I run an organisation that designs policy and campaigns on foreign policy, gender, health and rights. Used to work in two Parliaments. Mancunian in Canada
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Childbearing is physically dangerous & painful for women; childrearing is an exhausting, degraded, isolating, and impoverishing endeavor that annihilates women’s other opportunities & goals. When women are free, they choose fewer children. There is no way to make them have more that is not violent.
How to report on Nazis. And it's real, I checked thenightly.com.au/editions
I swear every corporate op-ed in Canada waxes lyrical about freedom from the yoke of regulation, being unleashed to future-proof innovation, and ending the tyranny that punishes genius. And ends with “and that’s why we need even more government subsidies and a legislatively protected market”
I worry that the decades it took to build anti-racism norms are unravelling quite quickly. Clearly the protests/social media drumbeat has created a permission structure that makes people think they can behave like this. Hard to see how it can be easily re-bottled.
(Why do the women screaming racist abuse get the protection of anonymity? You’re big enough to racially abuse and slander someone on camera, you’re big enough to have your face shown)
Just ordinary concerned mums *checks video* screaming racist abuse and slander at an Asian man while drinking in the street, in charge of their children
Honestly, I think a lot of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic got psyoped into viewing salt of the earth bigots as more authentic and worthy than them and thinking therefore they must ritually cleanse their sin of education by rolling in the gutter.
It would be so unbelievably easy to make a patriotic and pride case for Britain while simultaneously putting the racists and bigots firmly back in their box. I mean the speech writes itself. So why is nobody writing it?
Or he could have just said: "You know what? I quite like flags, but I utterly despise racists."
Starmer could have said: Vandalism isn't patriotism; daubing red crosses on Chinese takeaways and writing racist graffiti isn't patriotism; perfomatively sitting in front of a flag or tying one to a mosque isn't patriotism; Patriotism is about making this country safe, happy productive for all.
(Insisting that food invented in Britain by British people, isn’t actually British because they were people of colour and therefore can’t really be British, is in fact racist and erases centuries of Black and Brown British people)
In an increasingly divided Britain, it is always heartwarming to witness the tradition of ganging up on Americans who wrongly insist chicken tikka masala isn’t British cuisine
The loudest American takes-havers are miserable people who are utterly convinced that every other orderly society is secretly as depraved and heartless as the America that they have built for themselves. Their combination of American provincialism with self-assurance is a national embarrassment.
What is the red line for European governments, in terms of Israeli policy in Gaza - the red line after which they would stop treating Israel as misbehaving ally, "a democratic country exercising self defence"? If mass starvation and annihilation of entire cities don't cut it, I'm really not sure.
DYK: Countries sponsor jobs in the UN system and make them available to their citizens. If you’re looking for an entry level job in the UN, here are the openings sponsored by each country. Canada has 3 junior analyst roles open www.undp.org/jposc/curren...
The utter collapse of the mainstream right’s cordon sanitaire was a far bigger cause of the far right surge than anything the left ever did
And if you're wondering whether someone getting killed is what it will take for the media and political class to come to their senses, I would just remind you that Jo Cox was murdered in a similar moment of demagoguery and hysteria 9 years ago, and if anything things have got far worse since then.
Ivanka and Jared were in West London two days ago. Maybe them, or maybe a practice run for later this month....?
As a parent, it’s comforting to get back to the school routine of selecting the nutritious, delicious lunch supplies that leave the house each morning, and safely return each afternoon, a little bruised but totally uneaten
Thousands of Afghan asylum seekers - including almost 400 women and girls - are stuck in a Catch-22 situation. I spent all week asking the home office what the plan was for them and nobody could tell me. It’s a genuine policy dilemma - does anyone have an answer ? observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Spectacular article, all the major insights captured, but an early one here into how sincerely these men care about protecting our women and girls.
"Talk of mass deportation is Nazi fucking bullshit. You can pretend otherwise, but that's what it is. In order to even countenance it, you must reach a point of hatred towards a minority group which is reminiscent of the very worst moments of human history".
Ironically, in 2015, the Conservative govt created 4 Fundamental British Values. Schools are required by law to display and promote them. They are: democracy, rule of law, individual liberties, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs www.nga.org.uk/knowledge-ce...
