025Better immigration rather than less immigration. Leveraging the economic benefits. I'm shit with words, but the point is, that immigration is good (essential), and we should focus on optimising the economic benefit to the country. 060
Stewart Parsons @libraryfiend.bsky.social · 11/05/2025It's impossibly frustrating that they don't have the political smarts to frame this exact argument - a sensible explanation of strategy that would presumably please left and right, and ultimately do the right thing.... 160
