#and why is suella braverman home secretary again

[quillscratch-fic]

British politics is so fucked that I fell hard for the Thinking A Comedy Sketch Is A Real Interview trick this morning, only to be presented immediately with an actual real interview that basically said the same thing

[suzie-shooter]

Alex Rider season 3 unhinged liveblog ramblings scribbled during first watch. Spoilers, obvs. (also fair warning, I am not particularly a fan of Tom or Kyra lol)

Episode 1 - Widow

S2 recap trivia - Alex's therapist is Molly Doran from Slow Horses and married to Alan Blunt IRL

Malta: Ok, so we're not just going to pretend it's Venice lol.

Creepy old men already hitting on Alex. Standard.

"After this we're out of leads." How do you even have any leads in the first place? Oh ok, Smithers' phone. Terrible security protocols from him, leaving that much historical classified data on it.

"Find the Widow - surely he could have given you an address?" First thing Tom's ever said I've agreed with lmao

Aaaand within a second he's back to being deeply irritating, okay.

Yassen living rent free in Alex's head, you love to see it.

"They've got this picture of me being the responsible one." Have Tom's parents actually met him?

Ooh Razim mention.

You maybe want to clean that wound before whacking a dressing on it Alex?

"Do you think you'll ever lose your appetite Nile?" Spat my drink.

Damn, no harem pants then. Scrubs up well tho.

Listing Levin in the opening credits than having him be only a S2 flashback should be a warcrime.

Episode 2 - Lab

"This weapon is called pork sword, wait, no, shit, wrong USB."

"Julia Rothman. Definitely a wrong un." Spat my drink again.

Do Crawley and Pritchard not warrant helmets and visors? Are they somehow immune to shrapnel?

So, room 6, wired to blow, yes? It's what I'd do…

Oh yeah sure guys, they're going to still be sitting there, all unmoving in the dark, for sure that's a person, and not a Massive Trap.

Thereeeee we go. Agent mince. Top of your class huh, well you're certainly at the top now, and down the sides and partially out of the window.

I know there's the whole 'characters don't know what genre they're in' thing but you are literally in the 'working for MI6 genre', you are up against people notorious for booby traps and blowing shit up, why the fuck would you touch something that hadn't been declared safe first? Apart from anything else you're fucking up the scene before forensics get there.

"I love you man." Vom.

Alex: breaks into super sekkrit lab. Also Alex: doesn't have the faintest fucking idea what he's looking at, so not really helpful.

COMICALLY LARGE BOMB KLAXON.

Episode 3 - Enemy

"Welcome to Malagosto." OooOOooh.

Maybe I'm just looking at it from a fic writer's perspective but it does seem a massive anticlimax to immediately let Tom and Kyra know Alex is okay? Like, you could have got a good couple of episodes of angst out of that uncertainty.

"Do you want me to kill them?" Oh God yes please.

Why the fuck have they plugged the USB directly into the network rather than an isolated PC? 'Hur dur we checked it first', you literally believe Scorpia are smart enough to not be bluffing about the nebulous death threat but you don't think they could hide something on the hardware? Fuck's sake lads. Amateur hour.

Is this Home Secretary meant to be Suella Braverman? Or Priti Patel maybe lol. (Equal rights and all that, and if it had been a white male character I don't think I would have thought twice about the dialogue but having both your two new female characters be immediately proved wrong/ massively patronised/ blown up ain't hugely comfortable viewing tbh).

HOW MANY FICS INVOLVING ALEX GETTING FUCKED ON THAT BED HAVE JUST BEEN BORN?

"Are you suggesting we break into a dead man's house?" "It's not like he's going to be there." 😂

"He became a very close friend of mine." Fnar.

Omg making Alex read his father's love letters is hilarious.

Alex: you could have faked that news report Also Alex: handwriting can definitely never be faked (how is Alex even familiar with his dead father's handwriting? wouldn't recognise mine)

Ugh please stop trying to make Alex/Kyra happen.

Alex up the vent shaft. I hope they're sitting casually at the top going - you could have just taken the stairs love.

If he's climbing upwards, why is his hair dangling like he's upside down? Have they filmed this like 60's Batman, and he's just crawling along a horizontal set lol.

Alex never once asks about his mother does he. Given the shagger-John route they seem to have gone down you almost think Julia would be in a better shout of getting Alex to switch sides by claiming to be his mother.

And - yeah, Alex's recruitment just doesn't feel that convincing here. Adding Tom/Kyra/Jack so much to the mix has changed the feel of his life a lot, and TV verse Alex has had a lot less fucking over by the Department by this point too. And Rothman feels too creepy to be effectively convincing him of anything.