As my dad said this week, we won't acknowledge it but the British culture has always had a cruel, mean streak. We are a nation defined by our need for a snitch line, because someone, somewhere needs to be punished for rule breaking
A small group of hardcore racists were legitimized by media and politicians, and it's unleashed previously hidden hate and cruelty in others. Not everyone, and it's still a small group. But racist sentiments that even 3 months ago would have got you fired, are now normal to hear nightly on the TV
I've been home 5 times this summer, and the temperature has steadily ratcheted up. MPs are now openly calling people of colour the N word, and mainstream TV is asking if the Navy should shoot refugees in the sea. I don't know how you backtrack from the sheer hate and cruelty that has been unleashed
Governments can change policies, and politicians could shift narratives. But I don't know if it's possible to put the gleeful hate and cruelty that has emerged this summer, back in the tube
It's just about pride in our country, which is why we've hung the sole England flag right opposite the house of the single African family in the town manchestermill.co.uk/manchester-f...
Manchester's chief flag-raiser is so dedicated to his anti-immigrant views that he....used to smuggle people into the UK. So dedicated to ending violence against women that.....he's on camera slapping a woman manchestermill.co.uk/manchester-f...
Look, concerned mums just need to know refugees aren’t spending their whole £9.95 a week on furs, snowmobiles or antiques www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The flag “debate” is simple. Is flying an England flag inherently racist? Obviously not. Are the people currently doing it en masse racist? Clearly yes.
Not content with spoiling food for hungry children and burning contraceptives for women, the US is now holding a fire sale of aid equipment - x-ray machines, agricultural equipment, sanitation supplies. Stuff that communities need to stay alive www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Yep. IATI is already based in Montreal and hosts other multilateral type events too
This decision isn’t ‘unusual’. It’s a gross violation of the US’s agreement to host the United Nations HQ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Probably won’t catch on. Too outside the box
Starmer’s issue is not a lack of technocratic expertise. It is a failure to understand policy not as a neutral technical skill but as an expression of a vision and values
It's a miracle - a Labour MP making a robust, unapologetic defence of human rights and decency in immigration policy www.politics.co.uk/mp-comment/2...
It’ll never catch on
Have governments instead considered the revolutionary idea of employing a large number of subject matter experts who never hallucinate fake facts and are trained to brief Ministers whenever needed? They could be politically neutral and permanent. We could call it a civil service or something
A proudly racist man with a previous conviction for violent disorder has set up a militia to "tackle crime" and still gets the soft soap treatment
Yes! Exact same conversations happening in gender equality spaces too. Would love to chat more about this. Maybe a call soon?
Same. I’m also not going and feel no regrets at all. I’m not interested in events or conversations that aren’t reality-based, or where there are elephants in the room we can’t address
The extent to which Starmer's Labour seems so petrified of Farage and the right-wing press that Starmer chases their talking points rather than trying to shape debate to his own agenda can only be described as cowardice. Voters are willing to back fighters, they hate quitters
Back home, and if asked, this is my definition of British culture
Almost four years out from an election & paying *the actual fucking Taliban* to torture & murder people who risked their lives to escape them is getting the full ‘both sides’ treatment in Brexit Britain.
5,000 doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers were laid off in Malawi, due to US aid cuts. The US then stiffed workers on the legal severance pay they were due theforsaken.substack.com/p/forcing-ou...
Between the drop in diamond prices and US aid cuts, Botswana’s medical supply chain has collapsed. The government has declared an emergency, all non-urgent surgeries are cancelled www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
A Japan-Africa friendship agreement for twin towns sparks a wave of xenophobia after disinformation claims Japan agreed to mass immigration of Africans www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Increasingly I feel that what once was considered the political mainstream in the U.K. has completely lost its moral compass. When did the question about concentration camps and mass deportations become one of practical feasibility?
Dunno why he resigned since Reform usually describes this behaviour as reasonable people expressing concerns about English values
One point I’ve not seen raised in relation to Farage’s plan to pay the Taliban to take refugees, is that paying the Taliban is largely illegal as their members are under UK and international sanctions. Anti-terrorism laws also likely apply www.gov.uk/government/p...
