andrew whiting

[andrew whiting @andyintheditch]

@toadmeister No such thing as climate change then

Yeh right
🙄

[Alan Smith @AlanJLSmith]

The great lie: it’s rich v poor.

The great truth: it’s makers v takers.

@friedberg explains the lie that some politicians and economists are pushing to create division and resentment.

Be a maker not a taker.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

A welcoming present just out this morning for a Mr A Burnham to underline just how limited his latitude as PM will be:
The UK government borrowed £23.3 billion last month, 30 per cent or £5.4 billion higher than a year earlier.
It was also more than the £18.8 billion expected by most economists and the £17.7 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog.
 The interest payable on government debt rose to £11.7 billion, the highest ever recorded in any May.

[Macer Gifford @macergifford]

@DanielJHannan is a great guy. Hes made a number of trips to Ukraine & has done amazing work for the Ukrainian people in their hour of need. He's also a British patriot that cares deeply about the UKs security. His warnings should be heeded by both the public & the government!

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Since this was published Saturday morning it’s been revealed that the Royal Navy’s entire available fleet of hunter-killer submarines is stuck in port unable to sail — all five Astute class subs currently laid up awaiting maintenance and other repair work. Leaves the UK’s sub-sea internet and power cables dangerously vulnerable to sabotage by the Kremlin

[paint it black @CollinsMikeyc]

@Keir_Starmer Just shut up. You are a disgrace.

[Yulia Svyrydenko @Svyrydenko_Y]

A young victim of Russia's overnight attack on Dnipro was a 3-year-old boy.

Rescuers recovered his body from beneath the rubble of a four-story apartment building destroyed by a Russian strike.

A child who should have had his whole life ahead of him.

My deepest condolences to his family.

Every child killed by Russia is a tragedy that cannot be undone.

[Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 @GLandsbergis]

Those who aim to "avoid escalation" must now admit that escalation is not being avoided. Escalation is being allowed, and encouraged. If we are "standing with Ukraine" — we shouldn't be standing on a huge pile of frozen Russian assets that could be used to save Ukrainian lives.

[Alan Smith @AlanJLSmith]

New guidance on Inheritance Tax on Pensions:

- Family members (beneficiaries) and personal representatives are jointly and severally liable for paying IHT from pension fund.

- They have 6 months to pay.

- Interest and late payment fees apply after that.

- Property held in pensions will often have to be sold to pay the IHT.

- The short timeline is likely to create ‘fire sale’ reduced valuations.

- Yet IHT is payable on the gross property value pre death/property sale.

- Pension providers, trustees, administrators, solicitors, personal representatives and family - all have to liaise and work through the admin - a logistical nightmare.

- In a tight window whilst the family is grieving.

- And then family beneficiaries pay income tax on income from the net fund - after deduction of inheritance tax. Double tax.

- All this to possibly raise £1.5 billion - or about 48 hours of annual NHS spending.

Thanks Rachel.

[SOS Whitstable @SOSWhitstable]

"When buying new plants, look for varieties that need less watering"

And what is @thameswater's contribution to water conservation? Losing 592 million litres of water per day through leaking pipes.

The institutional hypocrisy of this industry knows no limits.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Well, as they say, to each their own.

Doctors take pride in saving lives in extraordinary cases, scientists in their discoveries, generals in victories on the battlefield -- and JD Vance’s ceiling is taking frenzied pride in the fact that, during the largest aggressive war in Europe since WWII, this administration betrayed a nation fighting for its freedom, staged a disgraceful clown show in the Oval Office, switched sides to a totalitarian aggressor for the promise of shared profits, and undermined its own alliances across the world for nothing.

You might as well frame that great achievement and hang it in your office -- because everything else you touch doesn’t seem to be going quite as well, like with Iran and Hungary 😆

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

Think about what it takes to start a company in Britain today.

You remortgage your house or you borrow from your parents or you spend your twenties living on almost nothing while you build something that has, statistically, about a one-in-five chance of surviving its first two years. You work hours that would be illegal if someone else were imposing them. You lie awake running sums on the ceiling. And if you are good, and the market cooperates, and nobody in government decides to change the rules halfway through, you might after a decade have a business that employs people and contributes something to the town you live in.

