Rafe Heydel-Mankoo

Today's #Census results reveal that 42% of the 10 million foreign-born residents in England arrived in last decade. Foreign born population: 1851: 0.6% 1901: 1.5% 1951: 4.2% 2001: 8.3% 2011: 12.7% 2021: 16.6% This cannot continue, as I explained in my @NewCultureForum lecture:

My 5-part history of slavery is now available on Tousi TV Plus: tousi.tv Slavery Episodes: 1. Ancient World 2. Africa 3. Islamic 4. Trans-Atlantic 5. Abolition Thanks to @MahyarTousi & the excellent team at @TousiTVOfficial Independent media is surging ahead

Sat with the wonderful @RafHM and @WilliamClouston to talk about Clacton. Thank you @NewCultureForum for having us. England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This is shocking 2023: HM Prison Fosse Way: Cost approx. £286 million (houses 1,900 prisoners) To build a comparable prison today, just 3 years later, would cost over £1 BILLION The National Audit Office (NAO) attributes this to: Construction Inflation: Building material and labour costs have risen by 40% in past 5 years Planning Delays: Fierce local opposition to new prison builds frequently stalls construction, triggering expensive legal fees and extended timelines. This is completely mad and unsustainable. Current estimated capital cost per new prison place: £600,000. (Independent Review of Prison Capacity, August 2025). This issue goes beyond prisons, however, and helps to explain why we seem incapable of successfully completing any infrastructure or capital projects, not to mention solving our housing crisis.

A few months after leaving office, Angela Rayner returns to her old role in gov't She refuses to repay her £17k severance package even though she lambasted re-hired Tories who acted this way Rayner earns approx. £250,000 a year! £166,104 MP & ministerial salary + private earnings of at least £80k+* £17,000 is a paltry sum for her to pay to regain some shred of dignity & decency, and hopefully earn back a little respect from the British public. I find it remarkable that she can't see this is the right thing to do - and that it is in her best interest. The hypocrisy is staggering. Whilst in opposition she tabled and voted for a motion preventing ministers from getting severance if they breached the ministerial code – which she admitted she did. * £60,000 advance for her new book, £20,000 for speech to Deutsche Bank etc.

Not in 1988. The proposal (by British Rail) to demolish St. Pancras was announced in the 1960s, leading to a campaign (fronted by Sir John Betjeman & the Victorian Society) to save it. St. Pancras receiving Grade 1 listed status in 1967, forever preserving it. The building continued to deteriorate through the 1970s, 80s and 1990s before being refurbished to its former glory in the 2000s. The only thing that happened in 1988 was the creation of the Thameslink route, which diverted many suburban services away from St Pancras. The building had failed fire safety regulations and was essentially abandoned.

In 1988 the government announced plans to demolish the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras. It had been empty since 1935. The Gothic stone facade by George Gilbert Scott was considered too expensive to restore. English Heritage spent 15 years fighting to save it. The hotel reopened in 2011. It is now one of the most valuable buildings in London.

@Theresa92138215 Yes, very frustrating that we ran out of time. Thankfully, @Alexarmstrong has promised to host a longer debate on his show this Saturday.

@RafHM Annoying you couldn't answer her claim that Winston Churchill was responsible for diverting ships which she claimed caused a famine 🫤

Why are we so afraid to celebrate the British Empire's great achievements? Colonialism & capitalism have been the 2 greatest forces for lifting the world out of poverty & increasing both life expectancy & quality of life Yet today the British Empire is presented not only as wholly bad, but as downright evil. This happens in schools, museums, the media etc. If it was so evil, why did the newly independent former colonies voluntarily choose to join the British Commonwealth, an organisation headed by the British Monarch? Contrast that reaction with the response of the peoples of Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The truth is, for thousands of years life in many pre-colonial parts of the world was “violent, brutal and short” (to quote Harvard Professor Stephen Pinker). The British Empire changed much of that. Life expectancy has doubled in nations colonised by the British. This was thanks to improvements in health & medicine (building hospitals, vaccines, supplying clean water etc.), but also improvements in nutrition and food storage techniques. This led to soaring populations in British colonies, not only due to increasing life expectancy but far better infant mortality rates, too. The population of India increased from 170 million to 450 million under the Raj Go to any region of the world, and you will find that Britain’s former colonies are usually the most stable, democratic and prosperous in that region. This is thanks to the legacy they inherited from Britain: parliamentary democracy, the common law, the judiciary, the police, military, civil service and the other institutions of state - not to mention critical infrastructure. And of course the English language that allows them to be global players. Me on @GBNews:

What an imbecillic nincompoop This prep school princess owes her success to Britain, land of her birth Everyone in this clip represents the very worst of vapid, pig ignorant youth culture PS: Citing the 43 trillion myth should bar this spoilt brat from ever giving an opinion

Very nice, @EnglishHeritage & @OlivierAwards But why have you given him the wrong title? Sir Laurence Olivier is incorrect He should be styled "Lord Olivier" or "Baron Olivier" as he was elevated to the peerage in the 1970 Birthday Honours. #CorrectForm

Still not that surprising really. In the history of Parliament only 2 other political party leaders have been Catholic: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative Leader of the Opposition) and Charles Kennedy (Leader of the Liberal Democrats). Burnham is the first Catholic Labour leader. (Blair having converted after leaving office).