Immigration is the central issue of our century and progressives must defend it or lose absolutely everything to fascism
Depends on how it was coded. ODA criteria is set by OECD DAC. If UK tried to code it as say, bilateral housing (for returned refugees essentially), maybe yes. If it were classed as what it is, no. But more importantly, directly paying the Taliban violates anti-terror laws, which is a bigger issue
Yes agreed - I liked your piece Don. But it’s not a view widely shared in the development community. They still have a bewilderment that more RCTs, better data and a new metrics framework won’t solve the problem
No10 spokesman not prepared to criticise anything about Farage speech today. Not his description of "invasion", not his prediction that the UK on brink of civil war, not plans to pay the Taliban or Iran to take back migrants, or indeed to rule out doing so themselves.
“I can think of many people delighted by the increased salience of immigration. None of them should be Labour strategists. You don’t fight Reform by making its strongest issue the national priority. Nor do you effectively combat the radical right by accommodating them” observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
Canada had a central focus on gender throughout the UN Financing for Development process. Until the Carney govt came in, when the focus noticeably shifted and gender dropped off Canada’s agenda www.ffpcollaborative.org/news-and-vie...
Exemplifying development’s failure to grapple with politics - World Bank conference last month with nine economists explaining the far right, anti-democratic shift around the world. It’s all about technical flows of money, you see. My kingdom for a political scientist or community organiser
The right won by organizing. They bought platforms, organisations and saturated airwaves. I’m intrigued by the idea of a renewed left approach to organizing. Not mobilising and fundraising, but unions, co-op models and buying public goods www.thedriftmag.com/politics-is-...
In general, the aid community still acts like politics is ancillary to programs. That development is driven by technocratic solutions like data, evaluation, and evidence. And these things exist outside of that amorphous, unmeasurable concept of politics
Too many in the aid community still can’t process what happened to USAID. They keep reaching for technocratic reasons for its destruction. But @timhirschelburns.bsky.social was right - it was political - a democratic failure and far right culture wars timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/everyone-i...
A day of shame for the UK. A political party proposes mass deportations and the response from other political parties is not to condemn this as going further than even Mosley or the National Front.
Reminder: people fleeing abject poverty in the hope of being able to work and send money home to support their family are not economic migrants. Rich people taking up residence in Monaco or Dubai are economic migrants.
This is outstanding. God knows what Labour is doing: legitimising the racism that'll be its undoing, losing the coalition which put it in office, trying to secure voters who will never support it, digging its own moral grave. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
Over a third of people say they’re going days without eating in Gaza. For now, the confirmed famine is centered in the governorate of Gaza, one of five in the strip. Our maps show where it’s expected to spread by the end of September www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
The far right wanted to march across Liverpool today… Liverpool had other ideas 👊 www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...
On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵
Babies used to die on the bumpy road from Mahama refugee camp, Rwanda, to the nearest hospital. A fully-operational @savethechildren.org maternity clinic saved lives, but now the centre faces closures because of US aid cuts www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
the reason that the right believes that the left is entirely astroturf funded by USAID and USIP is that this is how their own institutions work
Spend enough time listening to the average voter and you'll see their views are not politically coherent, they're held lightly, and influenced strongly by family, friends and personal experience. Most people in this country are not good or bad, they're complicated, and mostly just trying to survive.
I don’t see how any country can now allow US-regulated providers to supply critical state infrastructure like cloud hosting, utilities, or financial services. They’re too exposed to US government control. Your critical infrastructure could be frozen at any point if you anger the US
When the US sanctioned the British head of the ICC, his IT system was suspended (Microsoft), and his bank account was frozen (his bank operates in the US). Will Canadian service providers also now implement US sanctions on a Canadian citizen?
I feel like ‘my supporters are sensible people with reasonable concerns’ is somewhat contradicted by his supporters descending on you like a swarm of rabid bees spouting xenophobic conspiracies
Page 17 of the BfV guidelines says that it is www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/p...
