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Chai Patel

@chaipatel.net
7.6K followers 1.3K following 263 posts

Migration, human rights, public law. He/him.

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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 29/09/2026
Given the bit of law we really care about in the UK is libel, let's just expand it to include protected groups as a class.
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
To be clear, resettlement schemes, as proposed here (where the screenshots are from), are good. But not everyone can wait around in dangerous situations, hoping to be plucked to safety by the UK government. Using resettlement as a reason to crack down on spontaneous asylum claims is therefore bad
theguardian.com
UK to open new refugee resettlement routes for Afghan women and Palestinians
Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 27/09/2026
can they hear themselves?
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"In order to deliver the PM's promise to save social care we need a permanent class of indentured migrant workers without labour rights".
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 27/09/2026
They can't do both. They have to pick one or the other. As long as they obsess over driving migration down, they will be operating in a frame that benefits the far right both politically and economically. If they want to change the politics of immigration, they have to embrace it.
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Condemnation is pure hot air if in the next breath you’re telling everyone you’re doing your best to give the fascists what they want, just without the masks
In fact, these are scenes we have not seen on British streets. Immigration needs to be deal with, I will be the first to say that and we are dealing with it. The boat crossings have been halved since six years ago, net migration is down massively.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Rayner is correct: these proposals are economically damaging and politically counterproductive. Pretty clear that view is now almost universal in the Cabinet/Labour Party and the informed public. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Angela Rayner condemns Labour’s migrant visa crackdown
Speaking before the party conference, the housing secretary says Shabana Mahmood’s immigration plans would affect care workers
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Every so often I'm reminded of this essential story about how Palantir operates in trying to win public contracts. It's from 2022 but anyone interested how they've built up such a big role in the NHS and wider UK public sector should read it. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Peter Thiel’s Palantir Had Secret Plan to Crack UK’s NHS: ‘Buying Our Way In’
Palantir Technologies had a secret plan to deepen its relationship with the UK’s National Health Service without public scrutiny.
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 22/09/2026
The government has consistently signalled, whether intentionally or through stupidity and cowardice, that these are legitimate reasonable views to hold. We need such a radical turnaround to fix this rot.
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 22/09/2026
The migrants forced to steer the boats during the crossings including people who acted heroically to save others are prosecuted for endangering lives.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A lot of Labour people visibly believe that a Labour government gives off tolerance particles, and therefore sitting mute is fine and good. The reality is that it took a cross party, whole society effort to make us, as Sunak says, the most successful multiethnic, multifaith democracy in the world:
thetimes.com
Rishi Sunak: Britishness must not be turned into a DNA test
I worry that the immigration debate is going far beyond arrival numbers
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Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Eating whitebait in her honour. Thirty little lives on a plate. Yum yum.
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Either we speak out wholeheartedly in favour of international law, our moral obligations to refugees, the fantastic diversity of our country, everyone’s right to respect & the centrality of the rule of law to our democracy, or we‘re giving ground to people who want none of that
theguardian.com
‘Outright racist’ Daniel Thomas will face full force of law over any crimes, says home secretary
Shabana Mahmood says she wants to distinguish between far-right extremism and legitimate local concerns over asylum sites
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Reprieve @reprievehq.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This morning we received the news that an Indian court has ordered Jagtar Singh Johal be granted bail.
Jagtar Singh Johal
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
After the university sector, and potentially the nursing and care sectors, you’ve got to wonder how many other parts of our economy and society will be burnt to the ground in the despicable and also vain hope of attracting the votes of racists
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Emiliano Mellino @mellino.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The UK government is making upwards of £4.9bn in profit from visa fees, citizenship fees & the immigration health surcharge. Meanwhile, people are getting into thousands of pounds of debt or going without food just to afford to these immigration fees. www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
thebureauinvestigates.com
Government makes £5bn a year from immigration fees while applicants…
Home Office’s fees are up to 10 times the processing cost – and rising every year
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Sinan Kose @thesinankose.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Look if you want to deal with money laundering, there are already laws in place. It's just that actually enforcing them would likely collapse the entire British economy so we just don't. No need to take it out on the unseasonably tanned gentleman giving you a fade.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I know that the in doctrine in English politics is to imagine that cities are occupied by, I don’t know, ghosts, but it is in fact a good and desirable policy aim that all our core cities (aka “population centres”) have good, free museums and galleries.
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Minnie Rahman @minnierahman.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Given what has happened to the RNLI, this is when wider civil society should speak in solidarity about the far-right and political parties attacking charities delivering vital services for vulnerable people. The voluntary sector is part of our social fabric, it needs protecting.