"I want you to meet your tutor." FUCK YES FINALLY 🙌 (may have rewound that part several times lol)

Episode 4 - Recruit

Nicaragua: 18 years ago OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING

Baby Yassen is adorable, I'm in love.

OH MY GOD THAT'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE FUCKIN SPIDER THING

OH MY GOD THE REVEAL OF HIM STANDING OVER THE SLEEPING ALEX I'M DEAD

(Ok, I'm calm again. For now. We continue.)

"You killed my uncle" - all the hundreds of ways this conversation has been written over the years and Yassen's just like lol get over it 😂 (here for it tbh)

Rothman: He's one of our best Yassen: One of? Bitch.

Yassen watching Alex train like 👀👀

"Did he ever tell you you're no fun?" Oh you want to have FUN with Yassen do you?

Yassen bitchslapping Alex to fuck, both hilarious and hot.

Oh, you want to be WET wet.

"Matteo's the guy with the blanket." Why is that so funny.

Omg Yassen stepping in to protect his boy and humiliating Nile in the process lol. And Alex doing what Yassen tells him, because of course he does 🥰

"This one is my responsibility" 🥰🥰

"What about love, friendship?" Alex has only known Yassen five minutes and is already down bad.

"Kind of lonely though, right?" Yeah, Yassen needs you at his side Alex, so step up and stop being a whiny little bitch about killing people.

Never get in the first taxi, rule one of espionage.

Yep, called it. Tom's like: I'll have my fucking tip back in that case.

This scene is so dark I have no fucking idea what's going on, I thought Nile had attacked Alex, but apparently not. Is Nile officially part of this exercise or not, it seems really unclear lol.

The power of friendship and sparklerabbits saves the day, apparently. Yawn.

Jesus, we really ATE with this ep, huh.

Episode 5 - Revenge

"Would you rather your arms around me, or my arms around you?" Way to make it creepy Tom you skeevy fuck.

"Can we focus please?" "We're multi-tasking."

Sure Grendel, rock up to the super sekkrit spy base in a massively conspicuous car why don't you?

"Yassen will give you everything you need." Oh I BET he will.

Feels sloppy them not removing the diffuser from the vent tbh.

"What does this say?" Alex hasn't inherited John's neat handwriting then lol. Alex leaning into him like that > me making noises only dogs can hear.

"You've put lockpick?" "I left my last one in Nile."

Ooh, suicide pill, nasty. Kind've pointless though, given they've been left with the evidence anyway.

Yassen in Alex's bedroom again, likely place for him to be.

"I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to die." 🥹💕🥰

Yalex roadtrip, let's goooo.

Disappointed they're not making Alex do the Entrapment infrared acrobatic sequence here lol.

If this is Yassen's idea of a date it definitely needs work.

So no surprise scorpions then? Can't have shit in Detroit Malta.

"Why? Why did she kill him?" Well taking things at face value here he was a highly murderous member of a terrorist organisation, so you know, kind've her job.

Yassen does like a casual lean, doesn't he.

Episode 6 - Target

Alex and Yassen have shacked up in London, hope there's only one bed.

Now they're in the back of a van, SO many opportunities for shagging, they're spoilt for choice.

Yassen's impressed look when Alex reels off all the security details, so proud of his boy.

"What happened to my mum?" Finally he wonders lol.

"And I'm good at it. You could be too." 🥹

"You think Alex killed him?" I mean, he was also there with a notorious assassin, so probably not, y'know.

Domestic Yassen cooking Alex's dinner and also cooking him a gun lol.

Smithers' "How I've missed you" ahahaha. Smithers/Kyra much better pairing tbh.

"He's actually quite good at this stuff." Smithers' little snort lmao

Time for Alex to be blacked up/ dunked in a teabag bath/ gussied up. Although he still looks exactly like Alex afterwards, which feels less useful lol.

"You love him, don't you?" Yassen loves him more. I have to say Alex had far more chemistry with Syl, and frankly for that matter with Tom. I really don't get the Kyra agenda.

"It's a dry hole." Alex's worst nightmare.

Is Alex going to look through Mrs Jones' knicker drawer?

Episode 7 - The Shot

Mrs Jones and her tall murderous hobbit son lol. Otto really looks about 58 here.

Hope they bill him for her fucked up fridge.

Is that Bath? Oh, it is.

Mrs Jones casually throwing Alex back into play lol. Maybe she can have a little revenge for him trying to shoot her.

