Paul Bovingdon

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

My statement on the sickening events in Belfast.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Remarkable story in Telegraph revealing just how useless recent Tory governments were:
A secret Whitehall report found that more than £28bn in foreign aid and Covid-19 loans was handed to terrorists, hostile states and gangsters!
The misappropriation of taxpayer funds from 2015 to 2021, includes millions sent to the Islamic State and Russia.
Those responsible remain unpunished and the dossier was buried to spare official embarrassment.

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

Is anyone else sick of ministers not answering questions in Parliament? By allowing them to make irrelevant statements in response to questions, the Speaker risks making Parliament itself redundant - if ministers are not required to answer questions asked in the House then one of the main functions of Parliament is lost

So today I have written to @CommonsSpeaker to express my concerns, referencing Energy questions last week

@ClaireCoutinho asked @Ed_Miliband who is responsible if there is a blackout in the UK and what would happen to them if there was one

He accused her of scaremongering, expressed sorrow that she no longer supports net zero and made some totally unconnected comment about green jobs

What he did not do is answer any part of her question and the Speaker said nothing. No requirement to answer the question. No reprimand for talking irrelevant waffle. Nothing

Week in and week out we see the same at PMQs - @KemiBadenoch asks a question and @Keir_Starmer lurches through some pre-prepared answer often on another topic, or complaining about the record of the previous government or Liz Truss or whatever his pet peeve of the day is

So what's the point? If ministers and the PM are allowed to simply say any old rubbish when asked a question and not even pretend to answer it, why bother with the whole charade? Why bother with Parliament? Why not just have a few committees drafting legislation and taking evidence from third parties?

By allowing this, the Speaker's Office is reducing the House of Commons into meaningless spectacle. It's simple theatre without substance and without purpose

If Sir Lindsay Hoyle wants to play a supporting role on the stage, London's West End has plenty of opportunities for this. The Palace of Westminster is not one of them

@HouseofCommons

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Thames Water investors say temporary nationalisation would slow its recovery."

Thames Water still trying to bully tax payers and bill payers I see.

Govt should hang up and tell them to clear off, there is no "market solution" to this mess.

https://t.co/9dQCaPLXFb

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

This is economic ignorance of a high degree, even for my old mate Diane. If you don’t want to be ‘dominated’ by the bond markets then don’t borrow £3 trillion from them. Be honest with the people and explain how your idea of socialism will entail EVERYBODY paying a shed load more in tax. If you can’t do that then you will be in hock to the bond markets. It’s as simple as that.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

And here's the real challenge for the big environment charities.

They got played by govt during the passage of the Planning Act, played by govt during the Cunliffe Review and now they're going to get played again by the Water Bill or are they for the first time going to be prepared to stand up for themselves? 🤔

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

My latest for the @Telegraph

Despite throwing £££ at his clean power plan @Ed_Miliband is failing to deliver as emissions from electricity generation actually went up last year

So all the extra money we're forking out in our bills is for nothing

Electricity is more expensive, less secure and not actually cleaner

@ClaireCoutinho @AndrewBowie_MP @DavidGHFrost @mattwridley @cmackinlay @Iromg @AllisonPearson @MerrynSW @EdConwaySky @mattotele @afneil

https://t.co/JiVD994i80

[Paul Bovingdon @Bovster]

@Feargal_Sharkey @jamesmurray_ldn @JustinOnWeb @BBCr4today How can there be a cost to the country to re-nationalise, surely the so called water companies have totally failed to look after our resource, whilst profiteering, don't they owe us...

