Kevin Cooke.

A man's culture determines what he is, what he feels, what he does and how he sees himself - Roger Scruton, journal of 'Philosophy', 1979. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇱

[Britain Unbound @BritainUnbound]

🚨VOTERS WANT TO STAY OUT OF EU🚨

In the latest polling for @ObserverUK published only a few hours ago, conducted by @OpiniumResearch, the British public have switched back and now show a resounding majority for staying out of the EU.

[Vivid.🇮🇱 @VividProwess]

Ballistic missiles INCOMING RIGHT NOW!

Tweeting from inside the bomb shelter.

The Islamic regile will pay for this.

[David Collier @mishtal]

BREAKING: Iran has just restarted the war with Israel.

Ballistic missile attack.

Expect very little coverage from our media - and lots of putting it in the context of an "Iranian response"...

Until Israel fights back...

Then our media will pretend Israel is the bad guy.

[Grifty @TheGriftReport]

In the UK we have far too many mainstream 'journalists' who just do as they are told or are far left activists masquerading as journalists.

But every now and then we get one of two who hold politicians to account, who they are terrified of.

One such person is Trevor Phillips, so i would like to say thank you to @TrevorPTweets for having integrity and to please keep holding these scumbags to account!

[Liam Halligan @LiamHalligan]

Labour risks being forced to seek emergency help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Britain lurches toward a debt crisis, leading economists are now warning.

Former IMF chief economist Ken Rogoff says, in a new interview, that there is “more than 50:50 chance” of a major UK debt crisis before the end of this decade.

He is joined by Sir Charlie Bean, a former senior official at both the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility, who says the need for an IMF bail-out is now a “material risk” for the British economy.

I not only firmly agree with Ken Rogoff and Sir Charlie Bean – but have been repeatedly issuing the very same warnings for a very long time.

Because the grave risk of a major fiscal meltdown has been apparent for at least the last two years – to anyone who combines serious knowledge of UK economics and politics and global debt markets with an open mind.

The UK's public finances were already fragile when Labour took office back in July 2024.

But this government's misguided, ideologically-driven statist policies have made a bad situation much worse, seriously increasing the danger of a deep fiscal crisis - which would cause a disastrous state funding shortfall and a very nasty inflation spike.

That would result in Downing Street being forced to follow the orders of unelected technocrats flown in from Washington and elsewhere.

It would be a very major national humiliation combined with a deep economic slump and an even more intense cost-of-living crisis – in which low-income households, as ever, would suffer the most.

Yet those of us that have shown the brains and courage to point out these inconvenient truths over recent months and years have long been dismissed and derided for our trouble - not only by ignorant politicians and approval-seeking journalists but also the overwhelming majority of "leading economists".

Ahead of the general election in mid-2024, with Labour on course to win, the conventional wisdom among the great sages of broadsheet journalism and the economics establishment was that "the adults would soon be back in charge" ... Labour would "get lucky with the economy" ... and "Britain would now enjoy an extended period of political and fiscal stability".

I thought that was total nonsense – not least as I was well aware Labour's plans irresponsibly to increase borrowing and spending would be met with deep scepticism by the global pensions funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors that lend governments serious money.

My weekly @Telegraph "Economic Agenda" column of 23rd June 2024, a fortnight ahead of the general election, was a total outlier. I recounted the disaster of 1976 – when Britain was forced to go "cap in hand" to the IMF for a bailout – and warned that "The Ghosts of the 1970s" would haunt Labour's (so-called) economic resurrection".

Six months later, after the October 2024 "Hallowen" budget in which Chancellor Rachel Reeves did indeed sharply hike borrowing and spending, I assessed the market reaction then doubled-down – warning more assertively in my column of 12th January 2025 that "The UK risks a return to 1976 unless Reeves changes course".

And then again on 20th July 2025, as Labour's policies raised the costs of doing business, translating into price pressures which pushed up government borrowing costs even more, I again cautioned that "Inflation risks are taking Britain to the debt-crisis cliff edge".

