Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Norgy]

Britishers, what is this Unite The Kingdom march nonsense that is going on now?

[Sheilbh]

Britishers, what is this Unite The Kingdom march nonsense that is going on now?

Far-right march around Tommy Robinson. There's been two now - the first one had about 100-150k attendees in 2025 (and many arrests after clashes with the police). The second one was smaller - in the tens of thousands - no clashes and fewer arrests. But I suspect a very challenging police environment as they always also attract large counter-demonstrations and the second one was on Nakba Day which always has a very large pro-Palestinian march.

There is a lot of American money going into it and ahead of the last one the Home Office blocked visas for eleven American far-right "agitators" who were billed to speak.

It slightly ties into the weird slightly Schrodinger's Britain you find online in that the Home Office also recently blocked Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker which has attracted a lot of attention. So you have this really weird scenario where the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who is a Muslim woman and member of Labour Friends of Palestine is simultaneously blocking Piper and Uygur from entry at the behest of Israel and blocking American racists from entering the country because we've got creeping Sharia and Muslims running Britain. In general I am a little uncomfortable with the ease with which Home Secretary's can block people and think it's drawn a little too broadly - but the power's not new and has been used in the past to block Kanye, homophobic Jamaican dancehall performers, Geert Wilders, Islamist preachers etc from entering the country so I think it's probably being applied relatively fairly and/or indiscriminately.

Separately just to flag a very tiny thing in the Mandelson files is his attempt to become Chancellor of Oxford University (as well as American Ambassador), which is a post elected by Oxford graduates - he failed (came fourth out of five). But one thing this exchange highlights is the very narrow circles in the Labour Party:


So that's Peter Mandelson the grand-son of post-war Labour Deputy PM and Home Secretary Herbert Morrison (though they weren't close) and Georgia Gould. She's a new MP and minister who was regularly praised by Alastair Campbell when she was leader of Camden Council - she's also the daughter of Peter Gould who was a key influence in New Labour, particularly around polling and focus groups. Obviously in that role he worked very closely with Mandelson and Campbell - who is the "Alastair" referenced there and whose nephew is now an MP.

You see this across Labour whether it's the Miliband brothers, Rachel Reeves and her sister Ellie Reeves, also an MP and former Party Chairman (and, incdientally, married to John Cryer who is now in the House of Lords but was a Labour MP and the son of Bob and Ann Cryer, both Labour MPs), the Benn family. But also, say, Keir Starmer's chiefs of staff. Sue Gray - his first chief of staff (and moved now in the House of Lords) - is the mother of Liam Conlon who is a Labour MP, or his second chief of staff Morgan McSweeney who is married to Imogen Walker, also a Labour MP, and government whip. Or there's Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls - I know Ed Balls is out of politics now and does media but I do find it slightly insane that the husband of the Foreign Secretary is one of the hosts of ITV's morning show which includes interviewing ministers.

You can sort of add a second layer to it if you include civil servants - so, for example - Rachel Reeves is married to Nicholas Joicey who is a senior civil servant. He worked for Gordon Brown, was sent to the IMF, worked at the Treasury, DWP and DEFRA before being given (understandably) a series of leaves of absence and sabbaticals to take up other roles while his wife is the Chancellor.

Seeing the messages from Georgia and Peter about Alastair's nephew just was a bit of a reminder of quite how small and incestuous a club it is. And something that I did think about among Labour's celebration of getting rid of the 92 remaining hereditary peers whe I feel like the Parliamentary Labour Party is basically about a dozen families at this point and they're all married to either party apparatchiks or civil servants

Edit: And also the exchange that is probably going to be the line people remembered (the Tories already releasing graphics based on it), is Pat McFadden, currently at DWP,  that "every meeting I have [with Labour MPs] is 'who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others'. They're asking the wrong questions".

McFadden, who was Blair's political secretary before becoming an MP, talking about lots of manoeuvring that didn't "feel good for Keir". In particular by "Gordon" - i.e. Gordon Brown. Mandelson then confirming that Brown "has it in for Keir (and Rachel) big time). He doesn't seriously believe that Angel is an alternative but she is an instrument of destabilisation. I doubt he thinks Ed [Miliband] is fit for pupose but he is doing to Keir what he has always done to successive Scottish leaders." Which I think is fair - and Brown's role in the collapse of Scottish Labour is a thing.

But it's just insane that this was in 2025 and you basically have Gordon Brown, Pat McFadden, Peter Mandelson and (arguably) Ed Miliband just fighting the New Labour Continuation War. It's like if Tony Blair's government was riven by Roy Jenkins' scheming with Tony Benn while Bernard Donoghue and Marcia Williams (Harold Wilson's Press Secretary and Secretary) are at the top of government fighting it. I can't think of anything like it and I know the factionalism in Labour is extreme and there are these sort of apostolic succession passing down of grudges - from Gaitskellites to Kinnock to New Labour v the Bevanites to the Bennites to the Corbynites. But this is other level and kind of unhinged - I can't think of anything else like this of the personnel and fights of one government (almost 15 years go) rolling into the next as if nothing happened in between.

