Simon Cooke

Retired. Write stuff that a handful of people read. Right but y'all ain't listening.

[Sir Liam Fox @LiamFox]

Since the date that Britain left the European Union (the single market and the customs union), the economies in the United States and the United Kingdom have grown by 19.2% and 15.7% respectively.

The two biggest EU economies — Germany and France — have grown by 4.5% and 10.5%.

Why would the Burnham Labour government want to tie us more closely again to the single market and the customs union? Britain’s exports to non-EU countries have risen to almost 60% of the total in the same period.

Before they crow about today’s growth figures, they might want to consider the utter stupidity of their own EU policy.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@a_swift_half The middle paragraph in the OP implies that the military only buy halal when this isn't so. They do provide halal and kosher where required.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@echetus That's an article saying China isn't a threat. Brown runs an institute wholly funded by a man with very close links to the CCP and a major figure in the undermining of Hong King's democracy.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

China is a threat. Kerry would lose their funding is he said this.

[Kerry Brown @Bkerrychina]

The UK is making it impossible to study China honestly
Either you accept the dogma that the People’s Republic is an existential threat or you run a high risk of being attacked as a panda hugger, says Kerry Brown
https://t.co/i43GmAARSQ

[Hookland @HooklandGuide]

Police attended the cottage of Clara Billing in Osford after she reported attempts by two tall men in spiked helmets and armour to break into her property. Police noted her doors and windows had odd scorch marks and her rose bushes had been severely burnt. #WyrdOTD 12/11/1958

[Sunday Sport @thesundaysport]

Looks like the Donkeys lads have pulled another of their hilarious japes.
Cecil Rhodes won't be able to get up to much more of his mischief after this

[Jonathan Keeperman @L0m3z]

Nothing cures you of conspiratorial ideation quite like being on the other side of it and becoming the subject of other people’s delusions

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@KanishkaNarayan Perhaps leaving the EU was a good thing then.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

What’s certain is that we cannot sustain the current manner in which we fail to manage essential systems while spending a larger and larger part of all we create on the administration of government programmes. Or maybe we can. Is the most resilient thing in our modern culture the bureaucracy that fails to sustain or maintain our systems - a real world Kafka’s Castle? And most days nothing goes wrong, we stumble through our lives without collapsing into depression or screaming in unfocused rage. We can dodge the inevitable failure of systems either by being stoic and prepared or else by the good fortune of the bureaucratic failure falling on some other poor soul.

Perhaps we really are, as my wife tells me often, just boiling frogs who haven’t yet noticed we’re about to die. The inertia of bureaucracy means that it doesn’t end but simply, like some strange hive, reinvents itself constantly to the point where everything is government. And it was too late.
https://t.co/K81tKd4wja

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

We should scrap the census.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

Anyone near Cullingworth want a table tennis table - it's a nice one. You'd have to collect though.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@daisychristo <insert Greek alphabet joke>
(tbf Alpha just makes me think of the intro to Christianity course that started at HTB in the 70s)

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@Kadotttt No I hate socialism. The version explained to me by an insurance clerk and a gardener. The version where the state controls, where you are not free but where the rich and entitled are still rich and entitled. Often with the second home and the yacht.

[The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome @TheMossadIL]

We've been on X for 10 years and we literally just found out we can blow up a pager with the copy link button.

[Alicia Kearns MP @aliciakearns]

The UK *nominated* Iran to join this committee.

Why @Ed_Miliband? Is this what you shook hands over?

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

Smoking in a pub.

[𝒢𝒾𝓁𝒷ℯ𝓇𝓉 @AbakpaJob]

Millennials, what was considered completely NORMAL in 2005 that would be absolutely unhinged today?

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

Whenever the likes of Tony Benn, Michael Foot or Shirley Williams appeared on telly in the 70s my Dad would say "it's alright for them, they can afford to be a socialist"

[Russell @ATLCWorker]

You are not rich enough to be afraid of socialism.

[Lee Kuan Yimby @LeeKuanYimby]

If you have a refrigerator with food, you are rich enough to be afraid of socialism.

[Simon Cooke @SimonMagus]

@LoftusSteve We also need to put a sock in the mouth of any finance and investment pundit called Lewis. Seriously look at the state of this:
https://t.co/gliiLVJKeH