The WASPI campaign is fascinating for what it reveals about our ideas of social justice and the responsibility of government for our wellbeing. It shows a confused mix of justifications for spending on the older population which mangle distinct conceptions of the welfare state Pensions are a key part of the welfare state everywhere, and usually the biggest item in government social spending alongside healthcare. UK has a relatively low share of public spending on pensions, but it’s still about 5 per cent of GDP, more than total spending on education

Don’t want to attribute too much sophistication to these guys, but there is something quite strategic going on here. It’s all about taking a long established symbol of unqualified evil - Nazism and the Shoah - and displacing it onto Muslims (and by extension migrants in general)

https://twitter.com/douglaskmurray/status/1728009978164793796

while at the same time freeing European fascism from this burdensome historical association with genocide. This allows us to rehabilitate fascism as a defence against the ‘real Nazis’ - jihadis, or indeed anyone threatening a global order based on white supremacy

One of the paradoxes of British politics is how a country with such hostility to welfare spending and such an obsession with private home ownership can carrying on spending far more on social housing than any other advanced democracy

https://twitter.com/J_Elliott94/status/1616341826964709379

Nearly half as much again as the next biggest spender, Finland oecd.org/els/family/PH3…