Best Of

Unheard article on Trump and architecture

https://unherd.com/newsroom/trump-will-make-penn-station-beautiful-again/

Those who reflexively dislike Trump will all now be writing opinion pieces on how traditional-looking buildings are horrible, and how modernist glass-and-concrete building is a sign of a wonderful future.

I don't think most people reflexively dislike Trump. No, they dislike Trump based on his actions and words, on his selling out of Ukraine, on his deranged economic theories, on his multiple reliably attested cases of sexual assault, on his habitual law-breaking, on how he used his charity to enrich himself, and many, many other examples. It's a considered dislike of Trump. An evidence-based disdain.

Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.

However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.

She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote

She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics

Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you

Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics

There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly

I did read today that Jenrick's constituency of Newark is actually an anagram.

This is a notable result from an observational study of those on the new obesity drugs.

GLP-1 receptor agonists will transform mental health over the next five years:

» Suicide: 58% reduction
» Depression: 37% reduction
» Substance use disorder: 42% reduction

n=174,000 obese adults who initiated GLP-1RAs in a target trial emulation published yesterday.
https://x.com/therealRYC/status/1962213801635569738

I'm always slightly sceptical of these kind of results, because all too often people who are depressed come off their meds, and therefore are not included in the numbers.

Though there's a very plausible mechanism here; anything that breaks the "I eat too much because I'm depressed" > "I'm depressed because I'm obese" feedback loop is likely to have pretty strong positive MH effects.

If you arrive here from France, you are not fleeing persecution.

So either piss off somewhere else, or live destitute on the street. Your choice.

Ultimately this is the issue for many, many people. Legally the applicant does not have to claim asylum in the first safe country. Morally people in this country think that they should.

If you are being attacked in your home and you flee, where do you go for help? The closest door or the one with the nicest furniture?

Because those in France are asylum shopping, to many it diminishes the strength of the claim.

Now PB'ers will no doubt now reel off a list of things why this post is wrong (factually, morally, legally) but to the person on the Clapham omnibus this is what they think. And its why my next door neighbour, unprovoked, told me he was listening to Farage "because he's right".

I don't think that we can ethically say that because we happen to be further from (e.g.) Afghanistan than (e.g.) France, all Afghani refugees should go to France. In practice, most refugees already end up in countries close to where they started - the boats stand out as the obvious exception, but it is an exception.

Rather, we should announce stricter criteria, probably including some connection with Britain (language, relatives) but allow applications to the nearest British Embassy. Having relaxed criteria but applying them only to people who cross the Channel invites the boats issue.

The illegal immigrants who are trying to claim false asylum are to blame for any genuine asylum seekers being poorly treated. The temptation to put it on the public, who are rightly concerned about tens of thousands of chancers slipping into their society, should be resisted.

I doubt many people are against genuine refugees being given a home and integrated into British life, but what we are actually getting is thousands of young men with no real claim to be here, making Britain resemble the third world they came from

I’m afraid the conversation has moved on . Reform and the Tories don’t want even genuine asylum seekers. If you’re non white and here legally you’re likely get more abuse as the atmosphere becomes even more toxic .

I do not accept your generalisation that conservatives dont want genuine asylum seekers and do not forget it was the conservatives who offered sanctuary to Ukranians and those from Hong Kong

Immigration into the UK has to be controlled, and it is not helpful for some to label those wanting the boats and migrants hotels to be stopped as far right and racist, because this has spread way beyond the far right to many in the population who just want fairness

Everyone, no matter their ethnicity, living here are integral to our community and if someone can stop the boats this issue will lanced

Yes, immigration has to be controlled (and it largely is). I think nearly everyone wants the boats to stop. It is government policy to get rid of migrant hotels. It is not far right or racist to want these things.

However, clearly some of the people protesting outside hotels and some of the people posting here are more generally anti-immigrant and want, in the words of one poster, more white babies.

There are extremes on both the right and the left but on the question of the boats and asylum hotels, it is unhelpful to brand those protesting and objecting as far right and racist when this is a view shared across many in the population and of course Starmer and Cooper would not be talking about deportation and even reclusing parts of the ECHR if they did not know this is a serious issue for them

It is a serious issue, yes. We agree on wanting to reduce the numbers coming over on boats and reduce the numbers staying in asylum hotels. However, those organising the hotel protests are objectively far right and racist. Those in the Epping Forest protests include, "Eddy Butler, a former British National Party (BNP) organiser previously linked to a violent neo-Nazi group; Callum Barker, an activist for the fascist Homeland Party; Toni Collins (AKA Ginger Toni), a key figure in the circle surrounding Tommy Robinson; Lance Wright, involved in the neo-Nazi music network Blood & Honour; former Combat 18 activist Phil Curson; and activists associated with the anti-Muslim group Britain First." See https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/07/18/violence-at-the-bell-hotel-far-right-footprints-in-epping-forest/

Indeed but again you miss the point that this is way beyond these agitators and is becoming the view of many of the population that the whole issue is unfair and has to be stopped

Both conservative and labour governments have singularity failed to address the problem which is spinning out of control

And the public dont just want the boats reduced, they want them stopped altogether

As I've said, I think we all agree that we want no boats and no asylum hotels. That's government policy. That has widespread support.

Yes, you're right that past governments have done badly at delivering on this. It was worst under Johnson, but hotel numbers fell under Sunak and have fallen further under Starmer. Those coming over on boats has gone up and done and has proven harder to stop, but criminal action against people smugglers is up. The first deportations under the new deal with France start soon. I hope these will be successful in reducing boat numbers.

Yes, we want boats stopped altogether, but the way to do that is to reduce the current numbers. The public want a solution, but I don't think the public want to give up traditional British values to get a solution immediately as long as we're moving in the right direction.

In the mean time, we shouldn't ignore the far right agitators who are bringing disorder to our streets. We shouldn't pretend that Eddy Butler and Ginger Toni and Tommy Robinson have legitimate concerns. We shouldn't let people legally in Britain be terrorised in parks because they have brown skin.