@RafHM I know that. But given that the narrowing gap between protestants and catholics in UK since 1800, shocking this is the first catholic PM.

Almost no comment on the fact that Andy Burnham is the first Roman Catholic P.M. in UK history Under The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, Mr Burnham is prohibited from advising the King on appointments to the C of E. This will be delegated to a government minister Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, was not prohibited from advising the King on these matters - one of the quirks of history and the British constitution. Boris Johnson was baptised into the Catholic faith as an infant but converted to Anglicanism when at Eton. Tony Blair was an Anglican in office and converted to Catholicism a few months after leaving No. 10. Andy Burnham is a cradle Catholic and continues to practice his faith. He was educated at Catholic schools, as are his children. In 2009 he told The Guardian that the three most important things in his life, aside from family, are "Everton FC, the Labour Party and the Catholic church - in that order".

@DrCalumMiller I think you're the one who needs to calm down. There is no excitement here. I am merely pointing out an historically noteworthy appointment. I'm also a Catholic. Burnham may be lapsed, but he is a baptised Catholic and still identifies as such. Thus this triggers UK legislation.

@RafHM I still don’t understand why people get excited about Catholics who have very obviously and clearly rejected Catholicism on centrally important issues like whether it is OK to murder children

@cwjroberts It should not be that surprising. Canada has a far larger Catholic population, not least due to French Canadian and Irish immigration. All 11 Catholic Canadian PMs had French-Canadian, Irish & Scottish roots. UK Prime Ministers have been mainly English protestants.

@RafHM Canada thus beat both the USA and UK by, checks notes, 70 and 130 years, respectively: first in 1892, and all told, 13 Cdn PMs have been Protestants and 11 have been Catholics. Honestly a bit shocked by this UK "first".

But it is not 1830. And you are assuming that it was "on the basis that [Johnson was] canonically Catholic" that they married in a Catholic cathedral. His wife is Catholic and there is nothing stopping an Anglican from marrying a Catholic in a Catholic church, so long as certain steps are taken (fewer steps if the Anglican was baptised a Catholic - although he would still be denied communion). If Johnson married in a Catholic cathedral whilst still adhering to Anglicanism, why should he be deemed anything other than Anglican?

The claim that Burnham is a Catholic in the eyes of the law but not Johnson simply because the latter went through Anglican ‘Confirmation’ irrespective of later developments, is unconvincing. If this were 1830, and someone in Johnson’s position had married a Catholic in a Catholic Cathedral on the basis that they were canonically a Catholic, it’s surely difficult to doubt that the law would have acted against him had he attempted to advise the King on Anglican episcopal appointments. It would surely have to be tested in court, but the fact that Johnson was not prosecuted surely tells us more about the laxity of the way the law is applied than any objective legal standard.

I believe you're incorrect. What you allege was reported in the media but appears to have been contradicted from within government. At the highest level. Boris Johnson abandoned the Catholic faith for Anglicanism. Thus, in the eyes of the British state (AFAIK), BJ was no longer R.C. and could advise the Queen on CofE appointments Catholic canon law may have deemed his 2021 Westminster Cathedral marriage to Carrie Symonds as his return to the Catholic faith, but it does not follow that this is the interpretation of British constitutional law. In his capacity as Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland was responsible for some CofE appointments, but I can find no evidence that he also assumed additional responsibilities traditionally belonging to the PM. For example, as @davidtorrance notes in his excellent briefing for the Commons Library: "In May 2021, media reports suggested that Boris Johnson’s role in church appointments had been transferred to the then Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland. According to Rajiv Shah, a former Conservative special adviser (and a Catholic), this did not take place: "The [Prime Minister] took the view that, whatever Canon law might say, in the eyes of English law he remained Anglican and so the prohibition of the Catholic Relief Act did not bite. That provision did however impact me ([I] could not advise Robert [Buckland] on his role re appointment of CofE clergy) and the equivalent one in the Jew[s’] Relief Act impacted Lord Wolfson ([who] could not advise the Crown on appointment of [A]nglican clergy in the [Crown Dependencies] even though he was the minister responsible for them)." Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief… I am of course happy to be corrected if wrong.

"Clothes maketh the man", Lord Scriven Elevation to the upper house should raise one's standards Alas, too many life peers seem intent on dragging the chamber down to their level. More ignoble than noble. From judges to priests, formal dress codes demonstrate respect for the institution and office they represent Dressing properly in Parliament is an act of humility. It proves an individual is willing to conform to the dignity of the chamber, rather than demanding the chamber bend to them. To be made a peer and sit in the Lords is one of the highest honours - it is a great privilege and a heavy responsibility Expecting a peer to dress to match the dignity of their office, when in Parliament, is the bare minimum we should expect in return.

Kindly refrain from putting words in my mouth. I never gave my opinion on whether Boris is or isn't a Catholic I'm Catholic & in the eyes of the Church a baptised Catholic is always Catholic, irrespective of whether they convert to another faith. That's not the issue here. We are discussing British law not canon law. And it appears for the purposes of British law he is an Anglican. As for Boris Johnson: whilst his wife and children are Catholic he has refused to confirm what faith he adheres to. He has only said that he is not a serious, practicing Christian.

@RafHM Boris Johnson is a Catholic whatever you say