Bill Hard

Lawyer tweeting about politics.

[Bill Hard @BillHardPol]

LOL

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

Great news. The Labour Party has finally found a woman they fancy as leader. It's a man who'll be 'a female PM in all but sex.'

A senior figure in the party actually thought that was a good thing to say out loud.

✍️ @ShippersUnbound

[Tom Holland @holland_tom]

Never the lads for a curfew

[Institute for Fiscal Studies @TheIFS]

NEW PODCAST: How unequal is Britain?

@HelenMiller_IFS, @PJTheEconomist and @JCribbEcon launch our new podcast series following our IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities, funded by @NuffieldFound, by setting out the key facts on UK inequality.

🎧 Listen here: https://t.co/InfGpGfc0D

[Nick Robinson @bbcnickrobinson]

In these globally turbulent times one man has regularly acted as a wise, thoughtful and witty guide for listeners of @BBCr4today. The former Head of MI6 Sir Alex Younger has analysed, explained and contextualised the actions of Trump, Putin, Xi and the Ayatollahs. After he first appeared in the programme I was lucky enough to get to know Alex and call him my friend. I’m desperately sad to hear the news I’ve long feared was coming. Alex has died after months trying to cheat the
prognosis he was given whe. They discovered the tumour he nicknamed “Putin”.
We’re always told not to speak of a fight with cancer because it risks implying that only those strong enough survive. I understand that. I really do but sod it. Alex fought so hard to find a treatment to give him a little longer to be with Sarah and their lovely children. And he used every last minute of the short time he did have to be with family and friends and to do what he spent a lifetime in the shadows doing - using his intelligence to understand the world, to explain it but, above all, to keep us all safe.

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:

- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly

Blair basically says all that.

The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:

- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs

None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it

Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.

Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

Yes, I get it, you all hate Tony Blair etc you’ll find loads to disagree with here I’m sure - but the quality of analysis of our problems and what any potential leader ought to be thinking about if they want to solve them puts this essay light years ahead of what any current contender for national leadership has offered. Anyone who wants to be an effective prime minister (including the current one) should read it

[Helen Thompson POLIS @HelenHet20]

Three-and-a-half years of uncertainty and strange plot twists over Brexit in the world of quantitative easing was possible; three-and-a-half months of this melodrama to replace the Prime Minister in the post-2022 monetary world will not be.

[Wolfgang Munchau @EuroBriefing]

Rejoining the EU will not in and of itself increase economic growth in the UK, just as leaving the EU did not reduce it. Brexit was largely a macroeconomic non-event. This could be different if the UK were to rejoin the EU with a positive agenda for growth and deregulation, and about strengthening the EU’s role in the world. I am not holding my breath here. Remain was a scare campaign in 2016. What I have seen from Rejoin advocates so far is essentially a version of the same.
https://t.co/xhrTyJS1Hq

[Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist]

All Labour MPs should be looking at this very carefully.

Potential leadership contenders who reckon that more borrowing and/or (even more) growth unfriendly policies on tax, spend and regulation are the way forward should reflect on it even more carefully.

[The Heartlands Tribune @HeartlandsTrib]

Diane Abbott, "I think the round of applause in the committee room just now was staged" "Just as all the endorsements of PM Keir Starmer were staged"

"I can't see him lasting beyond the May election" Krishnan Guru-Murthy, "Why wait till May?"

Diane Abbott, "Because they will be catastrophic, and they want him to stay to take responsibility"

#StarmerMustResign

[John Rentoul @JohnRentoul]

Never a good idea to use the l-word

[Bill Hard @BillHardPol]

This….

[Times Radio @TimesRadio]

“The cost of living will hardly be helped by piling on extra taxes, yet that’s where we’re heading.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves must have hired a “cowboy builder” if she thinks she’s saved the foundations of Britains economy, says Times Radio’s Andrew Neil.

@AFNeil | #TimesRadio

[Matthew Syed @matthewsyed]

Excellent from ⁦@rcolvile⁩ - Britain rose to power on work ethic and initiative but now has a state that penalises work and encourages a fiscally crippling drift into welfare

Another welfare climbdown. Billions more for Rachel Reeves to find

https://t.co/1eqYUb8IFy

[Matt Ridley @mattwridley]

Excellent speech. A future chancellor?

[Bill Hard @BillHardPol]

@chriswoakes Legend.

[Toby Young @toadmeister]

Donald Trump has credited the British Empire with laying the foundations for free speech.

Addressing a banquet in honour of his second state visit to the UK, the US president said: “The British Empire laid the foundations of law, liberty, free speech and individual rights virtually everywhere the Union Jack has ever flown including a place called America.”

He added: “A fifth of all humanity speaks, writes, thinks, prays in the language born on these isles and perfected in pages of Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien, Lewis, Orwell, Kipling.

“The lion-hearted people of this kingdom defeated Napoleon, unleashed the industrial revolution, destroyed slavery and defended civilisation in the darkest days of fascism and communism.”

Mr Trump said Britain’s legal, intellectual, cultural and political traditions were among the “highest achievements of mankind”.

[England's Barmy Army 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🎺 @TheBarmyArmy]

Didn’t think we could love Chris Woakes any more… turns out we could ❤️

[Bill Hard @BillHardPol]

@paullewismoney @TorstenBell I think the fairest mechanism would have been to give the WFP to pensioners living in house bands A-C for council tax. Not perfect, but not too many millionaires living in smaller properties.

[Bill Hard @BillHardPol]

@TonyLapidus 😆

[Tony Lapidus @TonyLapidus]

“YOU’RE A FASCIST!” - James O’Brien DESTROYS caller for praising Donald Trump - (parody only)