GayfordA

Taking a journalistic interest. Likes facts, creativity & human decency. #FBPA Bunny Hugger & mask wearer

[GayfordA @RejoinersRus]

Watch this and share widely, should be available to all for public information! https://t.co/k1DBchxTII

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

He appointed himself. Years of licking Donald Trump’s boots has brought Stephen Miller to a place where he’s now the most powerful man in the executive branch. The question is why?

Read more from @JoelKFGO:
https://t.co/bzeVPEsMOx

[DIN Intel Network @DININTELNETWORK]

UNFORGIVEABLE: A Minnesota doctor just revealed Renée Good still had a pulse 8 minutes after she was shot by an ICE agent.

A physician on scene offered to administer aid and was denied.

In any courtroom, preventing medical aid after using deadly force isn’t just cruel, it’s an aggravating factor.

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

THE RETIRED LAWYER WHO DID PARLIAMENT'S JOB AND WON A JOURNALISM AWARD FOR IT

Dan Neidle (@DanNeidle) retired at 49 from Clifford Chance, one of the world's most powerful law firms, where he spent nearly 25 years as head of tax. Most people in that position go quiet and enjoy the garden.

Neidle started a non-profit think tank and spent his retirement doing what journalists, regulators, and parliament couldn't be bothered to do.

In July 2022, he published detailed analysis showing that Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) had used an offshore structure to avoid approximately £3.7 million in capital gains tax on his YouGov stake. Then he showed Zahawi had lied about it.

Zahawi's lawyers at Osborne Clarke sent him threatening letters marked "confidential" and "not for publication," demanding he retract the allegations within 24 hours or face defamation action. They told him it would be "improper" and a "serious matter" to publish the letters.

Neidle published the letters.
He also published more detailed analysis. Then he referred the lawyers to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

@TheSun then revealed Zahawi had secretly settled with HMRC for the exact amount Neidle estimated, plus a 30% penalty. Total: nearly £5 million. Rishi Sunak sacked Zahawi in January 2023 after an investigation found he had breached the Ministerial Code by failing to disclose he was being investigated by HMRC while serving as Chancellor.

Neidle won Investigation of the Year at the British Journalism Awards 2023. He is not a journalist.

The SRA referred Osborne Clarke partner Ashley Hurst to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, marking the first time a solicitor had been referred to the SDT for abusive tactics in libel litigation. In December 2024, the Tribunal found Hurst guilty of misconduct and fined him £50,000.

A retired tax lawyer spotted what a sitting Chancellor was hiding, refused to be silenced by his legal team, was proved right in every detail, won a journalism award, and then got the silencing lawyer sanctioned.

Zahawi got a pension. Neidle got a prize. The lawyer got a fine. The public got to watch.

This is what accountability looks like when institutions won't do it themselves.

Sources: @guardian @BBCNews @FT @TheSun @PressGazette |

[Ruben Gallego @RubenGallego]

He claimed starshield wasn’t shut down. Then he claimed it was shutdown but not by his orders. Then he claimed he did shut it down. 100s of Ukrainians died. His action helped an enemy of the United States. As one of Elon’s biggest vendor we have a right to know if we can trust him.

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 Crypto was sold as decentralised freedom. Under Trump, it appears to have become a vehicle for political access, personal enrichment and influence that is exceptionally difficult to trace.

Trump reportedly earned more than $1.16bn from crypto sales and token royalties while his administration deregulated the industry, pardoned a convicted crypto executive and received donations from crypto businesses.

The industry then poured nearly $200mn into the midterms and still lost.

Democrats now have subpoena powers. They must follow every transaction:

Who supplied the money?
Who ultimately owned it?
Which politicians benefited?
Which pardons, licences or policy changes followed?

And Britain must pay attention. As enormous crypto-linked donations enter British politics, we need proof of the original source, not merely the name of the person or company that transferred them.

Blockchain may record transactions. It does not automatically reveal who is really standing behind them.

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 The Trump crypto investigation leads directly to questions about Farage and Reform UK’s mega funding.

🆘 Ben Delo the BitMEX co-founder convicted in America of a Bank Secrecy Act offence and later pardoned by Trump gave Reform £36mn.

🛟 Crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne reportedly followed with another £36mn.

Why are two crypto billionaires giving one British party £72mn?

What policies do they support?

What connections exist between these donors, Trump’s crypto network and Reform?

And why does Britain permit individual billionaires to pour unlimited sums into political parties?

As US Democrats subpoena crypto companies and investigate Trump’s pardons, profits and donors, Britain must follow the evidence wherever it leads.

America is beginning to expose the crypto-politics machine and this must extend to the British branch.

[Maxou Rona 🎸🇫🇷 💙💛 #TAEM #PFM @Madximilian]

Senator Blumenthal is moving to capitalize on what he calls a post-election boost for Ukraine, pushing new legislation to restore sanctions on Russia, expand military aid and air defenses for Ukraine, and establish public-interest controls over Starlink/Starshield.

