@PoliticsInPubs

@CPBML We're so grateful for all the hard work done by Cath, Steve, Lee, Danny, Izzy & Garcia (and, of course @andrewdoyle_com & Andy Shaw) to get @UnleashedComedy gigs to #Manchester. It CAN be done in other cities and towns. It just needs people taking responsibly to make it happen.

In the midst of war on Iran, US "spheres of influence" and UK adherence to vague international law over Chagos... 1) Iran, Greenland, Brexit Britain... does sovereignty still matter? 🇮🇷🇬🇧 @HudsCheryl @richardmarcj Joan Kennedy of @PiPsOrgUK @KiszelyPhilip @jacobreynolds & @Fox_Claire

AOI Director @Fox_Claire kicks off “Iran, Greenland, Brexit Britain: Does sovereignty still matter?” 🇮🇷🇬🇧 W/ @richardmarcj @HudsCheryl @jacobreynolds @KiszelyPhilip & Joan Kennedy of @PiPsOrgUK

They told you to feel shame. Colonisers. Slavers. Oppressors. Your ancestors couldn’t afford the ferry to France. But they boycotted sugar. Signed petitions. Walked out of factories. Chose prison over convicting innocent men. The powerful owned slaves. The people ended slavery. Then they ended it everywhere. You were taught the shame. Never the pride. Be proud of us. 🇬🇧

Some basics about Chagos for BBC reporters, Sky anchors and others coming new to the debate. 1. The Chagos Islands lie half-way between Africa and Indonesia, and host a key Anglo-American military base on the main island, Diego Garcia 2. France ceded the archipelago to Britain in 1814 separately from Mauritius; the islands were always a distinct territory, though, lacking suitable facilities, their administration was sited in Mauritius 3. To put the issue beyond doubt, Mauritius permanently renounced any claim to the islands in 1965 in return for a cash payment from Britain 4. It eagerly trousered the money, its first post-independence PM, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, explaining that he had been glad to sell any theoretical right to “territory of which very few people knew, which is very far from here, and which we had never visited” 5. Mauritius is indeed 1337 miles from the islands, and began to press its claim again only when it grew closer to China in the early 2000s 6. The barrister it hired was Philippe Sands, a co-founder of Matrix Chambers and a close friend of Keir Starmer’s, who has always been cagey about what conversations they have had about Chagos 7. Far from providing a mandate for the deal, the Labour manifesto explicitly promised the opposite (see graphic) 8. Starmer justifies the surrender by pointing to a non-binding resolution by a UN court, which included a Russian and a Chinese judge, and whose jurisdiction had been expressly denied in disputes between Commonwealth or former Commonwealth states 9. In November, a different UN body issued another non-binding resolution, this one ordering the transfer to be halted, but Labour did not change direction 10. The party may have a guilty conscience, for it was Harold Wilson’s government that removed the 1800-odd inhabitants from the islands after 1968 to make room for the base 11. Chagossians, who now number around 10,000, do not see themselves as Mauritians and overwhelmingly oppose the transfer 12. British and American generals have expressed reservations about the deal, warning that a future Mauritian government might lease adjoining islands to unfriendly powers 13. The base has proved its strategic value many times, lying as it does lies within reach of four of the seven global choke points that funnel maritime traffic: the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Straits of Hormuz, the Malacca Straits and the Cape of Good Hope 14. Mauritius has no navy and admits it cannot protect the territory 15. At the same time, it wants commercial fishing in the matchless marine conservation zone around the islands 16. A Freedom of Information Request shows that the payments to Mauritius will total £34 billion 17. Mauritius says that this money will wipe out its national debt and still allow tax cuts 18. Opponents of the Bill want Chagossians themselves to decide the issue in a referendum 19. If the deal falls, Britain will be under a moral obligation to allow Chagossians to settle the outer atolls (see video in next post) 20. Providing for a permanent settlement will cost (on the government’s figures) one sixth or (on the actual figures) around one fiftieth as much as Labour wants to hand to Mauritius 21. The transfer cannot go ahead without both parliamentary ratification and the formal approval of the US, neither of which has been secured

Free event. Manchester, Whitefield. Tues 27th Jan. 7.30pm All welcome. Come and join the discussion. Follow the link for details. Manchester - The Culture Wars and Gender Identity - POLITICS in PUBS share.google/WTYvgIho2bEIAI…

Labour MP blames Brexit for food price increases. The reality? It’s his own government increasing energy costs, hiking wage bills, new regulations hurting confidence and now adding packaging and fertiliser taxes. Either he’s lying, or he isn’t fit to be an MP.

