David C Bannerman

Ex MEP East of England 2009-19. Now Reform UK. Strategic consultant, writer, media spokesman. Chairman Freedom Association. Pro Brexit. RTs NOT endorsements.

[David C Bannerman @DCBMEP]

Me too ! If only he had risked to be banned from posh dinner parties and backed Brexit he’d be there now?! Remember when he was filmed not long after Brexit saying it hadn’t turned out too badly?! Davos wasn’t it?

[Christopher Hope📝 @christopherhope]

I always had David Cameron down as a secret Brexiteer! 🤣👇

[Hidden History @HiddenHistoryYT]

The legendary Captain Johnnie Walker on board Starling during an anti-submarine operation in January or February 1944

[Ms Panther @150G512XD]

Thank you for your service Sharron, Lee, Ben, Jason, Neil and Robert ❤️

We shall remember these brave heroes who gave their all 🙏

Lest we forget 🇬🇧

[Jerry Pike @JerryPikePhoto]

Farewell SS United States.

[Trump Girl @TrumpGirlLove]

THE ROOM WAS LAUGHING AT HER. 90 SECONDS LATER, 100 MILLION PEOPLE WOULD KNOW HER NAME.

April 11, 2009. Glasgow, Scotland.

A 48-year-old woman walked onto the stage of Britain’s Got Talent in a dress that didn’t quite fit and hair that hadn’t seen a salon in months.

Her name was Susan Boyle. She had spent most of her life in a tiny village called Blackburn, caring for her aging mother until she passed away two years earlier.

She had never married. Never held a steady job. Never left her small corner of Scotland. She lived alone. She had a cat. She had a dream.

When she told the judges she wanted to be a professional singer like Elaine Paige, the audience laughed out loud.

Simon Cowell raised his eyebrows. Amanda Holden bit her lip. Piers Morgan smirked. Three thousand people in that auditorium had looked at Susan Boyle and decided, in an instant, exactly who she was.

They were wrong.

The music began. “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables—one of the most demanding songs in musical theater. She opened her mouth. The first note silenced the room.

Within seconds the entire audience was on its feet. Amanda Holden’s hands flew to her face. Piers Morgan shook his head in disbelief. Simon Cowell—the man who had seen everything—was grinning like he had just witnessed a miracle.

The same people who had been laughing were now screaming, cheering, some openly weeping.

Susan finished. She gave a small, awkward bow. She had no idea she had just changed her life.

The video went online immediately. Within weeks it became the most-watched video on the internet. Susan Boyle—the woman the world had laughed at—became one of the most famous people on Earth almost overnight.

She didn’t win the competition. She came in second. But she had already won something far bigger. Her debut album sold more than 10 million copies and became the fastest-selling debut in UK history.

It topped charts in dozens of countries. She has now sold over 25 million records worldwide. She has performed for the Queen and the Pope. She has been nominated for two Grammys.

And she still lives in the same small house in Blackburn that her parents bought decades ago.

Susan Boyle had walked onto that stage fully expecting people to laugh at her. She had been bullied as a child.

Told she was slow. Made to feel invisible for most of her life. What she didn’t expect was that 90 seconds of courage would rewrite everything the world thought it knew about her.

There is no first impression that cannot be shattered by truth.

There is no person who doesn’t deserve a second look. Susan Boyle taught a hundred million people that lesson in the span of one song. And the world has never forgotten. 🌹

[Great British Business Council @GBBC_UK]

𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐔-𝐔𝐊 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐭?

Here are 8 things you should know:

𝟭. 𝗜𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆?
The UK already has zero-tariff trade with the EU under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which both the EU and UK said is working effectively. This undermines the claims that Brexit has hurt UK trade with the EU, and the subsequent need for a Reset.

𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗣𝗦 𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
The SPS agreement says it will remove the need for border checks and health certificates on agrifood products, but this will only invite EU plant and animal diseases into the UK. Food and live animals are also just 1.3% of UK exports, so why are we so eager to join the EU's SPS Area?

𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁
The Government wants to join the EU’s Internal Electricity Market to save a bit of money on electricity imports. But the UK only imports 10% of its electricity from the EU, so we’ll be saving a sliver on just 10% of our electricity costs, yet having to pay a fee each year for joining the market.

𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗨 𝗖𝗼𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱
For whatever reason, the EU has said that if we want to join its IEM, then we must pay into its Cohesion Fund to support its poorer member states. First of all, that money should probably go to poorer areas of the UK, and second, the amount of money we will be paying into this fund is expected to dwarf the amount we save on electricity costs, so why should we join the IEM at all?

𝟱. 𝗘𝗧𝗦 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗕𝗔𝗠
Joining the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is going to raise the cost of UK manufacturing and force what remains of British industry into closure. Either that or British companies will send their production to other countries with lower costs of manufacturing. In both cases, British jobs will be lost.

𝟲. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲
The Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) will apparently allow "unlimited" EU students to attend British universities at the same fee paid by UK students (where they previously paid higher international tuition fees). The EU has also demanded that anyone living here under the YMS will get free access to the NHS and will also get to bring their families with them.

𝟳. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽
The Security and Defence Partnership essentially says the UK and EU will coordinate on everything up to and including "space security". There’s also no plan to tackle illegal immigration, just a promise to work together.

𝟴. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝘁
There’s been no official cost attached to this Reset, possibly because the Government knows this will affect people’s opinions. And it wasn’t mentioned in the Budget either, which begs the questions, where are they going to get the money to pay for it all?

Knowing this, do you support the Reset?

[Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier]

🚨 NYC has completely fallen. Mayor Mamdani just signed COPA—blocking landlords from selling their own properties on the free market!
Far-left radicals are stripping away private property rights and crushing the middle class.
Total communist takeover. Get out of New York while you still can! 🇺🇸

[Titanic New York @TitanicNewYork]

Air National Guard flyover salute for the SS United States.

Thank you that pilot.

#ssunitedstates #veteransday #USA 🦅 🇺🇸

[J Stewart @triffic_stuff_]

Laura Kuenssberg lashed out at Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy for flat-out refusing to be honest about the EU’s youth mobility scheme.

Reports confirm Brussels wants a “Youth Experience Scheme” that would let roughly 150,000 young Europeans a year live, work or study in the UK. @bbclaurak asked Nandy if her constituents, which voted overwhelmingly to Leave, would be happy with this:

“Do you think your constituents in Wigan would be happy with 150,000 Europeans being able to come and live and work here?”

Nandy: “That’s precisely the reason that we need to have those honest conversations about what the choices are ahead of us.”

Kuenssberg: “So with that, be honest. Be honest. Be honest then.”

Nandy claimed she will be, but only after first talking to European counterparts about the “choices and trade-offs”, then eventually taking it to the public.

Kuenssberg said you’re having those conversations NOW. So if you’re being honest, do you think your constituents in Wigan would be happy with that?

She knows they won’t be, and she is not going to listen to them. Burnham is pressing ahead with closer alignment and these deals without any real consultation of the British people. Eventually he is going to try and fully rejoin the EU. That’s the plan.

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

***EXCLUSIVE by @MishalHusain***

David Cameron says Britain should NOT rejoin the EU

The former prime minister warns Andy Burnham that starting a conversation about rejoining would be “very long and painful”

Speaking in a Bloomberg interview, Cameron urges Burnham not to trigger another “decade-long debate about whether should be in or out.” He also says the UK should not enter a customs union with the EU

As the PM who led the Remain campaign in 2016, Cameron’s intervention will be seen as significant. He says Britain’s economic problems aren’t due to Brexit

“Today, instead of launching an argument about rejoining, which I think would be a very long and painful argument, and who knows where it would end up, instead of that, focus on how do we be the best friend, best neighbour, best partner,” Cameron says

The former PM also warns Burnham that talking about Britain rejoining could hamper future negotiations

“If you start endlessly producing this idea that we’re actually on a path to rejoining, I think you’re in danger of getting a less good partnership deal because of course the EU countries will just think: well, these guys are gonna rejoin anyway, so what’s the point in giving them a good partnership deal… If you’re not going to, you know, commit to trying to make the partnership stronger because you’re flirting with rejoining, I think there’s some dangers there,” Cameron says

“I don’t think actually necessarily joining a customs union is the right answer. If you look at the economic problems we have today, I don’t really think they’ve got anything to do with Brexit at all. I mean, our economic problems are we are overspending, over-borrowing, over-taxing, over-regulated, and far too much being spent on working age welfare. Those are a set of problems that have nothing to do with Brexit. We need a government that actually gets spending under control, gets taxes down, helps entrepreneurs, deals with our borrowing problem, reforms the welfare, and massively deregulates so we can build houses, build infrastructure. None of those have got anything to do with Europe. So that’s sort of, in a way, that’s my point. Do we really want to go into another decade-long debate about whether we should be in or out, when actually we should deal with our own problems while making the partnership model work?”

