Edward Bickham

Anti-Brexit; interested natural resources governance; development; business ethics. Trustee: Edward Heath Foundation. Cyanide Management Institute. Views my own

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

Well said @grantshapps. Not only the attack on the Prime Minister's house but also initiating a smear campaign that was enthusiastically spread by far-right activists in our country

[Rt Hon Sir Grant Shapps @grantshapps]

I find it flabbergasting that Russia ordered a sabotage operation against the British PM on UK soil and yet everyone seems to accept it's just business as usual.

This behaviour is why it's essential to defeat Putin in Ukraine.

https://t.co/5pbbsWchzb

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

Healey and Carns resigned because Rachel Reeves won't admit the choice: either defend the realm or expand welfare. Not both.

Starmer's "3.5pc of GDP" on defence is a deceit that everyone pretended to believe. The pretence just ended.

My thoughts:-

https://t.co/CrsDtqox8r

[Transparency International UK @TransparencyUK]

📆TODAY

This afternoon, @duncanhames will give evidence to Parliament on why the Representation of the Peoples Bill needs stronger measures to stop big money corrupting democracy.

🎥Watch to hear why ending mega donations is needed to restore trust in politics.

[Transparency International UK @TransparencyUK]

🗣️"We have never seen the number [of big donors] this small and the money this big”

@duncanhames in @AJEnglish on politics' dependence on the super rich.

We need a donations cap to end big money corrupting our politics.

More⤵️

https://t.co/RIgrQW6WUC

[Conservative European Forum @ConsEurope]

CEF President and former Lord Chancellor @DLidington says the argument for leaving the ECHR deserves a great deal more scrutiny and scepticism than it has so far received 👇

Read the paper at https://t.co/KudYNGEc74

[Conservative European Forum @ConsEurope]

Leaving the ECHR would not deprive individuals of many of the protections on which they presently rely. Convention rights have enriched, not supplanted, the common law, and the UK would remain bound by its international obligations under the Refugee Convention, UNCAT and the ICCPR.

The inevitable consequence of leaving must then be legislation to surrender our fundamental rights and denounce, one by one, the very international agreements we played a leading part in bringing into being - except it would serve no useful purpose and at significant cost to us.

Read our new report here 👇

https://t.co/Sz5o4lYlMQ

[Lord Kirkhope @LordKirkhope]

My contribution to the "King's Speech" Debate concentrating on future UK/EU relations

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

Hoorah for the truth as accurately seen by @Daaronovitch

[David Aaronovitch @DAaronovitch]

If your prospectus for a new quickly achieved post Starmer Labour Britain consists of spending more on everything, significant extra state borrowing and taxing people who aren't you or the voters to pay for it, then whether you call it Manchesterism or an end to fiscal caution, you are selling snake oil

[Prosper UK @Prosper_UK_]

The local elections show the scale of the Conservative challenge.

The route back is not narrower politics. It is a broader coalition.

Speak to young people, parents, workers, business owners and voters who walked away.

Make the economy work for them.

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

Absolutely right. Our politics are undoubtedly in a mess but Reform UK are not the answer and it is important that their relative success in the local elections is seen in the context of a significant retreat in their share of the vote

[Simon Nixon @Simon_Nixon]

Odd, because if you watched @BBCNews you would think Reform had had a spectacularly good election, rather than gone backwards. Perhaps someone forgot to pass on the actual results

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

@Annettewhatmou1 @JAHeale On the contrary. He was amongst the most competent of Ministers at the Ministry of Justice and at HM Treasury.

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

Until about a year ago, Farage regarded mass deportation as an extreme and (most of all) unworkable policy.

Now, Zia Yusuf talks about deporting up to 2m and sending them to places that didn't vote Reform.

The party is evolving fast. https://t.co/sBz0GM85JU

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

Well worth a read

[Simon Nixon @Simon_Nixon]

The British public increasingly understand what the UK political and media class refuse to admit - that none of the halfway houses they propose to reverse the Brexit damage are deliverable and that with the status quo, the damage will get worse. My latest
https://t.co/rb9N4xIKCd

[Kevin Hollinrake MP @kevinhollinrake]

Nigel Farage suddenly pulled out of @bbclaurak today, immediately following the revelation about an undeclared £5m donation from a Crypto King living in Thailand.

Apparently he simply “changed his mind” about appearing.

No scrutiny. No declaration. No accountability.

One rule for Reform, another for everyone else.

[Gabriel Pogrund @Gabriel_Pogrund]

.@FraserNelson was onto the Reform crypto nexus before it was cool and has a must read column today on its implications for democracy

https://t.co/sxke9qc8QF

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

This is truly shocking and yet the UK media are virtually ignoring the sleaze and implicit corruption inherent in these donations

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

- Two-thirds of Reform's money is wired from Thailand
- Ben Delo, pardoned by Trump for breaking money-laundering rules, has given £4m.
- Farage's secret £5m bung

A new model of politics is meeting an old model of transparency. With dangerous results: https://t.co/MKPSwt4VDu

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

Can we get this story about Farage and his dodgy tax Retweeted 10,000 times?

#NoTaxNigel #FarageOut
#FarageTheFraud

https://t.co/2bwATYQRPS

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

I know there is a lot of news around but can someone at the Beeb explain to me how a man they keep telling us might be the next PM getting an undisclosed donation of FIVE MILLION POUNDS from a Thai based crypto dealer (with a BS explanation about it being for lifelong security) is not even a news story when the man he wants to replace led the news for days over some glasses and Arsenal tickets?

[Edward Bickham @BickhamEdward]

It may not be entirely rationale, but it does feel as if we have just lost a small but important connection to our history

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

What's to celebrate? Harborne lives and pays his taxes in Thailand - his 'charity' involves a secret £5m (!) to Nigel Farage personally.

This degree of personal bankrolling and enrichment is unprecedented in our democracy. A scandal hiding in plain sight https://t.co/maRks88jMO