Stuart Taylor

History and policy analysis. Focus on Jamaica; eastern Europe; the environment and transport; and education. Former civil servant and research fellow.

[RoostersWorldja @RoostersWorldja]

Hail falling in Santa Cruz this afternoon! 🧊🌧️
Thanks to Chrome Exercise Centre for sharing this video.
Did you experience the hail? Share your observations with @RoostersWorldJA.

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

Today we are sanctioning Russian banks, shadow fleet vessels & companies supporting Putin’s war machine.

We stand in solidarity with Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression & we will continue to increase pressure on Russia until there is a just & lasting peace.

[Nationwide90FM @NationwideRadio]

Just hours after securing a commanding 90-run victory over Pakistan on what would have been the late Sir Garfield Sobers’ 90th birthday, the Barbadian members of the West Indies Senior Men’s Test team returned home to pay their final respects to the cricket legend at his State Funeral held at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on Wednesday.

READ MORE HERE: https://t.co/vvJbI9iUup

[Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband]

France is our neighbour and an indispensable ally, from our support for Ukraine to working towards de-escalation in the Middle East.

In Paris today with @jnbarrot, I also conveyed our solidarity with the French people following the devastating fires in Gironde and Landes 🇬🇧🇫🇷

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

I was in Paris & Madrid today with @Ed_Miliband, working to build a closer & more ambitious relationship with key European partners.

From defence & security to clean energy & growth, 🇬🇧, 🇫🇷 & 🇪🇸 have shared values & shared interests which make even deeper cooperation so vital.

[Steve Rosenberg @BBCSteveR]

Sad to hear Bill Oddie has died. He was many things: comedian, presenter, ornithologist. I loved him in 'The Goodies' on BBC TV in the 1970s. Also watched him on ITV’s Saturday Banana. As a musical tribute I play The Goodies theme tune, which Bill Oddie co-wrote.

[Ed Miliband @Ed_Miliband]

The UK is committed to a deeper strategic alliance with Europe through closer UK-EU ties.

Building our Security and Defence Partnership is vital for us at home and abroad.

Meeting @KajaKallas, we agreed to work together to strengthen Ukraine, deliver growth and bolster defence.

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

Calling a by-election to return an existing MP to the job he is quitting by calling a by-election is beyond odd. Especially when the act of re-electing him does not resolve the reasons he claims are behind calling it. The questions about donations will remain.

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

Arguably the continuing fall in the birth rate is the most important trend in our world, in terms of the magnitude & scope of its impact on so many social, economic & security issues. And none of the policy attempts to halt it anywhere have worked (yet).
https://t.co/D6nHgnTSbX

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

Not the main story but one important group of people that Olly Robbins shone a welcome light on today: the British diplomats who serve under immense day-to-day pressure in Beijing, Moscow, Pyongyang & many other capitals. Rarely spoken about, but quietly serving their country.

[Jon Sopel @jonsopel]

I have listened to Sir Olly Robbins evidence for last hour and forty minutes and am seeing the very best of the civil service. I am left incredulous that the decision was made to fire him. Has there been a more egregious and shameful decision by a political master desperate to save his own skin?

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

Olly Robbins says No 10 wanted Mandelson in Washington as soon as possible and there was “constant pressure” to get him in place as soon as possible pre-inauguration

He also says that Cabinet Office didn’t think vetting was even necessary for Mandelson as he’d been a cabinet minister and was a peer

But Robbins says the Foreign Office insisted

[Stuart Taylor @Ungradgrind]

"...I fear that in the age of giant trading blocs, you will find it very cold out there."

[Nula Suchet @nulasuchet]

Uk Leaving the EU has been catastrophic n financially devastating for Britain

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

[Gallup @Gallup]

A record-high 48% of adults worldwide now disapprove of the United States’ leadership, compared with 37% who disapprove of China’s.

[David Miliband @DMiliband]

The war in the Middle East is creating a triple emergency through its direct impacts, indirect impacts and geopolitical implications. I discussed recently on @CBCNews: https://t.co/gCidwdYFZk

[Sheldon Levene @sheldonlev]

Bog Walk, Saint Catherine

[BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight]

"This is not sabotage, this is scrutiny."

Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley responds to Esther Rantzen's criticism that the House of Lords is blocking the assisted dying bill.

#Newsnight

[Stewart Wood @StewartWood]

Brexit’s tragedy: we gambled on free trade just as the world turned protectionist; we dismissed European continental solidarity as the platform for our security just as events made it more important than ever; and we bet the farm on the Special Relationship just as Trump arrived.

[Stuart Taylor @Ungradgrind]

@BBCNewsnight Why was Nick Watt cut off when he tried to raise one of the crucial points on £9.5bn of benefits spend? The two discussants should have mentioned the role of Working Tax Credits/Universal Credit, a policy that improves labour market flexibility and effectiveness.