[garbon]

Farage (via Facebook) on the release of the officer footage* from when that Sikh murdered a white student claiming he had been racially abused. Apparently stabbed student was handcuffed while they listened to the Sikh's accusations.

This is the most shocking footage of discrimination that you will ever see.
A white boy being handcuffed by police officers more concerned by an accusation of racism than an act of murder.
This must be a turning point. White lives matter too

*I can't say first hand what it shows as I don't know why I'd want to watch that.

Of course, it was yesterday that the Sikh murderer received a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years. Not sure how that reflects the justice system not caring about white people.

[Josquius]

Terrible tragedy. Shit policing.
Interesting out of it though to see Reform turning against the Sikhs. Before they had really been quite pro sikh, a lot of sikh supporters, they saw common ground in views of Muslims that could be cultivated.


Lately on social media I'm seeing a new slant on the "it's all about  housing stupid" - some research found the best way to drag women away from terf groups isn't convincing them they're wrong and should show empathy.... Rather if they get a hobby.
From this it then follows radicalised old guys wouldn't be doing quite so bad if they only had space at home for a model railway, a wood working workshop, a home brewery, or whatever.

[Sheilbh]

Farage (via Facebook) on the release of the officer footage* from when that Sikh murdered a white student claiming he had been racially abused. Apparently stabbed student was handcuffed while they listened to the Sikh's accusations.

This is the most shocking footage of discrimination that you will ever see.
A white boy being handcuffed by police officers more concerned by an accusation of racism than an act of murder.
This must be a turning point. White lives matter too

*I can't say first hand what it shows as I don't know why I'd want to watch that.

I also haven't watched the bodycam for exactly the same reason - I don't think I've ever watched any bodycam footage. I've seen journalists describe it and say it's very distressing.

The facts are pretty grim. So what the court found was that Henry Nowak was attacked by Vickrum Digwa while he was walking hme from a nightout. He was stabbed five times in the chest by Digwa's kirpan (so the ceremonial dagger Sikhs are permitted to carry). Digwa filmed Nowak trying to run away and collapsing.

Digwa's older brother then calls 999 and tells the police that "we have just been attacked racially by some white person". He hands the phone to Digwa who says that Nowak called him the p-word and pulled off his turban. They're now more or less outside the Digwa family home.

When the police arrive Digwa's father is hlding Novak upright as he's slumped against their house. He and other members of the family tell the police that Nowak had fallen when trying to jump over the garden fence.

This is then most of the bodycam footage. Nowak says nine times that he can't breathe and four times that he has been stabbed. On one occasion one of the police officers responds "you've been stabbed? I don't think you have, mate". He is pushed down to the floor and handcuffed, read his rights and arrested for alleged racial abuse (the coroner has said that the wounds were "unsurvivable" so it didn't make the difference but I can't help but wonder if someone's been stabbed in the chest if pushing them to the floor and pulling their hands behind their back to cuff them accelerated his death).

At this point the police seem to start to realise there's a bit more going on. The female officer takes over and calls it in as someone who "has been beaten up" and that they need an ambulance. There's apparently a further moment on the bodycam where the male officer says he thinks he's unconscious now and the female officer, checking, says he's not breathing.

I don't think that male officer should be allowed to walk a dog far less serve in the police. I saw Jonathan Hinder (Labour MP of a Blue Labour persuasion and former police officer) who said he was very shocked by the bodycam footage and had three particular points. The first was that their training is that if someone is saying they can't breathe or they've been stabbed, the duty to protect life should kick in and the police should be looking for a wound/administering first aid. Related to that was that from the bodycam footage at the point they're responding there's no need to hand cuff him: he is slumped, he's not moving, he's not presenting any threat or resistance - which again slightly goes to the point of the need to administer first aid. The third point was just around how casual and indifferent the officer seemed - particularly that "you've been stabbed? I don't think you have, mate" line.

I don't totally agree with her framing but I think Badenoch's response to Farage, from a conservative perspective, was robust and effective (not the first time she's gone after him on this - I think I mentioned her and Shabana Mahmood having specific, very strong sections in their conference speeches about the rise of "ethno-nationalism"):

Steven Swinford
@Steven_Swinford
Breaking:

Kemi Badenoch accuses Nigel Farage of 'grandstanding' and 'reinforcing the difference' after he claimed Britain has become a two-tier country in the wake of Henry Nowak's murder

She tells @GMB 'we are descending into tribalism' and that Nigel Farage's intervention has angered here. 'We can't solve it by whipping people up, we can't solve it by making them angry'

'I have a nine-year-old boy - in 10 years he will be about that age. He is half black, he is half white. I bring him up to believe this country is one where he belongs and he should never worry about how he will be treated. You see that video and think how can we tell our children these things? I want that to be the reality

'What Nigel Farage is doing is reinforcing the difference. We need to find what we have in common. Not what separates us.