"Everyone breaks into houses." Jack's face lol

Ewww put him down, you don't know where he's been (Yassen's bed, almost certainly)

"Remember they can't hurt you unless you invite them in." "That's vampires."

Yassen arguing in favour of going to rescue Alex MY HEART

"Sit down. I'm going to tell you a story. About your friend, John Rider." HOLY PLOTHOLE TIMELINE PATCHING BATMAN

"John was embedded inside Scorpia for three years." Not the only thing he was embedded in by the sounds of it.

Alex seems to be hallucinating again lol.

Yassen, maybe psychoanalysing your insane boss isn't the safest thing to be doing?

"It's quite mad Julia." Yassen really gives no shits omfg

"I know my place." Yes, at Alex's side.

I like how Julia thought telling Yassen she'd killed John would do anything other than piss him off lol.

Episode 8 - Invisible Sword

"But you do owe me a new fridge." LOLLLLLL

Crawley feeling like a spare part during this lift convo, hahaha

"Smithers, you can do me some kind of tracker, right?" "Yeah, if you promise to keep it on you this time."

Alex is like ohshit I'm gonna die fr

"Not for the agents. They undid their seatbelts." Eyyyyyyyy 👉

Aww they've given him a little baby assassin outfit, how cute.

Where's Yassen, has he just fucked off to the pub?

"For the head of Scorpia, you're a really bad liar."

Laughing at all the other Scorpia agents having to listen to this convo about their boss like we are not paid enough for this shit 😬

"Everyone else is getting what they want, let me have my cereal."

Protecting his boy to the last. Yassen really is purely on Alex's side, we love to see it.🥰

And OMG HE LIVESSSSSSSS 🙌🙌🙌🙌 (I voted yes in that poll, I had faith lol)

Well that was - far more fanservice than I dared hope for, after the meagre pickings we got in the first two series. Yalex supremacy to the motherfucking end, let's go.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I'm sure you have many unimaginable amounts of asks but I'm gonna try anyways! Is there anyway you could explain how it's even possible that Sunak was able to appoint Suella again? I'm American and only learned this week that if the mps "resign" they are still in parliament so it's possibly but really obvious but I just! Don't get it! She committed a crime didn't she? Also... I absolutely swear that originally news reports had said she was fired? But suddenly everyone is saying she resigned? Also if you have any insights into why Sunak would do this beyond #bigotry? Because it seems like a really stupid decision to me, politically. People are already making fun of his "professional and accountability" regarding Suella. Thank you very much if you find the time to answer any of my questions!

Hers was a Schrödinger's resignation - did she jump or was she pushed? No one knows! And we never will. But someone wanted her out, because given the literal crimes MPs have committed in the last three years and stayed in office anyway, "Sending an official email from a personal account" is extraordinarily mild, and she was gone IMMEDIATELY. So either Jeremy Cunt booted her out the door, or it was a deliberate ploy to be able to leave.

She was certainly arguing with Liz Truss before she left. Make of that what you will.

The resignation/parliament confusion is likely that you've just missed a crucial bit of terminology - parliament is made up of the MPs we elect, but the government (i.e. the bit that does the ruling) is done by the Cabinet. These are the MPs that the party leader chooses to be ministers in charge of stuff, like Education or the Environment. This is why, incidentally, it's legal for a government to keep breaking down and reforming like we're seeing - all we vote for are the MPs in the room. It's up to them to then pick who does what job, including the leader.

What that means is that an MP can resign from the Cabinet, but yes, they'll still be an MP. They've resigned from government, not parliament. They're still the elected official of their constituency. (Though they can also resign from that if they want/need to leave politics entirely.) So, Braverman resigned as Home Secretary, but she still got to skulk about in the back benches and shriek at Nadhim Zahawi for being born in Baghdad.

As for why on earth Sunak would bring her back... I presently have no idea, sorry! I'm freshly back from two days of field trips among other things, and everything is moving fast, so I haven't kept up. However my husband almost certainly will have so I expect I'll be able to do a decent update soon

[it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined]

Genuinely losing my shit that Suella Braverman is re-appointed Home Secretary SIX DAYS after she was forced to resign from that exact role after breaching ministerial standards and sending confidential documents to her personal email, so she could forward to her far right backbench mentor who wasn't supposed to have access to them - AND TO HIS WIFE. Except she accidentally sent it to yet another MP's assistant rather than the wife, and that MP reported her for it.

So she's so incompetent and privileged she either didn't know or didn't care enough to cover her tracks, and is now blatantly lying about it. The woman was ATTORNEY GENERAL before this - y'know, the government's own lawyer????