Here is what the state has done to that person in the last eighteen months.

-Employer's National Insurance: up to fifteen per cent.
-Business Property Relief: slashed to fifty per cent for anything above a million.
-Business Asset Disposal Relief: the discounted rate hiked from ten per cent to fourteen, rising again to eighteen per cent this month.

The message from the Treasury, delivered with all the cheerful bureaucratic sadism we've come to expect from Whitehall, is: thank you for taking the risk, now hand over a quarter of whatever survived.

A hundred and sixty-five thousand Britons left the country to work abroad last year. Companies House filings show company directors departing in numbers that would, in a serious country, have triggered a parliamentary inquiry. Here they barely make the papers, because nobody in government has ever founded a company, employed anyone with their own money, or lain awake wondering whether they can make payroll on Friday.

Every competitor nation with economic ambitions is rolling out the carpet for these people. Singapore, the Gulf states, Portugal. France cut its wealth tax specifically to prevent its entrepreneurs from leaving. Britain's offer is a fifteen per cent payroll surcharge and a Chancellor who appears to believe that the economy is a thing that the Treasury is entitled to, rather than a thing that people have to build.

We talk about wanting the next ARM or DeepMind. As things are, forget about it. You will not produce them in a country that treats its most ambitious people as a tax cows to be roughly milked, rather than a resource to be cultivated.

People are doing the arithmetic. The arithmetic says leave. And the arithmetic, unlike the Chancellor's growth forecasts, tends to be right. Only the heroes, the patriots, and the fools will resist its conclusions.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Russian agents are in Budapest. They are here to meddle with the election. Expect fake news, AI and even a potential false flag incident if Orban loses. Be cautious what you read over the next 24 hours. Disinformation will be in overdrive. Orban is not going to go quietly.

[Daractenus @Daractenus]

Take a moment to fully appreciate what you are witnessing: the President of the United States is campaigning so aggressively for a pro-Russian autocrat that he has reached the point of effectively attempting to bribe the entire nation into re-electing said pro-Russian autocrat.

[Jordan Walker @Jordwalker19]

Yeah I’m not defending that anymore, fuck em.

[Munco 🩵🐘🩵 @Muncomagic]

This is possibly the greatest mini documentary the club has done. Tats is a Coventry legend already, and the tie in with Ayao and Haas is brilliant. Let’s hope the relationship blossoms like a Japanese cherry tree. @SkySportsF1 you need to watch !! #PUSB

[Mark Thompson @METhompson72]

Is This Plausible?
I am Morgan Macsweeney
I am Chief Of Staff to the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
I hold a top-secret security clearance
I own a mobile phone
I use this phone to conduct Government Business
I use this phone to message with Lord Mandelson
My phone is tracked by GCHQ
There are protocols for officials using personal phones to conduct Government business
My communications are monitored to ensure they are not intercepted
My phone is "stolen" a month after Lord Mandelson is sacked
The police do not investigate
The phone is not tracked down
The police are too busy to track down the phone the most senior member of the Prime Minister's team - someone with a top-secret security clearance
I do not contact my service provider to block the stolen phone
I do not consider asking GCHQ to do this as a national security priority
I do not ask for a replacement sim
I do not buy a new phone
I do not activate my new phone with the new sim
I do not log-in to my Google account
I do not select "Restore"
I do not download WhatsApp
I do not recover my messages
Nobody, ever, who had their phone stolen was ever able to get their messages back.

@UKLabour
@Keir_Starmer
DO YOU THINK WE ARE ALL STUPID?
It is the cover-up that will take you down

[James Connolly @connollyjk]

Wow, not seen this before. Tears streaming. Amazing #PUSB

[Coventry City @Coventry_City]

Our trip to Ewood Park to face Blackburn Rovers has been selected for Live TV coverage and has subsequently been moved to Friday 17th April, 8pm kick-off. 📺

[Michael MacKay @mhmck]

Marco Rubio refuses to meet with European leaders in a multilateral format and refuses to talk to the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.

Rubio is meeting with two insignificant Putin puppets, Orbán of Hungary and Fico of Slovakia.

The USA is a pathetic proxy for aggressor Russia.