'I don't want to hear about black lives matter. I don't want to hear about white lives matter. We all matter. Enough of this nonsense where we keep separating everybody and splitting people into different groups. We are descending into tribalism

'What I do not like is seeing Nigel Farage jump on this issue when he doesn't do any work, he doesn't turn up to Parliament, he doesn't take things seriously but he sees this as an opportunity to grandstand

'I'm not making this about white people or black people. It was wrong for him to do that. A backlash will come. If you encourage people to think about themselves as being part of a group defined by their skin colour we will encourage everyone to do that

'We should not make this about Nigel Farage. This is about Henry Nowak. I listened to his father and it was absolutely heartbreaking.

'This morning I watched that bodycam footage and just kept thinking if that was my boy his last moments were spent in handcuffs. He knew he was dying. He could see the confusion, his attacker claiming he had been a racist. It's an awful, awful way to die.

'What Nigel Farage is saying completely misunderstands that politicians wait until the sentencing before we say what we think. That case shows something has gone very horribly wrong with policing. I think we know why

'That case shows that something has gone very horribly wrong with policing and I think I know why. I think in 2020-2021 there was a response to the George Floyd murder that has over-corrected. I think everyone matters

'We need to bring back common sense. You don't need to be trained in racism or anti-racism to have seen what Henry was experiencing and know that he needed help. Something has gone wrong with the policing'

Edit: Worth flagging that's edited and reordered from an interview. I saw the clip which the Tories are promoting (https://x.com/conservatives/status/2061726213098348799?s=46&t=o9GOIj6BKKcLcHiyQTlAoA) and this is very vulgar politics but she's improved a lot as a communicator - but also even ignoring this specific case it's basically impossible to imagine Starmer being able to communicate/talk in that way (I think Streeting or Burnham could).

(On a trite politics level I'd just add that the Tories release a very good short social media clip on Nigel Farage's mysterious "personal" £5 million donation - they seem to be going on the attack.)

On the point around policing I can't help but wonder if part of this is tied to austerity. Police funding was cut really sharply and I think police numbers fell by 10,000 under Cameron and May - that was then reversed and numbers returned to 2010 levels after May. But I can't help but wonder if the 10,000 who left were more experienced officers taking early retirement or people who had other options and there's now a really unstable mix of skills and skill levels in the police.

I'd add that Henry Nowak's father has been clear: "we do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension." And that Shabana Mahmood this morning has said that police officers have been subject to death threats in the wake of the murder and that one officer had to rellocate after being misidentified online. She's noted there's a "dangerous undercurrent" and said that it now needs to be left to the IOPC and courts.

On the political response I'd contrast that with Keir Starmer's statement which just seems tone-deaf but also just slightly disconnected from the actual murder because I don't think there's any suggestion this was part of a cycle of violence or that either Nowak or Digwa had previous involvement in "the horror of knife crime":

Keir Starmer
@Keir_Starmer
This an awful, shocking case.

Henry's loved ones have gone through the trauma of a long trial and endured Henry's killer making up appalling claims about their son who was thoughtful, kind and deeply loved.

It is right that the IOPC is investigating the police's response to his senseless murder. And we must end the cycle of tragedy by tackling the horror of knife crime.

Henry's family, friends, his university and the city of Southampton will continue to feel his loss, and our thoughts will always be with them.

Of course, it was yesterday that the Sikh murderer received a life sentence with a minimum of 21 years. Not sure how that reflects the justice system not caring about white people.

Yeah so practically it was a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 21 years - but he will be eligible for parole at half that. The starting point for the minimum tariff is 15 years. There were some aggravating and mitigating factors.

I think it's worth noting that I only saw this story earlier in the week and basically no-one will have been able to say anything about it because of contempt of court rules until the court had found whether the defendent was guilty. It's contempt of court to express an opinion in that way about an ongoing trial (to avoid prejudicing the jury) all you can do is factually report what the prosecution and defence have argued. But that means with high-profile cases there is an explosion after a decision.

See also the recent astonishingly lenient sentencing and sentencing comments for the teenage boys who filmed themselves gang-raping teenage girls but didn't get any custodial sentence (which the government is rightly appealing). With that one it's kind of weird because when I was growing up the stereotype of a judge was out of touch with the modern world ("what is Gazza?") and wildly reactionary. That feels slightly from another age - it feels a little Agatha Christie/Enid Blyton and unrelated to modern Britain - like blimpish retired colonels.

[Sheilbh]

Incidentally in plus ca change news, Hampshire Police are now deleting previous public statements about officers being misled at the scene, quickly moving to administering first aid and it being "a very sad case" because following the release of the bodycam footage it is clear their statements were not true.

Edit: Incidentally Reform have been all over the place responding to Badenoch's line this morning. I mentioned it about Makerfield and the response to a bit of a challenge there. I don't know what - but I think something's going on in the party. It feels like a bit of a meltdown but reflecting internal contradictions/rows/disorder/lack of discipline. I've mentioned that Farage has a very bad record at actually building self-sustaining parties - and I'm not sure that is necessarily what's going on - but I think something's up in Reform and it may be one to watch.

[Josquius]

A comment I saw online which rings very true. Maybe there is something to this two tier policing thing afterall

If you say "I support Palestine Action", they might put you in jail.
If you incite a racist riot, they put you on the news.

Bloody awful even to begin with never mind when you have the grieving dad explicitly saying he doesn't want this.