"It’s now screamingly obvious that Labour’s crude Keynesianism – “pump priming” the economy by upping state borrowing and spending – isn’t working," I wrote in that column last July.

"Worse than that, this Government’s actions are pushing Britain towards a budgetary crisis every bit as serious as that in 1976 – when the UK was forced to go “cap in hand” to the IMF for a bail-out".

It's been a lonely task issuing these warnings. I've been hounded in public debates, slagged off by senior civil servants and often dismissed by "leading economists" as "alarmist".

So what do these same "leading economists" now say to Rogoff (Harvard Professor, Former IMF Chief Economist) and Bean (LSE Professor and Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England)?

The "economics establishment" – with very few honourable exceptions, the brilliant @jagjit_chadha among them – has been and remains extremely reluctant to point out the deeply unsustainable nature of this government's addiction to ever more borrowing.

The systemic fiscal dangers of evermore "tax and spend" – and the prospect of a serious spike in gilt yields and related fiscal meltdown – are now so real and present as to be completely undeniable.

Yet the UK government is about to shift even further to the left, pushing up borrowing and spending even more under a new leader, in a bid to appease the massed ranks of economic illiterates among Labour's Parliamentary party and activist base – making those dangers even more acute.

Yet, still, the silence among "public intellectual" economists is deafening.

I'm glad the likes of Ken Rogoff and Charlie Bean are now issuing clear warnings. So where is the rest of the "economics establishment" - those who purport to understand fiscal management and financial markets, and often funded by taxpayers' money?

Britain is now clearly in the crosshairs of a very serious danger. The government's creditors are increasingly fickle and based overseas – with no regulatory or cultural obligations to lend money to the UK government.

Those holding UK gilts are increasingly "speculative" rather than "strategic" long-term investors – looking for quick returns, financing their government bond purchases with "leverage" (money borrowed from elsewhere), which will quickly be withdrawn when senitment decisively shifts, causing a plunge in gilt prices and a sharp additional surge in government borrowing costs, setting up a vicious circle.

The UK government is very heavily indebted – and the global investors we rely on to bankroll a huge slice of our state spending are alarmed that of the £132bn the government borrowed last year, no less than £110bn was spent on debt interest – as I wrote in a column on 17th May 2026, "As Labour lurches further left, the markets are calling time".

Global investors are alarmed the UK has consistently had the highest inflation in the G7 (which pushes up borrowing costs) and has easily the highest share of index-linked debt (which magnifies the burden of inflation on the state's balance sheet).

And they are deeply, deeply alarmed that when Labour came to power in mid-2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility was forecasting additional state borrowing of £323bn by 2029, the scheduled end of this Parliament.

But Labour’s runaway spending and growth-crushing tax rises mean that the same five-year borrowing forecast is now £583bn – 80pc higher. And still, the trade unions, MPs and Labour activists who will choose Starmer’s successor now want even more.

It is not too late to pull the UK back from the fiscal brink, to avoid the extremely painful and deep, lingering damage of being forced to go to the IMF and perhaps other multi-lateral creditors for a bailout.

It is not too late to avoid the inflation surge, the currency crash, the shocking blow to consumer and business confidence alongside the sky-high interest rates that will seriously whack our economy – or the perhaps even deeper damage of yet more of the British electorate losing faith in the ability of our establishment to manage the country in a manner that avoids imposing serious hardship on so many hard-working people simply trying to make their way.

But our political and media class needs to start acknowledging the economic and financial truth – that the UK government is borrowing and spending too much, taxation is now so high that it's hammering growth and employment, and that trying to finally get the economy moving by "moving further left", borrowing and spending even more, will result in a fiscal collapse.

Smart, experienced, high-profile economists need to start speaking out – as Rogoff and Bean just have – raising the alarm in a bid to force the broader establishment to face reality. Before it's too late.

If you've read this far, you clearly think this analysis is worthwhile and important. So please like and share.

