STEPHEN GLOVER: As No10 gears up for the Surrender Summit with Brussels, this is how Britain is being eased back into the maw of the EU by determined and deluded Rejoiner Starmer
Nigel Farage famously declared that June 23, 2016 – the day of the EU referendum – would go down in history as 'independence day'.
I wonder how the history books are going to remember Monday, May 19, 2025. Will they conclude that this was the day when Sir Keir Starmer began to hand back the independence for which the British people voted nearly nine years ago?
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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
A broken housing market is driving inequality right across Europe – and fuelling the far right
Housing is as personal an issue as it gets. Homes are where we take refuge from the outside world, express ourselves, build relationships and families. To buy or rent a house is to project your aspirations and dreams on to bricks and mortar – can we see ourselves sitting outside in the sunshine on that patio? It can also be a deeply frustrating process – can we afford that house? For more and more of us, the answer is no. Experienced at such an individual level, it's easy to think that rising costs are a problem particular to your community, city or country. But unaffordable house prices and rents are a continent-wide issue. According to the European Parliament, from 2015 to 2023, in absolute terms, house prices in the EU rose by just under 50% on average. From 2010 to 2022, rents rose by 18%. As an editor, I wanted to know some of the stories behind these stats and, as a person who lives in a very expensive city (hello from London!), hear some solutions. I commissioned a range of housing experts to contribute to a series, The housing crisis in Europe, describing what the situation looks like in some of Europe's most expensive cities. Agustín Cocola-Gant writes about how changes to policy after the 2008 financial crisis encouraged wealthy foreigners to buy second homes or short-term rentals in Lisbon, pricing locals out of their city. Now some Portuguese families rent rooms, not flats. In a reversal of roles, it's the newcomers who have it worse in Amsterdam, according to Amber Howard. Older, long-term residents live in secure and affordable social housing while younger people and recent arrivals, often on lower incomes, are left to the costly and insecure private housing sector. While social housing stock has dropped over time, private stock has increased as politicians sought to encourage wealthier residents to move into the city. It's a similar story in Budapest, says Csaba Jelinek. Social housing was sold off after the end of the cold war, and private ownership was championed as a rejection of socialist values. What this has meant in practice is older Hungarians investing in housing and driving up prices and rents for younger generations. One city not facing an affordability crisis is Vienna. As Justin Kadi writes, since the 1920s the city has had a stable stock of social housing for tenants of all incomes. Like in Amsterdam, newcomers rent privately, but social housing has had a damping effect on rents. You don't need to be a housing expert to see the dynamics playing out in Europe's housing market. Over more than 40 years, housing policy has favoured those who invest in homes at the expense of those who live in them. This power imbalance is at its most stark in countries with big institutional investors – such as private equity, hedge, insurance and pension funds – as Tim White explores in his piece. When houses are not homes but assets, there is a transfer of wealth from those who have not to those who have. Across Europe – and much of the rest of the world – property has become a driving force of inequality. In turn, inequality is a driving force of resentment. Far-right politicians have tapped into this anger for their own political gain, as reported by the Guardian in a previous series of reports from the frontlines of Europe's housing crisis. As the European commissioner for jobs and social rights, Nicolas Schmit, commented: 'The housing problem divides our societies, and it may be a risk for our democracies.' Housing policies are set at a national level, but the European Union can set frameworks and support access to finance. In 2024, all housing ministers from member states signed a declaration calling for a 'new deal' on affordable and social housing. There are solutions, and there is political will, and in the meantime let's hope this series will go some way to helping those who face unaffordable housing across Europe realise they're not alone. Kirsty Major is a deputy Opinion editor for the Guardian
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Mamdani's NYC primary win sparks surge in anti-Muslim posts, advocates say
WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - Anti-Muslim online posts targeting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have surged since his Democratic primary upset this week, including death threats and comments comparing his candidacy to the September 11, 2001 attacks, advocates said on Friday. There were at least 127 violent hate-related reports mentioning Mamdani or his campaign in the day after polls closed, said CAIR Action, an arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group, which logs such incidents. That marks a five-fold increase over a daily average of such reports tracked earlier this month, CAIR Action said in a statement. Overall, it noted about 6,200 online posts that mentioned some form of Islamophobic slur or hostility in that day long time-frame. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist and a 33-year-old state lawmaker, declared victory in Tuesday's primary after former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat. Born in Uganda to Indian parents, Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim and Indian American mayor if he wins the November general election. "We call on public officials of every party - including those whose allies are amplifying these smears - to unequivocally condemn Islamophobia," said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action. The advocacy group said its hate monitoring system includes its own scraping and analysis of posts, online submissions by the public and notifications from law enforcement. About 62% of the anti-Muslim posts against Mamdani originated on X, CAIR Action said. People close to Republican President Donald Trump, including one of his sons, are among those spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric, advocates said. Donald Trump Jr, the president's son, wrote on X on Wednesday that "New York City has fallen" while sharing a post that said New Yorkers had "voted for" 9/11. Also on Wednesday, Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted an AI-generated picture of the Statue of Liberty draped in a burqa. President Trump has pursued domestic policies that rights advocates have described as anti-Muslim, including banning travel from some predominantly Muslim or Arab countries in his first term and attempting to deport pro-Palestinian students in his current term. The White House, which did not respond to a request for comment, has denied claims of discrimination against Muslims. Trump and his allies have said they oppose Mamdani and others due to what they call the Democrats' "radical left" ideology. The New York City Police Department said earlier this month its hate crime unit was probing anti-Muslim threats against Mamdani. Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, which documents hate against Asian Americans, and CAIR said attacks against Mamdani mirrored those endured by other South Asian and Muslim political figures, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Republicans have called Mamdani antisemitic, citing his pro-Palestinian advocacy and his criticism of Israel's military assault on Gaza after an attack by Hamas militants in October 2023. Mamdani has condemned antisemitism and has the backing of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish. Lander also ran in the Democratic primary. Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitism and Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, with fatal U.S. incidents including the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington and the stabbing of a Muslim child in Illinois. Mamdani and other Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, said their criticism of Israel is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Starmer's welfare U-turn is short term gain for long term pain
Sir Keir Starmer was staring down the barrel of a long weekend on the phone to Labour rebels, pleading with them to come around before Tueday's crunch vote. The prime minister was hoping to stave off a rebellion from backbench MPs over his plans to make life significantly more difficult for some of their most hard up constituents. So it will have been a relief for the PM when lead rebel Dame Meg Hillier accepted his £1.5bn U-turn as a 'positive outcome', all but guaranteeing his welfare bill will survive Tuesday's vote. Despite the late concession, the prime minister's U-turn has not solved his problems, but simply stored them up for another day. While he will now avoid the embarrassing sight of a prime minister losing a key vote just a year after winning a 174-seat majority, the fallout from the welfare row will quietly chip away at his authority. First, it has emboldened Labour backbenchers. Especially among new intake MPs, there was a reluctance to speak out against the Labour leader for fear of being blacklisted from government jobs in the future, or even having the whip withdrawn. The impact of the PM's benefit cuts would have had such a devastating impact on disabled people that many felt they simply could not hold their tongues. They have now learned that a public rebellion can go a long way in winning the prime minister's attention after months of griping that he is not engaged enough with his MPs and their concerns. Secondly, it makes the prime minister look weak. The U-turn followed the same pattern as previous climbdowns over winter fuel payments and Labour's £28bn green investment plan. On winter fuel he spent months telling voters he was right to have stripped the payments from millions of pensioners, that he was taking 'tough decisions' and would not back down. Even when a U-turn looked inevitable, Sir Keir stuck to his guns and pressed ahead with the decision. Then, having squandered any political capital or goodwill that may have been gained from a concession to pensioners, he changed course, fudging the rationale and refusing to accept that he made the wrong decision in the first place. It will be the same with benefit cuts. As well as weakening the PM in the eyes of his own backbenchers, Sir Keir's third U-turn in a month weakens him in the eyes of voters - and Nigel Farage is set to pounce. The Reform UK leader has already sought to point the prime minister as devoid of ideas and convictions, presenting his insurgent right-wing party as a strong alternative government in waiting. So much of what Sir Keir, driven by chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, already does is aimed squarely at countering the rising threat of Reform. Getting hundreds of thousands of people off welfare and back into work, slashing the benefit bill, was another of those policies. But, after walking back from large parts of the policy, Sir Keir will leave Reform-minded voters yet again asking why they would back a Farage-lite Labour Party when they can instead vote for the real thing. Thirdly, the prime minister's chaotic approach to his latest U-turn means Labour - once a party which railed furiously against 'unfunded spending commitments' - has a £1.5bn black hole in its spending plans. It will need to be filled somehow, and the only options are spending cuts elsewhere or yet more tax hikes. Care minister Stephen Kinnock was the first minister out defending the policy change, while refusing to say how it would be paid for. Labour will now face months and months of questions and speculations about exactly which taxes will rise to pay for the U-turn, derailing much of the rest of the party's agenda. And lastly, the U-turn has solved a short-term problem but created a potentially larger long-term one. Campaigners have warned that the changes create a two-tier system for personal independence payment (Pip) claimants, with those starting claims in future treated differently to those on Pip currently. Sir Keir frequently criticised the Conservatives for what he called 'sticking plaster politics'. But in tackling his biggest rebellion yet, the prime minister has merely placed a sticking plaster over a major crack, and it is only a matter of time before it comes undone.