I really cannot believe Rishi Sunak had the gall to give a speech about "integrity, professionalism and accountability" knowing full well he'd immediately handed all this ammunition to his critics by appointing her AGAIN to one of the key government posts she'd literally just fucked up with zero consequences.

(actually why am I even surprised by the continuing antics of the Tory Clown Club BUT STILL THE INABILITY TO PERFORM BASIC TASKS OF GOVERNANCE WITHOUT PUBLICALLY LYING OR BREAKING THE RULES????)

But she's back!! All ready to carry on pushing through some frankly Russia-level legislation to criminalise peaceful protest. Honestly. The fuck.

[mariacallous]

Last Friday, an 82-year-old woman wrapped up warm and set off on a 200-mile round trip for a meeting that she half suspected wouldn’t even let her in. As you read this, the film of her speaking that evening has been viewed more than five million times. Which is odd, because it’s not much to look at: a wobbly side-view of a woman with white hair, intense closeups of grey cardigan. Bridgerton this is not.

But it’s the words that count. Joan Salter has got herself down to Hampshire for a public meeting with the home secretary, and now it is her turn to ask a question. As a child survivor of the Holocaust, she hears Suella Braverman demean and dehumanise refugees and it is a reminder of how the Nazis justified murdering Jews like her. So why do it?

Even as the words come out, Braverman’s face freezes. The evening so far has been a Tory activists’ love-in, which, Salter tells me later, made her nervous about being the sole dissenter. But then the home secretary responds, “I won’t apologise for the language I’ve used” – and a disturbing truth is exposed about what Britain has become.

Braverman labels those seeking sanctuary in Britain an “invasion”. Quite the word, invasion. It strips people of their humanity and pretends they are instead a hostile army, sent to maraud our borders. Her junior minister Robert Jenrick once begged colleagues not to “demonise” migrants; now he stars in videos almost licking his jowls over “the Albanians” forced on to a flight to Tirana. Salter is right to say such attitudes from the top fuel and license extremists on the ground. We saw it after the toxic Brexit campaign, when Polish-origin schoolchildren in Huntingdon were called “vermin” on cards left outside their school gates, as race and religious hate crimes soared that summer.

Today, the air is once again poisonous. Far-right groups have been visiting accommodation for asylum seekers, trying to terrify those inside – many of whom have fled terror to come here – often before sharing their videos on social media. The anti-fascist campaigners Hope Not Hate recorded 182 such jaunts last year alone, culminating in a petrol bomb tossed at an asylum centre in Dover by a man with links to far-right groups and who would post about how “all Muslims are guilty of grooming … they only rape non-Muslims”.

Unlike those big men in their big boots frightening innocent people, Salter isn’t chasing social media clout. The grandmother wants to warn us not to return to the times that sent her, at the age of three, running with her parents across Europe in search of sanctuary. She does make a mistake in yoking the home secretary to the term “swarms”. As far as I can see, this figurehead for the new Tory extremism has yet to use that vile word. But I can think of a Tory prime minister who has used that word: David Cameron, the Old Etonian never shy of blowing on a dog whistle, who made a speech denouncing multiculturalism even as Tommy Robinson’s troops marched on Luton. And Margaret Thatcher talked of how the British felt “rather swamped” by immigrants. In those venerable names from the party’s past lies the big picture about the Conservatives’ chronic addiction to racist politics.

Because racism is not what polite people do – and yet Tories keep on doing it, commentators will often put it behind some behavioural cordon. It’s a few rotten apples, you’ll be told, after some councillor dons a blackshirt or moans about the new Doctor Who. Or: they need to fend off the effect of Nigel Farage. Or even, as one Times commentator wrote in 2019, Boris Johnson says it but he “barely believes a word” of it. Such clairvoyance! But that’s the thing about power: other people trot behind with a dustpan and brush to sweep up the mess you keep making.

Yet there was no Ukip when Benjamin Disraeli declared that the Irish “hate our order, our civilisation, our enterprising industry, our pure religion. This wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain and superstitious race have no sympathy with the English character.” It was no rotten apple but Winston Churchill, the Tory idol, who as prime minister pronounced: “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.” The Bengal famine of 1943 is widely estimated to have killed about 2 million people.

