Gareth Williams

Music lover, likes darker reading matter, Southend Utd, @Glastofest @latitudefest, @standoncalling, craft beer, Elk & armadillo things. I’m sometimes @GWPhoenix

[Jack Dart @JackWDart]

If people genuinely believe Burnham won’t receive the exact same media onslaught, they’ve not been paying attention.

Starmer is not, objectively, bad. This idea that he is somehow the worst PM in British history is frankly laughable.

Liz truss lasted 49 days, crashed the pound and was laughed out of Downing Street.

Since Labour took office, Keir Starmer’s government has:

• Scrapped the two-child benefit limit, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and putting money back into some of the hardest-pressed households in the country.

• Expanded free school meals, cutting costs for families and making sure more children get a proper meal during the school day.

• Expanded funded childcare, reducing one of the biggest monthly costs facing working parents and making it easier for people to stay in work.

• Raised the National Living Wage, increasing pay for millions of low-paid workers.

• Strengthened workers’ rights, giving people greater protection against insecure work and bad employers.

• Introduced statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, so workers are less likely to choose between their health and their wages.

• Ended no-fault evictions, giving renters more security in their homes.

• Brought rail operators back into public ownership, taking key services out of failed private hands and giving the public a stronger stake in how they are run.

• Cut NHS waiting lists from their post-pandemic peak, meaning more patients are being seen sooner.

• Raised the state pension through the triple lock, protecting pensioners’ incomes against rising costs.

• Scrapped the old non-dom tax regime, making some of the wealthiest people in the country pay more fairly.

• Added VAT to private school fees, raising money from those most able to contribute.

• Removed business rates relief from private schools, ending an unjustified tax break.

• Increased neighbourhood policing, putting more officers and PCSOs back into communities.

• Helped bring knife crime down, meaning fewer families face the devastation of serious violence.

• Recorded the lowest homicide rate since the 1970s, a material improvement in public safety.

• Created Great British Energy, giving Britain a publicly owned clean energy company.

• Created the National Wealth Fund, backing investment in industry, infrastructure and clean energy.

• Passed planning reforms aimed at getting homes and major projects built faster.

• Improved relations with the EU, reducing diplomatic hostility and rebuilding practical cooperation.

• Agreed a UK-EU security partnership, strengthening cooperation on defence and European security.

• Signed a long-term partnership with Ukraine, reinforcing Britain’s support against Putin’s invasion.

• Secured new trade agreements, opening up markets for British businesses.

• Helped restore seriousness to government after years of scandal, chaos and decline.

People do not have to like Starmer. They do not have to vote Labour. But pretending this is the record of the worst Prime Minister in British history is absurd.

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

A tree on the track this morning blocking the Lizzie Line from Shenfield, then trespassers on the track directly nag the day and now a tree in the track between Whitechapel and Stratford. Is it the gale force winds or are the trespassers putting trees on the track @tfl

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

"We want to use Henry’s heartbreaking story to make change for the better. We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”

I am in awe of Henry Nowak's family.
Anyone callously ignoring their wishes deserves nothing but contempt.

[Sam @SamCKx]

There's not a single person in Britain who doesn't agree that the death of Henry Nowak was a tragedy, and the way the police handled it was absolutely disgraceful.

There's only one political party, however, who want to take that family's pain and politicise it for their own benefit.

[Grok @grok]

No, Nigel Farage did not attend or speak during today's Commons statement by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on the Henry Nowak case (ordered by the Speaker after the killer's sentencing and bodycam release).

Farage has been vocal externally via videos and posts criticising "two-tier policing," but no reports or Hansard mentions place him in the chamber. Reform's Robert Jenrick raised the issue previously.

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

Such a shame that the heating in @RoundhouseLDN had, I’m assuming, broken and couldn’t be switched off for the return of @RiloKiley tonight and it felt like a sauna in there! Sounded glorious.

[Prof Colin Talbot @colinrtalbot]

Angela Rayner - £40k underpaid stamp duty - repaid. Lost jobs in Cabinet and Dep. PM.

