Geoffrey Littlefield

Writer/Producer
Chelsea FC fan since 11 yrs old.
Author of NELSON RIDDLE: Music With a Heartbeat and
LAST NIGHT WHEN I WAS YOUNG

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@piersmorgan Pure profit. You know how it works.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@piersmorgan Consolation prize, for missing out on Morgan Rogers. Also, we'll take Zubimendi off your hands.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@Matt_Pinner Rotor

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

So here's the idea…

We don't ask more from anyone who can't work. That has to be clear. But for people who can work and are looking for an opportunity, we should offer a deal. Support from the state in exchange for time given back to your community.

A proper offer and opportunity. Time with a charity, time at the council, time with the police, the NHS, the youth group down the road. A day a week, two days a week, whatever works for the person and the place.

Imagine even a small percentage of people out of work doing that. What it would do for them. What it would do for the organisations desperately trying to keep going but struggling to get the staff. What it would do for the community around them.

Because what I've learned in 24 years in the Marines and two in politics is that when you give someone something meaningful to do, alongside people who count on them, most of the rest fixes itself. The skills get built, the confidence comes, the sense of purpose appears, the route back into work becomes clearer…

Service isn't some nostalgia project consigned to history. It's the thread that runs from the individual to the community to the country. Labour should start bringing that back in.

The bigger picture.

The government has found a bit more money for the MoD. It has not yet done the hard bit, which is treat national security as one problem.

Defence, critical technology, energy security, civil resilience, reserves, cadets, homeland defence, cyber, supply chains, sovereign compute, food security, water…

Right now these sit in separate departments briefing against each other for a shrinking share of the same pot of cash. They should be treated as one agenda, in one Cabinet conversation, with one plan behind them.

Armies don't win in times of conflict. Economies, societies and industries do. We won't be a serious country again by spending more on tanks. We need to think bigger, broader and bolder and fulfil the first role of any state, which is to protect the people within it.

Our adversaries see one British state and they probe it for weaknesses wherever they can find them. They don't care which department is meant to be looking after it… they only care that nobody is.

We have to see ourselves the way they see us. As one country, with one set of vulnerabilities, that needs one strategic answer.

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

We can't keep pretending a defence budget is the same as a national security plan. It just isn't. The DIP avoids areas that actually decide whether this country is secure or not.

Critical National Technologies.

We rightly treat power stations, pipelines and telecoms as critical national infrastructure. We do not yet treat nuclear, advanced manufacturing, AI, sovereign compute, semiconductors, data and quantum the same way. That is a mistake we cannot afford to keep making.

Germany is building a sovereign AI and compute stack alongside its industrial strategy. France has a 2030 strategy. The Americans and the Chinese are running national industrial mobilisations we haven't seen since the Cold War. Britain is inventing brilliant things, but then letting other people build them, own them and then decide what happens with them. Data is the new gunpowder. Right now we don't have a national plan to make it, own it or protect it at the scale that truly matters.

Create a Critical National Technology Category. Give those companies privileges and benefits, in exchange for their support towards national security.

If we don't create, scale and support the technologies of the future, we become vulnerable to others that will.

Home defence and national resilience.

Sweden sends every household a "If Crisis or War Comes" pamphlet. Finland runs its Comprehensive Security Model that plans, in advance, for national mobilisation across every ministry and every sector. Germany is standing up civil defence, bunker capacity and reserve infrastructure that would have been unthinkable five years ago.

Britain has nothing comparable. Build the plan now, build the resilience, integrate it across every level of government.

Ask yourself the real questions…

What happens at the next Covid? The next cyber attack that shuts down a factory or an entire NHS trust? The next energy shock? A coordinated hybrid campaign against our grid, our supply chains, our food, our water? Who is in charge? What do businesses do? What are the Reserves for? What should the public do? What do you need to do?

Prior planning prevents piss poor performance. We do not have serious answers to any of that. The state should.

The next generation.

The country that produces the next generation of engineers, scientists, cyber operators, service personnel and grafters wins the next thirty years. The country that doesn't, doesn't. Right now we are the country that doesn't.

A guaranteed offer of employment, education or training. Not a scheme, not a pilot, a promise every young person in this country will get when they leave school.

A debt-to-deposit scheme that turns student loan repayments into a housing deposit. If you're working hard, if you're paying your way, the state should be helping you build your life up, not just taking more and more from it.

Free transport for under 25s. Because opportunity means being able to physically get to it, and right now we're pricing young people out of the jobs.

A cultural change that puts as much emphasis into master tradesmen and women as it does masters degrees. Why do we have student loans when we don't provide equivalent financial support for apprenticeships? We support education but we don't support education in work.

Talent is everywhere in this country. Opportunity isn't. Fix that and you fix half of everything else.

Service.

Britain used to understand service. Not as a slogan on posters but as a habit. Something you did because you were part of something bigger than yourself, matched with the country doing something for you in return.

We've lost some of that.

Volunteers hold this country together. I don't just mean the ones in the headlines. The ones doing the litter picks, running the youth clubs, driving the community bus, keeping the church hall open, running the food bank. They are the quiet infrastructure of every place I've ever lived, from Aberdeen to Selly Oak. Without them, half the country would seize up in a week.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@Oceanrower03 @AlistairCarns I think you need to apologise to Al as it is the total budget that is 15 billion - it was 13.5 billion and 1.5 billion was added. 1.5 billion was the increase. Clearly maths and good manners are not your strong points.

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

Five tests for the next Prime Minister.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, rips his former boss:

“What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them…

A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about…

A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

[Lord Mark Reeve @Reeve98Mark]

@RuthFox01 @bbclaurak @grantshapps @LabourLordsUK @UKHouseofLords Are you @bbclaurak going to correct @grantshapps LIE that went unchallenged on your program

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@SimonFoxWriter It's already trashed,in case you didn't notice.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@LozzaFox Bully,intimidator,misinformer. I agree. You're all three.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@mrjamesob Irony is the imperial system was introduced by the French.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

https://t.co/BbGtggeMLr

[Carol Vorderman @carolvorders]

Wow.

Rishi Sunak writes to Liaison Committee to say that if asked about any financial conflicts of interest, he won't be able to answer and afterwards he'll decide himself if there are any & then notify the committee!!!!

NO.
BEFORE anyone becomes a Minister they should declare all. Sunak and Cameron now hide behind "blind trusts".

There should be no Financial Conflicts of Interest. Full stop.

Corruption, or any sniff of it, must end at the next election
Firm rules.
Strict adherence
Or not allowed to be an MP

THOUGHTS?

[Roger Gall @Shambles151]

James Cleverly - the current Home Secretary claims the public want the Rwanda plan.

Do you?

Please RT after voting - thank you

[Jessica Simor KC @JMPSimor]

Not a good look.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@piersmorgan Don't get too excited. You'll have your annual meltdown come Feb/March. Two or three games a week not easy without a strong squad in depth.

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@piersmorgan On a more serious help me get my Soccer Life Stories ® series off the ground. You could be first guest 😍

[Geoffrey Littlefield @GeoffreyLittl13]

@piersmorgan Don't get too excited. You'll have your annual meltdown come Feb/March. Two or three games a week not easy without a strong squad in depth.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Rory Stewart who once seemed to be the next Conservative Leader after David Cameron, is considering joining Labour.

RT if that's a good idea.
Like if it's bad.