Cllr Samuel Carr 🇬🇧

What does the Budget mean for the UK's place in the world? FCDO Chief Economist, Dennis Novy explains ↓

Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the transatlantic slave trade. If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade? On demands for reparations, whether through cash or debt relief, we have been down this track before. Twenty-five years ago, Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt and Make Poverty History argued that cancelling the debts of poorer countries would give them a fresh start. More than $100 billion of debt was eventually written off, but many of those countries have since built up even bigger debts. Labour are already spending too much on Britain's welfare state, now is not the time for Andy Burnham to be providing global welfare. There is no reason British taxpayers today should be held financially responsible for things that happened generations before any of us were born. And I have even less patience for political elites in commonwealth countries who don’t know how to make their own citizens prosperous now looking for another opportunity to blame Britain. As Prime Minister, Andy Burnham should be Britain’s greatest defender. Instead, he is writing articles saying we need to confront our history (as if we haven't done enough of that) and considering another formal historical apology. Tony Blair already expressed Britain’s deep sorrow and regret for our role in the slave trade nearly twenty years ago. There is no need to do so again. This is all another navel-gazing distraction. The Commonwealth should be looking forward, not endlessly backwards. That means economic partnerships to make us all richer and deeper military and security cooperation against common threats. If every Commonwealth summit becomes an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash then we need to start asking if it is worth the effort.

An extension to Oxford designed with "cues from the [existing] skyline" in mind might look something like this. One day we will build spires again.

The Right Way. @KemiBadenoch's speech in full 👇

Thought Badenoch's speech was good last year. This surpassed it. Drew a crystal clear line between herself and Andy Burnham on major issues of substance. But even more significantly, draw a line between herself and Farage. There will be no uniting the right. She wants to crush Reform.

New safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the UK will begin to rollout in the autumn, giving genuine refugees a pathway to rebuild their lives. Our new community sponsorship scheme will allow approved groups to choose the refugees they sponsor, taking responsibility for their housing, integration and supporting them into work. Trusted universities will be able to directly sponsor refugees through a new refugee study route. A new refugee work sponsorship route is expected to open next year. All arrivals will have refugee status, undergo strict biometric screening, criminality checks and health assessments before arrival, to ensure support reaches those in genuine need. Numbers will start small and build over time, ensuring the routes remain controlled and sustainable while public confidence is restored in Britain's immigration system. The first refugee arrivals are expected by autumn 2027.