Conservative leadership contest: Robert Jenrick claims mass immigration and ‘woke culture’ put England’s national identity at risk

Published

7 months ago

September 20, 2024

admin

Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick has claimed mass migration and “woke culture” have put England’s national identity at risk.

Mr Jenrick, who remains the favourite to replace Rishi Sunak, accused the “metropolitan establishment” of having a “sneering attitude” towards England’s identity.

The former immigration minister said the ties that bind the nation are beginning to “fray” due to this attitude and the “influx of migrants”.

Follow live politics updates

“The public have consistently voted against all of this. Those in Westminster are underestimating the depth of anger in the country,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.

Mr Jenrick suggested a suppression of England’s identity helped lead to riots this summer following the Southport stabbings.

He blamed years of “inter-communal violence, radicalisation and diminishing trust in our communities” for the riots.

However, when asked by Sky News how he would define English identity, Mr Jenrick said he would not “distil the identity and the history of England into a soundbite”.

Given seven opportunities to say what English identity is, he said it is the history and culture of England which should be celebrated, but said that is not being taught “to our children”.

Asked what English identity is, ge said: “I think it is something some people across our country know about.”

Mr Jenrick also wrote in the Daily Mail it will be impossible to “heal our divided nation if we refuse to confront complex issues about identity”.

Mr Jenrick warned the UK could fall prey to the “ugly politics” of the far-right unless the identity crisis and immigration is brought under control.

He said the English “metropolitan elite…actively disapprove” of the country’s history and culture.

And he said “high status” people in Scotland and Wales are “proud to be Scottish and Welsh” as well as British, but those in England are “far from proud to be English”.

The 42-year-old was previously seen as a centrist, becoming an MP under David Cameron who he was a staunch supporter of.

A Sunak loyalist in the early days of his premiership, Mr Jenrick then moved towards the right after becoming immigration minister, telling former Tory MP Nickie Aiken “once he got into the weeds, he realised how broken the system was and that it needed full-scale reform”.

Last year, he resigned from Mr Sunak’s government as he said legislation to allow the Rwanda policy to go ahead did “not go far enough” to ensure it would happen.

The move was seen as laying the groundwork to run for Tory leader, which he is now doing.

He has proposed limiting net immigration to below 100,000 a year and called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights so asylum seekers could be deported to Rwanda.

Mr Jenrick told Sky News immigration has made England “richer” over the centuries but in the past 25 years “since Tony Blair” became prime minister, net migration has soared to 5.9 million.

“And that is just far too high and it’s made it impossible to successfully integrate people to ensure we have the sense of national togetherness and identity that I want to see,” he said.

He said putting a cap on immigration would make it “easier for us to successfully integrate people” and help with other issues such as housing, accessing public services and foreign labour undercutting British wages.

The Conservative admitted mass migration “has been a failure of both [Conservative and Labour] political parties”.

The other Tory leadership candidates are Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.

They are getting ready for hustings to be held at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which begins on 29 September.

MPs will then narrow the group to a final two, with the winner announced in November after being put to members in a vote.

Politics

Crypto stocks down, IPOs punted amid tariff tumult

Published

3 hours ago

April 4, 2025

admin

Crypto stocks down, IPOs punted amid tariff tumult

Cryptocurrency firms felt the heat from US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff rollout this week as market turbulence sent share prices tumbling and foiled initial public offering (IPO) plans.

From exchanges to Bitcoin (BTC) miners, crypto stocks suffered as much, if not more, than shares of other companies — despite the industry’s warm relationship with the US president.

On April 2, Trump announced he was placing tariffs of at least 10% on practically all imports into the United States and adding additional “reciprocal” tariffs on some 57 countries.

Since then, major US stock indices — including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq — tumbled by roughly 10% as traders braced for a looming trade war.

Sharp selloffs

Crypto exchange Coinbase — a prominent ally of Trump during the November US elections — experienced a similarly severe sell-off, with its stock price dropping by roughly 12% during the same period, according to data from Google Finance.

Bitcoin miners are also taking a hit. The CoinShares Crypto Miners ETF (WGMI) — which tracks a diverse basket of Bitcoin mining stocks — has lost roughly 13% of its value since immediately prior to Trump’s April 2 announcement, according to data from Morningstar.

Even Strategy, one of the best-performing stocks of 2024, wasn’t immune. Its share price has fallen by around 6% on the news, Google Finance data showed.

According to Reuters, investment bank JPMorgan has raised its estimated odds of a global economic recession in 2025 to 60% from 40% previously.

“Disruptive U.S. policies have been recognized as the biggest risk to the global outlook all year,” JP Morgan reportedly said.

“The effect … is likely to be magnified through (tariff) retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment and supply-chain disruptions.”

IPO delays

The impact of US tariffs hasn’t been limited to stock price volatility. Stablecoin issuer Circle has reportedly paused plans for a 2025 IPO, citing market turbulence.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Circle is “waiting anxiously” before taking further steps after filing to take the company public on April 1.

It is among several companies — including fintech Klarna and ticketing service StubHub — reportedly considering altering or shelving IPO plans.

One exception may be Bitcoin itself, which some analysts say is finally “decoupling” from the broader market.