Peter Murrell - £400k theft from SNP - going to prison

Huge coverage of both

Nigel Farage - £5m undeclared bung (possibly more) - goes to ground for a month.

Media coverage? You judge.

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

Massive events at Brockwell Park in May and June, don’t worry, @TLRailUK have got you covered, with engineering works over those weekends meaning no direct trains to Herne Hill. Genius….

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

@SUFCRootsHall @RunDaddyRun16 Thank you for everything @GusScottmorriss you will be sorely missed!

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

It’s amazing to see the world of football come together to get behind something that seemed unthinkable but really could happen. Supporters of clubs big and small all praying for the same thing! Please let spurs be relegated the unified fans all sing!!

[Altrincham HQ - Social Media Marketing in Manc @altrinchamhq]

Signs that should be up at all music venues

#realtalk

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

Hey @VirginRed & @bookingcom am I right in thinking you no longer get free points when booking through your joint partnership you simply pay for them (all hotels more expensive when going from Virgin Red) or has it always been that way and I missed it? Thanks

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

Is this a joke @wembleystadium?
This is watered down mass produced piss water, DO BETTER!!!

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

Anyone who complains about @TfL bus prices should try travel in Norfolk! £2.50 per adult for a 7 minute journey and dogs are 50p each as well!

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

@Dr_Iron_Hammer7 @BOREHAM_WOODFC This was last seasons final. And that was with TFL shutting Wembley Park.

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

Chatting to a friend yesterday about the whole Farage/Reform situation, I ended up in a bit of a rant!

It gave me pause for thought … he's untouchable, isn't he?

So many of us, over the last two years, have unearthed myriad stories that would have ended any other politician's career. But not our Nige.

The donors, the undeclared expenses, the £5M 'bribe', an actual Russian asset, the racism, the Epstein links, the tax affairs, the transformation into the Tories 2.0. I could go on, but you see what I'm getting at.

Nothing touches Nigel Farage.

Whatever we turn up, it only emboldens his fan base further; they love the fact that he's a crook and just keeps getting away with it. Why?

Because they don't have any interest in politics. All they care about is the cult of personality.

So perhaps we're going about this all wrong. Whenever we find more shady goings-on, more corruption, we're met with the same repeated mantra:

“Don't care, still voting Reform”.
[I added the punctuation. That doesn't usually feature.]

Nigel Farage is just Boris Johnson with fewer children — a bloviating, manufactured, owned, puppet in a suit. There is very little substance to either man, save for the desire to enrich their own lives.

Both men making hay from the wreckage of Brexit, and both entirely uninterested in actually governing a country.

So perhaps that's our angle; if we keep pointing out that these two politicians share identical traits, it could dwindle support for the current delegate.

Johnson, like a grotesque version of the picture of Dorian Gray, looming across Farage's political future.

Maybe not … but I'm of the opinion now that, short of a prison sentence, there is no scandal Farage cannot style out — with the aid of his bought and paid for media chums, of course.

He accepted an undeclared £5M 'gift' from his sugar daddy and then told the BBC 'nothing to see here'. The BBC just nodded politely and forgot to look any further.

So let's change the narrative. The comparisons are there, and the Reform UK base do not like it one bit.

[Lou D🌹 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇺🇦 @louderry]

@SamCoatesSky discussing Farages 5 million quid bung 'its not for me to sit in judgement of what Farage did'

This is the political spokesperson for @SkyNews who spent weeks passing judgement on a pair of glasses.

[Femi @Femi_sorry]

In 2016, Zack Polanski hosted and spoke at fundraisers for the Red Cross.

In 2017, Nigel Farage gave speeches for the AFD, who the German authorities have designated an extremist organisation, and which uses Nazi slogans.

Which do you think UK Press is attacking right now?

[Simon Harris @SimonHarrisMBD]

All over England today, hundreds of new councillors with remits that cover potholes, bins and adult social care are going to be meeting to figure out how to stop the boats.

[Gareth Williams @Greenelk]

@JulesAP011 @MarinaPurkiss Thank you for proving Marina’s point!

The plan is openly to take money out of the public purse to benefit private health firms, reduce the quality of the NHS, so you either pay or you have substandard care with even longer waiting times