the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

always good for journalists to act as apologists for government fuckups ime

That's a shocking statement. They're accountable - it's a basic principle of Parliament.

she goes on to hum and haw a bit but that's the opening statement of intent

jamie grierson nails it in the guardian:

“I didn’t hear that testimony, I’m not sure what shape that might be in,” Rudd said in reference to the existence of targets.

Here’s what shape it might have been in. There are three layers of state-enforced or enforceable departures: deportations, administrative removals and voluntary departures. ...

would be ironic if the housing minister's pa had to turn to sex work to pay her rent

LOL read this as the housing minister's father.

like even if rudd wasn't aware of what was going on in the department she's supposed to be leading, wtf was stopping her from finding out in the time since this story broke? she's now apologised four times and each apology is the result of her being - at best- totally fucking incompetent

are ugandan asians the next cohort to become visible in this shitshow ?

There were Kenyan Asians before them too.

I've worked with a lot of Asian people who were born and brought up in Kenya or Tanzania.

Ugandan Asians had their own process after the 1971 cut-off for others so i wouldn't expect it to be an issue.

Pre-1971 immigrants went from a situation of not needing documents to needing them - sometimes finding out decades later that they didn't have them or couldn't apply easily. Pretty much anyone who immigrated legally after 1971 will have had to have been issued with indefinite leave to remain or citizenship docs.

are ugandan asians the next cohort to become visible in this shitshow ?

elderly children of Jewish refugees? I imagine Labour party workers desperately trying to find some.

ba-dum-tshh

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyashton/amber-rudd-just-suggested-britain-might-not-leave-the-eu

Rudd's having quite a day here.

starting to look like suicide by journo at this point

like May, Rudd seems to be a completely useless politician, but with a compensating vermin-like resilience. I suppose that is what you would need to survive a marriage to A A Gill.

you wot? <checks wikipedia> lmao, every day a school day huh

I can remember his fantastic S Times humbleboasting in his column, where he is smugly reflecting on what it is like to be an ugly old man with a young model g/f, who he abandoned Rudd for.

the 90's eh?

all my memories of the '90s involve someone wearing cork-wedge shoes

it's funny how you can forget important or even exciting memories of your life, but recall all sorts of pointless minutiae with absolute precision!

Amber Rudd also has a Four Weddings and a Funeral credit for something like ‘aristo wrangler’.

I'm sure that would be considered a very important skill set for that movie her Conservative Party career.

‘aristo wrangler’ - what is a word for something that sounds good, but is not good in practice?

Lenny Kravitz.

capitalism amirite

I've just been informed that Tory council candidates walked out of a hustings in the area after a young man questioned their response to Grenfell. Let me be clear - if you cannot talk to your residents, you should not be on the council.

— Emma Dent Coad (@emmadentcoad) April 26, 2018

I'm not sure what turnout is going to be like and it's usually pitiful in local elections but I'd be surprised if it wasn't very high in Kensington and Chelsea.

The Conservatives were already worrying about previous safe seats because of the post-Grenfell effect, and with the Windrush scandal still so fresh perhaps a higher turnout than usual?

the BBC broadcast some inadvertent Labour propaganda this morning by playing an interview with the 12 year old J R Mogg from the archives. I'm sure Nick Robinson found it quite whimsical and charming, but most of humanity were feeling this kid should be encouraged to spend more time playing near motorways + railway lines.

This lovely person is the tory candidate for my ward

Got an advert for the @Conservatives through the door today. Checked out the twitter feed of one of the candidates, and, oh... (thread) pic.twitter.com/5I75gOd8pW

— Pete Wilson (@peterkwilson) April 25, 2018

Lest we forget Jared O'Mara stepped down for having an equally as offensive/unpleasant social media record, but different rules or something.

the craziest thing about that is he sounds like a bitter 50-year-old divorcee but he was.... 18 when he tweeted all that????

Apparently this is yesterday's news, and they've found tweets calling a 12-year-old mother a "dirty slag", defending Ian Watkins and, yes, attacking Jared O'Mara for bad tweeting, and now he's been suspended from the party.

One of my local candidates is the co-chairwoman of controversial group Jewish Voice For Labour. She's been in the papers recently for antisemitic comments, obviously she is Jewish herself but I wouldn't be comfortable with some of the things she's said if they came from someone who wasn't Jewish. "Jews are often agents of exploitation" isn't differentiating Jews from the actions of Israel imo. That's if that quote is accurate I suppose, it's from the Times and the article is paywalled so you can only see that bit.

jesus, I didn't realise those Labour Harbouring Holocaust Deniers vans in London was a thing.

We're gonna need a longer van.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F09aa75b0-424f-11e8-9618-96ec7a8a2ce5.jpg?crop=5513%2C3101%2C28%2C584&resize=685

I'd propose sending out some "Fuck Ken Livingstone, the absolute fucking clown" vans out there, but it might be counterproductive.

Meanwhile QT invites the likes of this guy to the audience:

#bbcqt gave Johnathan Jennings a reserved seat (he was in place before the audience was let in) and a guaranteed question with Racist undertones.

Jennings is now on Bail awaiting Trial for 10 (Ten) Racial Hatred Offences.#bbcqt - You no longer have integrity or relevancy. pic.twitter.com/QKXKHIsyZc

— Far Right Watch (@Far_Right_Watch) April 26, 2018

Thread says he wasn’t on last night but recently. Anyone see him?

the royal baby is named louis arthur charles

naming your kid after the guy on the throne during the french revolution is a bold move, it's like they want us to storm the palace and lead the entire royal family to the guillotines

are they all called arthur or is it me?

cockney rhyming slang?

what a bunch of J Arthur's

there have only ever been about four names for european kings, regardless of country

charles
philip
louis
henry

in england you can add in james and george

yeah, it's not just the gene pool that's shallow

Abbott says no to a long-term illegal immigrant amnesty but doesn't really explain why, beyond wanting to downplay that as it's not the issue re Windrush.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43920554/question-time-should-there-be-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants

But puzzled as to why Dimbleby raised it at all as AFAIK Johnson has not renewed his (phony) call for it from ten years ago, or has he?

probably trying to set a trap.

Labour has absolutely nothing to lose and a lot to gain by purging anyone making antisemitic comments from the party and it doesn't make sense that seemingly no one has been after nearly a month.

Yeah, that fills me with dread.

Anyway, first comment hall of fame.

Anybody any good at making placards? Asking for a friend. https://t.co/dUAamyBT8s

— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) April 26, 2018

how do we really know which louis the new royal was named after