Bitcoin’s spot price has held above $82,000 this week, even as US equities markets collapsed.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Politics

Brazilian court authorizes crypto seizure for debt collection — Report

Published

3 hours ago

April 4, 2025

admin

Brazilian court authorizes crypto seizure for debt collection — Report

Brazilian judges have been authorized to seize cryptocurrency assets from debtors who owe money and are behind on their payments, signaling a growing recognition that digital assets can be both a form of payment and a store of value.

According to local media reports, the Third Panel of Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice unanimously authorized judges to send letters to cryptocurrency brokers informing them about their intent to seize an account holder’s assets to repay creditors.

The report was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice, which issued a notice on its website.

The decision was reached unanimously by the Third Panel, which reviewed a case brought forward by a creditor.

“Although they are not legal tender, crypto assets can be used as a form of payment and as a store of value,” a translated version of the Superior Court of Justice’s memo read.

Under existing rules, Brazilian judges are allowed to freeze bank accounts and order fund withdrawals, even without a debtor’s knowledge, should they rule that a creditor is owed money.

Following the recent decision, crypto assets now fall under the same purview.

Minister Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, who voted in the five-person panel, said cryptocurrencies still lack formal regulation in Brazil but noted certain bills have recognized the asset class as “a digital representation of value.”

Despite regulatory uncertainty, Brazil is a major hub for crypto

Although Brazil still lacks an overarching framework for digital assets, with the country’s central bank divvying up the regulatory processes into phases, crypto adoption is surging across the country.

Brazil ranks second among all Latin American countries in terms of “crypto value received,” which is a key benchmark for adoption, according to an October report by Chainalysis.

Earlier this year, crypto exchange Binance was granted approval to operate in the country after it acquired a São Paulo-based investment company.

A Binance executive told Cointelegraph at the time that Brazil was making “significant strides” in regulating the industry and expects a comprehensive framework to be finalized “by mid-year.”

Nevertheless, not all of Brazil’s regulatory proposals have been favorable for the industry.

In December, the country’s central bank proposed banning stablecoin transactions on self-custodial wallets at a time when more locals were using dollar-pegged tokens to hedge against the devaluation of the Brazilian real.

Industry observers told Cointelegraph at the time that such a ban would be difficult to enforce.

“Governments can regulate centralized exchanges, but P2P transactions and decentralized platforms are much harder to control, which means the ban would likely only affect part of the ecosystem,” said Lucien Bourdon, an analyst with Trezor.

Politics

‘Will the PM side with parents or tech bros?’: Labour peer demands action on children’s smartphone safety

Published

4 hours ago

April 4, 2025

admin

'Will the PM side with parents or tech bros?': Labour peer demands action on children's smartphone safety

Sir Keir Starmer needs to choose between parents who want stronger action to tackle harmful content on children’s phones, or the “tech bros” who are resisting changes to their platforms, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.

Speaking to Beth Rigby on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the Labour peer noted that the prime minister met with the creators of hit Netflix drama Adolescence to discuss safety on social media, but she questioned if he is going to take action to “stop the tech companies allowing this sort of stuff” on their platforms where children can access it.

Sir Keir hosted a roundtable on Monday with Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne and producer Jo Johnson to discuss issues raised in the series, which centres on a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a young girl, and the rise of incel culture.

Politics latest: Could the UK retaliate against Trump?

The aim was to discuss how to prevent young boys being dragged into a “whirlpool of hatred and misogyny”, and the prime minister said the four-part series raises questions about how to keep young people safe from technology.

Sir Keir has backed calls for the four-part drama to be shown in all schools across the country, but Baroness Harman questioned what is going to be achieved by having young people simply watch the show.

“Two questions were raised [for me],” she said. ” Firstly – after they’ve watched it, what is going to be the discussion afterwards?

“And secondly, is he going to act to stop the tech companies allowing this sort of stuff to go online into smartphones without protection of children?

“Because if the tech companies wanted to do this, they could actually protect children. They can do everything they want with their tech.”

She acknowledged there are “very big public policy challenges” in this area, but added of the prime minister: “Is he going to side with parents who are terrified and want this content off their children’s phones, or is he going to accept the tech bros’ resistance to having to make changes?”

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

Can parliament keep up?

The Labour peer backed the Conservative Party’s call for a ban on smartphones in schools to be mandated from Westminster, saying it would “enable all schools not to have a discussion with their parents or to battle it out, but just to say, this is the ruling” from central government, which Ofsted would then enforce.

“I’m sensitive to the idea that we shouldn’t constantly be telling schools what to do,” she continued. “And they’ve got a lot of common sense and a lot of professional experience, and they should have as much autonomy as possible.

“But perhaps it’s easier for them if it’s done top down.”

Baroness Harman also questioned the speed with which parliament is actually able to legislate to deal with the very rapid development of new technologies, and posits that it could “change its processes to be able to legislate in real time”.

She suggested that a “powerful select committee” of MPs could be established to do that, because “otherwise we talk about it, and then we’re not able to legislate for 10 years – by which time that problem has really set in, and we’ve got a whole load more problems”.

On the podcast, the trio also discussed the 10% tariffs imposed on the UK by Donald Trump and the government’s efforts to strike a trade deal with the US to mitigate the impact of the levy.

The government has refused to rule out scrapping the Digital Services Tax, a 2% levy on tech giants’ revenues in the UK, as part of the negotiations with the Trump administration – a move Baroness Harman said would be “very heartbreaking”.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