Robin Millar

Formerly the Member of Parliament for Aberconwy.

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Stop what you are doing and realise this: someone has just run the official marathon distance in 1 hr 59 mins 30 secs. #twohours #LondonMarathon

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Devastating critique of the situation here in #Wales by @AnnabelDenham1.

https://t.co/kPrec7bt1t

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

@ClarksonsFarm1 That’s funny!

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

The only sensible decision. This is madness.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The Department of Health says the clinical trial of giving puberty blockers to children has been paused

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Swans have one of the coolest water landing techniques ever

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

In a strict legal sense the PM’s Chief of Staff is a (very important) member of the PM’s staff. They can’t “resign from government” as the government is made up only of elected members.

In political terms it is a revealing insight into how things have been run.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 IN FULL: Morgan McSweeney’s resignation statement

“After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government.

The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.

When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice. In public life responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.

This has not been an easy decision. Much has been written and said about me over the years but my motivations have always been simple: I have worked every day to elect and support a government that puts the lives of ordinary people first and leads us to a better future for our great country. Only a Labour government will do that. I leave with pride in all we have achieved mixed with regret at the circumstances of my departure. But I have always believed there are moments when you must accept your responsibility and step aside for the bigger cause.

As I leave I have two further reflections:

Firstly, and most importantly, we must remember the women and girls whose lives were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein and whose voices went unheard for far too long.

Secondly, while I did not oversee the due diligence and vetting process, I believe that process must now be fundamentally overhauled. This cannot simply be a gesture but a safeguard for the future.

I remain fully supportive of the Prime Minister. He is working every day to rebuild trust, restore standards and serve the country. I will continue to back that mission in whatever way I can. It has been the honour of my life to serve”

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

The ‘scapegoat’ originates in the #OldTestament (Leviticus 16) where guilt is symbolically transferred onto an innocent goat, which carries it away.

It is both an admission of guilt and requires an innocent ‘goat’.

Removing the Chief of Staff won’t work.

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Well said, indeed - both of you.

[Prof Katherine Sleeman @kesleeman]

Well said @lucianaberger.

It’s not just that none of these organisations support this Bill. They have also explicitly said that it is not safe, that it will harm vulnerable people.

Why are we not listening to this warning?

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Carol of the Bells in Kyiv subway.

Voices of the Embassies of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom came together to perform Shchedryk in the Kyiv metro as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.

Thankful to everyone who stands with us!

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

The buffer zones now suspend normal rules of evidence. Curtailing silent prayer deprives us all of our freedom of thought, the freedom to move and our privacy in those same spaces. It’s terrible law-making and should be challenged (Art 18 UDHR).

https://t.co/zJ89YqG0gv

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Chilling but inevitable consequence of bringing in state #assistedsuicide

Someone with an excruciating but treatable condition can’t find doctors to perform the surgery - but can access Medically Assisted Dying instead.

https://t.co/u8jWmW7NJ0

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

They have!

These events span across years. Local residents, resident groups, staff and politicians have cried foul.

Twice the last UK government offered to reduce waiting lists in #Wales. Twice the Welsh government frustrated or declined the offers.

#somethingsgottagive

[Will Hayward @WillHayCardiff]

No one outside of Wales seems to have picked up on the ridiculous situation we currently have here regarding waiting lists.

The Welsh Government are now three weeks late in publishing the latest waiting list data.

This is because Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board has problems with its data with the Welsh Government saying that there have been "concerns about the accuracy" of the number for some months.

Betsi is Wales' biggest health board, covers all of North Wales, employs 20k people and has a £2bn budget.

It has also been in special measures for a decade (except for a brief period when the Welsh Gov took it out just before the last Senedd election).

The previous board was sacked en masse by Eluned Morgan when she was health minister and the new one is entirely the creation of the First Minister.

This is a scandal that the Welsh Government simply cannot wash their hands of. They have had unprecedented powers to make changes in the organisation for a decade but have failed.

Some of the stories from Betsi are unbelievable.

In 2022 a member of the board left the organisation only to be appointed by the Welsh Government in spring 2023 to a new independent board which was supposed to scrutinise the health board's performance and governance.

As this person previously sat around Betsi’s board table when they were a director this means they would have been scrutinising decisions they themselves made!

Ultimately it is the people of North Wales who are suffering because of these failings, as well as the staff on the ground who have to work in this basket case of an organisation.

I have no doubt that if this was in South Wales, closer to the corridors of power in Cardiff Bay, this atrocious situation would never have been allowed to fester how it has.

We have now reached the stage where we can't even see the latest waiting list data (the reduction of which which was central to Eluned Morgan's strategy) because the one health board the Welsh Gov has direct control over can't even be trusted to have accurate records.

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Falconer confirms: people will die under his AS bill because they are poor.

“Where the reason…is because in your mind you are influenced by your circumstances—for example, because you are poor—should you be barred from having an assisted death...? In my view [you should] not.”

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Meanwhile, in other news, an important insight into what next for the #AssistedDyingBill

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

Something very odd is happening behind the scenes on Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill.
Multiple sources say Falconer is talking up with Govt bypassing the House of Lords entirely using the Parliament Acts — and has been planning this since the summer 1/

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Disagree with the result of the 2016 referendum.

Explain the general election results of 2017/19 (on manifesto pledges to deliver it).

Criticise the implementation of Brexit after that.

But new, future critiques will have to be better.

Good work by @julianHjessop

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

I've finally had a chance to review the NBER 'working paper' which claims that Brexit has already reduced UK GDP by 8% since the vote to leave in 2016... 🤔

At first sight, this figure fails a simple 'smell test'. A closer look confirms that the analysis is flawed... 🧵

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

This bill does not pass any test of moral or intellectual integrity.

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Moment of the day? Baroness Finlay quotes to Lord Falconer *his own* 2011 report, which said people should not receive an assisted death because of “lack of access to adequate end-of-life care and support.”

Falconer suddenly stops nodding.

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

Sobering and timely.

[Chay Bowes @BowesChay]

A Warning from History.

A year after WW1 ended, A French Pilot, Jacques Trolley de Prévaux, flew an Airship from the Belgian coast to the devastated battlefields of France where millions died.

Lost for decades this is part of what he saw remastered in color and HD.

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

The specific issue that brought things to a head - misleading edits on a US Presidential speech - is only part of a much bigger problem of bias within the organisation.

Here’s one example:

https://t.co/3C1R5KlRdy

[Robin Millar @VoteRobinMillar]

The @BBC deserves better than ‘burn it all down now’ populism.

Resignations are necessary for ignoring proven bias.

The culture change and rooting out of activism that must follow will need more than policy tweaks.

But the Charter and funding are separate debates for later.