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"SNP Government 'pressured' Scottish Water not to publish sewage dump data before election"

Well, well, well, would you look at that. What have they got to hide apart from 1,000,000s tonnes of sh*t?

https://t.co/zuw6Q46lWg

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

While the UK blocks it's ears and pretends its oil and gas resources aren't worth bothering with, Norway has just launched its latest licensing round with 70 new blocks in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea

"The oil and gas industry is crucial for Norway and for Europe. The government is today announcing new exploration areas in the APA to further develop the petroleum sector, so that it can continue to create great value for the community, lay the foundation for good jobs throughout the country, ensure our common welfare and contribute to Europe's energy security and safety" says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre

Pity @ed_milband refuses to accept the same is true for the UK and @Keir_Starmer lets him do whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences

@clairecoutinho @andrewbowie_mp

https://t.co/3gjtW3GIQd

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

Ed Miliband now is accused of “covering up” official evidence and data showing his Net Zero plan will increase bills.

Before and during the general election, Labour promised to cuts bills by up to £300, the documents he has hidden show the opposite.

A dishonest government.

[The Sun @TheSun]

On tomorrow’s front page: Just one more small boat and arrivals hit 200,000

• Record toll is size of York
• Only 7,612 get deported

https://t.co/yMGNGAujx0

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Neoliberalism.

Since privatisation England water companies paid £85bn in dividends.

Average age of Thames Water infrastructure, 79 yrs.

Average age of water industry assets, 56 yrs.

At the current rate, it would take 700 years to renew infrastructure.
https://t.co/ni47sPd9Xx

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Sickening sight and smell as human sewage pours into Carmarthenshire river."

So it's all been going on in Wales this weekend. Welsh Water really are a joke.

https://t.co/QRvIWjyVu3

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

And there is the reality.

All of the promises, all the rhetoric, all the empty, meaningless words.

Welsh Water at its finest.

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

The highest tax burden since the 1940s and record government borrowing still isn't enough apparently

Time for @UKLabour to stop spending other people's money and get a grip on spending

And de-regulate. The country is being strangled by red tape. Just look at the new Thames crossing... More than £1 billion spent and they haven't broken ground yet

Cut regulation. Return to principles based regulation and stop trying to control every aspect of our lives

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

HERE WE GO.

Water testing at Henley-on-Thames revealed E coli levels 10 times above the threshold for safe bathing water.

Govt have refused an application from local community groups to become a designated bathing spot because of the low number of swimmers. I wonder why that is? 🤬

https://t.co/lsvVIRrG4q

[TaxPayers' Alliance @the_tpa]

Who governs Britain?

It’s been one year since we launched Britain’s Quangos Uncovered. From hidden costs to unelected influence, we’re holding the quango state accountable.

@jjpoconnell goes through our biggest findings from the past 12 months.

[Kathryn Porter @KathrynPorter26]

From @Dieter_Helm...

*Another day and another bit of sticky plaster is applied. With the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, the government is increasing the number of companies that will get a bit off their bills in 2027. This follows other moves, like the £150 off customer bills. It will not be enough, given the sheer scale of the problems. The industrial crisis will go on; domestic bills are scheduled to go up and stay up for the next decade; new energy-intensive inward investment (e.g. for data centres) is being deterred; and where there are projects, own generation from gas is the route to firm power.

The facts are not changing, and it is getting ever more painful to ignore them. Climate realism means facing up to the relentless increase in the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere, the continuing 85% of the world’s energy supplies coming from fossil fuels, and the lack of any transition away from this, with the oil, gas and coal burn going ever up as the world energy demand looks set to double by 2050. Renewables on a system basis are not cheap. It takes 120GW now to meet the same peak 45GW demand, which 60GW once comfortably met, as well as doubling the transmission grid and adding all the extra batteries and storage. The renewables are not “home-grown” – the supply chains are foreign.

Britain is not on a path to home-grown energy. It is not cheap, and other countries are not looking to Britain as a “clean-energy superpower”. They look to Britain to find out how not to do it – no one else wants the highest energy prices. It’s not difficult to sort all this out, but more sticky plasters will make the situation worse and harder to fix the longer the government ducks the need for a fundamental re-set of British energy policy."

https://t.co/nW93gEY8mE