The long-awaited "levelling up" strategy is a joke: the Government are openly taking the piss out of the "red wall" voters they conned into voting for them in 2019: it contains fuck-all new money, is driven largely by meaningless targets, & aims for a 2030 completion!
It's like it was written on the back of a fag packet during a lockdown party. At the heart of the strategy is a plan to create more regional mayors which nobody wants!
We want decent jobs, affordable homes & functional public services - which have all but disappeared since 2008!
The largely meaningless targets hope to "level up" some areas by 2030! What a joke. What an insult. By November last year, the Govt had committed just £11billion through policies to support the regeneration of towns & communities across the UK for the period from 2020/1 - 2025-6.
At least 464 people have had their citizenship removed by the UK Govt over the last 15 years.
Data was pieced together using FoI requests & other publications – a challenge, because the secretive Home Office does not publish this information regularly.
Citizenship-stripping for conduct – when a person’s citizenship is removed because of their behaviour – has been a govt power for decades. Previously, citizenship could only be removed if the individual had done something “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests” of the UK.
But the power was expanded in 2006, allowing the Govt to remove citizenship if the secretary of state believes it's “conducive to the public good”!
The #NationalityAndBordersBill would allow the Govt to strip people of their British citizenship without notice!
Last year, in a fascinating article for think tank 'The UK in a Changing Europe' @UKandEU, Jack Newman explored the use of the phrase "levelling up" in Parliament, finding it has a
surprisingly long & shifting history...
It took particular prominence during the 1860s in a debate about the relative positions of the Anglican & Catholic churches in Ireland. In this debate, one member of the Lords made the observation that ‘you must arrive at equality either by levelling down or by levelling up’.
In the 20th century, the phrase became more about financial rather than religious equality, & it tended to be used in relation to government funding. One example, is from the 1940s, during a war-time debate about benefits for soldier’s spouses.
No matter how clear a case opposition parties or other critics of Boris Johnson & the Government make, Bannon's strategy means no single version of the truth is ever going to be accepted. This fact underscores a serious problem for our democratic culture. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
No amount of evidence, on virtually any topic, is likely to move public opinion one way or the other.
We can attribute some of this to rank partisanship — some people simply refuse to acknowledge inconvenient facts about their own side.
New research into public attitudes to democracy in the UK shows integrity is valued above all other traits in a politician.
When asked which traits politicians should have, “being honest” came top, followed by “owning up when they make mistakes”. ucl.ac.uk/constitution-u…
When respondents were asked to “imagine that a future prime minister has to choose between acting honestly & delivering the policy that most people want”, 71% chose honesty & only 16% delivery.
When asked if they agreed more that “healthy democracy requires that politicians always act within the rules” or that “healthy democracy means getting things done, even if that sometimes requires politicians to break the rules”, 75% chose the former & just 6% the latter.
I wonder why rule-breaking, Ministerial-Code-breaking, Human-Rights-hating, antidemocratic-law-introducing liars Boris Johnson & Priti Patel are so keen to demonise lawyers & undermine the legal system? 🧐