Ian Rogers

Have shares in racehorses, currently Astrazar , previously Siberian Night, Aurora Dawn, Persona Grata, Esentepe, Bishop Wulstan, Sky Marshal & others.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Just to remind these same folk:
You’ve not lifted 1/2m kids out of poverty. You’ve just moved them over a bureaucratic line on a Whitehall spreadsheet.
Your ‘workers rights’ are destroying entry-level jobs, hitting young people disproportionately, where unemployment is now over 16%.
You have not transformed the NHS. It’s still the same old wheezing leviathan, just with a lot more dosh and still dismal productivity.
And you’ve nationalised steel and rail before. It was not the prelude to an economic or industrial miracle. Plus you will now have to include their demands for capital/subsidies among all the other priorities already crowding in on the public purse.
Other than that your reminder was useful. Thank you.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Perhaps the grimmest part of John Healey’s brutal resignation letter is that defence spending, projected to be 2.6% GDP by 2027, will only reach 2.68% in 2030. A pathetic 0.08% increase over three years after all that Starmer rhetoric about the dangerous times we live in and how UK would lead the way stepping up to the crease. A real leader would have told Reeves to cough up the dosh and ordered Miliband to hand over a big chunk of his net zero budget. But he’s probably too weak to do either.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

While we still wait on Labour government defence spending plans (the Defence Investment Plan — DIP) to finance last year’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), let’s keep in mind these salient points when it eventually appears:
1. The current £28 billion shortfall in defence spending over the next four years has nothing to do with implementing the SDR. The £28 billion is simply what’s needed to meet current defence commitments/plans.
2. So funding for SDR would have to be on top of the £28 billion — which would mean tens of billions more over the next five or so years into the early 2030s.
3. The extra money now being floated as what the government is likely to announce — £13.5 billion over four years — wouldn’t even cover half the shortfall never mind produce a penny for the SDR. It’s a pittance compared with what’s required.
4. We currently spend 2.4% GDP on defence (and even that is boosted by some statistical sleights of hand). The only current concrete plan is to go to 2.5/6% in the next financial year. Now the Treasury is saying it doesn’t even want to set 3% as a target before 2034/35 — by which time if Reeves-Starmer-Treasury have their way we will be a minor player in military matters.
5 This government is dishonest the best of times. I fear we’re about to discover that when it comes to the defence of the realm — its primary duty as a government — it is a serial liar.

[Jason | 🇬🇧 🇿🇦 🇮🇱🇺🇲 @Ajaon_of_All]

Let me categorically Debunk this utter rot. @sainsburys.

I am a poultry Breeder. The hens that lay white eggs (Amberline/White Star) DO NOT have a lower carbon footprint.

Yes they eat a bit less and produce roughly the same amount of eggs as the Brown egg layers (Bovan/Lowman/ISA Brown) but they live shorter lives, are prone to dying suddenly when startled, a flighty and nervous and because they live shorter productive lives (12 -18mnths) vs brown 18/24mnths (both commercial farmed), you have to incubate more which is increased (Electricity/gas costs) and their eggs are not the same quality.

I breed and keep 20+ different breeds, including: ISA Brown hens and White Stars. All my hens are 100% free range, Not a single barn kept bird, I have ISA browns that are 5yrs old and still laying beautiful Brown eggs, I have not seen a White star live beyond 3yrs and certainly none have laid eggs past 18-24mnths.
White stars Lay themselves to death. They are slender birds and because they dont eat a lot, it drains their personal vitality to keep up laying the eggs you want to sell because of the nonsensical lie that they are "More Carbon Neutral"

You want to know about eggs, come talk to someone like me, Don't rely on some hairbrained imagination of a buyer who's trying to squeeze the profit margin for a few extra pennies at our expense and to the poor hens detriment.

[Kate Hoey @CatharineHoey]

A Reform UK spokesman said: “Carol Vorderman is a left-wing bad faith actor. If she spent half as much energy attacking Labour for letting men into women’s spaces and blocking a grooming gang inquiry - which present real dangers to women and girls - as she does clutching her pearls over mild tweets, her words might actually carry weight with women in Makerfield.“Rob isn’t a polished, professional politician and doesn’t speak like one. That’s precisely why he’ll be a straight-talking, effective voice for normal working people in Makerfield.”

[Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives @dom_lucre]

🔥🚨DEVELOPING: PM of The United Kingdom, Keir Starmer has left American viewers baffled after he proudly announced that he is a gooner which would mean he is a serial masturbator according to trending American slang.

Starmer"Mr. Speaker, I am a gooner!"

[Sharron Davies HoL MBE @sharrond62]

This man annoys me .. anyone else? I want to eat beef & I want it to be British wherever I can.

