Immigration

Evidence-first breakdowns of the claims that come up most in UK immigration debates — legal status, benefits, jobs, wages, the fiscal picture, crime, the NHS, and policing. Every card shows the strongest opposing argument, not a strawman.

This site is a personal debate-prep reference, not an authority. Verdicts reflect the evidence as of the "Updated" date on each card — check the linked primary source for anything time-sensitive.

Abortion

A separate section by design. Covers the terminology fights (heartbeat / cardiac activity), the statistics on timing and method, and the philosophical core of the debate — personhood and bodily autonomy — with the strongest form of each side's argument.

Several cards here are normative (ethical/policy) claims rather than factual ones — those are marked "not fact-checkable" and instead lay out the strongest form of each position.

Glossary

These terms get used interchangeably in most debates — they shouldn't be. Confirm which one is actually being discussed before arguing about the statistic attached to it.

Debate tools

Utilities for checking a claim, checking a source, and pressure-testing crime statistics before you use — or accept — them.

Claim checker

Paste or type a claim. The tool matches it against the claim database and returns the closest card(s): verdict, definitions, strongest counterargument, and sources.

Source checker

Paste a URL or source name to get a rough tier classification — primary government data, academic research, media, think tank, or social media.

Primary / officialGOV.UK, ONS, MoJ, legislation.gov.uk

Academic / researchUniversity departments, Migration Observatory, IFS

Professional bodyRCOG, ACOG, BMA

Established mediaBBC, Reuters, FT, broadsheets

Think tankCheck funding & framing first

Social mediaTreat as a lead, never a source

"Demand the denominator" — crime statistics

Someone says: "Immigrants commit lots of crimes." Before accepting or repeating a crime statistic, run it through this checklist.

What population is being measured? All foreign nationals? Foreign-born people? Asylum seekers specifically? Irregular migrants specifically? These are not interchangeable.
Is it a rate or a raw count? Per 100,000 people, not an absolute number — otherwise you're just comparing group sizes.
Arrests, charges, or convictions? Each stage filters differently, and arrest rates can reflect policing intensity as much as offending.
What's the age/sex profile of the population? Young male populations offend more regardless of nationality — an unmatched comparison will always be misleading.
What's the comparison group? The general population? A matched age/sex UK-born group? No comparison at all (just a raw share)?
What's the source? Home Office / MoJ data, a police force, an academic study, or a claim with no citation at all?
Does the statistic show causation, or just correlation? A prison population share doesn't tell you immigration causes crime — it might reflect who gets caught, reported, or prosecuted.

Current reference point: foreign nationals made up around 12% of the England & Wales prison population as at 31 December 2025 (roughly 10,000–10,800 people, depending on the exact snapshot date) — see the for full sourcing. This does not, by itself, prove immigration causes crime.

Hypothetical generator

Neutral thought experiments for domains beyond abortion (which has its own dedicated set in the Hypotheticals tab).

Abortion hypotheticals

Interactive philosophical thought experiments. Pick an answer to see the follow-up questions it opens up on either side.

Debate transcript archive

Paste a previous debate (from X/Twitter or anywhere else) and get a rough breakdown: claims by each side, statistics used, unanswered questions, possible fallacies, and any lines that match something already in the claim database.

Tip: prefix lines with Me: or Them: for the tool to separate the two sides. Without prefixes, everything is analysed as one block. Saved transcripts are stored locally in this browser only.