Ameer Kotecha

CEO @govt_reform. Ex-diplomat. 🇬🇧 Head of British Consulate in Russia 2023-25. Author of Elizabeth II’s jubilee cookbook. Trustee @RBVEcharity @queenscomtrust

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

No other country can do this

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

As I said on @bbcsml we should not be paying a penny in slavery reparations to anyone.

Yes slavery was wrong, but it was practiced by societies the world over (and indeed continued to be practiced by Africans and others long after Britain abolished it).

Given the huge amounts of blood and treasure we spent in abolishing the slave trade around the world, we have also amply paid our debt

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

They did the “largely peaceful” thing 😂

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

Clashes erupt in Paris after largely peaceful protests across France https://t.co/OVdt80Nptn

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

@Martin_AlmaAzul Quite right. I think I’ve been there!

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

I have spent an inordinate amount of time in various Spoons this weekend owing to the awful weather and our awful public transport system. So while I wait for my Korean friend chicken burger here’s some of the under explored reasons why Spoons is so great:

1. They have real Heinz ketchup (ditto Heinz mustard, HP sauce etc). This is impressive when most food trucks and even restaurants etc now use cheaper supermarket-brand versions as Heinz has become so pricey

2. The southern fried chicken strips are better than the chicken selects in McDonald’s (and that’s a high bar)

3. The staff are nice (I’ve always found)

4. The spice bag is elite

5. There’s something for everyone - even Aperol Spritz! (£4.75)

6. The free re-fills on the coffee

7. Often they’re in great heritage buildings

8. The explicit invite on the pump to try before you choose. This is great

Many more but my burger has now arrived

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

My point that in the 50 years following abolition the British govt spent as much on suppression of transatlantic slavery as British merchants earned in profits in the preceding 50 years - is sourced from David Eltis, perhaps the leading scholar of the transatlantic slave trade.

My point that in the 1820s the department dedicated to abolition of the slave trade had become the largest unit in the Foreign Office is courtesy of the inestimable @NigelBiggar

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

As I said on @bbcsml we should not be paying a penny in slavery reparations to anyone.

Yes slavery was wrong, but it was practiced by societies the world over (and indeed continued to be practiced by Africans and others long after Britain abolished it).

Given the huge amounts of blood and treasure we spent in abolishing the slave trade around the world, we have also amply paid our debt

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Have never entered St Pancras from this entrance before. From the street directly into the terminus. Breathtaking

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Imagine how much more beautiful our high streets would be if this was the mandated design code

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

@seenitallbefor I’ve heard that! Haven’t stayed in one yet

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

@SaysHoney @LastBlairite I said “under-explored” reasons 😆 The beers are great of course

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

En route to the BBC studios. I’ll be on Sunday Morning Live arguing why we do not need to be paying a penny in slavery reparations

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Didn’t Burnham pledge to end rough sleeping?

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Tents are being handed out to early release prisoners by the Probation Service after it ran out of housing for them, The Telegraph can reveal.

A whistleblower told The Telegraph that their probation office handed out about 100 tents in the past year to freed prisoners who had nowhere to live, but said that stocks had now run dry amid surging demand.

🔗 https://t.co/p8LqaKVRdv

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Chicken shops are creating a “visa loophole” for migrants to enter the country, it has been claimed.

More than 3,600 takeaway shops in Britain are eligible to sponsor skilled worker visas, government data show.

🔗: https://t.co/ClCBaXSv7Q

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

@Robinson_IP Ha!

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

As I said last week:

The international law-human rights complex is simultaneously responsible for

1. The witch hunt against our best and bravest, the SAS.

2. Our inability to deport an Islamic terrorist who was part of the Al Qaeda cell that executed Ken Bigley, before joining ISIS and then deciding he fancied sponging off (or killing?) British taxpayers so infiltrated this country by small boat.

The Foreign Office has reportedly raised concerns around whether he could face ‘mistreatment’ if he returned to Iraq due to his past.

His ‘past’

[Gabriel Pogrund @Gabriel_Pogrund]

EXCLUSIVE: The commanding officer of the SAS was placed under criminal investigation and referred to prosecutors over anti-ISIS mission in Syria.

Unprecedented move concerned police request for classified evidence, but effort to charge him collapsed https://t.co/fJGkm5Mpsk

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

As suspected, chicken shops are creating a visa loophole for migrants - turns out more than 3,600 takeaways in Britain are eligible to sponsor skilled worker visas.

Skilled workers. Frying chicken. This is clearly dodgy practice being used as a back door into the country.

As I said to the Telegraph, we also have 1.8 million people unemployed in the UK and a crisis of young people not in education or work. In that context, we should be prioritising jobs for Brits rather than handing out skilled worker visas for chicken shops

When are these people going to get a bloody grip

https://t.co/oMrQXnhfVI

[Ameer Kotecha @Ameer_Kotecha]

Not quite like finding perfectly preserved parquet - but still pretty exciting 🤩

[The Brink @The_Brink_]

Former Diplomat on the British Death Penalty Paradox | Ameer Kotecha (@Ameer_Kotecha)

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The Government’s entrepreneurship adviser has quit ahead of the Budget

“We treat [innovation and entrepreneurship] as a bit of a sideshow... that mentality is really dangerous for British business as a whole”