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Shabana Mahmood's settlement reforms would, if implemented, likely have a very damaging effect on integration. The parents of these children would be subjected to prolonged temporary status, tied to a specific job and financial penalties, all of which are socially and economically damaging.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 07/09/2026
If every statement about Extinction Rebellion had opened with "Climate change is the single biggest issue facing humanity, and we understand why people have legitimate concerns the world isn't doing enough to tackle it…" this approach might be *faintly* defensible. But they didn't, and it isn't.
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The intimidatory atmosphere *is the whole point*! You can’t just divorce what they were expressing from the way in which they were expressing it! 🤦‍♂️
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Labour MP & ex-immigration minister Mike Tapp here, telling the racists they’re right, & criticising them only for going about it wrong & being insufficiently appreciative of the government’s efforts to placate them, and also equating racists with the targets of racism
Dover knows better than most the pressures immigration and border disruption can bring. We have lived on the front line of the small-boats crisis for years. We have also endured queues and gridlock caused by changes to cross-Channel travel.
So the last thing Dover needs is another group deliberately blocking our roads.There is another irony.
Small-boat arrivals this summer were down 46% compared with last year. Government action is starting to work: stronger cooperation with France, more disruption of smuggling gangs, more arrests and more returns.
People have every right to protest about immigration. They have every right to demand stronger borders. But intimidating a town in balaclavas and blocking one of Britain’s most important ports? That isn’t the way to do it.
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Great news that Justin Bates KC will be trying to keep the Nearly Legal housing law blog going despite the very sad death of its founder, Giles Peaker. Justin needs help, though. If you are into housing law, take a look: nearlylegal.co.uk/2026/08/tech...
nearlylegal.co.uk
Technical difficulties and plans for the future - Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment
I am sorry that the site has been down for a few days. It was nothing more complicated than missed payments to the hosting company which Giles had been unable to authorise, for obvious reasons. I want...
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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The higher education participation rate for UK born Bangladeshi women went from around 2% (not a typo) in 1983 to nearly 67% in 2025 This must be one of the most dramatic, fast social changes in recent British history, and one that is barely noted or understood
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Netpol @netpol.org · 17/08/2026
Democracy Now! in the US (@democracynow.org) has an exclusive interview with Rajiv Menon KC, the lawyer for a Palestine Action defendant who is facing contempt of court charges youtu.be/ICnflIjCObQ?...
youtu.be
Exclusive: Palestine Action Lawyer Rajiv Menon Breaks Silence on Facing Contempt Charges in U.K.
YouTube video by Democracy Now!
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 14/08/2026
Burnham : 'Where we are going you won't need barbecues'.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
There has been a converted attempt here (including by the current Home Sec) to promote the "Danish model" of anti-immigrant policy as being somehow consistent with social democratic/progressive values. So we should welcome this mask-off moment from the Danish PM.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The multimillionaire ex-CEO of Serco (2014-2023) - the company the Home Office has handed billions to run sub-standard and dangerous asylum accommodation - is now the Lead Non-Executive Director at... the Home Office. www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
Rupert Soames OBE
Rupert Soames joined the Home Office as a non-executive director in June 2026. He is a highly experienced UK public company chief executive officer (CEO), having served 11 years as CEO of Aggreko, fol...
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Hugo Gordon @hugogordon.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Really do think this is true. There seems to be a weird inability of many leading politicians and pundits to understand that many many people hold sincerely socially progressive beliefs and, crucially, will vote accordingly
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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The British Foreign Office say that Sweden has an inexplicably hardline approach, meanwhile the British Home Office ..... Terrible for individual human beings when states act like this and nobody deserves it to happen to them, whatever their nationality.
theguardian.com
British widow, 78, told to leave Sweden under Brexit rules after living there for 21 years
Authorities say application to stay was made too late, as UK officials say Sweden takes ‘stricter approach’ than other EU countries
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I genuinely don't understand how @antoniabance.bsky.social gets from "I don't need mad speeches from the PM about strangers" [top] to "I'm broadly fine with [forced remigration of 100,000s of people who came here legally to work]" [bottom] ..which was the "mad speech about strangers" policy..