I draw these quotes from a new book, Racism and the Tory Party, by the sociologist Mike Cole. Far from being a mere slip of the tongue, racism, he argues, “has saturated the party from the beginning of the 19th century to the second decade of the 21st”. From Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” to Theresa May’s hostile environment, it courses through Tory history. And it is not just words. In its online safety bill, the government wants this week to make illegal any online video of people in small boats that shows such Channel crossing in a “positive light”. Braverman still grinds on with her plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, to stay in hostels with 12 toilets and five showers for 100 inmates.

For the Tories, racism is a fire that they just love to play with. The heat it throws off can be electorally useful. But it is always someone else who gets burned. The targets change – two centuries ago it was the Irish, today it is Albanians – but the strategy is always the same: pick the group, render them inhuman, then chuck them out. The mystery is why a party with such a long and inglorious history can still be lauded by the press for sprinkling a few non-white people along its frontbench.

The woman who is today Joan Salter was in 1943 a three-year-old girl called Fanny Zimetbaum. As Polish-origin Jews, her family were not granted sanctuary in Britain from the Nazis marching into their home of France. Instead, her parents had to scramble through Europe, while Joan was shipped across the Atlantic to an orphanage in America. Only years later, through much wrangling, were the family reunited in London. By then, she remembers her parents as “thoroughly broken”. When she was in her 70s and studying for a master’s, Salter went through the archives. She read a parliamentary debate from 1943, concerning 2,000 Jewish children in France refused British visas and who were then deported to Hitler’s Germany. She read foreign secretary Anthony Eden claiming “no knowledge” of the matter. Then she read the minutes and memos that proved he was lying: he was in the war cabinet meeting where the issue was discussed. Still the children were abandoned, just as her family were left to their fate.

From her own life, this remarkable woman knows that fascism is not just a one-off and racism never a mere faux pas. They are forces of evil that lurk on the political perimeter and threaten to consume our society wholesale. Joan Salter bears a warning. The rest of us should listen.

[sa7abnews]

What next for Suella Braverman after her failed leadership bid?

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/what-next-for-suella-braverman-after-her-failed-leadership-bid/

What next for Suella Braverman after her failed leadership bid?

