The ‘How we can actually stop the boats’ report draws on international evidence to argue that a scaled-up ‘routes and returns’ approach, based on the framework of the existing UK-France deal and learning from the US experience, could significantly reduce small boat crossings.
It includes new Ipsos polling, which finds strong public support for a ‘routes and returns’ strategy at scale.
The authors urge the Home Secretary to expand the UK-France ‘one in one out’ deal by a factor of ten or twenty times. This would return to France the vast majority of those who arrive without permission in small boats, while at the same time welcoming a significant number of people with the right to claim asylum via an expanded, regularised route to the UK.
The report “demands serious and urgent consideration by the government,” says former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
A new British South Asian Bridgers Project is bringing together and supporting the ‘bridging’ voices who are working to build inter-community connection and defuse tensions among the UK’s largest ethnic minority group. [1/5]
Starmer's future remains uncertain – but "it may be a few months yet before we find out who governs Britain for the remaining three years of this parliament," writes
@sundersays for @easterneye
Changes at Number Ten, but Starmer’s future remains uncertain
Most of the Westminster commentariat predict that Starmer will prove to be a caretaker prime minister on borrowed time
www.easterneye.biz
Remember, you only hav until next Tues, 10 Feb, to apply for the Windrush Day 2026 Grant Scheme - details below
"It is welcome, if overdue, that the PM has set out a positive vision for cohesion... What needs to follow is a clear plan to turn these words into sustained action," writes our @sundersays [1/2]
"No, the public is not irredeemably ignorant," writes @sarahoconnor_ in the @FT – citing data from our @britishfuture immigration attitudes tracker on misperceptions about immigration [1/2]
Our @sundersays welcomes @MayorofLondon Sadiq Khan making "a more confident case for controlled immigration – and the economic and social contribution that it can make," in his @easterneye column [1/2]
How do efforts to build community cohesion respond to today's febrile geopolitical and national context?
This week's @sundersays column for @easterneye
In Britain’s new year of anxiety, cohesion is no longer optional
A stronger, shared vision would help, despite some anxiety about how far national leaders and institutions have the public standing to narrate it
www.easterneye.biz
“It is not ‘censorship’ to insist every website operating in our country does so within the law.” Our @sundersays argues in @easterneye that UK govt should reject Elon Musk’s ‘pick and mix” approach to the law and Make Social Media Lawful Again [1/2]
Spain has reduced small boat crossings by 46% by combining diplomatic deals with source countries, expanded legal routes and enforcement. Could the UK learn from them? @theipaper reports:
This European country cut illegal boat crossings by half - what the UK could learn
Spain's approach to reducing illegal maritime crossings has had impressive results, with numbers down dramatically
inews.co.uk
Our @sundersays on the UK government's dilemma: "how to defend a rule-based world order once the most powerful states barely pay lip service to international law." @EasternEye [1/2]