Labour picked a fight with the countryside they didn’t need to. Raising the threshold is a partial victory, won by farmers, families, rural businesses and Conservatives who stood up in Westminster and across the country. We’ll keep pushing until they are fully protected. 🇬🇧

@BaffledBySci So good MPs are only slightly more probable than alien life? This looks like a potentially fantastic topic for one of our meetings!

What can the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence tell us about the state of our democracy? I argue that the Drake Equation may help us answer the most urgent question of our time. baffledbyscience.com/p/what-can-the…

@JasonD60 @JoshFG @nmdacosta Any possibility that you could apologise to @nmdacosta and acknowledge that you were in the wrong in accusing her of using an old video - when she has done no such thing?

@JoshFG @nmdacosta Thanks for the quick correction, it's great you take a very keen interest in da Costa's social media posts.

The Health Secretary KNOWS Starmer's Bill is NOT safe. People will be "compelled to take up an assisted death" because of the state of NHS and palliative care. He is an honest man but the Prime Minister has compelled his and every minister's silence. 🙏Josh Fenton-Glynn MP. Watch for the emphasis on 'workability' - not safety - at the end from the Permanent Secretary.

No Farmers, No Food.

Very happy to discuss the failings of local police and councils to protect children and keep Pride events safe on @PatrickChristys last night 🙂 REVEALED: Reform Councillor has charges dropped youtu.be/7gmK9SEfhF8?si… via @YouTube

The tribunal can reconsider a judgment of its own motion to correct a simple error. If the quotes attributed to the EAT in Forstater and the Supreme Court in Lee v Ashers were actually from other cases, easy enough to correct the reference. But I don't think that is the case here

This is just disgraceful. Please share & support @PinchesLynne … She needs our help NOW. 💥Please RT💥 Thanks 🙏

Shocked and appalled by the amount of comments labeling farmers as 'tax dodgers', and that they should 'sell up' for the UK to import all of its food. UK farmers pay Tax similarly to other businesses and individuals, covering income Tax, National insurance, Corporation Tax (if operating as a company), Capital Gains Tax, and VAT (if applicable). The main distinctions are in targeted reliefs, especially for Inheritance Tax (IHT), which helps to support the agricultural sector as a whole by allowing the transfer of farms for the next generation to work. If a farm is sold, Capital Gains Tax has to be paid on any realised profits. In 2024 the Agricultural industry contributed £14.5 billion to the economy and employed 452,900 tax paying workers. So farmers absolutely do pay taxes (and have done for hundreds of years), while currently providing 62% of all food consumed in the UK. What an honourable vocation. Thank you, Farmers. 🇬🇧

🐝 Mcr's first Fringe Book 📚Festival is just 💥one week away💥 come and join us Sat 29/11 Jo Bartosch & Rob Jessel 📘Susan Dalgety 📕 Yehudis Fletcher 📚 Fiona McAnena 📗 Joan Smith 📒Victoria Smith 📚Nick Wallis 📕 Susanna Rustin ⬇️tickets⬇️

We pay more in interest payments on our debt than the we spend on education. Why is debt such a problem? Hilary Salt @RedActuary explains:

There are some very good friends (I hope, still!) of mine on this list. It is both wrong and disingenuous to suggest that the Assisted Dying Bill, as drafted, has “a clear democratic mandate”.’ It’s poorly worded, full of holes and not one of my constituents had their say on it

Fact check. I beg to differ, as someone who sat through all 947 amendments to bloody Online Safety Bill. And please don't mention 1249 amendments to Levelling Up Bill. Key pt: amending Assisted Dying Bill by trying to add crucial safeguards= literally a matter of life or death

Like many others, I have been engaging with BBC people on their terrible trans coverage for years. Again and again I heard the grownups understood there was a problem but nothing got fixed. So I'm pleased to see this but will wait to see sustained change before I believe it

It’s an intolerable & dangerous place we have got to where people are frightened of reporting crime or speaking out in fear of being called names! Sara Sharif’s neighbours feared being called racist if they reported abuse. telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/1…