The below content first appeared in Politics.co.uk’s Politics@Lunch newsletter, sign-up for free and never miss this essential briefing. Rachel Reeves will accuse the previous Conservative government of having “covered up” the state of public finances in a significant House of Commons statement this afternoon. The chancellor is expected to reveal a £20 billion “black hole” in the books due to the previous government overspending on “unfunded” pledges and signal Labour’s intention to cut government departments. Reeves will also unveil plans to get a grip of public spending, including public sector cuts, a new Office of Value for Money (OVM) and a pledge to have just one fiscal event per year to return stability to the markets. The most controversial element of today’s proceedings centres around what Labour did and did not know of this “black hole” prior to the party’s election victory. The Conservatives, for instance, have accused Reeves of “trying to con the British public into accepting Labour tax rises”, insisting that the “books” were well and truly open throughout the campaign. That’s thanks to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), they say, Britain’s fiscal watchdog. Meanwhile, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said it is “striking” that the £20 billion “black hole” is the same size as the Conservative Party’s recent cuts to National Insurance in government. Read Johnson’s instructive comments here. And I have more background on Labour’s plan to weaponise their dismal inheritance in my weekend long-read; find that here in case you missed it. But today: some thoughts on the Conservative leadership contest as the nomination stage draws to a close. ***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest election news and analysis.*** The big news in the Conservative leadership race today is that Kemi Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, is in; and Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, is out. As with so much of the still unfurling contest, it’s a tale of two op-eds, both penned for conservative-supporting papers. Braverman’s typically vociferous missive in the Telegraph is scathing of colleagues who, she says, labelled her “mad, bad and dangerous” in recent weeks. Braverman also apologised to the “thousands” of activists who had urged her to stand: “I’m sorry. I cannot run because I cannot say what people want to hear.” The former home secretary claimed she had the requisite backing (10 MPs) to enter the race by the 2.30 pm deadline today. But “getting on to the ballot is not enough”, she concluded. Kemi Badenoch, meanwhile, confirmed her leadership bid in an article for The Times, courting support thusly: “If I have the privilege to serve, we will speak the truth again.” Commenting on the party’s recent election routing, Badenoch said the Conservatives deserved to lose because the government was “unsure of who we were, what we were for and how we could build a new country.” She added: “So, it is time to renew. The country will not vote for us if we don’t know who we are or what we want to be. That is why I am seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party to renew our movement and, with the support of the British people, to get it to work for our country again.” Badenoch, the race’s frontrunner, now joins James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride, who declared last week, and Dame Priti Patel, who launched her bid at the weekend. The question set to dominate the contest through August will be whether Badenoch’s present supremacy can sustain before the MP voting rounds begin in September. Over the weekend, in a sign of the incipient contest’s bitterness, Badenoch accused her rivals of deploying “dirty tricks” to spread “dishonest” and damaging claims about her to the media. That said, Suella Braverman’s decision not to contest the Conservative leadership election will be welcome news for moderate MPs, who view her as a symbol of the division from which the party must depart. It also suggests that Braverman, with her recent comments, went too far for many MPs on the party right. A series of Conservatives thought to be her allies simply abandoned her campaign over recent weeks, bailing in favour of the race’s new insurgent right-winger, Robert Jenrick. Danny Kruger, who supported Braverman’s leadership bid in 2022, is reportedly running Jenrick’s campaign. Sir Desmond Swayne, an erstwhile Braverman backer, has endorsed Mel Stride. And Sir John Hayes, Braverman’s political mentor and a significant figure on the Tory right, is also said to be supporting Jenrick. Viewed in full, Braverman’s Telegraph op-ed is a monument to unfulfilled ambition, and hence contains plenty of swipes — some subtle, some not — at her progressing rivals. Addressing her party’s failure at the last election, Braverman writes: “We did not cut immigration despite saying we would; we raised taxes to a 70-year high whilst pledging the opposite and we over-reacted to Covid which disabled our public services. We failed to tackle the long tail of Blairism contained in the Human Rights Act, Equality Act and European Convention on Human Rights, despite complaining about them. And it was on our watch that transgender ideology and critical race theory seeped into our institutions, notwithstanding our rhetoric”. The former home secretary goes on to regret the “vilification” she faced for “accepting these truths”, adding: “The traumatised party does not want to hear these things said out loud.” Braverman also cautions that Labour’s victory was not some freak “loveless landslide” (a phrase Cleverly has used); condemns those who have branded Reform “racist” (Tugendhat said Reform has a “pattern of racist and misogynistic” during the election); hits back at those angry at recent “infighting”, insisting MPs should have heeded her warnings; and warns Tory members “of [candidates] reinventing themselves as ECHR-sceptics” (a reference to Tugendhat’s recent remarks). Of course, these comments all come after Braverman labelled Robert Jenrick a “centrist Rishi supporter” earlier this month. The former home secretary closed her op-ed with this revealing paragraph: “Whoever takes charge will, I know, have the best intentions and I will support them from the backbenches for a Conservative revival, a privilege for which I am deeply grateful.” The sentence serves both as a warning to the race’s eventual victor and a hint as to Braverman’s future plans. It suggests, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the onetime standard-bearer of the Brexiteer right plans to style herself as the authentic voice of conservative values this parliament — ready and willing to call foul when her leader steps out of line. Of course, whoever emerges triumphant in the Conservative contest is unlikely to pass the former cabinet minister’s political purity tests — nor will they much care to. Neither Badenoch nor Jenrick — and certainly not any moderate victor — will want, let alone be able, to accept Braverman’s “truths”. And her isolation will only deepen accordingly. This begs a further question: after months of posturing, both inside and outside government, where does the political energy stoked by Braverman now flow? What possible outlets exist on the backbenches for the spotlight-demanding but influence-deprived ex-cabinet minister? In this regard, it is arguably instructive that Braverman still refuses to attack Nigel Farage or Reform, choosing instead to view the party as the legitimate expression of popular conservative grievance. As such, if the next Tory leader refuses to address the Faragist threat on Braverman’s terms, will Reform prove her — as one more aggrieved Conservative — ultimate destination? That, of course, depends on whether Nigel Farage can bear sharing the spotlight (a large if indeed). But having “bowed” out of the leadership race in such a hostile fashion — and with the eventual victor unlikely to rule in Braverman’s image, the countdown on the ex-home secretary symbolically defecting may well have begun. Subscribe to Politics@Lunch Lunchtime briefing Budget ‘black hole’ is same size as Rishi Sunak’s pre-election tax cuts, says IFS chief

Lunchtime soundbite ‘Whilst I disagree with her diagnosis, I do welcome her contribution to that debate and long may she continue to contribute to our Conservative family’ — Shadow veterans minister Andrew Bowie, a supporter of Kemi Badenoch, says he hopes Suella Braverman will stay in the Conservative Party after she decided not to stand in the party’s leadership race. Now try this… ‘Which UK infrastructure projects is Rachel Reeves likely to axe?’ The Guardian’s Aletha Adu writes. ‘Robert Jenrick: Tory leadership candidate most feared by Reform wants nothing to do with Nigel Farage’ Via The Independent. ‘Why I have rejoined the Conservative Party’ Former cabinet minister David Gauke write for ConservativeHome. On this day in 2022: Sam Tarry ‘surprised’ by sacking

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[qudachuk]

In today’s newsletter: The British home secretary called the UN’s 1951 refugee convention ‘outdated’ and criticised multiculturalism (again). Why has she made this speech now?• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.Suella Braverman has spent...