[Kirstie Allsopp @KirstieMAllsopp]

@AngelaRayner FGS! Pubs are being sold off because it’s not longer possible to run them economically and that is down to this Labour government. You didn’t “inherit” this problem you grew it, and you can’t make anyone better off unless you make life easier for small businesses.

[Sorcha Eastwood MP @SorchaEastwood]

Immediately after the General Election I said to a well renowned senior BBC journo in London that the Starmer administration didn't feel stable. He didn't laugh at me, but he just repeated the majority that Starmer had. I said I'm from Northern Ireland, believe me, I know a shaky government when I see one lol. But it was more that the support was a mile wide and an inch deep. And Starmer didn't keep it in the middle. Almost as soon as they were through the door, manifesto commitments were ripped up, winter fuel gone etc. It was a continuation of 14 years of misery. And it's caught up with them. It's so regrettable, but we warned and shouted repeatedly.

[Grifty @TheGriftReport]

Little girl whose 4th birthday was ruined when balaclava-clad teens smashed her egg stall gets swish new stall from Aldi,

four-year-old Maisie Willis had set up her own little stall in the family driveway in Essex selling boxes of eggs from her pet chickens for £2 each,

two balaclava-wearing teens completely destroyed it on her birthday, throwing all the eggs across the road and even stealing the stand,

her heartbroken mum Chelsea tracked the pair down and forced an apology but Maisie was left devastated and in tears,

Aldi saw the story and kindly gifted her a brand new wooden toy shop stall from their range so she can restart her little business,

Well done @AldiUK 👏👏

[Aviewfromthefront @Aviewfromt99581]

Dear mr train enthusiast at Birmingham new st, no matter how much you flap your arm like a moronic one winged bird, I shall not blast my horn for your vid.

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

'Our late Queen deserves better than this!' Campaigners condemn surprise decision to axe plans for equestrian sculpture of Elizabeth II for 'boring' statue 'that looks nothing like her' https://t.co/0bResmhITw

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

I appreciate the Cabinet Office has a lot on its plate at the moment. But I do think you should be able to spell Commonwealth correctly. You’re meant to be the civil service elite.
PS The memorial to our late Queen is distinctly underwhelming.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Starmer has now dodged the Simon Case question five times — ie why did he ignore the advice of his then cabinet secretary (Case) to vet Mandelson’s before appointing him.
He replies saying that a subsequent report by another cabinet secretary (Wormald) said he’d followed process.
But that was almost a year after Case’s advice and therefore doesn’t explain why he ignored Case at the time.
Moreover Wormald doesn’t say Starmer was right to ignore the Case advice — just that vetting ‘usually’ happened after job offer but before taking up post.
Mandelson’s appointment, of course, was anything but usual.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

BREAKING NEWS (with the potential to be massive):
The Guardian reveals Peter Mandelson failed advanced security vetting before becoming US ambassador.
He was initially denied developed vetting clearance in January 2025 - weeks after Keir Starmer had officially announced his appointment.
Foreign Office was ‘encouraged’ to deploy a rarely-used power to override the recommendation from security officials.
The Government promised total transparency on the Mandelson affair after MPs forced it to release of a batch of documents about the process. But nothing it has released reveals this startling fact.
Indeed, Starmer has always insisted Mandelson was subject to 'security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role'.
Developing …

[Neil Clark @NeilClark66]

People don’t hate the elderly. But they are clearly being encouraged to by a very malevolent campaign which seeks to convince people that
(a) the state pension is a ‘benefit’ which can be taken away and not a ‘right’ to which all those who have contributed to are entitled.
(b) the state pension is ‘unaffordable’ and will need to be abolished or ‘means-tested’
(c) the difficulties young people face are caused by the elderly receiving state pensions that are ‘too generous’
All these are lies with the aim of encouraging inter-generational hatred.
It really is beyond despicable.

[Todd Spence @Todd_Spence]

Motörhead's ACE OF SPADES played on Netherland church bells. Holy mother this is amazing

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Polanski is a know-nothing blowhard. The only Jewish person to lead a political party — bar, that is, Benjamin Disraeli, Ed Miliband, Michael Howard, Jimmy Goldsmith and Herbert Samuel. He is clearly ignorant of the country’s history. And much more besides.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

This whole McSweeney phone theft business is beginning to stink.
The timing is incredibly convenient for a government that wants to cover up.
Why did McSweeney report the theft to the police himself?Surely Downing Street security should have been immediately alerted — and they would handle it from there.
Did McSweeney want to establish a record of him reporting it?
Why did McSweeney never correct the police when it was clear they thought the theft had been in the East End and, of course, it happened in Westminster. Did McSweeney relish the confusion?
Why did McSweeney not make clear the national security significance of it being his phone to the police? Was he worried they’d then take it seriously, unlike most phones thefts?

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

ANDREW NEIL: We’re heading into what could be the greatest energy emergency ever with a bunch of clueless inadequates at the tiller https://t.co/oYdf6g2UZh