And for more, read my "Economic Agenda" column in The Sunday Telegraph each week – and subscribe to "When The Facts Change: Economics and Politics in a fast-moving world, with Liam Halligan"

[🇬🇧UKJ0N🇬🇧 @ukJ0N]

🔥🔥🔥🎆
He gets better with every interview:-

Zia Yusuf's full interview with Peter Cardwell this morning.
Thorough interview, great questions and excellent answers -
Southampton, Jenrick, Kenyon, ILR, Welfare and Restore Britain.

Why can't BBC's Kuensberg do a decent interview like this?
@petercardwell @ziayusuf @robertjenrick @talktv

[June Slater @juneslater17]

From a follower on a thread in FB about Makerfield
👇👇👇👇
I'm angry June! I live in the Makerfield constituency it's only 2 years since we had the election, we neither wanted of asked for this bloody stupid by-election, it was thrust on us by one man's quest for power at whatever the cost! People knocking on doors, I've thrown the equivalent to a forest away in leaflets and then by God, got a letter addressed to me this morning from friggin Carol Vorderman telling me not to vote for a certain candidate! How bloody dare she, I'll vote for who I want, not who a has-been numerical totty with a big gob tells me to!
And then we have do it all again another 2-3 years in a general election! Help!

[Ben Graham @BenGrahamUK]

Footage from Southampton today shows a police officer telling protesters: "I'm angry too."

He then says he's just doing his job.

Credit to this officer for speaking honestly.

The public don't expect the police to be robots. They expect them to be human.

We need more officers willing to speak openly when something is clearly wrong.

[June Slater @juneslater17]

Let's be honest, there was never any need for the circus to come to town in Makerfield.

They voted 2 years ago for that bloke in The red rosette and life went back to normal.
I can assure you this is an expense for Reform they can ill afford, they've just stood 5000 council candidates and had a bi election to fund in Gorton and Denton. Currently there they're already vetting councillors for next year's batch of elections . They've just won 4000 council seats and got a straight flush in Makerfield winning all 8 vacancies
Next door in St Helen's despite Andy Burnham helping Labour to campaign they lost 25 of their 27 seats
to Reform .💥
The Reform team are totally focused and chipping away at the veneer of power at a local level.
This election is one man's vanity project, a self serving politician that sees the vultures circling the carcass of a decidedly unpopular PM.

Any Burnham, talks about Makerfield like it's been repeatedly let down and can only be saved by him.

But but but it's been under Labour for 43 years 😳
Does Andy honestly think not mentioning Labour in his red board is fooling anyone .

The showcase version of Question Time helped Andy display his wares like an Avon lady to her regular clientele.

You'll not convince me that the audience wasn't 80% left wing.

Meanwhile Reform's novice Robert Kenyon surprised everyone with his calm demeanor his nervousness had and appeal the other sharks will never have.

He had the details too on the stuff that matters in Makerfield.. not the sleaze stirring by the host Fiona

The Greens understudy , mother Earth lactating her way through the show
Works in the charity sector
Bound to do, she looks typical of the breed.
She was only there because the first choice was bummed off because of antisemetism.

The Tory had the technique of a Betterware salesman too old to put the leg work in and coming out with Tory puns that no one was interested in.

The Lib Dem lost me when he crowed about how hard it was for him and his husband to buy a house..🙄
What does he do for a job

He's a professional fund raiser for a non profit Association of Liberal democrats Councillors
And yes he's a councillor too.
I found myself muttering ..get in the real world mate !

Andy has caused this unnecessary expense and upheaval. That in itself would make me vote against him.

Hopefully the people of Makerfield will see past the slick manoeuvring of Andy Burnham.
He's probably slavering somewhere right now at the thought of Larry the cat getting a new Northern daddy .

I'd be voting for handsome Rob from Reform for all the right reasons 👌🇬🇧

[Kevin Cooke. @InOppositionto]

🎯⬇️ Brilliant

[TheRoadknight @RoadknightThe]

As a gay man, I say: you did this - you, the far-Left LGBTIAQ+ activists with your grotesque parades, your absurd 'pronouns', your men in women's spaces and your drag queen storytimes.

