This government and their direction of travel, frightens me.

[Kendodd]

Teressa May (last government, but same party) with her 'go home immigrants' vans and hostle environment.
Immigration and Borders act.
Transportation to Rwanda.
Bringing laws in trying to limit our right to protest.
Lying to the queen to prorogue parliament.
Lying in the house of commons.
Trying to change the law to get one of your MPs off.
Pretty much ripping up the ministerial code.
Windrush.
Admitting that they're just going to break international law.

I bet they will come after the human rights act and try to get us out of ECHR.

Worse, I think a great many of the public love the fact they've done all the above and would cheer loudly at the ripping up of the human rights act and ECHR membership (wtaf?)

How did we get to this?

@Xenia A much better idea than the governments current approach of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. If only the government weren't so determined to play to a particularly cruel part of their own party but actually wanted to address the problem. The have had 12 years, wouldn't it be a good idea if we gave someone else with fresh ideas a try?

On his way to India Johnson has confirmed that lowering barriers for Indians to live in the UK would be part of trade deal negotiation (going against what was briefed a few days ago). I'm sure Leavers will be thrilled at that outcome.

Wonders how much ££ will end up in Mrs Sunak's handbag as part of this 'trade deal' with India🤔

Honestly they are so bloody blatant now with their 'deals'!

Yep, turkeys voting for xmas. Well now everybody is suffering, except the rich.

The numpties voted them in despite being proven liars and despite being offered nothing more than some right wing racist crap about get brexit done. Fell hook line and sinker. Now everything is super expensive. Even the power companies who made huge profits are allowed to not pass that on to the consumer and now we have to pay double or more for gas and electric.

The tories have done what they set out to do. Leave the EU so they could get away with a lot of stuff. Get themselves and their friends even richer. Stuff the public. Make it illegal to protest.

And still you get people saying they're doing a great job.

Oh because the rich control the media.

And we are ignoring the most important thing of all which is the climate.

I do not agree with more foreign aid however . We already give about £300m a year just to Pakistan. The Uk is a very big foreign aid donor

Pakistan and India, yes not quite sure why we give so much to these countries but unless we support developing countries (not those with space programs and nukes) then we will never address the root causes of economic migration.

If we did more in the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Lebanon, then the numbers wanting to leave would reduce and when i say "we" i mean the developed world, esp Europe, who are most directly effected by migration.

We caused the situation in Libya, allowing the criminal gangs in, so we do have a responsibility for those trying to leave.

In answer to the question above I would like it speeded up. I don't see why an initial check could not be done in Calais for example with a 7 day waiting period only for rejection or acceptance and only a right of appeal from abroad, not the UK

But around 75% are successful in their appeals, so would not significantly dent the 28k who came here across the ch last year.

I wonder how many visa's India will be given to make Brexit & Global Britain a "success"

More YouGov fun:

"78% of voters think he has lied, including 61% of 2019 Tory voters, and only 51% of those still saying they would vote Tory"

Appalling numbers, which begs the question: what the hell is the tory strategy right now? Keep Johnson in so the cost of living crisis sticks to him then change leader a few months before the election? 'Risky' is an understatement.

I’m hoping that enough of the middle class are feeling the pinch enough to wake up to the fact that the Tories only care about the extremely rich getting richer and fuck everyone else.

Those of us more directly affected by their “fuck you, got mine” attitude have been yelling about them for years.

Appalling numbers, which begs the question: what the hell is the tory strategy right now?

Go to the Winchester, have a nice pint and wait for this all to blow over.

**Shaun of the dead quote is for comedic purposes but may be up to 100% true.

People, there was a referendum on 'immigration' called the EU referendum.

yes there were people who voted on the basis of 'sovereignty' but more people voted because they didn't want any more eastern europeans using the health service and taking jobs and buying homes. I even had a Brexiter tell me that I was taking a home that could have gone to a British person (my DH is British) when I told him of my plan to buy a flat in London.

We had a hard Brexit. Are house prices lower? Is there less pressure on the NHS. You can perhaps blame the cost of living crisis on the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but Brexit has undoubtedly caused prices to increase. And incomes are stagnating for many people. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. Even if you didn't let in a single brown skinned person, the house prices will still be high, the NHS will still be overtaxed.

The people buying your houses do not necessarily live here. Many of them are also british. all of my mum's colleagues back home own apartments in London and none live in the UK. They are also not syrian refugees in inflatable rubber boats. None of the people buying houses on the cornish coast and other beautiful places with high house prices (and minimum wage incomes) are syrian refugees (most are probably British). As for the NHS, the biggest source of pressure is the elderly population and whatever colour they are, most were born here or have been here for many years. Stopping immigration is not going to reduce that pressure, they already have the right to be here. In fact, making immigration more difficult is likely to prevent the young Indian nurse or doctor who will save your life from coming here.