“I fought the campaign to stay in on an amended basis, and I obviously wanted to win that campaign. I was desperately disappointed that we lost that campaign. But I’m a democrat, a believer in democracy. We voted to leave, and I think the right thing now is to try and become, you know, not just neighbors, partners, and friends of the EU, but the best friends, the best neighbors, the best partners. And I think we can make that work”

Story by @ChaplainChloe: https://t.co/gKPvWA9LAu

[David C Bannerman @DCBMEP]

God Bless @David_Cameron ! He’s right to warn of the chaos an attempt to Rejoin would bring. We risk a veto for example from any one of the 27 - France and De Gaulle vetoed us twice before joining. Could take 10 years! Remember Cameron deserves credit for giving us a proper In/Out Referendum not hedging the question - he honoured that pledge, and I’ve thanked him for that.

[Britain Unbound @BritainUnbound]

David Cameron says Britain should NOT rejoin the EU

"there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents..." 😉

Seriously, the former PM is surely right that any conversation about EU accession would be “very long and painful”, echoing concerns raised by many others.

[Love Majewski @MajewskiLove1]

🇵🇱 Tusk’s “rule of law” drama just collapsed in real time.

His hand-picked judge issued “suspensions,” marched into the Constitutional Tribunal with a police escort, and declared herself in charge. The Supreme Court just looked at the whole operation and said: nah. Those orders are void. Święczkowski was and remains the President.

So the man who spent years lecturing Europe about judicial independence just tried a court heist and got laughed out of the room by an actual court. Must be humiliating.
Nawrocki called it a coup. The Supreme Court basically agreed. Tusk called it democracy. Poland called it Tuesday.

Happy Independence Day, Donald. The Constitution still doesn’t care about your feelings.
#Poland #Nawrocki #Tusk #11listopada

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at the White House in July 1966....

During the Vietnam War, President Johnson repeatedly pressed Prime Minister Wilson to commit British combat troops to show allied solidarity. Wilson famously remarked to his Cabinet in December 1964 that Johnson was "begging me even to send a bagpipe band to Vietnam". Despite intense American pressure—and even financial leverage offers by LBJ—Wilson refused to deploy British combat troops to Vietnam. He wanted to avoid splitting the Labour Party, alienating the British public, and dragging Britain into an unpopular war. While Britain offered de facto diplomatic and political support for U.S. policy, no British combat units or bagpipe platoons ever fought in Vietnam.

. . .

As the US sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted America’s closest ally to join the fight. This photo was taken in 1966, as the pressure on British Prime Minister Harold Wilson grew.

Johnson was famous for “the Johnson Treatment,” using his size, closeness and relentless persuasion to bend people to his will. But Wilson wouldn’t budge.

Wilson had several reasons. Many in his own Labour Party strongly opposed the war, Britain’s economy was struggling, and Britain had helped lead the 1954 peace talks that divided Vietnam, which Wilson felt gave it a role as a peacemaker.

Britain offered the US public support and diplomatic help, and Wilson tried several times to broker peace talks. But no British combat troops were ever sent.

Australia and New Zealand, on the other hand, did send troops to fight alongside the Americans.

Wilson was famous for his pipe, but in private he reportedly preferred cigars. He thought the pipe made him look more down-to-earth to voters.

#archaeohistories

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇵🇱 A SEA of red and white! One of the biggest patriotic celebrations in the WORLD is underway in Warsaw.

Will someone please explain to me how this is in ANY way considered "far-right"???

Writer: Michael

[Titanic New York @TitanicNewYork]

NOTICE: Sinking live stream will be available today from 11am CST November 11. Programming will commence at noon with scuttling starting at 1pm.

Live viewing options:

https://t.co/u7RB8cNa3r

https://t.co/wfleKw7kQl

#SSUnitedStates #newsfeed #VeteransDay #USA

[The Democracy Movement @DemocracyMovemt]

The inanity of making a security-based case to ditch Brexit, just as the EU isn't even invited to participate in peace talks towards halting a war on its own continent, is quite staggering.

An actual MP and senior advisor, too.