Kühnen salute. Also used in Serb nazi movements
The Quebec concept of Pure Laine is helpful to describe what British racists want. Only white people who can trace their roots back to founding peoples. In QC case, to the original French settlers. In the UK, it’d need translating but I’d guess Tudor or Stuart times
You cannot ‘meet in the middle’ people evidently pretending to have ‘reasonable concerns’. You don’t have to indulge in their pretence either. Their goal is a country with no immigrants and no non-white people. There is no meeting in the middle here
Just ordinary citizens with reasonable concerns about women’s safety….doing….*checks German criminal code*….Nazi gestures that are banned in Germany
Absolutely appalling. Someone is going to be killed or seriously injured very soon, and the blame for that won’t only lie with the perpetrators, or the likes of Yaxley-Lennon, but with actual MPs intent on painting members of racialised minorities as threats to women & children
Far right groups are threatening to burn down hotels full of refugees at events attended by senior politicians, while people of colour live in fear after being falsely labelled as paedophiles How mainstream politicians and media organisations are allowing a violent far right movement to spread
bottom line: we (liberals, lefties, anti-racists, pro-trans, et all) simply cannot accept the implicit premise that fascists are the authentic brits, that they have the right to be heard & we do not, that any disagreement must be solved by us listening to them
Day in, day out, I speak to ordinary people who are organising to welcome the asylum seekers accommodated in their towns. They befriend, support them, reach out to them as fellow human beings. That's the Britain I know, the one I see around me & we never get told about on TV.
The lesson that should be taken from this is that people are influenced by the dominant conversations in their political/media environment. The lesson that will be taken is that this proves we just need to keep on talking about immigration.
It makes me sad for heterosexual relationships. So many of the problems are the man being controlling, judgy or insecure. And the women trying to be ‘reasonable’ and understand where he’s coming from
“AI IS A MASS-DELUSION EVENT. Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it” www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Every week, I think 'this will be an amusing trivial problem, probably both sides are right'. And every week, I end up like 'MONTY IS A CONTROLLING MISOGYNIST TRYING TO SUCK THE JOY OUT OF YOU WHILE MAKING YOU FEEL LIKE THE WEIRD ONE LEAVE HIM' www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
In the global north, we routinely use benefits, tax credits, or other welfare payments to citizens, and even when contested, generally understand them to be beneficial For the global south, these are revolutionary and untested ‘cash transfers’ and only the very daring are trialling them
Look, sure we could just give poor mothers cash and cut infant mortality by half. But then who is going to pay McKinsey $10m for a study saying that cutting infant mortality by half will add ninety trillion to GDP?? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
If poverty is the problem, give people money. Too often, development resists the obvious solutions. And rejects solutions we use routinely in the global north www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
“The current approach isn’t exactly failing. But Trump-whispering is an unstable and inherently transient method at best. At worst it starts to look like a superstitious belief that performing the rituals of an old alliance will conjure it back into being.” 🌻👌
Across Canada, a nation sighs as they receive official confirmation from the authorities of the end of summer
I mean just look at that
If you're not watching a live stream of a century old church serenely move through the Swedish countryside, what are you doing with your Tuesday?
At this point, the federal govt is a bit like the hot dog guy. Telling us Air Canada and the union just have to work it out themselves. After having waded in guns blazing, derailed an established process, and set the situation on fire
Air Canada's CEO admitting to the media that their entire plan for the flight attendants' strike was "have the government say they're not allowed" and that they have no other ideas about how to deal with the strike is really a "yeah this is how Canada REALLY works" moment if ever there was one
“you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people” is IMHO a principle which needs to be applied much more in politics. Moderates assume good faith because they are reasonable people. But that doesn’t work when engaging unreasonable, bad faith ppl.
I see we’re doing that thing where we tell Trump he said or meant things he clearly didn’t say or mean, in hope he then thinks he did say or mean them. A tactic mostly used on toddlers with a 50% success rate
I dunno Alex, I'm beginning to have these weird suspicions that maybe they didn't really mean all the stuff they said in the election campaign. Probably unfair of me though. I'm too cynical. People do say that about me
Anyway, it is instructive watching the Carney government repeatedly stepping onto multiple rakes, that would be very evident to them if they weren't all the same, identikit people with the same mindsets
If govt had let Air Canada strike play out naturally, cancellations would have been more predictable, pressure would have built on employer & union, and after a few days of weeping people on TV, bargaining would have resumed. Instead, govt jumped in for AC after 11 hours and caused escalating chaos