This was mentioned a few months back. The last government brought in some rule changes that are only now starting to have an impact on the figures.
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Thatâs why I feel that the tone around immigration right now isnât simply about stopping the boats, or even reducing legal migration. Thereâs a feeling around that if you look or sound foreign, you shouldnât be here, an element of ethnonationalism. Itâs insidious, but itâs there. People are judging immigration not by statistics, but by the foreign looking and sounding people around them. I think of Jude Bellingham and Trent, two mixed race men, but people who donât know them will just take a look at them and assume theyâre foreign (Robert Jenrick, Mistress Oakeshott, Iâm looking at the pair of you).
Of course, Iâve been vocal about the impact social media has, and you just have to look at every comments section to see how bad it is, whether itâs on X, Facebook, heck, even on normal websites where you can leave comments. People just want to make everything about immigration, while ignoring the energy companies and the supermarket bosses ripping us off for example. The Unite the Kingdom march was the best example, with people hanging onto every word of the worldâs richest man, where heâs doing a parody 1984 impression of talking about fighting while sitting behind a computer screen, but the folks in attendance were too blinded to see how the super rich are pulling the strings according to their will.
As for GB News, they really need investigating. I remember their presenters, reporters and commentators on X repeatedly parroted the âhurty wordsâ line on the same day (it may have been when Lucy Connolly first hit the headlines). It appeared coordinated, and I know it sounds conspiratorial, but it had me thinking about forces behind the scenes pulling the strings, and how far right elements have exploded into the public consciousness with little pushback.
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You do have to laugh at the following direct quoteâŚ
âtwo men in anti-Gary Neville shirtsâ
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Yes. I was so taken with the utter stupidity of these guys that I missed the humour in that line.
So, never mind the Antichrist, Salford has its own AntiGaryNeville(s).
The end is nigh 
Dependents for those on student visaâs I believe? Happy to be corrected.
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Supermarket bosses are not ripping us off - their profit margins are between 2 and 6% depending on the chain.
Pretty much any cost that is put on them (such as increasing minimum wage or National Insurance Contributions, higher energy bills) has to lead to an increase in prices of the goods they sell.
Itâs predominantly producer prices that have driven it. There have been a series of separate events that have driven prices upwards: Covid, Ukraine war, bird flu, cocoa harvest failure. The UK has had the whole post-brexit readjustment to deal with as well.
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Interestingly Tesco do not appear to offshore any of their UK revenue like Amazon. I was honestly surprised by that. Glad I looked it up.
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Yes, very important to highlight that, thanks. I had meant to.
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Is Tescos (partially) owned by one of the colleges of Cambridge?
It doesnât apear to be. Tesco Ownership: Shareholders and Corporate Structure â GroceryBrands.co.uk
It seems the major shareholders are Vanguard, BlackRock and Norges Bank Investment Group unless the said college owns a small number of shares
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I wasnât sure - just seem to recall that a couple of years back there was some sort of a link in the news. Was just curious.
Seems like Trinity College bought land some Tesco stores were on back in 2012 and leased it to them in a joint deal. Tesco bought them out in 2021, so no longer involved.
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Arghh. This lot again!
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I had noticed that it had gone rather quiet since last week following Starmerâs announcement that he would intervene over West Midland Policeâs decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.
Presumably, this is because a fair few people had checked the Israeli press and discovered that, quite possibly, they were wrong 'uns.
Anyway, I was curious as to what Starmerâs way of letting the story die without losing face would be. It looks like he has just been handed a get-out-of-jail-free card:
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I had the exact same thought when I saw this earlier.
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Didnt they have a bit of a riot with dutch fans, Ajax perhaps? Just something I heard in passing that didnt register properly.
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They seem to have come out shouting âantisemitismâ at everyone without ever checking their facts. Starmer is a football fan, so he really doesnât have an excuse as he should have known what they are like. The Tel Aviv riot gives him a chance to save face.
What really gets me is that he has publicly undermined the police over this. Heâs entitled to query their decision, but that is something that needs to be done in private. The problem is, what happens when the police need to take action on the next public safety issue?
Football matches, and any other large gathering of people, rely on the police and stewards to ensure public safety. Iâve seen what happens when they get it wrong. I donât want to see it again.
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There were big problems in Amsterdam last November.
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