Rejoiners are floundering with increasing desperation, as economic stats show the UK's growing successes outside the EU. The window is closing on them and they know it.

@BBCNewsnight @IainDale @NickFerrariLBC @JackElsom @martinabettt @hoffman_noa @ShippersUnbound

[David C Bannerman @DCBMEP]

Convicted for negligence in France so should have the right credentials…

[Alex Armstrong @Alexarmstrong]

Rumours circulating that Christine Lagarde has quit her job at the European Central Bank early so she can stand in the French Presidential elections. Macron’s wing currently has no clear candidate to replace him.

Like Canada, will we see another candidate from a Central Bank parachuted in?

On quitting early, Lagarde said: “I don't think that I can be comfortable in that neutrality at the present time.”

You don’t have to read into that very much to understand she wants to give a political perspective.

[Steve Scrase @StevenScrase]

Think about the sheer cynicism of the timing. Today is 11 November—Armistice Day. Across the country, ordinary Brits are standing in silence at war memorials to honour the men who bled and died for this nation. And how does our state broadcaster mark the occasion? By splashing a grainy dark photograph across its front page with the headline: "New photos are 'essential evidence' of possible SAS war crimes, inquiry told".

They couldn't wait twenty-four hours.

What we are witnessing at the Afghanistan Inquiry is not the pursuit of justice. It is a coordinated, eight-year crusade driven by a triangle of activist journalists, human-rights law firms, and risk-averse Whitehall bureaucrats who view Britain’s elite warfighters with contempt.

Look at the machinery behind these headlines. For nearly a decade, a dedicated unit inside BBC Panorama—led by Hannah O’Grady and Joel Gunter—has worked in lockstep with human-rights solicitors at Leigh Day and anti-military NGOs like Action on Armed Violence to hunt the men of 22 SAS. When Inquiry Counsel Oliver Glasgow KC drops a selective line in court, lobby correspondents at Sky News and The Guardian transcribe it as gospel. Have we learned nothing from the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) farce? Back then, the exact same legal-media ecosystem dragged thousands of British soldiers through a decade of hell over alleged war crimes in Basra, burning £60 million of public money before the whole thing collapsed with zero murder convictions and lawyer Phil Shiner struck off in disgrace.

Now look at yesterday’s "bombshell." Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey, the Royal Military Police Gold Commander who ran Operation Northmoor, told the inquiry that photographs from 2011 Helmand night raids "cried out for examination", yet never sent them to forensic experts. Think about that for a second. Operation Northmoor lasted five years, cost over £10 million, had more than a hundred investigators, and ended in zero charges and zero convictions. Now, fifteen years after the event, the investigator in charge complains that his team didn't check the photos properly—and the media spins his admin incompetence as proof of an SAS cover-up!

Even worse is how this witch hunt started. As the Inquiry’s own disclosures have let slip, the initial briefings against the SAS didn't come from the operators taking fire in Taliban compounds; they came from staff officers sitting in headquarters and petty inter-regimental rivalries, amplified by an MoD legal bureaucracy terrified of the ECHR. Ever since judges extended the ECHR onto foreign battlefields, Whitehall’s permanent civil service has treated our soldiers as sacrificial lambs to appease international courts.

In 2011, the British state sent young men into the most lethal provinces of Afghanistan night after night to dismantle Taliban networks in pitch darkness. When they came home, the state handed them over to civilian lawyers with slow-mo replays and hindsight. As Brigadier Ed Butler, President of the SAS Regimental Association, rightly warned, this relentless lawfare is actively disarming Britain. Who in their right mind will volunteer for Special Forces selection tomorrow when they know that fifteen years later, a BBC journalist and a KC will be picking through photographs of a firefight to put them in prison?

The Tories talked tough for fourteen years, yet it was a Conservative Defence Secretary who set up the Inquiry and left our veterans at the mercy of the ECHR. Labour’s Attorney General is cut from the exact same cloth. Only Reform UK has had the backbone to draw a line in the sand—with Zia Yusuf and new Shadow Armed Forces Minister Angus MacIntyre (himself a 40-year veteran) pledging to end the persecution of our veterans within 100 days and strip human-rights lawfare out of combat operations.

On Armistice Day of all days, this national self-harm needs to stop.

[Titanic New York @TitanicNewYork]

SS United States scuttling has begun.

Seacocks open. Water rising through the hull.

#SSUnitedStates #newsfeed #VeteransDay #USA