Small State UK

I'm thinking about building a small group chat on Signal with like-minded small-state conservatives and libertarians. If you're interested, please DM me. It would be a place for people to share news, exchange opinions, recommendations, etc.

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.

Why is Andy Burnham so concerned about other countries’ debt when our own is over £100,000 for every household? Not a single penny of British taxpayers’ money should be spent on reparations.

The chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, Dame Julia Hoggett, thinks the government may reduce stamp duty on shares in some future budget. That's because one of the budget documents acknowledged calls for cuts to stamp duty and said the government “recognises the potential economic benefits of such a change, and will keep this under review, with appropriate regard to the fiscal implications”. Experts at OXERA predict a permanent increase in GDP of 0.2%–0.7% as a result of scrapping stamp duty on shares with increased revenue after 5 years. But Labour is frightened of short-term revenue loss, which would make it more difficult for them to increase spending on benefits. They'd rather the London Stock Exchange shrinks to insignificance.

🚨 NEW: 73% of responses to the consultation used by Shabana Mahmood to decide her settlement reforms were current visa holders compared with 18% who were British citizens

Just 18% of individuals who responded to the government's consultation were British citizens. Three quarters were migrants here on a temporary visa. Our immigration policy is now being decided by those who are not even citizens of this country.

The incoming foreign wave of low-skilled mass settlement and citizenship must be reversed. Restore Britain is today making these commitments to the British people. - We will abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain entirely. No further ILR grants will be permitted. - Revoke all existing ILR grants. A Restore Britain Parliament will legislate to terminate existing ILR permissions and, where appropriate, replace them with a system of time-limited visas, subject to the strict criteria contained in our immigration Red List. Those who don't meet that standard will leave. As previously stated, immigration from the third world into Britain will end. - Entirely end the routine pathway from temporary visas to citizenship - living or working in Britain will no longer provide a route to naturalisation. - Cancel naturalisation grants made from today onwards. We will introduce retrospective legislation to revoke every citizenship granted, as of today, under the existing immigration system. Put simply - the current naturalisation system has been subject to such widespread abuse and fraud, we no longer recognise it as legitimate. Following this, those individuals will again be subject to our Red List. - Going further than that, Restore Britain will create a dedicated body to review naturalisation grants going back decades, audit original applications, investigate fraudulent citizenship awards, assess the contribution made to our country and pursue deprivation wherever appropriate grounds are established. - There will be one exception to the proposed citizenship cancellation policy - citizenship obtained through marriage to a British citizen who was born in Britain with at least one parent also born in our country. - And crucially - we will enforce immigration departures. Where individuals have no lawful right to remain under the replacement system, departure and removal requirements will be enforced. Ending ILR is not enough. It will be too late - the consequence of ILR is citizenship, permanent citizenship. The staggering betrayal of the last Conservative Government must be undone. The sheer scale of numbers is impossible to fully comprehend. They will stay, they will claim benefits, they will live in social housing. They will be naturalised. They will get a passport. They will become ‘British’. Most importantly - they will vote. It will cost us hundreds of billions. It will corrode our democracy. It will be the final end for our high-trust society. It cannot be allowed to happen. We will abolish ILR, end permanent settlement by default, and reverse the incoming wave of mass naturalisations. A Restore Britain Government will undo the damage. Not tolerate it, or manage it, or control it. Undo it.