[buzz-london]

G20 Meeting in Kashmir: India Slams UN Expert Over Comments | Vantage with Palki Sharma - 18/5/2023

India hit back at a UN expert who criticised New Delhi's decision to host a G20 meeting in Kashmir. The criticism came on the same day a US panel accused India of "persistent" religious violence. What explains these targeted reports and criticisms? Palki Sharma tells you.

India successfully test launched a Brahmos missile from the INS Mormugao destroyer. New Delhi is reportedly buying 250 more Pralay missiles as well. Is India stockpiling conventional missiles with an eye on China and Pakistan? Palki Sharma explains.

The EU's top diplomat has urged member countries to "take action" if India exports refined Russian crude to European countries. New Delhi hit back saying refined Russian crude is exempt from sanctions. Palki Sharma tells you more.

Australia has called off the Quad summit after Joe Biden pulled out of the visit. The US President has cut short his Asia tour to deal with the US debt ceiling crisis. Once again – domestic challenges are holding US foreign policy priorities hostage. Palki Sharma tells you why.

Rishi Sunak's leadership of the Conservative party is under threat. Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former PM Liz Truss are on a mission to replace Sunak as the Tory face. Can Sunak survive this test? Or will the next elections sweep the Tories out of power? Palki Sharma tells you.

The CEO of OpenAI, ChatGPT's parent company, testified in front of the U.S. Congress. But instead of defiance, he urged the lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence. Has any progress been made? Palki Sharma tells you more.

https://youtu.be/TlDNXgQN8Qs

[goldiers1]

UK and Rwanda Solving Migration Challenges Together

  Under the innovative Migration and Economic Development Partnership, people who make dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys to the UK, such as by small boat, will be relocated to Rwanda, where they will be supported to rebuild their lives.  

Kigali. Photo by Commonwealth Secretariat. Flickr.   Suella Braverman travelled to Kigali for official engagements with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Rwandan Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Dr Vincent Biruta, this weekend (March 18 and 19). Today, the Home Secretary and Dr Biruta reiterated their desire to deliver the partnership, amid a global migration crisis that has seen 100 million people displaced and people smugglers cashing in on human misery. They outlined the global leaders’ commitment to working on bold and innovative migration policies to redress the balance between legal and uncontrolled migration. The government of Rwanda reiterated the country’s readiness to receive thousands of individuals, process their claims and house them before they are moved to longer-term accommodation, with necessary support services including health and education provisions. In addition, the Home Secretary and Dr Biruta signed an update to the Memorandum of Understanding, expanding the partnership further to all categories of people who pass through safe countries and make illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK.  

Rwanda's Ministry of Justice. Photo by The Advocacy Project. Flickr.   This will have the added benefit of preparing the UK to deliver on the measures proposed in the Illegal Migration Bill, as it will mean that anyone who comes to the UK illegally – who cannot be returned to their home country – will be in scope to be relocated to Rwanda. The new bill, which was introduced to Parliament last week, will see people who come to the UK illegally face detention and be returned to their home country, or a safe third country such as Rwanda. The scheme is uncapped and the government of Rwanda have confirmed they are able to take thousands of people eligible for relocation. In December, the UK government secured an important victory in the High Court on the legality of the partnership and will continue to defend the policy against ongoing legal challenge, while working with Rwanda to ensure flights can operate as soon as there are no legal barriers.  

Official portrait of Suella Braverman MP. Photo by David Woolfall. Wikimedia.   Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: We cannot continue to see people risking their lives crossing the Channel, which is why I am pleased to strengthen our agreement even further with the government of Rwanda so we can address the global migration crisis head on. The Migration and Economic Development Partnership is key to breaking the business model of people smugglers while ensuring those who genuinely need protection can be helped to rebuild their lives. Rwanda is a progressive, rapidly growing economy at the forefront of innovation – I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing first-hand the rich opportunities this country can provide to relocated people through our partnership.  