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Maayan Niezna @niezna.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
If a person lies on their CV to get a job, should losing their salary be part of their punishment for their 'CV Fraud'? In a new post on @labourblog.bsky.social I show that the confiscation of wages is problematic and reflects a misunderstanding of work: uklabourlawblog.com/2026/08/07/c...
uklabourlawblog.com
“Cheating honest workers out of employment”: The confiscation of wages as proceeds of crime – by Maayan Niezna
Image by AlexanderStein from Pixabay In response to some work-related criminal offences, sanctions under UK law include not only fines and imprisonment, but also the confiscation of wages as procee…
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Kate Watson @loreandordure.com · 08/08/2026
I absolutely literally, while at school, was more than once told to my face that it was unfair/unkind of me to be topping the class in some science / maths subject because boys would be demoralised.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Whilst Andy Burnham has found the time to opine on such vital issues as 'vertical drinking', and whether a bread roll should be called a ‘barm’, he has not found the time to comment on some of the worst racist violence on Britain's streets in the postwar period www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/illegitima...
adambienkov.co.uk
Illegitimate Concerns: Andy Burnham's Non-Response to the Thetford Pogrom Is His First Big Failure
Whilst happy to opine on 'vertical drinking' and whether bread rolls should be called 'barms', our new PM has had nothing to say about three days of horrific racist violence on our streets
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think of scenarios in which 3+ days of race riots, culminating in break-ins to property and apparent attempts to lynch or kidnap the occupants, would be basically the only thing on the news
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Ian Kikuchi @curatorian.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
It dismays me to see that the BBC has replaced 'alleged' with 'suspected', which entirely misses the point. It's completely wrong to use criminal justice language in relation to people seeking asylum.
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Liberty @libertyhq.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
End-to-end encryption is an essential security tool that protects our personal data, including our bank details, health information, private conversations and images. That's why alongside Privacy International, we're challenging the Technical Capability Notice (TCN) regime.
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
"Legitimate concerns" is starting to feel very "you had people that were very fine people on both sides"
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Chai Patel @chaipatel.net · 07/08/2026
Disgusting to say this during another summer of race riots. Labour are helping whip up hatred against the victims of an immigration system that forces people out of status and into exploitation and then punishes them for it.
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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
last week i found out one of my wife's friends now also casually pencils in days where it's safer to simply not go outside for a week or two after the inevitable next set of race riots happen. i should not know two people doing this, much less *one* person doing this
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The continued political silence over the spread of these anti-migrant, anti-refugee pogroms in the UK is a disgrace. This one has been going on for three nights in a row now and the Home Secretary and Prime Minister haven't said a single word about it www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Norfolk police arrest two men after officers injured during unrest over asylum plans
Homes of people believed to be asylum seekers attacked during two nights of violence in Thetford
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Projections of the white British population in 40-50 years time involve assumptions that may often wrong about self-identity of those of mixed ethnic heritage. The Katwala household bucked the national trend, 2011-21, in a way that is quite common among grandchildren of black + Asian migrants
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is a really inadequate Home Office statement in these circumstancds It empathises with this protest as expressing legitimate concerns, singles out violence against police, and simply fails to say "violence threatening asylum seekers, migrants & other minorities is shocking + wrong"
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is truly execrable reporting from the BBC on the racist disorder in Thetford. “…amid fears they were being used to house asylum seekers.” What were those “fears” and why are you giving them this implicitly legitimacy?
PA MEDIA
A large group stormed three properties including this one on Bracken Road, amid fears they were being used to house asylum seekers
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Immigration Bot @immigrationbot.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
"The Work Rights Centre is looking for an experienced and values-driven Immigration Adviser or Solicitor to join our frontline team. In this role, you will deliver life-changing legal advice to vulnerable migrants, while using your frontline insights to contribute directly to…" — Free Movement
freemovement.org.uk
Job ad: WoRC is recruiting an Immigration Adviser or Solicitor - Free Movement
The Work Rights Centre is looking for an experienced and values-driven Immigration Adviser or Solicitor to join our frontline team. In this role, you will
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Jamie @crayonsocialism.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I heard “inshallah and the creek don’t rise” the other day.
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Hugo Gordon @hugogordon.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Fair play to C4 for asking these questions. Very revealing answers from Stephenson that these are essentially unenforceable, that there is no plan for what happens if someone decides, say, a cis woman looks trans, and that businesses should have single sex toilets except where they shouldn't 🤷‍♂️
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I don't even know what to say. This is real, this is true, so, like, thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. This took over 25 years to happen so if there's any lesson here it's either "keep at it, who knows" or "many people are divorced"
image of a gold record superimposed on part of Vaughan Oliver's iconic cover for the Mountain Goats' "Tallahassee" album, with a banner beneath it showing the entire album cover, an RIAA seal, and the text: Presented to THE MOUNTAIN GOATS to commemorate the RIAA Gold certification of more than 500,000 copies of the 4AD single "No Children"
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