The Government has published its terms of reference for the national inquiry into grooming and rape gangs.

There are two big reasons to be hopeful, but sadly quite a lot of cause for concern.

A 🧵 on the key details: One of the main positives is that the inquiry will look specifically at grooming gangs.

All child sexual abuse is horrific. For this inquiry to be meaningful, though, it must be specific, and focus on this particular form of abuse. This is encouraging.

What a load of rubbish.

Our rights in Britain do not come from the Human Rights Act or the ECHR.

In fact, before it was wildly overinterpreted by Strasbourg judges, the ECHR exported British rights to the rest of Europe.

A 🧵

https://twitter.com/AmnestyUK/status/1975895791345569954

Britain did not sign the convention in 1951 to gain new rights. It had already enjoyed a long history of rights and freedoms for centuries.

And they weren't guaranteed by a foreign court, but by a political culture which regarded these things as valuable and worth protecting.

The other day, I was asked if the Government can deport foreign criminals legally.

Of course it can. Because the Government, with a majority in Parliament, makes the law. Too often, we forget this foundational principle of our political system.

A 🧵: Unlike most other countries, Britain doesn't have a written, codified constitution.

Instead, our system operates on the basis of principles and customs.

The most important of these is the idea that Parliament is sovereign and supreme. It has ultimate law-making power.

For far too long, British governments have used immigration to avoid doing hard, long term things – on the economy, say, or higher education.

Training British doctors is one of those things.

That's why I asked Wes Streeting if he would remove the training cap on doctors 🧵 Put simply, for too long, we haven't trained enough healthcare professionals – nurses and doctors – in the UK.

As a result, we've relied on people from overseas to fill the gap.

As of September last year, about 1 in 5 people in the NHS workforce was from abroad.

Why, when and who we marry is a foundational part of our national culture.

If you think there should be no place for a site like this in our country, as I do, it’s because it flies in the face of centuries of British norms.

A 🧵 on why:

https://twitter.com/JanetEastham/status/1941427552540819615

When we think about marriage throughout history, we usually imagine a few things:

- a high proportion of arranged marriages
- multi-generational families living together
- people marrying very young

In fact, in England, it wasn’t really like that.

We’ve all heard a lot this week about the Prime Minister caving on welfare changes.

It's a complete shambles, and shows that he's lost control of his party.

But why is it so important for our economy?

A 🧵 on yields, bonds, and the UK's impending debt crisis If the government spends more than the taxes it collects, it runs a deficit.

For 2024/25, that deficit is £152 billion (!!).

That must be funded somehow. The economy might grow, increasing income. Or the govt can raise taxes, cut spending — or borrow money, taking on debt.

We all know that courts have too much power over our country's immigration policy.

But increasingly they're also telling businesses exactly what to pay their workers.

Sounds mad? That’s because it is. And it's going to destroy our economy.

A 🧵 on the Equality Act: When I was at school, I worked in a shop.

If there had been boys doing my job with the same experience and aptitude as me, but earning more money, I’d have been livid.

If there were boys earning more money working in the warehouse, I’d have said, fair enough.

It’s easy to dismiss uncomfortable truths as “racist”. The British establishment often does.

Like when @maitlis interviewed @RupertLowe10 on grooming gangs.

It’s harder to confront the truth.

The truth may be uncomfortable but facts cannot be racist. These are the facts: 🧵

https://twitter.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1923007963947495731

About 90% of people in the UK have British citizenship. If 90% of criminals were British, this would be in line with their share of the population.

If it were higher than 90%, Brits would be more likely than average to be criminals.

If it were lower, they would be less likely.

St George's Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 is a chance to think about what makes England so special.

For centuries we’ve built communities organically across city and country, combining urban dynamism & rural beauty.

Our planning rules threaten to ruin that.

A 🧵 on England, communities, and housing Many smart people have set out – correctly – the huge economic damage of our failure to build enough houses.

But this also comes at a substantial cost to our culture.