Vincent Biruta. Photo by Österreichisches Außenministerium. Wikimedia.   Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta said: If we are to successfully tackle the global migration crisis, we need innovative, urgent action. This Partnership addresses the opportunity gap at the heart of the migration crisis, by investing in Rwanda’s capability to continue offering migrants the opportunity to build new lives in a safe, secure place, through accommodation, education, and vocational training. For these reasons, we are pleased to once again renew our commitment to our ground-breaking Partnership with the UK, which shares our determination to solve this crisis.   On the visit, the Home Secretary will spend time meeting refugees, who have been supported by the Government of Rwanda to rebuild their lives. She will also see new housing developments, which will be used to relocate people. She also visited new modern, long-term accommodation that will support those who are relocated to settle in Rwanda. The Home Secretary also met with investment start-ups and entrepreneurs to discuss the range of business and employment opportunities available to people in Rwanda. The partnership with Rwanda is just one strand of the work the government is doing to tackle illegal migration. Last week the Prime Minister agreed a package with France which will see a new detention centre established in France as well as the deployment of more French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol beaches.   Sources: THX News, UK Visas and Immigration & The Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP. Read the full article

[styledeficit]

17 October - 22 October weeknotes

Monday 17 October

Rain check. 

Tuesday 18 October

Proper dark when the alarm goes off. 

A low mist jokes around in the park. It’s somehow gathered in a corner at one end, like a pyramid. I check it from two angles as I walk past, but it’s definitely triangular, not just a trick of the light. 

Read Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature on the train. There’s a description of London in the sixties, of artists fucking and getting fucked. London Bridge feels abrasive as the doors open. People too loud, buildings too large.

Huge NatWest ad: a woman smiling an enormous smile, teeth studded with diamonds spelling out CEO. For a second I wonder why this was deemed ‘bank-appropriate’ but of course it is. The aim is to have so much money you need to embed it in your teeth. What’s the point in being rich if no one knows why you’re smiling?

It’s not that, obviously. They’re being ‘young, urban, relevant’. How do you do, fellow kids? It could be an ad for a cosmetic dentist of course, but it’s not.

I’m not in the mood for today and I need tea. Get to the office and finally do what I know someone else does with coffee and these too-small mugs. Make myself 2 at the same time and get to work. 

Late home.

Wednesday 19 October

Sunrise 7.30 sunset 17:58

Problem with being in a concert band is that you walk around whistling absolutely unrecognisable harmonies from well known pieces. Sorry, strangers.

‘Truss hit by minus strike’ - someone next to me is reading the Metro on the train. Truss’s popularity has fallen to a record low of -70%.

On the train on the way back again I sit next to a copy of the Evening Standard. I don’t think ‘print is dead’ but the Tories are clearly trying to send it on its way. The papers can’t keep up. Suella Braverman has resigned as Home Secretary but it hasn’t made the papers yet. I read the news on my phone.

Later the BBC reports allegations of MPs being ‘manhandled’ to support the government in the fracking vote. 

Check the Guardian: “One Tory backbencher said it was “the most bullying, screaming and shouting” they had seen in the voting lobbies, with Morton and Whittaker being engaged in a “full-blown shouting match”.

Another said Whittaker had been seen telling colleagues: “I am fucking furious and I don’t give a fuck any more.”

Right.

Thursday 20 October

100% chance of rain

Jesus wept.

Truss resigns. I’m embarrassed when the BBC says hello to viewers from around the world. 

Friday 21 October

Best train journey in London is the one stop overground between London Bridge and Blackfriars. I wish you could walk on the tracks, without getting killed or arrested. Raised up, the track snakes between buildings so close you can peer through a mix of windows from bedrooms to offices and everything in between. Pretty good slice of history and architecture. Also great if you’re nosey. You could walk the streets below of course, but it wouldn’t be the same. There’s also something in the speed of it.

Arrive at Farringdon Station and it’s changed yet again. I love this station - it’s got a good history. Also I’ve had multiple jobs which were easier to get to from here, including Emap, MOO and Pres.Co (which then became Wheel, which was then bought by LBi, which was then bought by Digitas). Actually, Pres.co was in the old Old Holborn building. A previous boss who grew up around here told me the smell of tobacco used to hang in the air when he was a kid. He also remembers the chop house when it was a chop house. “You’d stand in a line, get a slice of meat and a slap of mash. It wasn’t fancy then.” 

Saturday 22 October

The ginkgo leaves on the little tree are slowly turning yellow. Another rose has flowered. The cosmos are still going strong, and so far, the squirrel hasn’t dug up the bulbs I’ve planted. Or not the ones in pots anyway. We’ll see about the rest. 

What a week, eh?

Update: I lied about the squirrel.