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

El-Sayed on Trump and Stephen Miller: "He decides to hire the most broken man to continue to run the most dysfunctional White House we've seen. I don't know what Stephen Miller has actually contributed to our culture, our society, in any real way, except to make us more angry and stoke the worst kind of fear and vitriol."

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Meanwhile Russia just murdered 53 people in a deliberate missile strike on a school.

[Reform UK Exposed 🇬🇧 @reformexposed]

This should be played over and over on loop until everyone knows that @Nigel_Farage supported Donald Trump blindly on Iran.

At every opportunity up until he realised the British people didn’t.

Own your actions, Nigel.

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

I just called Donald Trump the most corrupt president in American history on Newsmax, and the MAGA talking head I was debating lost her mind and started screaming at me about Hillary Clinton or some shit. These people have learned absolutely nothing from Tuesday's election.

[Alexander Hall @AEHALL1983]

@nadhimzahawi The most recent elections have been truly catastrophic for Reform and they are definitely 3rd now in votes and could finish as low as 5th in seats. Time to come home

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

The full argument in my latest Diplomatic Cable: https://t.co/74pr5ALNIe

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

So here is the question: How are you going to ensure Moscow not only accepts these principles on paper but abides by them in practice?

Until you figured that out, there is no agreement, no ceasefire, no peace, and no security structure any European country can accept. /end

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

The problem, Mr. Kushner, isn't that we don't have principles for European security. The problem is that Russia has singularly violated every one of the principles and ignored or withdrawn from every treaty and agreement that implemented them. /7

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

Thank you, Mr. Kushner. Those five principles are important. However, Moscow subscribed to these principles in documents signed in 1975 (Helsinki Final Act) and 1990 (Charter of Paris).

The problem isn't agreeing to principles, but Moscow's failure to abide by them. 🧵 /1

[Euan MacDonald @Euan_MacDonald]

PREDICTION: Ukraine is going to come under intense pressure to surrender over the next two months.

Ukrainian intelligence believes fascist Russia’s dictator Putin has stockpiled enough ballistic missiles and other strategic weapons for a campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy and water infrastructure over the winter. The aim is to make major Ukrainian cities unlivable in the winter months, and provoke a mass refugee crisis from Ukraine into Europe that will further destabilize the political situation in the EU.

Why over the next two months? For these three main reasons:

1. The next U.S. Congress sits in early January 2027. The Democrats will then have majorities in the Senate and House, and thereafter Trump’s administration could well be seriously constrained. Before that, however, there are two months left for the Trump administration to provide useful aid to the Kremlin. That includes withholding Patriot system interceptors, which will make Ukraine more vulnerable to missile attacks.

2. With key EU member states heading into critical electoral cycles in early 2027, political leaders in Western Europe will be under immense pressure to prioritize domestic economic demands over underwriting Ukraine’s defense and state budget, leaving Kyiv facing a catastrophic funding shortfall just as its winter needs reach their peak.

3. Ukraine's rapidly maturing deep-strike campaign – which has systematically taken offline nearly a third of Russia's refining capacity while striking missile propellant plants and airfields deep inside the Russian interior – is inflicting severe domestic economic and operational costs on Moscow. The Kremlin calculates that its narrow window to force a Ukrainian capitulation is now in the next few months, before Kyiv’s expanding domestic long-range missile and drone capabilities permanently erode Russia's own industrial stability and home-front security.

This upcoming period will thus be an intense attritional race between Putin's attempt to weaponize winter and Western flaccidity, and the West's ability to sustain Kyiv until these fleeting strategic windows close.

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

Factcheck: These were the Republicans’ biggest losses since Watergate.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Primary school teacher on #BBCQT

"I think people are tired of it now.. We tend to follow the US.. I hope the rejection of Trump, and watching people like James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed and the poise they carry themselves with, the respectability that they have, will filter over to here and then we will reject bullies like Nigel Farage"

"I'm a primary school teacher and I have to talk to my children about British values"

"And if we end up with a Reform UK government, or a government similar, what are those values?"

"I can't hand on heart say these are the things British people do, when they're clearly not"

Fiona Bruce, "We don't have Reform UK on the panel, but we do have them often"

My view:

Teachers can spend all week teaching children to treat others with respect, challenge prejudice and take responsibility for their actions.

But those lessons become harder when children see adults rewarded with attention and political power for behaving in ways that would never be acceptable in a classroom.

What does a child learn when cruelty gets a laugh, intimidation wins an argument, or blaming an entire community becomes a route to popularity? They learn from what we reward as well as what we teach.

That is why decency in political leadership matters.

We should expect leaders to disagree without dehumanising, persuade without scapegoating and accept scrutiny without bullying.

If politicians want to lecture anyone about British values, they should start by demonstrating them.

[Rt Hon. Will || Portfolio for Sarcasm (parody) @colder_sarcasm]

As Nigel Farage lays a wreath today, remember that he stands for everything our war hero’s fought against.