The main source of a lot of the UK's problem is stark inequality. The high earners pay 30% of our tax revenue. And there are not many of them for a country the size of the UK, many of them are disproportionately in London and the SE. Many people pay less taxes than what they consume in services because of low pay. a large percentage of the working population is economically inactive- 25%; many of them due to disability or caring responsibilities but this means less money to fund the NHS. our gdp growth and productivity is low- less money to fund the NHS and services. The low pay isn't due to the immigrants; in fact the regions with the lowest pay i.e. the north have far fewer immigrants in percentage terms than London. It is due to lack of investment in infrastructure and lack of economic growth- so businesses can't expand.

We should be holding the government to account for our lack of economic growth and lack of investment in the country and economic inequality.

@Mumoblue our combined income is in the top 9-15% of the country but I do live in London so I would say our income is a borderline middle class income. we are cutting back but still overall have a comfortable life. We don't have a car, have a mortgage fixed for another 2 years, live in zone 3, no DC yet (just planning 1 DC anyway) so might be more insulated from the shock?

I do think that even if our income was double but we had 2 cars, 2 season tickets and a nice detached house in the Home Counties with a variable rate mortgage and 2 kids ( I know a lot of people who fit this description), we would definitely feel the pinch. But those people still wouldn't be at the food bank stage.

@Mumoblue I did some calculations last night and i calculated that a family of 4 on a combined income of 50k might have only £300 for food, diapers, home repairs, insurance, personal hygiene after you deduct rent/mortgage of £1000 (outside london), council tax, gas and electricity, childcare, after school club for the older child. I think they may end up at the food bank at the end of the month... Someone with a household income of 50k and 2 kids is the top 56% of this country so the definition of average.

"The numpties voted them in" because they were offered a choice between two main parties, one led by a shady unprincipled populist and the other led by a delusional 1970s throwback.

The shady unprincipled populist won and has been repeatedly exposed as a liar. The only surprise is that he hasn't been caught with his cock out yet.

The delusional 1970s throwback is currently sitting on the back benches. He blames the fact that Russia has attacked a neighbour, in an blatant attempt to annex territory, on the fact there is an international alliance which was created to stop such behaviour.

Corbyn had already demonstrated that he was Russia's useful idiot with his response to the Salisbury poisonings. He was more potentially damaging to the UK's reputation than Johnson, who is just a sleazy greedy dickhead and most other major countries have elected one of them in living memory. Hopefully the election will go the other way in two years but you shouldn't call people "numpties" after the horrible choice they were faced with in 2019.

I think it is important that we make it clear to our MPs that we are not only disgusted by Johnson's behaviour, but by their behaviour in supporting him.

Regarding FPTP as an election system versus proportional representation that is often seen as a fairer way of voting. It is a fairer way but have a look at this link www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32601281

It clearly shows that in 2015 with PR there would have been 83 UKIP seats in Parliament and a Conservative majority. There is also a chance of more coalitions.

I'm sure Mrs Sunak is wealthier than the peanuts from trade deals and foreign aid!

@feedyourheed would you say that to an immigrant who complained about this country?

Even brexit mps in the commons like Steve Baker are now calling for johnson to go. Better late than never to do the right thing I guess. Feels like the dominos are starting to fall now.

It is interesting. I rather thought today's debate would be a damp squib, but clearly someone has been spoked in the Tory party, perhaps they fear the number of letters is close, and would have been passed if they had whipped it.

The Met has confirmed it won't issue any more fines before the local elections, which won't exactly silence accusations that it's doing the government favours. Why even admit that?

^ The Met have now corrected this saying they will continue to issue fines but not make it public this time. Which isn't much better.

Please call him by his full title: Brexit Hardman Steve Baker.

Corbyn had already demonstrated that he was Russia's useful idiot with his response to the Salisbury poisonings. He was more potentially damaging to the UK's reputation than Johnson

As i remember, Corbyn wanted to see the evidence before he would condemn Russia... which he then did...
But it was BJ and the Tories that took Russian money, gave Russians linked to Putin, British citizenship, allowed Russian (Putins wealth) dirty money to be laundered through the city... did nothing about the many unexplained deaths of anti Putin Russians in London and after Salisbury had some of the weakest responses of the Western world i.e the US expelled more diplomates and sanctioned more Russian banks.

May and then BJ were/are UK premiers but put their party coffers above UK security.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61080537

Doesn't the "send asylum seekers to a non-European country" idea date back to the Blair government?