You did this. You pushed and pushed the boundaries of power to see what you could get away with, using the 'cause' as a testudo: criticise us and you're a 'homophobe', 'transphobe', etc.

You used us, the 'normie' gays as a cause, to radicalise and militarise, whilst weaponising speech, with what others can and cannot say - and now you're surprised that there's kick-back?

Oh, sure, you'll now use that as: "See? See? Look at all the homophobia and transphobia! We told you!" but it was you that caused the homophobia and transphobia with your ridiculous power moves for 5% of the population.

We asked for equality. We got that. We asked for Same-Sex Marriage. We got that. But you wouldn't stop there. Emboldened by the generosity of those who, in many countries, voted for or supported the latter, you wanted to see how much further you could go.

You poked the bear. The bear didn't react. But you kept poking and finally the bear reacted. And now we're in a position where the bear recognises you every time and will swipe back.

You did this.

[TheSimonEvansX @TheSimonEvansX]

Watch it again and again until you fully grasp the depth of the hypocrisy, the irretrievable loss of moral authority.

Philips skewers him here on z,y and z axes.

Lammy is a total fraud and opportunist, who also, tragically, lacks the wit to dodge even the most telegraphed of punches.

As many have said, it’s plain insulting to be asked to swallow his crap.

[Kevin Cooke. @InOppositionto]

@lembitopik @Gina_Harris_ There are & have been many stupid men in politics & there will be until politics becomes a profession where it isn't an option.

[Connor Tomlinson @Con_Tomlinson]

34-year-old Katie Fox, the woman stabbed in the neck in Birmingham last Friday, has now died in hospital.

Djeison Rafael has been charged with her murder.

This follows 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse being stabbed to death in Oldbury two days earlier.

Mohammed Azim was charged with her murder. He is allegedly the same Mohammed Azim who previously served an 11-year sentence for manslaughter, and sentenced to 16 years in prison for three rapes in 2013.

Every day, one of our wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers is murdered and raped by men who never needed to be here in the first place.

Enough. They have to go.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Worth watching. Proper, measured, thoughtful response.

[Kevin Cooke. @InOppositionto]

@DavidTaylor85 He's quite right.

[Kevin Cooke. @InOppositionto]

@YardleyShooting @Bobbybollocks2 The consequence is a @reformparty_uk government.

[🇬🇧UKJ0N🇬🇧 @ukJ0N]

Just watched Zia Yusuf’s masterclass with Laura Kuenssberg this morning.

She’s outraged at Nigel Farage’s “cold rage” response, while normal folk are outraged by two-tier policing.

The BBC are completely out of touch with the public.

@ZiaYusufUK

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

This was brilliant. Trevor Phillips played a clip of what Keir Starmer said about George Floyd and displayed how Labour MPs expressed their “anger”.

David Lammy said it was fine because they were in opposition.

But not fine for Nigel Farage to use the term “rage” like they did.

[Reform UK @reformparty_uk]

Andy Burnham likes to think he is King of the North.

Cllr Rob Kenyon has other ideas. 💪

[Ben M Freeman - בן מ פרימן @BenMFreeman]

Tonight is my last night in Glasgow.

It is where I was born. It is where I spent my childhood, where I became a Bar Mitzvah, and where much of my understanding of myself was formed.

Mostly because of my parents, Scotland has always been the constant. No matter where I happened to be living, whether London, Hong Kong, or elsewhere, there was always an assumption that Scotland would be there. It was the place I returned to when life became complicated, uncertain, or challenging. My parents were here. It was familiar. It was home.

Tomorrow, I leave the UK and make Aliyah to Israel.

Over the past few years, I have spent a great deal of time writing, researching, and speaking about Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood, Jewish indigeneity, and Jewish self-determination. In many ways, that journey led me here. Not because I stopped being British, but because I came to understand more deeply what it means to be Jewish.

Tomorrow I will become an Israeli citizen. I leave with great love for the life my parents gave me here and excitement about the chapter that lies ahead.

Scotland will always be where I am from.

But tomorrow, I go home.